Cost: £16.95 for 1ltr
Date of Review: 6th August 2026
The Sales Pitch from Mirror Image Car Care:
Old School Quick Detailer provides both ease of use and a wet look gloss finish.
Old School Quick Detailer is cost effective quick detailer that leaves a high gloss finish.
If your paint is ever lacking gloss simply spray the panel with Old School Quick Detailer, gently wipe in with a clean Microfibre and buff away with a clean buffing cloth for a deep wet look finish.
Source: https://mirrorimagecarcare.com/collections/detailers-and-sealants/products/old-school-quick-detailer?variant=40387500474450
What You Get:
One litre of product in a clear bottle wit ha supplied trigger. The colour of this product is great (as are all their products).
Product Description:
Simple spray on wipe over and buff to a shine. This is the intermediate step where a full clean is not needed but the car is showing some grubbiness. The scent of the product is fresh and pleasant not overpowering. The instructions don’t say what you can or can’t use it on.
Ideally to be used with light dust, finger prints fresh bird mess, or rain drop marks.
Instructions:
A discrepancy between the bottle, leaflet and the website. The bottle says spray on the area, the other two says says on the cloth, the leaflet says spray liberally. Only the bottle says ‘shake well’.
Both applications worked for me, with a full one litre it’s easy to go mad with the spray, so a good spritz on the cloth is more manageable. But, I found that the cloth soon got saturated and was more awkward to turn and find a clean part of the cloth. The secret it a light mist on the cloth, and an even mist on the panel. Wipe in a straight lines rolling the cloth to keep a clean part of the cloth at all times.
The trigger was good with an even mist, with a hard pull, it tended to be a little heavier around the outside.
Testing Environment:
A warm sunny day with the odd bit of light clouds. Car warm to the touch but not hot.
Application:
The product’s bottle says ‘wipe in and buff off’. The leaflet says wait thirty seconds then buff off. On a warm car the the flash was fairly quick and dried before the buff. I’m not sure if this is the intention.
The product works better in cooler areas, and the product stays a little more workable. Where the car is warm, spray onto the area wipe over to clean, wait a few seconds, then buff to shine. If the results aren’t as expected, a light mist again and buff quicker will make it right. This was more evident on my black Honda CR-V where I had a couple of goes at getting the application right, on the cloth, on the panel, a little or a lot.
The wipe over was slick, easy and cleaned in one pass. The hood was easier to clean in two halves as the product didn’t evaporate to quickly. Cleaning in one go left a slight dull finish, but it easily buffed out fine, probably due to the time it took for me to get round to buffing it. There were no smears, lines or dull patches once buffed to a shine. I lightly misted the hood again each half and all was good again with very little effort to buff to get that shine.
I used the product on my chrome as I had few bugs and road film on them and was easier to see. The door mirror was dirty with finger marks. The buffing brought the chrome to a great shine.
The front bumper was the same, a bit splattered and dirty. A spray on wipe over, flip the cloth and buff. Brilliant shine with little effort.
On my black Honda CR-V I did need to get in the sweet spot zone, on the black Smart car it was fine with what ever I wanted. Perhaps the CR-V was warmer as metal panels and not plastic as on the Smart?
I used this on the chrome wheels to remove light dust and slight brake dust, it did the job admirably.
Results:
Impressive and versatile product.
The gloss is there, and looks like the car has just been waxed. The product lives up to the claims. The chrome looks super shiny with no smear or smudge marks, difficult on such a reflective surface, and their is no residue left on the surfaces.
Depending on what you are cleaning, and how you want to clean could be a personal preference. I prefer the light mist, wipe, flip the cloth and buff. For the more visible dirty marks a heavier spray to work the product over the area and buff worked just fine.
I found a little product goes a long way and liberal application on the cloth was bit to much for my requirements of the clean.
You will certainly get amazing results from this product.
Rating: 9 out 10
Why not full marks? This is slightly more expensive than some quick detailers on the market (when compared to similar amounts). Also because I’m picky, the product needs a very slight learning curve to get to that sweet spot for usability. Once you get it right, this is an amazing product and I love it. This should be a 10 score, but I had to work out what worked best for me so I was harsh on my scoring. I may review the score to up it later.
This has now become my new work horse quick detailer. It’s capable of working in the warmer/hot conditions which is a huge bonus when at a car show. Other brands in hot weather can flash (evaporate) to quickly and leave the odd wipe mark which needs a re-work.
Ease of use – 9 out 10
Finish – 10 out 10
Conclusion:
Instructions are a bit vague, but once you work out what works for you, this is a great product. It has already been promoted to my Mustang’s car show detailing bag. (The products in that detailing bag, rarely get swapped out if they work). I didn’t use much product at all, about 1oz max, holding the 1ltr bottle was heavy after a while, but that was my issue as I bought the large bottle. I will decant it to smaller bottle just for the car shows. I expect this will last quite a while so it does make good long term value. It also looks great on the shelf.
This really is a great product and I have no problems recommending it, don’t let the 9 score put you off. If the instructions were consistent it would be a 10. The name ‘Old School Quick Detailer’ it’s certainly that, it does what it supposed to do, clean and give me a gloss finish. There’s no fancy ingredients to do this or that. Old School Quick Detailer was more than I expected for final finish, that’s all I ask for.
If the product works, and does what I want then I don’t mind the cost of a couple of extra quid. I personally don’t think the cost is that bad at all for a premium product, but it’s on the upper end of the price band. The big players in the market should be worried by this product working as good as it does.
In short, it’s a product that’s worth buying and adding to your detailing arsenal. I bought a large bottle based on the small sample that I had.
The only unknown is longevity, But this doesn’t claim to be anything other than a quick cleaner (detailer).
(No – I’m not on commission and I bought this with my own money!)
Would I recommend it? Yes – without a doubt.
Would I buy it again? Yes – Already have.