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Today I did some detailing...
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Pictures seem good to me
Also great work on the car. Can I ask what it is. I'm not BMW fan in general (ie; I've nothing against them, but I don't love them, like a lot of people do) but that particular one always stood out to me as a lovely motor. Always loved the kinda squared-off look it has.0 -
Another day, another disaster.
So, getting frustrated with the weather, I've decided that I have to detail panel by panel indoors. I find myself getting increasingly annoyed at the sheer amount of scratches that are littered all over the Rav's bodywork, with the bonnet and driver side door around the handle area being two areas in particular that wreck my head.
So I said to myself, today, I have all the CG's Hexlogic pads I need (green is the roughest that is advised to use on a 'soft' paint car, which apparently the toyota is). I ruined the more aggressive orange and yellow ones on my brothers car, but sure that's neither here nor there.
Anyway. Bonnet was filthy.
So washed that off with a 2BM wash (the blur is my hand with a mitt on)
Dried it:
Then I clayed it (made no difference, really. Only took tiny fragments of dirt off it):
and washed the clay marks off:
Then I took an area, masked it off and polished it. Here's a before:
And after:
This is where it all fell apart for me.
Although the before and after above has a reasonable level of difference, it didn't actually look much better in person. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it barely improved the overall appearance. There were still a couple of noticeable (but not feel-able) scratch marks. So I polished it again and spent longer at it. Same result.
So I got annoyed and decided to wet sand it. I figured, I could easily get rid of the sand marks on my brothers car (the Megane), so if i replace the few noticeable scratches with hundreds of much smaller ones, the DAS will be more successful at getting them out.
So I sanded it, and when I dried it off, I nearly filled my boxers :eek: .
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Thankfully, my heart needn't stop too long, as I polished it back to black:
But it couldn't even polish out all of the sanding marks!?
Polished (left) and un-polished (right)
Without the tape (though you can still see an outline of where the tape was)
So I am pretty much back to where I started with it!? Great way to pass a couple of hours :rolleyes:
Need to pick up the most aggressive Hexlogic pad again. The rest are a waste of time.
Maybe time to try different pads altogether? Anyone any suggestions or recommendations? 0 -
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JAMES VTI S wrote: ».............. :eek:
Ah, t'is nothing a bit of tender loving care won't sort out.
... I hope... :P0 -
Here's a guy wet sanding and polishing the finish on a guitar. Gives the idea.
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Here's a guy wet sanding and polishing the finish on a guitar. Gives the idea.
Oh I've a fair idea of how it all works. It's just the practicality of actually doing it for the first time.
My hope is that in the next few months, the Rav will look like a brand new car. I want the paint work to be as flawless as possible.
The issue is that it's just (evidently) not really had any caring owners from a cosmetic standpoint (mechanically there's not a bother on it).
Here are two photos I took of the Rav within the first month of owning it (About a fortnight after buying it).
You can see the street lighting brings up the swirl marks on the paint work. It is literally covered head to toe in them:
(click photos for link to full size picture)
So I know I've an enormous task in front of me (hence the decision to do it panel by panel, in an effort to keep myself sane) but with little actual practical detailing experience (and no touch-up experience, for the stone chips and such) I'm pretty much guaranteed to make plenty of mistakes along the way.
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Step away I repeat step away from the sand paper. Your going to make a mess of the whole car. Just bring it to a pro and keep on top of the paint if it needs swirls removed again.
But what would I learn from handing it over to someone else?
MetzgerMeister wrote: »+1
Either than or just use your D/A. It's soft Jap paint so the D/A along with a bit of patience will go a long way.
There's a reason it takes time and that's so that you don't damage the paint with the machine but some of us aren't happy with the lack of damage they have done so they go at the soft Jap paint with sandpaper and make an absolute arse of it :P
Jesus, you'd swear I was after just going up to some fellas car on the street and firing away..?
It's my own car, folks. I'm happy to try new things. Worst case scenario is I get the panel resprayed and that'll cost feck all anyway, so..?
I do need to pick up more aggressive pads for the DA though. I spent ages on it with the one I had, and it's improvement wasn't great. I want to get rid of all the scratches I can't feel. 0 -
KKV, what polish did you use? I imagine black paint is a lot harder to get looking right, but I found Autoglym polish was sufficient after a clay to hide head to toe swirls on our car, metallic silver (and even thin scratches on the bonnet can only be seen close up). EGP on top too but I'm sure I remember the polish doing most of it.
I've been holding off and reading more, getting more familiar with bodywork care and even stuff like the headlight restoration for now, but I do want to attempt some scratch repair myself in time, so interested to see how you get on!
Meguiar's Ultimate Cut Compound, I think it's called (something along those lines).
Got decent results using it on the Megane with the more aggressive pads for the DA (though even then it took a bit of time).
Scratch repair is something I'm interested in (in terms of both getting away the swirls and cleaning actual 'i hit it against something' scratches.
Would love to be able to do a bit of panel beating, even, if need be (not as a job or such, I don't mean, but just a skill to have for myself and my own cars in future).
