I had literally one hour spare to give the Beetle a quick spritz. Since I’ve been keeping it, I’ve not given the exterior a base clean. With fair weather it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

I sprayed the bodywork and the algae on the hood with Demon Clean muck shifter and while that was sitting I got out the Karcher pressure washer and layered some snow foam.

I then gave it all a good rinsing off with the pressure washer which took a while because the suds were so thick, but it did shift the road grime off pretty well.

I towel dried the paintwork and quickly sprayed on some Turtlewax Ceramic polish which goes on damp. I was fairly liberal as I was looking to add some protection rather than obtaining the best finish. It buffed off alright with a bit of smudging, so I moved onto the hood, applying some Autoglym Hood Protector which goes on with a damp sponge. It’s a runny product so not an easy application and it has low coverage so it took a bit of doing but I got a good amount soaked into the damp hood.

So not a bad hour’s work and a degree of protection on some key areas. It does look great when it’s clean like all black cars although there are loads of small corrections to be done over time. For the moment this will have to do while I focus on priorities such as refurbishing the two rear wheels