Today I did some detailing...

tried going out again there but you're at nothing with the polish, its too warm.

here's a few photos of the clay. i've owned the car 14 months now. although it'd always be kept clean i've never clayed before. here are some of my results i used water as lube and not the clay lube provided for some reason :P i stuck to the recommended keeping passing the clay until you feel no friction. i don't know if the results represent a poor quality clay or a car that wasn't actually that dirty.

roof :



driver side complete :



passenger side complete :

it was ok, i was wetting the panels as i went so they were always wet and it was still early in the morning so they weren't hot to touch.

it was the turtle wax "refine and shine" clay bar kit. i had never used it before, i was dubious enough of the clay concept, but would happily pay a bit more the next time to get a better product having seen the results.

i didn't realise there was a risk attached to using just water :P but it looks fine, certainly no worse than before in terms of swirls or damage.

you know it's been a good 8 hour detailing session enjoying the music when :pac:



ok, so in the following order

AG paint renovator
AG SRP
AG UDS
Jeffs prime

wash and dry to get rid of epic dust

jeffs prime
jeffs addicted to glos

and endurance gel on the tyres

happy happy! and bring on the TOC big meet on Sunday!

TFB, at least your not afraid of a bit of work but you must love making your life difficult:D

I'm not here to knock you, just to point out a few things which will help you out in future.

Firstly, I would only use AG paint renovator to remove scratches, but not to worry. It is a little too abrasive to use as an all round general polish.

As for using AG SRP, AG UDS and Jeffs prime in that order, well each of those products are essentially doing the same job. They clean, polish and protect. Except one might suit better than the other depending on whether you are working on a dark colour (UDS) or a light/metallic or white (Prime) or just have SRP to hand and intend topping it with EGS or a wax afterwards. So whatever benefit UDS brought in terms of enhancing black, you removed it with the two shots of Prime.

So either use UDS on its own (for black), or SRP & EGP together for a better overall finish and more protection. If you prefer the Jeffs acrylic system, go with them. Prime first and top up with Glos after each wash. Better again if you go Prime, next Jett (sealant) and maintain with Glos. The problem with acrylic products on dark colours (especially non-metallic blacks) is they can look a little sterile or plasticy, so an acrylic and carnauba mix or cleaner wax and carnauba wax combo would look better.

TomMc wrote: »

TFB, at least your not afraid of a bit of work but you must love making your life difficult:D

I'm not here to knock you, just to point out a few things which will help you out in future.

Firstly, I would only use AG paint renovator to remove scratches, but not to worry. It is a little too abrasive to use as an all round general polish.

As for using AG SRP, AG UDS and Jeffs prime in that order, well each of those products are essentially doing the same job. They clean, polish and protect. Except one might suit better than the other depending on whether you are working on a dark colour (UDS) or a light/metallic or white (Prime) or just have SRP to hand and intend topping it with EGS or a wax afterwards. So whatever benefit UDS brought in terms of enhancing black, you removed it with the two shots of Prime.

So either use UDS on its own (for black), or SRP & EGP together for a better overall finish and more protection. If you prefer the Jeffs acrylic system, go with them. Prime first and top up with Glos after each wash. Better again if you go Prime, next Jett (sealant) and maintain with Glos. The problem with acrylic products on dark colours (especially non-metallic blacks) is they can look a little sterile or plasticy, so an acrylic and carnauba mix or cleaner wax and carnauba wax combo would look better.

not knocking at all, i appreciate the sound advice, as i do sometimes feel like i am probably taking two steps forwards and one step back with the jumble of products i use so i really appreciate being set straight.

the car is a metallic black for what it's worth.

i ended up with all the jeffs kit as it it was a recommended purchase for me back when i had my white vitz and i bought a good few bottles at the time :P.

the jeffs is so easy on and easy off compared to most nearly anything else i tried, like most AG stuff feels like a chore to work compared to it. i did appreciate that it was for a lighter colour of car but enjoyed knowing in my head that a good coat of it kept the car beading for what (imo) is a very long time, that combined with the easy of application made it worthwhile for me even if there is a slight finish compromise.

could you recommend a good equivalent to the jeffs but for that colour? one other thing i really like about it is it doesn't have that "chalkyness" to it when you buff it off and it doesn't leave a dusty mess.

edit : and a mk1 corsa under the cover

thanks again for the sound advice it'l surely make my life easier in future!

here is a better picture showing the metallic flake, just to show i'm not a total fool :pac:

Bloody exhausted. Just finished about an hour ago working on a car... which hasn't had a proper wash in its lifetime. Unfortunately I was too busy through the whole thing to take any pics, and being honest I didn't even want to take before pics.... However, the paint to touch was in the range of 120-240 grit sandpaper.