I'm interested to see how I get on, too! :P:o0 -
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Get the orange pad for the DA and some aggressive compound and you might be able to recover those scratches. Don't assume a respray is the easy (cheap?) way out if you screw it up either. A good bonnet respray is going to be a few hundred euro, a full car (done right) closer to €2000.
Ah I know a panel beater well who'd give me a good price. I'd say I'd pay no more than €200, if that. The cost of a DA and I'd have a fresh surface. The bonnet of the Rav annoys me, but I don't want to just hand it over to someone.
Even if I make a total balls of it, I'd still rather give it a whirl myself, first. You never know, if you never try, and all that.Deleted User wrote: »Jesus, you'd swear I was after just going up to some fellas car on the street and firing away..? It's my own car, folks. I'm happy to try new things. Worst case scenario is I get the panel resprayed and that'll cost feck all anyway, so..?
Just flicked through the thread again, and re-reading my own post there, I realised it might sound a bit harsh or that I'm getting a bit aggressive with you there, MM.
Just wanted to clarify that's not the case at all. I'm aware at the end of the day it's all a bit of fun and didn't want you to take me up wrongly there (not sure if you read it yet or not, so...).0 -
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Tomorrow? Sure that could be weeks away!? :eek: :P
Today I re-polished the area I 'ruined' on my bonnet the last time. I spent a solid 40 minutes on that single section. Maybe the green pad isn't completely useless, but mine is just worn down or such? (though it looks fresh enough?).
Anyway, I went over the area and spent ages on it. I got rid of all the sandpaper marks easily enough, but I couldn't get a particular scratch I was aiming for, to come out, so i got annoyed and went to sandpaper again ( ) and went at it with the DAS again. I'd say I went through a quarter of the bottle of polish on it.
But anyway, the end of the story is that the bonnet part i worked on still has visible scratches, but they're only noticeable under direct light and you do have to look for them (all the sandpaper marks are long gone).
I'm not doing anymore without the yellow and orange pads though. That green pad must have been sourced in a joke shop somewhere. After taking off the 3M tape that I was using to seperate the area i was working on, there were noticeable marks from where the tape was when i was polishing. After a solid 2 minutes (no exaggeration) of just polishing the tape marks, they were STILL there. :rolleyes:
But I can see improvement. I just need to really take my time. I didn't have the camera so no pictures unfortunately.
I also tried this amount of Mr Pink:
http://photos2.pix.ie/D4/D0/D4D0459DC528414EB522BF5626D65AB4-0000333410-0003511361-00640L-35FE9045BE4D4D8AB305462F8FC6578C.jpg
with hot water (filled to the top of the label) to get this result (warning: nauseating video):
(if that's not working, or sideways, just give it an hour. It's too awkward to hold the phone sideways/properly when foaming so i always have to rotate it on Youtube).0 -
Cleaned the interior today, just used APC on everything, plastic, seats, mats, can't believe how well it cleans everything, seats and mats are like new. To think of all the money I've wasted on fancy cleaners over the years.
Not bad for a 10 year old car
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The detailing gods were on my side this weekend for a change!
Got to use the new powerwasher, lance, washmitt and wax. I started off with snow foaming the car (mixed views on it, will discuss seperately), I then 2BM'd it, de-tarred it, wheels, clayed it, polished and then waxed it.
First snowfoam with mr.pink:
Good thick foam but after 5-6 minutes it looked like this:
I think what happened was I got my dilution ratio wrong, one inch of mr.pink and filled the bottle with water, I should have just gone up to the bottom of the label with water right?
Detarred body and used turtle ice wheel cleaner on the wheels, APC'd the tyres. Can't find my iron cleanse :mad: Only gave the wheels a quick going over, they need a day dedicated to them alone i think.
Clayed next, obviously didnt get all the tar because when claying the lower of the car this was the result :eek::
Next I hand polished, some reflection after polishing stage:
Then I got one layer of Collinte 845 on before it started to rain, finished results:
(rusty looking brake discs are annoying in this one)
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Are you scrapping out the dried polish the pad after every few sets?
No, to be honest. I didn't think of it or think it needed to be done. Can I just bang them into the washing machine and go from there? In saying that, I ruined the two other pads (yellow, orange) on the wheel arches of the Megane, and tore them apart, so I need to replace them anyway.
Once I eventually get around to doing that I can worry about actually polishing the Rav4 properly. It's absolutely wrecking my head looking at it at the moment.
Once I have the Rav4 done to a standard I'm happy with, I'll not really need to do it again, I don't think. Every six months I might freshen it up with another polishing but I don't think it'd really be necessary? Surely it won't just fall back into it's current state if i keep on top of it, and give it a decent wash and waxing every now and again?
Was it odd or unusual that I seen little to no difference on the freshly polished Megane, when I used a glaze on it? (It made no difference, from what I recall)?0 -
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Today, it finally got a decent wash...
It's been a while since it was last cleaned. I try to keep washes to a minimum over the winter as you're likely to create more swirls and scratches the more often you wash the car, especially with the amount of dirt on the roads at this time of the year.
I do have protection on the paintwork still, so that does mean that even when it's dirty, it's usually not too bad as the rain will take the worst of it away.
