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Today I did some detailing...
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The detailing gods were on my side this weekend for a change!
Got to use the new powerwasher, lance, washmitt and wax. I started off with snow foaming the car (mixed views on it, will discuss seperately), I then 2BM'd it, de-tarred it, wheels, clayed it, polished and then waxed it.
First snowfoam with mr.pink:
Good thick foam but after 5-6 minutes it looked like this:
I think what happened was I got my dilution ratio wrong, one inch of mr.pink and filled the bottle with water, I should have just gone up to the bottom of the label with water right?
Detarred body and used turtle ice wheel cleaner on the wheels, APC'd the tyres. Can't find my iron cleanse :mad: Only gave the wheels a quick going over, they need a day dedicated to them alone i think.
Clayed next, obviously didnt get all the tar because when claying the lower of the car this was the result :eek::
Next I hand polished, some reflection after polishing stage:
Then I got one layer of Collinte 845 on before it started to rain, finished results:
(rusty looking brake discs are annoying in this one)
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Are you scrapping out the dried polish the pad after every few sets?
No, to be honest. I didn't think of it or think it needed to be done. Can I just bang them into the washing machine and go from there? In saying that, I ruined the two other pads (yellow, orange) on the wheel arches of the Megane, and tore them apart, so I need to replace them anyway.
Once I eventually get around to doing that I can worry about actually polishing the Rav4 properly. It's absolutely wrecking my head looking at it at the moment.
Once I have the Rav4 done to a standard I'm happy with, I'll not really need to do it again, I don't think. Every six months I might freshen it up with another polishing but I don't think it'd really be necessary? Surely it won't just fall back into it's current state if i keep on top of it, and give it a decent wash and waxing every now and again?
Was it odd or unusual that I seen little to no difference on the freshly polished Megane, when I used a glaze on it? (It made no difference, from what I recall)?0 -
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Today, it finally got a decent wash...
It's been a while since it was last cleaned. I try to keep washes to a minimum over the winter as you're likely to create more swirls and scratches the more often you wash the car, especially with the amount of dirt on the roads at this time of the year.
I do have protection on the paintwork still, so that does mean that even when it's dirty, it's usually not too bad as the rain will take the worst of it away.
The joys of owning a black car though, is that everything shows up. I think the worst is when the dirt dulls the paint and removes the gloss. A black car can look really boring, really quick.
With the bigger Brembo brakes on the front, there's a bigger mess too. Although the Style 95s are so much easier to clean than my old 3SDMs were.
This is the bulk of the products used. There was CG Glossworks shampoo in the bucket on the left, clean water in the bucket on the right and both with grit guards. Snowfoam is CleanCar's own brand, wheel cleaner is Bilt-Hamber Auto Wheels and CleanCar's own Rinse Aid in the light pink bottle.
I always start with the wheels. Bilt-Hamber on...
Left to dwell for a few minutes and the extent of the brake dust and dirt is evident.
The beauty of Bilt-Hamber Auto Wheel over the likes of Iron-X etc. is that not only does it lift the iron contaminants, but acts as a normal wheel cleaner too. It's PH neutral also.
Just pressure washed the bottom of the wheel to give you an idea of how good it is. There was no agitation applied.
With the worst of the dirt taken off the wheels, I applied a generous amount of snow foam to the entire car and left it tow dwell for ten minutes.
Whilst the foam was doing its thing, I used a soft bristled brush to clean the wheels more thoroughly.
With the foam rinsed off, this is what I was left with. You can see the water is stuck to the car from beneath the door handles and down. This shows that there is still plenty of dirt still there, despite the fact that it looks glossy again.
Next was some two bucket action with a Merino lamb's wool mitt. No pictures of the process, but I was returning to the buckets much more regularly once I started beneath the door handles and lower areas of the body work. I would usually do one panel, rinse mitt in dirtied water and re-soak it in the clean water with the CG Glossworks in it.
I rinsed it down again with the power washer, then applied the CleanCar Rinse Aid.
You only need to apply a really light misting to the car and you will immediately see all the water begin to bead off. Once the car was covered, I rinsed it again but this time with an open hose.
(Continued below...)0 -
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Drying time! This is the part I hate the most but since I started misting the drying towel with a QD, it's become a much easier part of the process. Like the hand washing part, I only go either from left to right or right to left when touching the car. Never up and down. Never.
With the car dry, I gave it another once over with a clean Meguiar's microfibre (by far the best microfibre towel I've used) and Autoglym's Rapid Detailer. I'm using the AG QD because the car was last waxed with HD Wax and I find it's better to stick with products from the same manufacturer.
Back to the wheels again. With another clean cloth, some Kleers wheel cleaner and CG Silk Shine Dressing, I go over the wheels and tyres one more time to dry them, remove any last bits of brake dust I might have missed previously and apply the tyre dressing.
There's a really nice fleck in the paint on these 95s, so it's worth putting the effort in to bring it out.
With everything dry and all the trim dressed, I go around the car once more to check for any parts I may have missed with the QD.
Black is a morale killer when trying to maintain a car because every little mark shows up.
Usually around now, I'd start putting everything away but with it being a good day, I took the opportunity to sort something that was bugging me for a while.
The gloss black trim on the doors is an absolute nightmare to maintain. Every little scratch and mark shows up and really lets the car down IMO.
I found a company in the US that offer polycarbonate cut to the shape of the original which is scratch and UV resistant. It bonds directly to the original trim, so does protrude slightly, but you would have to know it was there or really go looking for it to notice.
New trim on the left, old trim on the right. A big difference.
The kit comes with IPA wipes so you can clean the original trim before applying the new polycarbonate covers. The adhesive is quite permanent and you do not want to mess up the application. Once it's on, it's never coming off.
It's only a small thing, but makes a big difference to the overall look of the car.
I also took the opportunity to try out the gloss brows for the grills. There's not a huge difference TBH, although it might look better when the lower grills are changed over too. Gloss on the left, matte on the right
With the exterior finished, I went around and dried out and QD'd the door shuts...
...before giving the rest of the interior a quick dust and the front mats a shake. Above all, I usually keep the inside spotless as it's where I spend more of my time.
(Continued below...)0 -
(Last part, sorry for breaking your internets)
The results...
I've got a small leak in my front passenger-side headlight which will be easily rectified once it comes out of the car when my new lights arrive. There's a hint of haziness too, although I'm not sure if that's a by-product of the moisture that's present. It evaporates pretty quickly but looks ****. As I said, it'll be easily remedied once they're out.
I'm hoping to get the car painted shortly as the bonnet has quite a few stone chips (that are touched up, but still) and there's a couple of small marks and dings around the car that are annoying me, so they'll need to be seen to as well. Once it's back from paint and with the new headlights fitted, it'll be up for its NCT. There's a couple of things I need to sort to ensure it passes but I don't foresee any major problems. When the paint is gassed off, I'll give it to CleanCar to correct it once more before applying a proper coating of Gtechniq to the paintwork.
I've a few other small things I want to change over the year, but they can wait until my bank balance begins to recover...
Thanks for reading
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MetzgerMeister wrote: »Do you mean Bilt Hamber??
OAC Wheel Cleanse is a very good one. It's available on detailingshed.com
Auto correct damn you.0 -
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So only dress 1 side?MetzgerMeister wrote: »Taylor, you'd be better off to wait until the wheels are back on the car before dressing the tyres
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