Today I did some detailing...

8 thanks on that post.. i wonder if they're for the heart warming story of the detailer who sets things right and gives complimentary snow foam solution to make the customer happy and works hard to ensure a good business model and high reputation..

Or for the big tits. :P (they are very, very nice though, in fairness!)



So tomorrow I do my brother's car. A Renault Megane, 3 door hatchback that has been the victim of baby's car seats banging off it, a tight drive way meaning one door forever getting banged off the wall (I don't think I can do anything to fix that) and a generally apathetic owner whose interest in the car is more a practical one (it goes from A to B, so it's grand!).





And the close ups...















Now I don't actually think I can fix all of that. Certainly not the door that's had too many close encounters of the wall kind (unless I use touch up paint, and polish it down? but I'm not sure that'll even work?)


The idea here is for me, as a learner, to be able to get a good, realistic, idea, of what can and cannot be expected of polishing when it comes to dealing with scratches of varying severity.


So here's my simple 32 step guide to cleaning the car:


(1) Snow Foam (pre-wash) (let sit).
(2) Rinse.
(3) Interior – Fabrics and Plastics.
(4) Interior – Hoover and Rubber mats.
(5) Glass - interior and exterior.
(6) Wheels and Tyres (Iron cleanse, wheel cleanse, agitate tyres with brush).
(7) Wash - two bucket method.
(8) Rinse and dry.
(9) De-Tar (let sit).
(10) Exhaust and stainless steel – Autosol and steel wool
(11) Rinse.
(12) Iron-cleanse (body and wheels) (let sit).
(13) Rinse and dry.
(14) Clay bar.
(15) Rinse.
(16) Tape up car using 3m tape (cover all awkward openings, shuts, jambs, sunroof edges, etc.).
(17) Polish (Machine).
(18) Rinse and Dry.
(19) Glaze (Machine).
(20) Rinse and Dry.
(21) Trim And Plastics.
(22) Rinse and Dry.
(23) Tyre dressing application.
(24) Wax (Machine).
(25) Rinse and Dry.
(26) Let Sit Overnight.
(27) Hand wax (for extra bit of shine - may be a futile effort?).
(28) Interior – Quick wipe down and Hoover – Use a scent.
(29) Tyre Dressing touch up.
(30) Wash – Two bucket method.
(31) Rinse and dry.
(32) Glass interior and exterior.



... And I'm allowing myself 3-4 days to do it (optimism!). Seems to be everything covered? A lot of new ground covering here though. Looking forward to trying to clean the fabric seats and stuff (to see how i get on).

Hal1 wrote: »

Ah no. :eek:

That directed at anything in particular?

Ok, quick question - is wet sanding literally just wetting the area (spraying water?) and then sanding it with a fine sandpaper (and then applying touch up paint and maching polishing?).

If so, what grit of sandpaper should i use? and where would I buy it? (homebase?)

BillJ wrote: »

Wet sanding is when you use wet and dry sand paper(thats what its actually called) that has been soaked in water to sand down an area. It would be recommended to keep the surface wet also. You would do this after applying the paint and after the paint has dried. After sanding you would machine polish.

Two good "how to's" here that could be helpful to you.

I plan on following the bonnet chip repair guide myself next week after I get the repair kit delivered.:)

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=153965

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=251392

See, this is going to make me sound like an idiot, but.. what you wrote yourself there is like plain perfect english. Almost a dummies guide, and it makes sense.

But the links to the threads may aswell be written in Hindu for all the good they are to me Even though they have pictures and such I can't quite absorb the information required in them.


From reading your post (without the links) it seems fairly straight-forward, though.

1) Apply paint
2) use wet and dry sandpaper (wet it first and wet area being sanded) to sand to suitable level
3) machine polish to smoothen and 'merge' with existing paint?

(or am I after making a jock of that straight away?! )

Is there a particular advised grit number to use? For some reason 1500 is in my head?

BillJ wrote: »

You seem to have it fairly spot on. Just to clarify a bit more (i am talking about stone chips here and not so much door edges but it's fairly similar):

1. Fill paint up in layers to slightly just above the current level of paint.
2. Leave dry for about 24hours.
3. Wet sand with 2000 grit w&d paper and a sanding block so that the filled in chip is level with surrounding paint. Very little pressure and sanding is needed to do this apparently so dont go overboard or you will strip the clearcoat of surrounding paint.
4. The sanding leaves scartching on the paint so this is where the machine polishing comes in to polish out the scratches.


NNB. I have not done this myself I have only researched it and the above is a very rough guide.

I have ordered a kit and plan on doing it myself shortly so will do a write up of how i go.

Also those threads above might seem like hindu but the more you read them the more sense they begin to make sense:)

Maybe wait until you are confident in your knowledge before you try paint chip repair

Confident in my knowledge? Pfft! It's not my car I'm doing it on! :pac:


Ah no, on a serious note, I will probably give that a shot over the course of my detailing days, then. Just to see how I get on (i'll also aim to photograph it for the thread here, so others can laugh hysterically at my efforts).

I can get touch up paint in my local motor factors I believe, so it's just getting the specific level of grit in wet and dry sandpaper that'll be the issue. I'll try Homebase and Woodies (but want to try to avoid eating up too much time dealing with finding sandpaper, or I won't anything done tomorrow).