Today I did some detailing...

stimpson

JAMES VTI S wrote: »

Why oh why would you use anything other the a microfiber cloth to rub clean 476 ....

Is someone taking the p!$$ :pac:

Sure you need to be built like Arnie to buff that off.

bazery

JAMES VTI S wrote: »

Why oh why would you use anything other the a microfiber cloth to rub clean 476 ....

Is someone taking the p!$$ :pac:

Nope not taking the p!$$. Just curious as I have one and don't really use it. It came with applicator pads too but I've heard bad things about them

Paddy@CIRL

Speaking of big wheels and low cars...

I got the car back from CleanCar today after a quick spruce up after the winter. Rather embarrassingly, it's the first time the car was washed since mid-November. It was foamed, 2BM washed, de-tarred and given two coats of CG Blacklight and two coats of AG HD Wax at my request. I'm planning on getting a few bits painted over the next while, so the HD Wax will suffice for the time being. Plus, there's a tub of it sitting in my garage for I don't know how long. Whilst the car was there, I had the rear three windows tinted with 35% tint which is just right IMO for a factory look. The inside was valeted and Larry dyed my driver's mat as it was starting to fade a little. I'm not sure what products were used inside, but I can definitely smell Gliptone

Some pictures earlier tonight taken on a P&S:

Curran

Looks extremely well Paddy!!

Love those 7er wheels on it. Has to be the nicest E90 in the country!

Paddy@CIRL

Curran wrote: »

Looks extremely well Paddy!!

Love those 7er wheels on it. Has to be the nicest E90 in the country!

Cheers Dave, getting them refurbished again shortly so can then move onto the next bits and pieces.

MetzgerMeister

Paddy@CIRL wrote: »

Cheers Dave, getting them refurbished again shortly so can then move onto the next bits and pieces.

By any chance are you going to get Wheel Wizards to do them? I want to get mine refurbed soon and they're at the top of my list.

Also, where'd you get that screen above the heater controls and wie viel?

Paddy@CIRL

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

By any chance are you going to get Wheel Wizards to do them? I want to get mine refurbed soon and they're at the top of my list.

Also, where'd you get that screen above the heater controls and wie viel?

Not Wheel Wizards but the company I bought them from. I'm having issues with the lacquer but to their credit they agreed with zero arguments to take them back, strip them back to the bare aluminium and re-do all four wheels. They're also giving me loan wheels to get me about for the week so can't complain.

It's a double-din Kenwood GPS unit and I've no idea what a wie viel is

Gavman84

Lovely car Paddy. I think he wants to know the price from my bit of German!!

Paddy@CIRL

Gavman84 wrote: »

Lovely car Paddy. I think he wants to know the price from my bit of German!!

I thought he had an autocorrect moment



It's a Kenwood DNX7230DAB which I got in the UK. 7" touchscreen, Garmin GPS, Bluetooth (HF & A2DP), iPod in the glovebox, SD Card, CD / DVD and a lot of other functions I can't recall at the moment. It's pretty much plug & play and you retain steering wheels controls although you have to use the (supplied) Kenwood microphone. The angle of the screen can be adjusted and you can set an on and off position and best of all, you can adjust the buttons' backlight to match the colour of the interior lights.

You can pick one up online, including the fitting kit for around €1,300.

MetzgerMeister

The heater panel, is that lower down than normal? That's a juicy price but it's something I'll be looking into after getting the wheels done so by then they may be a bit cheaper :P

Paddy@CIRL

Yeah, the whole fascia is different. It's actually trimmed in the same material as used in the rest of the interior which I thought was pretty neat. Expensive, but it's cheaper than an iDrive retrofit.

Howdy chaps,

I'll be detailing my brothers car this week. His car is scraped to ****e along one side of it (from bangs of car seats, etc.).

Can I spray some touch up paint onto this, and then do a few coats (until it builds up slightly above the paint already on the car) and then machine polish it down to a smoother 'correct' level with the paint already on the car?

