Latest revision as of 17:56, 11 December 2010

Detailing - Keeping your car looking amazing

Basics

Keeping your car looking amazing is fairly simple and doesn't take too much time but it's important to understand why paying the guys at the supermarket £5 to give it a quick wash with a dirty sponge once a month will ruin your paint

Key things to remember are:

It's a lot quicker to put scratches in your paintwork than it is to get them out

A bit of wax every now and then won't hide months of neglect

The steps are as follows:

As often as possible

Wash

Every 3-12 months depending on season

Clay - deep clean of the paint, leaving a spotless (but completely unprotected) finish

Polish - remove light scratches and put the shine back into the paint

Wax/Sealant - builds the shine and provides the paint with protection from the elements

As necessary

QD (Quick Detailng spray) - use it to remove bird droppings etc and give the car a quick polish

Washing

A really good write up of how to wash your car and a description of the 2-bucket method can be found here

The key to washing your car is to remove dirt, grime and salt without creating a lot of scratches in the paint. Done correctly this is the most important point to keeping your car looking good and the no. 1 rule is:

Do not use a sponge to wash your car

After driving around our car will have picked up lots of dirt and grit that's all sitting on top of the paint. If you use a sponge to clean it off, the dirt and grit will stick on the surface of the sponge and scratch your paintwork. Instead of a sponge you should use a lambswool wash mitt (easily picked up for less than a tenner). The deep pile on these absorbs the grit particles so that they're not scratching the paint.

The method I use is as follows (and it doesn't take as long as it looks).

Pre-rinse with a pressure washer

Snow foam

Spray on wheel cleaner

Have a cup of tea and let the foam do the work

Brush the wheels

Rinse with the pressure washer

2 bucket-method wash

Rinse with the pressure washer

Dry with a towel

There are photos, details of the products used and further details on this thread

Claying

Courtesy of RRUK - full thread here

The clay bar process involves 2 items, a soft putty like clay and a lubricating spray.

Picture of clean clay

You spray a small part of the body panel with the lube spray and then glide the clay over the surface back and forth, then across back and forth. It's the easiest thing to do ever.

What happens is that your paintwork gets contaminants bonded in the paint surface that washing and polishing cannot remove, such as tree sap, insect residue, traffic film, tar etc. You can't generally see it, but trust me, its there. While the contaminants are there, your paint is never truly clean and your polishing and waxing is flawed. The clay picks it up off the surface.

When you look at the clay afterwards you can see it all. If you put a small sandwich bag on your finger and run it over the freshly washed paint you will feel tiny bumps, its these that the clay removes. You can also use it on glass and your alloys.

And after RRUK has pulled the invisible dirt out of his paint

Polishing

Polishing is the process used to physically remove light scratches and get the paint to a condition where it's ready for the last stage products i.e. waxes and sealants.

Polishing can be done by hand or by machine. Machine polishing gives better results and saves on elbow grease but requires more skill and there are risks if you get it wrong.

Hand

TBC

Machine

Courtesy of RRUK - full thread here

Equipment used for Polishing

Meguiars 3 stage paint system 3 bottles all for (£24) Meguiars applicator pads (£3) Cheap 100% Cotton towels (x3) (£10?) Microfibre cloths (got a bulk pack in Costco for £14 for 36) Porter Cable Random Orbital Polisher See below for prices (Shipped from USA) Sonus pad kit for PC-ROP see below (Also from USA)

Using the Random Orbital Polisher I apply the Stage 1 Paint cleaner to get the dirt out of the paint. Then I'll apply the Stage 2 Paint polish to bring out the colour depth. Then I apply either the Stage 3 Carnauba Wax or the Gold class liquid wax.

At each stage I use the machine to apply the product then wipe/polish off with a clean cotton towel, then final buff using the microfibre cloth. (Without the machine you'd use the foam applicator pads but it takes longer)

If you wish to buy all the kit I bought then here's how:

www.meguiars.co.uk

Some Meguiars stuff can be bought from Halfords in the UK now, but its a limited range - use the Meguiars forum from the website to hear about the best ways to use products etc. I have heard the new product called NXT Tech Wax range is good too.

Porter Cable Random Orbital Polisher 7424 (The Random orbital Polisher is NOT the same as those cheap ones in B&Q -they are not random orbital, they simply spin, which WILL cause scratching and can also burn the paint as they build up too much heat)

www.autopia.com

the polishing kit with the pads and polisher you need are here:

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/son-daspol-kit.html

Cost £99 plus shipping (mine was $68

Then, from Screwfix (UK only) you'll need the 110V power transformer and a 110V extension. The product codes are:

www.screwfix.com

16691 - 14mtr 110V extension cable £9.95

16158 - 3KvA 110V transformer £53.42

19947 - 110V plug to attach to the polisher £1.20

Total cost £ 64.57 (delivery free over £50!)

Total cost of the project is £ 200.

Meguiars now seem to have cottoned on that buying all the power transformer etc is a bit of a pain and so they now do their own UK version of the Porter Cable power polisher and it retails for about £150, the cost overall is therefore about the same but much less faffing about.

Meguiars DA Polishing Machine

The results are very much worth it and saves so much time.

Finishing - Waxes, Sealants, QD etc

TBC

Interior

TBC

Wheels & Trim

TBC

Recommended products / suppliers

TBC