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Child Item

Today I did some detailing...

randy hickey

We have the "Today I Did Something To My Car" thread out in the main forum, and a lot of the posts on it pertain to detailing.
I thought it would be a good idea to give our various detailing activities a thread in their proper home.

I'll get the ball rolling.

Today ( ahem, last night really!), I snow foamed the car
Wasn't able to follow through and wash it properly as my back went, but couldn't believe how well it looked this morning!
In fairness I have a fair bit of LSP on it, but there was ten days worth of road film and tree sap on it.

Well impressed.

Over to you!

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ronnie3585

Late to the party, I used BH Auto Foam for the first time this weekend. I didn't expect much, but I was very impressed. I applied it with a pump sprayer (using a 4% PIR) and let it dwell for about 5 minutes. The car had a lot of dirt and dust on it and it took 90% of it off. I'll definitely be adding it to the arsenal.

slave1

My neglected CRV, busy this year selling our two cars while we purchased new (to us) ones but down to the two new ones now so tackled my car over the weekend.
Not touched since October but had a good wax so was happy leaving it as is for those last few months...by the time I was finished it was gloomy and not much reflecting about

Pro Kleen Foam via Detailers Utd Karcher Lance, grit guard bucket hand wash, rinse, Autoglym detar, Bilt Hammer clay, detail brush wash of all joints, seals etc, foam, grit guard hand wash, rinse, hand dry, triple Auto Finesse glaze by hand, double Collinite 845 wax by hand, haven't done the wheels yet apart from jet wash.

mikeecho

slave1 wrote: »

My neglected CRV, busy this year selling our two cars while we purchased new (to us) ones but down to the two new ones now so tackled my car over the weekend.
Not touched since October but had a good wax so was happy leaving it as is for those last few months...by the time I was finished it was gloomy and not much reflecting about

Pro Kleen Foam via Detailers Utd Karcher Lance, grit guard bucket hand wash, rinse, Autoglym detar, Bilt Hammer clay, detail brush wash of all joints, seals etc, foam, grit guard hand wash, rinse, hand dry, triple Auto Finesse glaze by hand, double Collinite 845 wax by hand, haven't done the wheels yet apart from jet wash.

Come visit

I make a mean breakfast

edburg

First time in year spent some real time on astra, mainly maintenance during that time.

Full on session over last 2 days, snow foam, fall out, de tar, clay, de-wax, bit of a restore polishing on roof and chequers, delicate finish polish all round and 2 coats of nano sealant.

I was going to do wheels off n rotate and under arches treatment to but wheels desperate for refurb and weather looking dim for next 10 days.

All autobrite gear and little bit of carpro fog for inside glass.

Noccy_Mondy

Been meaning to upload pics of the cars spit polished. Will take one at a time. Didn't realise how bad the interior of the mondeo was, got it all wet vac'd which made a massive difference. Combine that with some of detailingsheds finest products on the outside, which really made the black pop!

slave1

Got around to tackling one of the wheels and the interior yesterday.
For the interior it was vac followed by one of those sponge mud thingys for all the crevices and then dash restorer on a wash mitt all over.
For the wheels it was wash, iron remover, clay, wax and tyre was restorer.
Made a stupid rookie decision of leaning the alloys onto the wheel bolts to pick up some frustrating scratches, lesson learned:mad:

Before

During

After

Front dash after

Bandito909

slave1 wrote: »

Got around to tackling one of the wheels and the interior yesterday.
For the interior it was vac followed by one of those sponge mud thingys ]

What's a sponge mud?

yannakis

Bandito909 wrote: »

What's a sponge mud?

Never used it myself thinking it might leave some oily residue behind, but I guess this is it? http://bit.ly/2q0ETCC :pac:

slave1

Bandito909 wrote: »

What's a sponge mud?

Specifically this, no residue, gets everywhere

Bandito909

slave1 wrote: »

Specifically this, no residue, gets everywhere

That's the oddest detailing contraption I've seen so far!!

mikeecho

Bandito909 wrote: »

That's the oddest detailing contraption I've seen so far!!

i bought some of this a few weeks ago.. waiting on mr postman to bring it from china.

Ive seen it used before, and its very good for getting into little nooks and crannies

markc1184

I had 1 of those a few years ago. Great for getting into awkward crevices. Goes to crap after a while, but for the price of them there can be no complaints. Definitely don't accidentally leave it in your car on a warm day though.

[Deleted User]

No pictures but my sister's car was covered in that sandy dust that came with rain a few weeks back that was bonded to the paint and wouldn't come off by washing. I gave the car one go to remove it all, another to tidy up any marks that might have been caused since it was tiny sand particles followed by jewelling polish, wash, dry and Gtechniq C2V3.