I don't know anything about touching up cars except what I've learned on here so far, but would like to give scratch repair a shot if i can (my brother's not overly fussed about his car, so I can play a game of 'trial and error' and hope for the best, but i dont want to do something if I know that it outright will not work.


And if that won't work, can anyone give any basic advice on what might work?

Chimaera

Rattle cans are hard work, and a dead loss in the weather we're getting at the moment. If you really want to have a go, find a heated garage, or at least wait until summer.

Hmm. Maybe not an ideal solution then.


I called out to Dave of DetalingShed today. Idea was to collect a few bits and get him to take a look at my AD Snow Foam Lance to see if there were any issues with it, or if indeed, I was just using it wrongly.

I collected the group buy bits and pieces off him (and also picked up some Tar Cleanse, Wheel Cleanse and Iron Cleanse as part of the Combo offer he's doing, and some CG's Fabric Clean and some CG's 'Green Clean' APC). Looking forward to using some of these to see how I get on (starting on my brothers car tomorrow to detail it - My second time doing any detailing (the first time being my own Rav, where I had no machine polisher or such)).


But the more important aspect of the meeting was the lance (to me, anyway, as I've been finding it very frustrating as of late).

He filled up the bottle with water and snowfoam solution and put my lance on and.. well.. the same as ever. The 'foam' spurted out onto the ground in front of him and the milky water rolled off into the street.

He then swapped the lance with another one he had with him, and he was in business straight away! So I can finally relax a bit and know that, as frustrating as it was, the snow foam issue wasn't my own fault all along! The lance, unlikely as it is, actually was the problem, and not I.

So I'm looking forward to getting stuck in with it now in the morning (he swapped them over immediately). He also, as a gesture of goodwill that was very much appreciated (and not at all expected) have me a new bottle of OAC Cotton Candy (as he knew from reading my moaning on here that I went through the other bottle fairly quickly in my milky endeavours).

So to say I'm a happy chappy is an understatement. I really am looking forward to getting stuck in tomorrow now!

So that's a big thumbs up to DetailingShed from me, anyway!

Curran

[Deleted User] wrote: »

So that's a big thumbs up to DetailingShed from me, anyway!

Her thumbs dont look too big to me....although, her ti....

west cork lad

[/quote]

Did you say something. Sorry I was not listening. ;-)

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

Ah no. :eek:

Hal1

Hal1 wrote: »

Ah no. :eek:

That directed at anything in particular?

BillJ

I think you could save yourself time by cutting out some of the rinsing and drying steps. Not that there is anything wrong with it but if it was me I wouldn't have the patience for it.

For example you could cut out the rinsing and drying after the glazing, waxing and plastics and trim stages(in my opinion) open to correction here.

Also I think waxing with machine and then by hand is overkill. I would just wax by hand, same for glaze if you are doing it.

Might be worth doing the 2bm after machine polishing instead of just rinsing incase there is residue left over and the was doesn't bond properly.

just my 2c. Fair play to you, you're very dedicated!

Curran

Definitely a comprehensive plan...a few Rinse & Dry towards the end might be a bit overkill, but wont be any harm!

3-4 days is very realistic too without having to kill yourself. Enjoy it...working through it will be a slog, but stepping back and admiring your hard work at the end, is when it will all feel worth while!

Looking forward to the results!!

Well the rinse and drys at the ends were more aimed at getting excess polish/glaze/etc. off the car, but if they're a bit overkill I may well take them out (and replace the post-polish rinse with a 2BM instead).


The idea behind the rinsing and drying is also a lot to do with, as I've no idea how long it'll take to machine polish anything, assuming that each stage of machining (polish, glaze, wax) will take me up to the end of each day, so the following day would be best to start with a rinse off and dry down?

