It all depends upon the amount of time you want to spend on the cleaning. Obviously the more time the better the results, but method is also important. I recently cleaned a car for a friend, which hadn't been thoroughly cleaned for at least three years. It took me five hours to do both inside and outside. Another friend needed to go to his son's wedding in a car he had had for thirteen years and hadn't ever cleaned. This one took me nearly ten hours.

This is the method I use:

INTERIOR

The first job is to vacuum the interior, seats and carpets, paying particular attention to folds in the upholstery and the corners in the carpets.

Use warm water and a clean damp cloth to wipe over the dashboard, steering-wheel, interior plastic and painted areas. This may need to be done twice if the interior is particularly grubby. If this doesn't work you will need to use a proprietary car interior cleaner, such as Simonize Minute Clean. When clean, you can finish off with an interior polish. Halfords do a good own brand, which is available in both gloss and matt finishes. Use an old school type paintbrush to get into the corners to remove dust.

The seats can also be wiped over with a clean damp cloth to remove surface grubbiness, but a proprietary shampoo / interior cleaner, Auto-Glym do a very good one, will clean the seats, door cards and carpets very effectively.

EXTERIOR

1. If the door shuts haven't been cleaned in a long time, these will need to be done first.

You will need an old towel or soft cloth you can afford to throw away. Use this to clean all the lubricant residue and general grime from around the door, bonnet and boot shuts before you start. This will avoid getting the dirt on your sponge, leather and polishing cloths.

2. Thoroughly wash and leather the car off. Paying attention to the door, boot and bonnet shuts.

(I use a synthetic leather - a Vileda, Flunkey - this has been going for seven years, and can be washed when it gets dirty, as it inevitably will.)

3. Clean the paintwork with a proprietary cleaner, and polish off. Again, do the door, boot and bonnet shuts

( I use T-Cut, Colour-Fast, which comes in a variety of colours. It needs to be put on with a damp cloth; the water helps lubricate the cleaner so it goes on evenly. This means the cloth needs rinsing fairly often. )

If you have rubber and black plastic fittings, go over these with Armor-All Protectant before using the polish. This stops the white marks which will be left by the polish.

4. Rinse the car off with clean water, and leather dry.

5. Polish with a good quality polish, and polish off.

(I use Auto-Glym, Super Resin Polish. This is easy to use and covers well)

6. Wash the car using a Shampoo & Wax. Rinse and leather dry.

(Again, I use Auto-Glym, a couple of caps in a two gallon bucket will give a very good result.)

7. Give the paintwork a coat of finishing wax and Polish off.

(I use Auto-Glym Extra Gloss Protection, on both bodywork and plastic bumpers.)

(My cars haven't been polished for nearly three years, and still don't look as though they need to be. The secret is in using Shampoo & Wax every third wash or so. Every other wash if you only wash the car once a month.

THE FIDDLY BITS:

A well-worn toothbrush, used with plenty of water, will remove the grime which collects around trim and badges.

The Rubber and Plastic bits can be treated with Armor-All Protectant. Once the third application has been done, leave overnight, wash with the Shampoo and Wax, and give a final coat of the Extra Gloss protection. If they have gone grey, and the Armor-All doesn't completely cure this, you should use a plastic restorer, such as Turtle Wax Back-to-Black, before using the Shampoo and Wax. A good quality Black Boot Polish such as Kiwi Parade Gloss is an excellent alternative.

Tar can be removed with oil or WD40, put on the tar and allowed to soften it for half an hour or so, before wiping it off. It's also useful to do this on a sunny day, as the sun will help to soften the tar. You can of course use a proprietary Tar Remover.

Slight scratches can be removed with Wadding Brass polish or a proprietary scratch remover, as can marks left by bird droppings.

Bird droppings can be removed easily if you spit on them, and leave it for about 10 minutes before wiping off with a tissue.

ENGINE COMPARTMENT

The Engine Compartment, if it's not too dirty, can be cleaned, as with the door shuts, by using an old towel or soft cloth. You will probably need to use a variety of probes to get into the less accessible areas. A piece of cloth fitted on a modified bent wire coat hanger will get into surprising places. If the compartment is really dirty, you can clean it with a proprietary cleaner such as "Gunk". Or, you can have it steam cleaned, this can usually be done at a cost of about £15. Once you've cleaned the engine compartment, you can do all the bits with Armor-All and it will look like new. Any exposed paintwork will benefit from a going-over with finishing wax.

WHEELS

This depends upon the type of wheel.

If you have plastic wheel trims fitted, you should remove these and wash the wheels themselves. Any brake residue should be removed with a proprietary cleaner, and the wheels polished. The trims should be washed thoroughly, and cleaned of brake residue. They should then be polished as the bodywork.

Painted alloy wheels should be washed and cleaned of brake residue, and polished as the bodywork.

Plain alloys should be cleaned and finished with Autosol, they do a special polish for highly polished wheels. The wheels can be polished with car body polish and finished with the finishing wax as the bodywork.

If plain alloy wheels are really bad, they should be cleaned using a BRILLO pad, NOT a supermarket own brand pad. Brillo contains a special polish, which leaves a good surface. Secondly polish with Brasso wadding, and finish with the Autosol. Again you can finish as the car bodywork.

Wire wheels take a long time and a good deal of patience, you will need a good quality spoke brush, and should polish according to type, as they are either plated or painted.

If you follow this regime, you'll be amazed at the results. As the man said, "There's no substitute for elbow grease!"

With thanks to Barrie for sharing his cleaning regime