Hi guys, well here is my detailing thread. its taken a while because i have been more focussed in getting the car how i wanted it in terms of spec/looks rather than detailing. Add that to that fact, ive only just got water in my unit on Saturday 24th Jan, Its a good time. As you know, the roads are disgusting at the moment. There full of salt and dirt and its been annoying me how much the car is getting dirty, and how much the muck clings to a non detailed car. So I cracked on with the Detail almost as soon as the plumber left on Saturday! ;)
The car was bought by myself about 8 weeks ago, it was brand new and although I requested with the dealers not to wash it, they did. It got the whole gritty bucket applied by muppet treatment. The first destination for the car was to a paintshop for the Rear Edition 30 spoiler, rear Gti bumper, Front Edition 30 front lip and Edition 30 sideskirts. The Paint shop did wash the car for me too, but to be fair they used wash mits and the scratches on the paint were no worse than coming from the dealers.
Another reason for me leaving the detail until now was to let the solvents in the paint to properly harden and go off. So fast forward, and here how it looked on Saturday morning.
Dirty dirty alloys! ;)
So first up was to get the alloys clean. I used Autobrite Very cherry at 4:1 with a foaming head. I do find this very good with the combination of the foaming head. The foam clings for a longer thus removing more of the dirt. I left this for 5 mins with Meguairs Super Degreaser @ 4:1 on the arches and brakes.
The inner wheel was cleaned with the EZ detail wheel brush, and the faces done with a Megs Microfibre Mit.
This left me with this.
Just what I was after! ïÂÅ
Now I moved onto the bodywork. The car was snowfoamed. I use The Valet Pro foam, one of my favourites, with Megs Shampoo Plus. I normally use Maxi Suds but I thought id try megs, and it was great.
The car was left for 8 minutes with the snowfoam doing its thing. Then it was rinses off with the PW and then started the 2BM, with sonus sheepskin mits.
Looking good
Then rinsed off again and straight into the unit for a good claying.
I used sonus extra fine detailing clay. The lube I used was megs last touch 1:1. The car has covered about 2500miles so wasn’t expecting a tough job of claying the car. I was a little surprised about how much needed removing, but it is winter after all.
That was after doing the majority of the car. Then the car was taken out of the unit for a rinse off with the hose, not the pressure washer. This meant the water sheeted off nicely and it was a quicker job drying it. The car was dryed with a sonus waffle weave.
This is just before it was dryed
Now having dryed it.
Now this was the next day, I broke up the detail over two days.
The car was parked in the unit on Saturday and on Sunday I came to do the paintwork correction.
The car had light swirls and random scratches all over, very frustrating for a detailers car! ;)
I did struggle trying to capture the swirls with my dSLR but here are a few
I decided to go with a Menz Final Finish on a Menz Cutting pad. I didn’t like this combo so I started Using Menz IP with A Sonus SFX-2 Pad on the rotary.
This worked well, with minimal marring.
As you can see, the swirls are gone but the clarity of the paint has been lost a tiny tiny bit. Not a problem, a quick pass with a 3m finishing pad and Menz Final Finish sorted that right out!
Some PTG readings
This final finish after doing its thing, you can see the clarity in the paint even before its buffed off
A quick 50/50s, not some of my best. My brinkman decided to die on me.
Some afters now.
Working on the roof
Now after all the correction was done, I took all the masking off, dusted the down and vacuumed the seals and crack with blue henry and a horse hair brush. Obviously the henry nozzle went nowhere near the paint! ;)
This is how it was looking
Now it was time for Protection! ;)
And these were the weapons of choice!
But before any zaino could go near the car, I wiped it down with IPA. A vital step!
I went round the car with the IPA then again with a microfiber.
Now, bring on the Zaino. I used Z5, ive always found it good for dark cars. Ive got z2 but I prefer the Z5 for dark cars.
As I wanted three coats on there, I used my ZFX. Mixed up 2 ounces with 8 drops.
Now it was getting on a bit now, so I decided to crack on and apply the 3 coats and finish up other little bits whilst it was drying. I didn’t take so many pics.
I did the tyres with Swissvax Pneu, great stuff but doesn’t last too long. I prefer this to the greasy types. Did the tail pipes and windows etc.
I left the zaino for 30mins each time. The unit was quite cold, about 15 degrees, so i had my gas heater on full. 30 mins/coat seemed to be adequate and I buffed off and used some z6 after each coat.
3 coats later and this is how it looks.
The zaino has really really brought out the blue flakes in the paint. Im thrilled to be honest. It’s a lovely colour.
Better evidence here
Please ignore the dirty sills in the last pic, I hadn’t touched the interior, just thought it turned out to be a cool pic!
Hope you all like! Comments welcome
Thanks
Jay