Also, im not sure if machine glazing and waxing is overkill (VS. doing it by hand), but i picked up a couple of different hex logic pads (have 6 of the 7 ones.. missing the blue one) which all have varying degrees of intensity for different things. So i was gonna polish with a rough compounding pad and use a finishing pad for glazing etc. (havent figured out which i'll actually use for which just yet).

The hand waxing was to add extra shine (if any) after the machine waxing... Is this overkill?


I might call up my motor factors and get some touch up paint in the morning before I do much. Just to see if i can do anything with the door edge thats been battered. (even if i dont do anything, or make it worse, brother doesn't really care about the car's paintwork, so he wont mind me fecking it up a bit). So I figure maybe I should try it?

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

Deleted User wrote: »

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?)

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

BillJ

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

Deleted User wrote: »

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?

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

BillJ

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).

Mc Love

Tell us will be be keeping the car like that or will be let it go the way it is now? Only asking as I have done a detail before but i might as well have thrown muck on it for the person as they just see cars as a way of getting you from a to b!

challengemaster

I can't see the paint on that car doing anything except getting worse... There are literally a few millimeters shaved off that door. That said, you may as well crack on and experiment - anything you do will probably improve how it looks - unless you cover it in petrol and set it alight.... even that would be debatable if it's an improvement :pac:

Personally I wouldn't be able to bring myself to put that much effort into a car in that state, where the owner isn't going to know or care if you put horse****e or jetseal on it. You've far more willpower than me!

If you are doing anything with paint - make sure the entire surface is as clean as can be. Wash with washing up liquid, rinse the hell out of it, dry it, then go over any area you're putting paint with IPA using a lint free cloth.

Curran

He's using it as a practice car...so in that sense, he's getting as much out of it as he's putting into it. He knows full well that it wont be appreciated...probably best to put something like Turtle Wax on it, and save your good wax for your own car!

Hal1

Deleted User wrote: »

That directed at anything in particular?

I think it's overkill for someone that doesn't give a shíte about their car. Fairplay to you though for taking it on. At least you'll get some experience out of it.

To be honest, I know my brother will appreciate it. He'll love having it cleaned up and looking good, but i also know that it'll be let slip straight back into it's current state and anything I do won't be maintained. In a month's time you'd never have know I was anywhere near it.

But, as Curran says above, it is a practice car. It's to let me try out some stuff without having to do it on my own pride and joy.

If I accidentally tear lumps off the Rav4 using the DAS6, I'll break down in tears and cry for weeks on end. If I end up doing damage to the Megane, I'll shrug it off and go again to try and figure out where I'm going wrong.

My brother doesn't care if I do a bit of damage to it in the process as he knows himself it's not in great nick. In saying that, he does have two kids and a full time job, etc. - If he had the time he'd probably be the same as me. When he first got the car he spent a few quid getting the wheels for it and such, so he does like his car to look presentable and such (although personally, I'm not mad about anything over 5 spoke on alloys) but he just doesnt have the time and has to treat it as a practical object (get from A-B).



Speaking of which:

Today I did a bit of running around as the rain was too heavy to bother starting on the car when I woke up (got up at 9am to get cracking). Used it to my advantage though and popped over to Homebase. The finest sand paper they had that I could find was something like 320 or something. It was far too coarse, so I popped into halfords and they had 1500 and 2000 grit available. I opted for the 1500 as they both felt fairly similar and it was half the price for the same size sheets.

I also picked up a cheap ass 'alloy wheel brush' and an equally cheap 'upholstery brush' while I was in there. They're doing some promotions at the moment in the shop (a "3 products for €12" promo is advertised. Although I'm not the silliest person in the world - the promo looks like it includes everything in the car cleaning section, as they have it horribly labelled. I expect lots of headaches for checkout staff and customers in there unless they sort it).

Oh, here's my 'STAR BUY' recommendation - Homebase have a paid of Gardening Gloves for €7.50. I was wearing them today with a pair of those cheapo disposable 'surgical' gloves underneath. The surgical gloves on their own aren't much cop as the finger tips end up tearing off and such, but with both them and the gardening gloves, my hands were grand and warm, and bone dry. Thoroughly recommend them. I remember cleaning the Rav the first time with no gloves at all and my fingers were literally numb. My skin was nearly peeling. Highly recommend good gloves.


