Today I did some detailing...

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Cheers!

I didn't have any wheel cleaner at home so I just had the soap from washing the car. I know I know, far from ideal, and it's probably the main reason I had such trouble!

I'll need to make a big order of car cleaning bits soon. Everything I have is running low. So I'll invest in some ironX.

Try the Bilt hamber korrosol.

Hal1 wrote: »

IronX snow soap, does fallout removal (8:1 dilution with water) and can be used as snow foam (neat with closed valve, no dilution). It's really is good stuff, but just doesn't smell very nice, a small price to pay for the results achieved from it.

Does any fall out remover smell nice???

Still not sure whether orchard autocare just pissed in bottle and sent it to me, I was that worried it was only product that made me cover up and use rubber gloves when I was mixing it :eek: :eek: :pac: :pac:

^^^ One part of the job I am anal about.

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

I'm sure there's more than one part of the job you're anal about :P :pac:

err..!!

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

I have so much stuff to do..... so I decided to forget about it and clean my engine bay... procrastination at it's finest

Procedure:

Some engine de-greaser sprayed where necessary
Left to dwell for 10 - 15 mins
sprinkle of water to wash it off
WD40 buffed with a cloth to give the finished look
Little toothbrush to get into the little nyooks, the long nozzle on the WD40 helps too!

Great job.
I di dthat to my Mondeo in 05 / 06
Cant remember which but I do remember I got a bit "carried away" with the wd40. I certainly remember the stink coming into the car when it got hot.
It looked great though

ronnie3585 wrote: »

I though solvents were bad for plastics and especially rubber? Doesn't WD40 cause rubber to swell sand go gummy?

Never heard that but I find it highly unlikely as it is widely used in the motor industry.

SCOOP 64 wrote: »

I noticed you said "sprinkle of water to wash it off " would a quick splast of jet wash
do, or would that be to much water going in engine bay ?

I always use the pressure washer to do mine
I do take care of where not to direct the spray though.

easygoing39 wrote: »

I use a watering can to wash off my engine bay,plenty of water but no pressure to force water into electrical connectors etc.

I do the same. Cover everything electrical, apply APC, let it dwell, agitate with a brush, rinse with a watering can, dry and dress.

I think the pressure washer is overkill for the engine bay. I don't need the pressure to lift off any dirt so I don't take the risk of driving water into any electrical components, I just stick with a watering can.

There's been a lot of talk over on Detailing World recently about OCD Waxes, with their newest show wax being Nebula.



I recently picked up a tub of it finally got a chance to use it today. On the car already is CQuartz-UK and Reload.

I gave the car a good maintenance wash, dry and then set about applying the wax. It was cold here today, never got much about 2 or 3 degrees with about 80% humidity - far from ideal conditions, but I thought I'd give it a go. The wax is quite firm with a lovely coconut and vanilla smell. I applied it with a MF applicator and gave it 30mins to cure given the conditions.

Buffing it off was somewhat difficult, however I think I may have applied the wax a little thick and I've no doubt that the weather didn't help. Once it was all buffed off I was left with gloss like I haven't seen on the car before, I'm extremely impressed with it. The wax has given huge depth and warmth to the pain, the shine is amazing. I've used many waxes on the car (some of which were considerably more expensive than this) and Nebula beats them all in my opinion. Given its price (£26 for 200ml during Jan), its is a steal!

Here's two rubbish iPhone shots, the light was fading quickly so they don't do the car justice at all. I'll try to get some better pics tomorrow if the sun ever comes out!

Curran wrote: »

Very nice Ronnie!!!
Definitely hard to beat a good wax on darker colours - the glow and wet look the give, versus the glassy appearance sealants give!

I've been using Reload for the last few months and kind of forgot how nice a good wax looks. It'll be interested to see what it's longevity is like sitting atop a sealant.

I had to to a repair job on the 'van. Somewhere the side of the van got caught and nobody owned up. I never spotted it as it was on the LHS, and that's always against the hedge. It was in a friends garage getting a small job done and he spotted it. (I know it didn't happen in his place as he parked it with the LHS against the hedge in his yard also!). He was trying to figure out how could it have happened in his place as he deliberately parked it where nothing could come near it!

Anyway, this is what I had, scrapes on the paint and on the plastic rubbing strip





The procedure was:

• Wash the area
• Detar and re-wash
• Quick rub of a claycloth for the paint
• Wipe down with CarPro Eraser
• The paint was Hexlogic green pad with Chemical Guys V36 followed with Hexlogic Black pad with Chemical Guys V38 on a D/A
• Paint was rewaxed with Collinite 845
• Rubbing strip was tacked with a razer to remove the "hair", Very fine point Sharpie to "hide" the white, lightly wiped with Eraser to remove the excess Sharpie and finished with 3:1 CarPro PERL in water

The end results





The paint under a flashlight



The rubbing strip broke my heart to do as even with the finest point Sharpie, it was still too fat for a lot of the marks. Maybe for the paint a harder pad/polish may have done a tad more but Fiat's paint is soft (I hear) and for some of the scratches, I could feel them with my fingernail so no amount of polish can correct for missing paint.

Overall, happy enough, except for the guilty party not owning up and not spotting it earlier......

So yesterday I did the interior trim on my dad's 5 series was quite impressed with the shinemate

Before:


After:


The light source I'm using is a homemade sun gun same spec as the 3m one (I didn't realise the interior lights were on in the first picture) anyone know if posting videos is possible on here? Or does it have to be a link to YouTube?

Here's my van.

I snowfoamed the van, bucket with gritguard, wiped the heavy dirt off, power hosed it, trafic film remover.

Used my lambs wool mitt to wipe the van this time.

Bleeding wheel cleaner for the wheels.

De tarred the van. Plenty of tar all over it.

Then I claybared the van. My arm almost fell off doing the. Took hours.

Used my poorboys da polisher. Two stage polish then waxed it.

Finally did the interior of the van.

All in all I reckon I spent 15 - 16 hours on the van.

I just need to spray the steel rims now to tidy them up a bit.

Part three

I hope this works!