Thankfully it's a 2010 Ford Fiesta so not a big car therefore all that was done in 1 day 10am - 8:30pm.

digitaldr

I'm a detailing newbie and decided to use my son's car to try out claying for the first time - he helped. It's a UK import 2012 Diesel Kia Rio with 115,000 miles on the clock. Power washer rinse, Bilt Hamber snow foam, rinse, 2 bucket wash - microfibre mitt with Autoglym shampoo/conditioner, alloys autoglym wheel cleaner, rinse, microfibre dry, Maguiars Quik clay, Autoglym HD wax. Very pleased with the results, much easier with 2 people. I have a 2 month Peugeot 3008 (in the background in the first photo) - is it too soon to consider clay in it?

vectra

digitaldr wrote: »

I have a 2 month Peugeot 3008 (in the background in the first photo) - is it too soon to consider clay in it?

Should be grand.
I normally attack mine on the day of collection.

ronnie3585

Spent 5 or 6 hours on the car today. Washed, de-tarred, de-ironed (god I hate the smell of Iron-X!), clayed and then I gave it a coat of recently acquired Soft 99 Fusso. It was easy to apply and remove once applied very thinly. It's not massively glossy, but I think it left a very nice finish. Thankfully, no rain in the west today so didn't get to see its famous water action.

vectra

ronnie3585 wrote: »

Spent 5 or 6 hours on the car today. Washed, de-tarred, de-ironed (god I hate the smell of Iron-X!), clayed and then I gave it a coat of recently acquired Soft 99 Fusso. It was easy to apply and remove once applied very thinly. It's not massively glossy, but I think it left a very nice finish. Thankfully, no rain in the west today so didn't get to see its famous water action.

Oh you will see plenty of beads.
You will have the dash to get in before water runs into the car with it.:)
Didn't you have that done with cquk?

ronnie3585

vectra wrote: »

Didn't you have that done with cquk?

Correct! However, it appears to be degrading badly. The main reason for the full decontamination was to try to clean everything off the coating and see what state it was in. It's pretty poor (i.e. not very hydrophobic) so I sealed it up with Fusso, which I'm very impressed with.

vectra

ronnie3585 wrote: »

Correct! However, it appears to be degrading badly. The main reason for the full decontamination was to try to clean everything off the coating and see what state it was in. It's pretty poor (i.e. not very hydrophobic) so I sealed it up with Fusso, which I'm very impressed with.

Yes,
I had the same feeling myself.
I am debating what to do this time.

CQUK
Machine polish after a year
Cquk again.

Or
Proper prep and just use Fusso occasionaly.

My only concern id would the CQUK help keep the car cleaner??
Decisions.

ronnie3585

vectra wrote: »

Yes,
I had the same feeling myself.
I am debating what to do this time.

CQUK
Machine polish after a year
Cquk again.

Or
Proper prep and just use Fusso occasionaly.

My only concern id would the CQUK help keep the car cleaner??
Decisions.

I'll give it a couple of weeks before I decide, but I'm inclined to stick with Fusso for the time being. It's not nearly as fussy to apply as CQUK and if I get only half of its advertised 12 months longevity I'll be laughing. I poured a watering can of rainwater over the wing today and the hydrophobicity is amazing, even more impressive than ceramic.

vectra

ronnie3585 wrote: »

I'll give it a couple of weeks before I decide, but I'm inclined to stick with Fusso for the time being. It's not nearly as fussy to apply as CQUK and if I get only half of its advertised 12 months longevity I'll be laughing. I poured a watering can of rainwater over the wing today and the hydrophobicity is amazing, even more impressive than ceramic.

Ya,
I had Fusso before ( I think around early 2014,
When it came on the market I bought a tin and also a tin of King of Gloss.
I did like tthe water effect, But I cannot remember if it attracted dust like wax does or not. I got so used to the cquk the way it repelled dust as I live in an extremely dusty place.
When I used the cquk I passed on the fusso and KOG to friends so they could try it.

h3000

Got the car washed, de-tarred, de-ironed, clayed and after a six month plus wait I broke out the DAS-6 PRO for the very first time (2 year olds and the newborn siblings are very demanding ). Unfortunately the evening dew fell in a put a stop to the polishing but I'm off for the week so hope to finish it off in the morning. Then stick on a layer of Fusso.

I will throw up a few pics if it truns out respectable

h3000

h3000 wrote: »

Got the car washed, de-tarred, de-ironed, clayed and after a six month plus wait I broke out the DAS-6 PRO for the very first time (2 year olds and the newborn siblings are very demanding ). Unfortunately the evening dew fell in a put a stop to the polishing but I'm off for the week so hope to finish it off in the morning. Then stick on a layer of Fusso.

I will throw up a few pics if it truns out respectable

It's not perfect and there is still some swirling but for the time constraints and my lack of experience with a DA I'm quite happy how it turned out.

The pics are only off my phone so please excuse the quality.