I also went to Motor Factors and picked up a tub o' paint for €12 (and a tiny, useless looking brush, for €1. Looks like it'll go bald as soon as I dip it into the tub of paint). So I'll do some paint touching up after I clay.

I snow foamed today. I didn't get 'shaving foam' thick, but I did get 'sit on the car and dwell' thick. Well.. I would have if it wasn't drizzling and the car wasn't already soaking. A lovely, lovely change from the watery milk. I 2BM'ed the car, Iron cleansed the wheels (and wheel cleansed them, and went at the tyres with a brush) and then dried it off to bring it inside.




I let the Iron sit for about 10 minutes:






Although I stuck with my Glossworkz shampoo (instead of Mr Pink), I did get to use the microfibre madness mitt and the Dry me Crazy towel.

My quick thoughts: The Mitt is worlds away from the stuff I've been using up to this point. It's sheer size and foam lining (that seems to soak up loads of water) make it a joy to use. However, it does shed its hair if you go over anything awkward (the "MEGANE" writing on the back of the car took a few hairs of the mitt, for example). But it was quite good and because it holds so much water, it was great for doing a good bit at a time. Especially the windscreen.

The Dry Me Crazy towel is miles ahead of the Meguiars water magnet. It's a thick, 2-ply design and it will soak up a lot. However, my common sense was obviously all used up, but make sure you wash it before you use it. Like any towel, on first application, it will shed itself all over you (sounds sexual). I had to use the water magnet towel today to clean up after the dry me crazy. It wasn't terribly bad, but enough to be annoying (and warrant an extra going over with a different towel).

These products are both quality though and I highly advise anyone that hasn't already gotten them to bite the bullet. For the money (€40 i think it was) you're getting loads. The level of quality of the two products alone surpasses all other products in the same price range in Halfords or such, and then when you throw in the Mr Pink into the mix, too, it's a genuine bargain.



I also made my first attempt at cleaning the fabric interior today (as the rain was starting to come again after I dried the car, I moved it indoors and opted to work on the interior).

Equipped with both CG's Fabric Clean and Tesco Foam Upholstery cleaner, I decided to use Tesco's stuff initially (as it had previously did a great job of removing an annoying stain on the ceiling of my Rav4).

I sprayed some on to the back left seat (decided to start with the rear seats incase I fecked up along the way, as they aren't really used) and I laced into it with the rough upholstery brush. I soon began to realise the errors of my ways when the seat's fabric was getting so 'hairy' (from the fibres being pulled up by the brush) that the pattern of small circles that are on the seats was completely hidden.

I decided to try the seat beside it using CG's Fabric Clean and a microfibre cloth. With this combo, i still used the brush, but only to aggravate the parts of the fabric that were actually stained or such. I got much better results doing this. However.. the seats were still not great when I left the car for the day.

The drivers seat has relatively bad staining, so i went over it twice and used lots of CGs fabric clean (suggested dilution is 20:1, i was using it around 10:1, maybe even 7 or 8:1). I was using the brush and such, too, but I don't feel overly happy with my progress on the seats.

Hopefully it was just dampness making them look a bit patchy and they'll be okay tomorrow, but at the time i felt like i was putting a lot of work in and not getting much back in terms of results. as I say, could just be dampness not making them look too great.

I also used Meguiar's Quik interior detailer to do the dash and related areas. This is a very decent spray. Better than i thought, but still lacking something. I'd hate an overly glossy dashboard (a fella i know that drives a van, had it valeted before, and they used something on the dash and console,etc. that made it really shiny. It looked crap. Real Fisher Price look to it).

So I'm not sure where I stand on that, now. Unless I slap some Autoglym 'trim gel' onto it to try and make it look a bit richer?

