Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Will cross post this in my project thread, but GC is always good for people to argue about products, Latvians and the 'D' word.
I've been collecting bits for my early summer clean for a while now. The car has been carrying the dregs of a coat of Megs Ultimate Paste Wax for months now, and was well overdue a full strip, clean, polish and protect.
The wheels will be getting neglected, purely because they were powdercoated and waxed up to shit only a couple of weeks ago.
Some before shots first, after a bit of spirited summer driving yesterday I picked up some victims:
Rear end Crud:
One of the couple of scratches I'd be attacking today. It's a slight backwards 'C' shape near my forearm reflection:
First up I decided to debadge 'SUBARU'. My mitt keeps catching the lettering, and some of them were barely hanging on... so good excuse to try the look.
Once the boot lid was dealt with, onto the cleaning. Opened up by spunking a load of Megs bug/tar remover to soften up my roadkill from yesterday:
Foam up next, ValetPro PH Neutral stuff... and first photobomb from Ben's mate:
Whilst dwelling, went around panel gaps, badges, keyholes, etc with my soft brush and some APC:
Mixed up my shampoo for the day, Dodo Juice Born to be Mild laced with some Fairy Liquid to cut out the remaining wax.
Onto rinsing off the foam, and my ritual "let's pretend to be an F1 Aero engineer" for 5mins:
All the bug splatter long gone and not touched the car with a sponge/mitt yet:
All shampoo'd down with fuel cap, car smelling like Ainsley Harriot's kitchen and boot and door shuts all cleaned too:
After drying off, I went with the Auto-Finesse Iron-X equivalent. It smells the same, works the same but the trigger sucks ass, was a proper pain to apply. For anyone not clued up, it goes on clear and reacts red/pink when it dissolves out flakes of iron. These flakes normally appear like little rust spots in your paintwork.
You can see the pink flaring up near the bottom left of the photo. I didn't take any shots of the prolific areas (wheel arches, sills, etc) as I was in a hurry to get it sprayed off before it baked on. I'm paranoid about this stuff, and for good reason too - I saw the scene out of that Volcano film re-enacted several times as little flied landed on the Iron-X and proceeded to watch their legs dissolve beneath them 
Rinsed off once again, then time for clay. I went with Megs clay with the Megs QD as a lube. No photo of the "dirty claybar look" as I forgot, but it was pretty clean tbh. Testament I guess to my cleaning regime.
Rinsed/Dryed for the last time... looking a bit cleaner:
I had one more job to do before the F1 came on, which was to tape up ready for machine polishing:
I remember when people paid money for headlight eyebrows like that, most of them a worse colour match than my attempt.
I went in and watched the F1 until they redflagged it, then decided to pause and finish the car first. Came back outside and got to work on the machine polishing.
I was using the Werkstatt Acrylic Kit today, with the Prime acting as my finishing polish. I covered the car with a 3M finishing pad with the Prime, my main concern wasn't correcting swirls simply because I didn't have any. The car was professionally polished back in November and my cleaning has been pretty strict since.
This is the only pic I got of my polisher/pad combo
I worked panel at a time, two passes at '2' speed setting and then two passes at '5' speed setting to break the polish down into a clearish haze. Once I'd done the car like that, I switched to a 3M polishing pad (slightly more aggressive) with some Sonus Restore stuff to attack my one-off scratches.
This is a shot of the backwards 'C' scratch I showed earlier. It's not gone, but it no longer catches the light and is quite well hidden:
Once I treated the car's very few wounds, time for a photo:
Oh, you may also notice my fog covers are de-stickered now. I've got some new ones on order, a well placed stonechip ruined one of my old ones so will replace those on tue/wed and refinish the fog covers once done.
Even photobombing my reflections...
It was now time to work on the next stage of the Werkstatt kit, the "Jett". This is a liquid synthetic wax/sealant which you spray on, then work into the paint and buff off in one action. It's so easy to apply, should have multiple coats with 30mins cure time between. Once the first coat was on, I polished up the glass, exhaust trim and blacked the tyres whilst waiting for the 30mins...