Curran

Ronnie;
Surprised that you found CQUK to have a dramatic drop off. Im not picking on you, but rather trying to help understand where it might have gone wrong, for yourself, myself and others.
How long is it on the car? Would you say that your prep and application to be good (obviously I dont mean IR lamps etc, but didnt get wet early in the curing time, etc)? Would I be right in saying that this isnt the first time youve applied on top of the coating, as you werent a fan of the appearance and you wanted a deeper, warmer glow. What shampoo / cleaners were you using?

Vectra;
I know we've discussed your CQUK experience before, and you found that it got a bit of a boost from the decontamination job you did. Just to let you know, which might be a factor in your choice going forward; there is now Essence+ which is a non abrasive, polish-like in usage, product that contains SiO2 and ceramic coat repair agents, high gloss quartz resins, and hydrophobic nanoparticles! Essentially a repair for the coating to prolong its lifetime.

h3000;
Great work! Turned out very well - colour looks brilliant in the sun!

vectra

Curran wrote: »

Vectra;
I know we've discussed your CQUK experience before, and you found that it got a bit of a boost from the decontamination job you did. Just to let you know, which might be a factor in your choice going forward; there is now Essence+ which is a non abrasive, polish-like in usage, product that contains SiO2 and ceramic coat repair agents, high gloss quartz resins, and hydrophobic nanoparticles! Essentially a repair for the coating to prolong its lifetime.

Thanks Curran,
Yes you did mention Essence+ to me already, I had forgotten about it.
Judging by the way my back issues are with the past few months I think I will definitely have to go down a very similar route agin with this years car.
I really was very happy with the CQUK for the first year,
The sides of the car are stil amazingly glossy.
It seems to be mainly the flat panels that look "dead"

Essence +
Is this Hand or machine applied?

Curran

Hand or DA...obviously the latter giving better results.

ronnie3585

Curran wrote: »

Ronnie;
Surprised that you found CQUK to have a dramatic drop off. Im not picking on you, but rather trying to help understand where it might have gone wrong, for yourself, myself and others.
How long is it on the car? Would you say that your prep and application to be good (obviously I dont mean IR lamps etc, but didnt get wet early in the curing time, etc)? Would I be right in saying that this isnt the first time youve applied on top of the coating, as you werent a fan of the appearance and you wanted a deeper, warmer glow. What shampoo / cleaners were you using?

Hi Curran - I don't think you're picking at all!

Before application, I gave the car a full decon, followed by a two stage polish using CarPro Fixer and Essence (I did not wipedown a with IPA after this as CarPro says it isn't necessary with Essence).

I followed the instructions to the letter when applying the CQuartz however I think the problem may lie in the conditions on the day. I've no access to a garage/shed so all the work was done outdoors. The day I applied was cold (about 5 degrees C) and very humid (well over 90%). The product was tough to apply and very grabby when buffing off. It was then topped with Reload. It didn’t get wet during the curing period.

The coating is only on the car about 8/9 months so it appears to be quite premature in failing. Again, I think it was the application and not the product that was the problem. The car is washed once every two weeks using a proper 2BM and Reset. It’s also topped up with Reload every 4/6 weeks and I also use a squirt or two of Reload as a drying agent.

I always liked the look of the finish. I applied a show wax on top of it twice just for a change. The finish of Fusso actually looks quite similar to CQuartz.

Let me know if you've any more questions.

Curran

Did you do an IPA wipedown after using Fixer / prior to Essence....you are correct in saying that it isnt necessary to wipedown after using Essence, but that would only be the case assuming prior polishing oils were removed.

The conditions weren't ideal during application, but shouldn't have effected the coating drastically, its good to use from 5 - 40 Degrees Celsius. As you know shelter would offer a bit more of controlled environment where fluctuations in temp and humidity would be less. And then IR lamps aiding curing would be the ultimate; and a common misconception is that it cures quicker, but in fact it cures from the bottom (from the paintwork) up, rather than top down only approach that most hobbyists would only be able to achieve.

On the tough / grabby issue you were having during application - if you are going down ceramic coating route again, then I would advice if you experience the grabbing, it's due to the curing process being a touch too far along...a way to beat this is to use the damp applicator and go over the grabby area and re-wet it, and buff instantly. The first application will still be there as its started to cure, but the stickiness will be gone with the 2nd application and help with buffing.

Noccy_Mondy

h3000 wrote: »

It's not perfect and there is still some swirling but for the time constraints and my lack of experience with a DA I'm quite happy how it turned out.

The pics are only off my phone so please excuse the quality.

Such a nice colour, not very common though!

h3000

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

Such a nice colour, not very common though!

Thanks. I wasn't too sure on the colour at first but I love it now and as you said it's rare enough. It's a colour you really do have to look after though. I've seen some that haven't been minded and they look a bit shabby.