Oh, also, I do have more photos, but i was using my camera and i left it back in the house where i was cleaning the car. So I'll get it after my detailing tomorrow and I'll put up photos of my "progress" (if you could call it that) with the seats and such.

(i know a post is always more interesting with a few photos to see what the person is actually doing.. or at least I personally prefer it anyway).

Oh, a (nother) question: I can get paint for the car easily enough. It's got a paint code.

But can I get a trim paint at all? The trim on the car looks like it could do with some touching up, aswell as the car itself.

And if I can; Can I polish the trim in the same way I can polish the bodywork of the car itself? Or will the plastic trim just scratch under the DAS and tear the paint off it? (should i avoid machining trim altogether?)

Curran

Not a whole lot you can do with the trim. If it was your own I'd recommend finding a fresher set from a breakers.

Ah, really? That's a pity.


Might consider picking up a grey/silver aerosol and re-spraying them whole, then... just for the experience of trying it out. Would require a lot of taping up though, I presume.

Would need to sand down the door edge, that's damaged, too.

Hmm... decisions, decisions.

Ded_Zebra

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah, really? That's a pity.


Might consider picking up a grey/silver aerosol and re-spraying them whole, then... just for the experience of trying it out. Would require a lot of taping up though, I presume.

Would need to sand down the door edge, that's damaged, too.

Hmm... decisions, decisions.

They will most lightly look sh!t if you paint them. Best bet is to replace them, or if you don't want to do that just leave them as is. If you just paint then all the cuts and scrapes in them will still show up and the trim piece will look worse (IMO) and if you fill the marks first you will have a smooth texture where the filler is and the normal rough texture on the rest of the trim.

That's true, too.

Ah feck it, I won't bother my ass touching them then (except a light sanding of the part on the door edge that's shredded to bits).

MetzgerMeister

KKV, I'm still perplexed at how little reaction the iron cleanse is getting. Are you applying it to the wheel when it's wet??

MetzgerMeister

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

KKV, I'm still perplexed at how little reaction the iron cleanse is getting. Are you applying it to the wheel when it's wet??

That time the wheel was wet, yeah. My apologies, I thought I had said that in the post (I didn't).

It was just after getting foamed and rinsed when I ironed it.

I plan to go for round 2 tomorrow as the car will be dry when I start off. I just need to hope for an hour with no rain so I can iron cleanse the car and rinse it, and then de tar it and rinse it (then i can dry it and bring it back in for claying).

Although at the moment I still don't know if I need to re-do the interior just yet. Will have to see how that has turned out.

MetzgerMeister

Best thing to do in future is after you wash the wheel, dry it so that the iron cleanse can stick and get into the paint. The layer of water stops it from doing its job properly. Then you should have much more purple!

Today I did day two of the Megane. Got the car Iron cleansed, de-tarred, clayed and I machine polished the front end (so I still have the doors and rear to do. The roof is mostly glass on that car, so that won't take too long).


So I machined the bonnet. I was afraid of the DAS being very strong and me accidentally 'etching' the paint or such.

I use this CG's hex-logic guide for reference (I have every pad except the blue one).

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=284956


So I found a small scratch on the bonnet and focused on it. I started with the green pad, as it's the least aggressive as far as I can see. It didn't do much. So I then moved up to the Orange pad. No real difference.

So I warily took out the yellow pad.

Reading the description, I began to feel a little worried...

This pad itself is capable of leaving its own foot print behind. Due to the nature of its cut and as before should only be used under extreme circumstances. Providing your paint levels are capable of handing this level of cut.

So either I'm doing it wrong, or that's sensationalist bollocks.

I sat on the scratch and put no pressure on it, i put lots of pressure on it, I went over it back and forth, i used a circular motion, and it's still there! Now, admittedly, it's not as obvious as it was, and it has been 'covered up' a bit, but it's still there. I was under the impression that anything that you couldn't 'feel' could be wiped out fairly easily with an aggressive pad and a decent speed on the DAS6?