Another coat of Jett went on, followed by another 30mins then finished off with the final part of the Werkstatt kit "Glos" which is a QD type spray. For the next couple of months I will simply be washing, drying and Glos'ing.
Here's what I'd used:
Then some results:
Interior tomorrow... 
[Edited on 26-05-2013 by Kyle T]
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
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now drive down to leeds so i can perve over it
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Christopher
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Registered: 14th Oct 10
Location: Eastbourne
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Nice to see this going through the stages! Mine will be getting a similar treatment soon! So satisfying seeing how clean and shiny it comes up  Great work buddy
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Mr Clean
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Registered: 16th Jun 12
Location: wales
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Looking well that mate fair play
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andys sxi
Premium Member
Registered: 19th Jan 06
Location: Chester Drives:Scirocco tdi bluemotion
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What does the snow foam actually do? Can you tell the difference once it's been done, I cleaned my today all by hand I've got a polisher but I've never used it, I don't to use it Incase I do something to the paint
I cleaned my exhaust but its not as clean as yours because I've got 2 and got bored haha it takes some getting off inside, did you just use a cloth?
April 08 feature car
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Thanks guys, really enjoy going to town on the car - I need to get fitter though
quote:
Originally posted by andys sxi
What does the snow foam actually do? Can you tell the difference once it's been done, I cleaned my today all by hand I've got a polisher but I've never used it, I don't to use it Incase I do something to the paint
I cleaned my exhaust but its not as clean as yours because I've got 2 and got bored haha it takes some getting off inside, did you just use a cloth?
Snowfoam is quite hotly debated but I feel it definitely makes a difference. It's not a "no touch" solution to cleaning your car, but it certainly softens up the dirt and grime on your car and gets rid of the majority of "harmful" crap like grit which would scratch your paint if you went straight to town with a mitt.
I've cleaned the missus' corsa fairly recently and skipped foaming because I couldn't be arsed, I felt like I was "dragging" the mitt through the road grime so I switched to foam and it made cleaning the rest of the car much "gentler".
It won't save you time, and it won't get your car any cleaner - but it will make it a safer process in terms of your paintwork.
I just used Autosol on a microfibre cloth to clean the exhaust 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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andys sxi
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Registered: 19th Jan 06
Location: Chester Drives:Scirocco tdi bluemotion
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That's all I used to clean my exhaust, the dirt inside just wasn't coming off need to try again
April 08 feature car
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chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
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all these products .... just do what i do..
- rinse with hosepipe
- sponge wash with fairy washing up liquid
- rinse again
- leave to dry then use a dry towel to remove the dry marks.
end result
[Edited on 26-05-2013 by chris_uk]
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Ian W
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Registered: 8th Nov 03
Location: Wirral, Merseyside
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Looks great
I was always led to believe that you can apply the prime with a machine it should be removed by hand?
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Corsa_Sport21
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Registered: 13th Apr 08
Location: Leven, Fife. Drives : 205 GTi
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Does look good, but are the picture's hiding how well it looks??
Reason i ask is my brother was round today showing me his Mk4 Golf. The paint looked pretty much as shiney as yours, and all he had done was washed it with the 1 bucket method, applied some AG SRP which worked wonders (removed the swirls and scratches) then sealed it with some Meguire's wax. All done by hand.
[Edited on 26-05-2013 by Corsa_Sport21]
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Yeah I removed it by hand, just polished it on until it broke down and went clear. It was a joy to work with to be honest, even in direct/hot sun.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Corsa_Sport21
Does look good, but are the picture's hiding how well it looks??
Reason i ask is my brother was round today showing me his Mk4 Golf. The paint looked pretty much as shiney as yours, and all he had done was washed it with the 1 bucket method, applied some AG SRP which worked wonders (removed the swirls and scratches) then sealed it with some Meguire's wax.
It's not an easy colour to get amazing looks from. I did a very similar process on my red CTR about a year ago and it looked stunning.
That said, much of the work I did today was less about getting it any cleaner than usual and more about getting protection down that'll last. Just like spray painting, the longevity of the finish is only going to be as good as the preparation - hence the full monty.