First off - I'd really like to say a big thanks to Dave at Detailing Shed. I contacted him on very short notice looking for some products, and he came through.... and also persuaded me to buy more stuff :pac:. So I've now added OAC Tar cleanse, OAC perfection and Microfibre Madness Dry Me Crazy to my collection.

Started out yesterday with a rinse with OAC Citrus pre-clean at around 25:1 dilution... car was still very heavily soiled after. Washed 2BM, and started claying... Did the bonnet and boot, and realised how much tar was on the side panels before destroying the clay. Was 12pm at that stage so finished up for yesterday.

Started out again today, with the OAC tar cleanse.... After quite some time removing enough tar to sell to the Co.Co, and quick 2BM it was back to claying again. All side panels done, went through a full clay bar (two halves) due to the amount of contamination. I'm happy enough that most of the contamination and tar is off the car, as I'm not bothering D/A ing so it doesn't need to be perfect, but it's "bad enough" that I know it needs more claying before a D/A should go near it.

Another final 2BM and rinse, and time to test out the Microfibre Madness..... Dave wasn't lying when he told me it was plush enough to sleep on, and I was well tempted at that stage! But I carried on, and I'm delighted I did because I now believe that drying towel is the most valuable detailing product I have ever bought. Drying the car took under 5 minutes, in the dark with a work lamp so I could only half see what I was doing. I've no doubt it's worth every penny, and more. Even after drying the car, it felt like it could dry another 2 cars before being anywhere near fully saturated. It actually was so undersaturated I couldn't wring it out after. If anyone is considering a drying towel, look no further.

Now.... where was I.... Ah yes. Followed up with a coat of SRP. First time in ages using it, but if any car needs it.... now would be the time... After buffing that, on went the HD wax. I went for HD wax over EGP purely because of the time of day. At 11:30pm, you don't really have the 30-60 minutes to leave EGP to dry before buffing. This was all too clear when I was buffing off the HD wax under 15 minutes later, and the dew was all over the panels I'd just buffed.

It's just about done, I want to give it one coat of OAC Perfection tomorrow and put on some Megs Endurance tyre gel. Then there'll be pics.

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Do you know that if you used Iron Cleanse you'd have a lot less claying to do, especially on the sides of the car? :P

Did you know that I actually wanted some but Detailing shed were out of stock on such short notice as they had a few orders for it over the website downtime! In fairness to Dave, it was extremely short notice and he did offer to order some in for me straight away - problem was I'd already started the car

Can't do much better than that!

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Ah crap, that's a pity! I have 2 full bottles here

So you're the reason they're out of stock! *******

I'd have popped down and grabbed some if you were giving it away

Good start Black Knight!

Tough work in that heat But it'll be worth it!
Make sure to stick up a few pictures when you've finished it!

I've a few questions if anyone would be kind enough to shed some light...

Gave the car a reasonably good cleaning today but I think it probably looks worse than it did before.

Gave it a good wash, then removed tar and then clayed (with rinses in between). The clay wasn't actually clay at all, it was just a sponge with a hard side, chemical guys clay kit. Anyway, it was too late at this stage to quit so I used that.

So my first question, the car is black but it seems to have a lot of red specks in the paint which I hadn't noticed before. A lot of red came away as I clayed the car... Is that normal? I used a lot of lube and never felt the block sticking.

Then rinsed and dried car. Then polished and then carnauba waxed it. Did other finishing detailing as well including the d technic stuff on the glass.

Car looks great etc but all the stone chips all over the front bumper and bonnet, which were not really visible before, are standing out so much now that it is all I can see.

How do I address this? Is it possible by hand? Do I need to clay the area again before correcting this?

Thanks!

No, no red paint on or near car. There is clearly a red flake throughout the entire car's paint work though.... You can only see it up very close and you have to really look hard.

Yeah I've never clayed a car before but wasn't too fond of that clay block thing at all.


Ps, can the used applicators be thrown in the wash with the microfiber towels?

wersal gummage wrote: »

And it's not diesel!

Nice motor! Sapphire Black? Same as my E39 and it has a flake in it that has bits of red and silver.

Though red shouldn't come off with the clay. ..the top coat id lacquer and is totally clear.

Re: Applicators; yes they can, but try scrape off or squeeze out as much product as possible. And obviously wash microfibres and applicators separate to regular washing or your missus will hit the roof!!

Thanks lads, I'm actually house trained but you can never be sure I suppose! I'll give them a good rinse and then stick them in the wash on their own.

I used g technic nano composite polish and then dodo juice blue velvet wax. Have noticed some comments here in recent days about sticking with similar manufacturers for both so not sure if what I used was the best.

Thanks again.


I'd certainly try a new polish next time but I think I have enough wax to last a lifetime! I barely used any wax and I wasn't scrimping with the stuff.

I will have to look at getting the stone chips out.