I feel a little underwhelmed. Overall the polisher is covering up things, I'm sure, but they're so few and far between that it's not really noticeable at all. It looks like the Rav4 did when i hand polished it (it looks great. Clarity is massively improved, but any defects that remain stand out like a sore thumb, and as the polisher isn't doing an excellent job of covering them up in the first place, they're all standing out!)


That said, though, I have been staring at the car all day. Maybe my opinion will be changed when I've a fresh look in the morning.

I forgot my camera (again!) so all I have are crap phone photos.

In the below, the bonnet was done to the halfway mark (ignore the masking tape, that was for an earlier photo with the camera). Polished on the left side (incase it isn't obvious.. it wasn't that obvious in person, to be honest).




Claying the car seems to have made a bigger difference than polishing it (so far). But I've got glaze and wax yet to go on, too, so..


Beading shot... (well.. whatever the opposite is to beading...)






So tomorrow I've to finish polishing, wash it (2BM), apply glaze, rinse and dry, and then apply wax. I think I will hand wax. But machine glaze (is there a difference, really, as to how you apply it)?


Oh, in relation to the door edge on the driver side:




I've sanded down the rough area (not that it made much difference) and applied some touch up paint. I did 2 coats and will do another in the morning before trying to sand it down again for polishing. If it comes out okay, I'll try the same on the busted areas on the flat at the side of the car. Figure I may aswell be somewhat responsible and do a relatively inconspicuous area before throwing paint all over the side of it, where it'll be much more noticeable).

challengemaster

What polish / speed were you using?

Tried two polishes (both were much the same. in fact pretty much identical). They are Meguiar's #105 Ultra Cut Compound and Chemical Guy's Pro Polish 3N.

(I used 3N on the right side of the bonnet, but i hadn;t got it done in that photo, obviously). I figured maybe the Meguiar's stuff was just pretty poor, so tried the 3N instead, but when i seen the results were so similar i switched back to using meguiars for the rest.

What I did was apply it in dabs/blots/whatever term you want to use, onto the DAS pad. Tap the pad around the area im going to polish (to distribute little blobs of polish), then rub the polish in (all while the DAS is off).

Then I turned it on, onto number 2, and run it around the area. After doing this about a half dozen times, I moved up to number 5 or 6 (highest setting on it) and tried to 'work' the polish into the paintwork using several techniques (from covering the area in quick strokes, to slow, barely moving ones, with varying levels of pressure, etc. after this I brought it back down to 2 and covered the area again a couple of times. Then I used a microfibre cloth to buff off the residue left behind.

MetzgerMeister

Ahm.....if you polish that new paint after spraying it, it will all come off again.

Just sayin'!

MetzgerMeister

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Ahm.....if you polish that new paint after spraying it, it will all come off again.

Just sayin'!

That's a risk I'm willing to take!

Though it was applied by brush (so even more likely to come flying off!)

MetzgerMeister

It's not a risk, it's a certainty.

MetzgerMeister

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

It's not a risk, it's a certainty.

So long as it doesn't take the door off the car with it, I'll live. :pac:

toastedpickles

Deleted User wrote: »

So long as it doesn't take the door off the car with it, I'll live. :pac:

Yeah but then you'l notice it every time you see the car and go " If i had just left that piece there alone it'd look so much better"

Trust me! I know!

toastedpickles

toastedpickles wrote: »

Yeah but then you'l notice it every time you see the car and go " If i had just left that piece there alone it'd look so much better"

Trust me! I know!

If it takes the paint off, I'll just continue on anyway with my polishing, glazing and waxing. I have the tub of paint still there for whenever I want it, so I can re-apply it after I'm finished (or a few days or weeks or such down the line).

It won't be the end of the world, and I don't think it'll end up looking much worse than it was, anyway. Besides, it's a practice car for the sole purpose of making these mistakes :P may aswell be a bit adventurous.