My photography isn't the best though tbf
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Oh, and I promise you that AG SRP by hand has not removed all of the swirls 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Ian W
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Registered: 8th Nov 03
Location: Wirral, Merseyside
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quote:
Originally posted by Kyle T
Yeah I removed it by hand, just polished it on until it broke down and went clear. It was a joy to work with to be honest, even in direct/hot sun.
Been using Wekstat myself for about 6 years now, only tough bit is the prime, the Jett is so easy it's worth adding a top up once a month.
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Corsa_Sport21
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Registered: 13th Apr 08
Location: Leven, Fife. Drives : 205 GTi
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Its done something to them then because they aren't visible any more lol.
Worst were on the upper rear 1/4 panels and very noticeable. Can't see any swirls now.
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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SRP is full of fillers, if you take an IPA wipe to that panel you'll see them all magically re-appear again.
It (SRP) is an excellent product though, probably THE best for applying by hand.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Ian W
quote:
Originally posted by Kyle T
Yeah I removed it by hand, just polished it on until it broke down and went clear. It was a joy to work with to be honest, even in direct/hot sun.
Been using Wekstat myself for about 6 years now, only tough bit is the prime, the Jett is so easy it's worth adding a top up once a month.
I had about 6 different recommendations to try Werkstatt on my colour to get more "pop" out of it. It certainly did that, though none of the pics really show it.
It's the sort of colour which will look sky blue if you photograph it from one angle or bright deep gold from another... I love it, even if it's not quite so rewarding after a hard days work than red or black is.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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wow that colour combo of bodywork/wheels looks stunning, especially in the sun.
i actually preferred the subaru badge on, but i feel your pain about catching them as i sliced my finger open on an 'ecoboost technology' badge on the focus. i ripped it off
at the ace cat. it's like a cs celebrity now.
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big eck
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Registered: 20th Apr 03
Location: Tullibody. Drives - Audi B8 S4 & Fiesta Zetec-S
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That looks superb. I usually snowfoam first and leave to dwell for 20mins. Rinse off then wash using the 2 bucket method, do all the door shuts etc then rinse off again and then do the wheels best I can till I get some decent wheel cleaner and proper brushes. All followed by a good dry off with my massive microfibre towel. I finish off with applying the megs tyre gel.
I notice you use the spray. I take it its just spray on and that's it??? No applying with an applicator???
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Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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eck, i prefer megs endurance tyre gel myself, applied with an applicator pad (my tyre applicator snapped).
also, for wheel cleaner get some bilberry. can't believe i ever cleaned wheels without it.
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big eck
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Registered: 20th Apr 03
Location: Tullibody. Drives - Audi B8 S4 & Fiesta Zetec-S
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Bilberry is popping up a lot so I think I'll give it a go. It pretty decent value at £10 for a 5ltr bottle. I really need a decent wheel brush tho, I was looking at the EZ GO brush at £15.
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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I preferred the rear badges too tbh. I'll see if this look is a grower.
I spray the endurance spray onto a foam applicator then rub it on, doesn't mess the wheels up that way.
I've got 5l of Bilberry and tbh I never use it! I wash and protect my wheels so often, they just require a light swab with my wheel woolies and some shampoo.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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Good results Would really like to be able to use a polisher but I don't have a clue  is there any kind of beginners numpty guides?
[Edited on 27-05-2013 by Brett]
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Cheers Brett, this is a decent start:
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=63859
To really summarise it though, you're looking at three different "grades" of pad:
Course (heavy correction)
Medium (medium correction)
Fine (finishing, light correction)
You then get a similar grading when it comes to a polishing product.
What I did, as I didn't have (m)any swirls is just do the whole car with a light compound and a finishing pad. Any scratches which still showed were then dealt with by a medium pad and a more aggressive compound, then refinished with my light combo.
DA Polishers are pretty safe, just watch you don't catch the bodywork with the backing plate when doing a tight angle area.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Nic Barnes
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Registered: 5th Apr 04
Location: nowhere near ginger people
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Does a car with more shine get better mpg?
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