The joys of owning a black car though, is that everything shows up. I think the worst is when the dirt dulls the paint and removes the gloss. A black car can look really boring, really quick.
With the bigger Brembo brakes on the front, there's a bigger mess too. Although the Style 95s are so much easier to clean than my old 3SDMs were.
This is the bulk of the products used. There was CG Glossworks shampoo in the bucket on the left, clean water in the bucket on the right and both with grit guards. Snowfoam is CleanCar's own brand, wheel cleaner is Bilt-Hamber Auto Wheels and CleanCar's own Rinse Aid in the light pink bottle.
I always start with the wheels. Bilt-Hamber on...
Left to dwell for a few minutes and the extent of the brake dust and dirt is evident.
The beauty of Bilt-Hamber Auto Wheel over the likes of Iron-X etc. is that not only does it lift the iron contaminants, but acts as a normal wheel cleaner too. It's PH neutral also.
Just pressure washed the bottom of the wheel to give you an idea of how good it is. There was no agitation applied.
With the worst of the dirt taken off the wheels, I applied a generous amount of snow foam to the entire car and left it tow dwell for ten minutes.
Whilst the foam was doing its thing, I used a soft bristled brush to clean the wheels more thoroughly.
With the foam rinsed off, this is what I was left with. You can see the water is stuck to the car from beneath the door handles and down. This shows that there is still plenty of dirt still there, despite the fact that it looks glossy again.
Next was some two bucket action with a Merino lamb's wool mitt. No pictures of the process, but I was returning to the buckets much more regularly once I started beneath the door handles and lower areas of the body work. I would usually do one panel, rinse mitt in dirtied water and re-soak it in the clean water with the CG Glossworks in it.
I rinsed it down again with the power washer, then applied the CleanCar Rinse Aid.
You only need to apply a really light misting to the car and you will immediately see all the water begin to bead off. Once the car was covered, I rinsed it again but this time with an open hose.
(Continued below...)0 -
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Drying time! This is the part I hate the most but since I started misting the drying towel with a QD, it's become a much easier part of the process. Like the hand washing part, I only go either from left to right or right to left when touching the car. Never up and down. Never.
With the car dry, I gave it another once over with a clean Meguiar's microfibre (by far the best microfibre towel I've used) and Autoglym's Rapid Detailer. I'm using the AG QD because the car was last waxed with HD Wax and I find it's better to stick with products from the same manufacturer.
Back to the wheels again. With another clean cloth, some Kleers wheel cleaner and CG Silk Shine Dressing, I go over the wheels and tyres one more time to dry them, remove any last bits of brake dust I might have missed previously and apply the tyre dressing.
There's a really nice fleck in the paint on these 95s, so it's worth putting the effort in to bring it out.
With everything dry and all the trim dressed, I go around the car once more to check for any parts I may have missed with the QD.
Black is a morale killer when trying to maintain a car because every little mark shows up.
Usually around now, I'd start putting everything away but with it being a good day, I took the opportunity to sort something that was bugging me for a while.
The gloss black trim on the doors is an absolute nightmare to maintain. Every little scratch and mark shows up and really lets the car down IMO.
I found a company in the US that offer polycarbonate cut to the shape of the original which is scratch and UV resistant. It bonds directly to the original trim, so does protrude slightly, but you would have to know it was there or really go looking for it to notice.
New trim on the left, old trim on the right. A big difference.
The kit comes with IPA wipes so you can clean the original trim before applying the new polycarbonate covers. The adhesive is quite permanent and you do not want to mess up the application. Once it's on, it's never coming off.
It's only a small thing, but makes a big difference to the overall look of the car.
I also took the opportunity to try out the gloss brows for the grills. There's not a huge difference TBH, although it might look better when the lower grills are changed over too. Gloss on the left, matte on the right
With the exterior finished, I went around and dried out and QD'd the door shuts...
...before giving the rest of the interior a quick dust and the front mats a shake. Above all, I usually keep the inside spotless as it's where I spend more of my time.
(Continued below...)0 -
(Last part, sorry for breaking your internets)
The results...
I've got a small leak in my front passenger-side headlight which will be easily rectified once it comes out of the car when my new lights arrive. There's a hint of haziness too, although I'm not sure if that's a by-product of the moisture that's present. It evaporates pretty quickly but looks ****. As I said, it'll be easily remedied once they're out.
I'm hoping to get the car painted shortly as the bonnet has quite a few stone chips (that are touched up, but still) and there's a couple of small marks and dings around the car that are annoying me, so they'll need to be seen to as well. Once it's back from paint and with the new headlights fitted, it'll be up for its NCT. There's a couple of things I need to sort to ensure it passes but I don't foresee any major problems. When the paint is gassed off, I'll give it to CleanCar to correct it once more before applying a proper coating of Gtechniq to the paintwork.
I've a few other small things I want to change over the year, but they can wait until my bank balance begins to recover...
Thanks for reading 0 -
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![[Deleted User]](/applications/dashboard/design/images/defaulticon.png)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYMYEVShYO0
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