The Trials-forum Detailling Thread

[Brisa]

Well a while ago I got seriously interested in cleaning my car and got into car detailling in quite a big way.

Things such as paint correction, swirl removal and generally attention to detail.

This thread is for you to post your pics and ask questions to do with car detailing and general paint maintainance.

Here is a few to start you off:

Started with Megs #83 with yellow SFX pad and a good few passes to get rid of the swirls and then down to #80 and white sfx pad that gave a better wax ready finish.

I got lazy and used the PC to apply some Nattys Blue with blue sfx pad.

All buffed off with Tesco's MF's and I was shocked at how good the finish was.

Trim with tmeguiars gold class trim detailler and some silicone spray for the tyres.

Thats my 106 above.. no comments on it being as high as a monster truck and needing lower profile tyres please lol

Toda me and Stevie B (Endofreak) went to work on his clio, the paint was in shitty shitty condition and looked like it had never seen a sealant/wax in its life. After 5 hours with the PC (portor cable 7424 polisher) it was as right as rain and being very reflective for a white motor.

Megs #80 with SFX 1 pad all over, followed by Sonus Pre Wax Gloss applied by hand and then Megs NXT spray wax applied by hand.

Megs gold class trim and Megs hot wheels tyre shine.

Edited September 10, 2006 by Brisa

[anzo]

Good topic

Any suggestions for interior? Mainly seats, theres a million foams and sprays out there but which is the best?

[Brisa]

Best thing I have used is Chemical Guys Stain Extractor, just mix up a drop spray on, leave for a minute and use a vacum that can lift water to extract the remains, the rinse over with a cold water cloth and again extract.

Most foams from local halfords should work on if applied in the same way, or put on, scrubbed a bit and left to dry naturally.

Chemical Guys stuff is available on ebay quite handily.

[biketrialler]

can you get pics of what those cars were like before you sorted them out, as they just look like every other car ive seen in those shots!

[munkee]

can you get pics of what those cars were like before you sorted them out, as they just look like every other car ive seen in those shots!

You taking the piss? walk out and watch some cars going past your house... and you'll see the difference

[RicH_87]

looks good, you've done a very decent job,

dirty cars are sexier though.

[tomturd]

Hmm just looks like a very clean car to me, which someones bothered to dry off and buff... Might be worth the time if you were selling the car or something, but cant really see the point otherwise

[Danny]

Dad uses this stuff at work http://www.farecla.com/index2.asp?id=792&a...olish&set=3 seams to do the job fine.

[biketrialler]

You taking the piss? walk out and watch some cars going past your house... and you'll see the difference

im not taking the piss, they just look like they've had a wash, how much has all the stuff you reckon youve done to them cost!?

[Fish-Finger-er]

dont bother with doing the full detail stuff to much, just clean and polish her when she needs cleaning, however on a saturday at work, did the following,all using autosmart professional valeting products.

fairly shiny for a car that does 2k a month an regularly ends up sideways in fields splattered with mud, i think youll agree

[attachmentid=6988]

[Si-man]

f**k that BM is the sex!!

'Tis abit shinny like lol, good job there.

[Fish-Finger-er]

f**k that BM is the sex!!

'Tis abit shinny like lol, good job there.

lol thanks, has took god knows how much fettling,cleaning, polishing,spraying to get it to that state, think it was worth it though.

dont think the highly expensive advertised polishes work the best, or are the best value for money, if it smells nice, then its had money wasted on it smelling nice.better getting something supplied for the automotive trade, even autoglym have gone a bit too retail recently.

[Brisa]

I have befores of the clio but the camera didn't pick up too well on the white car, think of it as a matt finish car.

Its an interest, just like trials. Why have swirls in your paint when you can smooth swirl free paint? Wy have a dirty motor when it can be clean. Theres a few forums of people who would think trials is silly.

Point is when it comes time to sell you will get a better price compared to a car of the same age/miles but with grotty paint etc, It hints towards a neglected car.

I know I would be knocking a few quid off the price of a car if it wasn't well presented and had shitty swirly paint. I did on the 106.

The point of this is for people to ask questions, not tell me what I have done is pointless.

Farecla make some good stuff Danny, more aimed at trade but sometimes looked upon if you can't shift stubburn defects in hard paint (VAG motors usually)

[nmt_oli]

Right, my car is an old mk2 golf, coupld of rust bubles, some dents, scratches, key marks ect. paint not faded, but not shiny- metallic finish.

I dont wnat it perfect, but better would be nice. hasnt been cleaned for about a month which doesnt help.

Im planign on starting with a good wash, prob only cheap car shampoo- but im not lookign for concourse finsih here. then hitting it with some t cut metallic paint restorer- i presume just a fairly abrasive polish to smooth out the laquer.

Then i may touch up some of the paintwork with new paint.

Any other ideas?

[Si-man]

Should clean up the engine bay aswell.

My car when I decide to get 1 is going to be nice and clean.

Cant stand getting into mates cars that are filthy

[nmt_oli]

check the VW thread for engine bay pics- had the head off so has brand new paint on it lol.

[Fish-Finger-er]

Cant stand getting into mates cars that are filthy

amen to that, trouble is, for most of us, although we love the clean feeling it dont happen. we come to an from work filthy, we occassionally eat in our car, petrol receipts go down the side pockets, we drive in the rain, we drop muddy stuff in the rear foot wells. hell ive even carried a dirty thumpstar on my brand new leather interior in the bm.

point is, we all want clean cars all the time, hardly ever happens though. keep me exterior as clean as i can, but interior, thats tidyish, but aint no palace in there

[Brisa]

Right, my car is an old mk2 golf, coupld of rust bubles, some dents, scratches, key marks ect. paint not faded, but not shiny- metallic finish.

I dont wnat it perfect, but better would be nice. hasnt been cleaned for about a month which doesnt help.

Im planign on starting with a good wash, prob only cheap car shampoo- but im not lookign for concourse finsih here. then hitting it with some t cut metallic paint restorer- i presume just a fairly abrasive polish to smooth out the laquer.

Then i may touch up some of the paintwork with new paint.

Any other ideas?

Cheap car wash is dead on, preferably one with no wax in it. Just more stuff for the polish to take off. If you have the T-Cut then use it, it is a fairly abrasive polish and to get the best from it by hand it wioll need worked well into the paint, a lot of elbow grease... work one panel/section at a time. Cut the bonnet/boot/roof into imagineary sections. If you just apply the polish and rub off it wont do anything you really need to work it in. If you can, get down to tesco's and buy 1 or 2 microfibre towels (£1 each or something) these will be the best thing you could use for removing the hazey polish and makes it a real easy job.

After polishing your car will be lovely and shiney but it wont stay like that for long unless you seal it with some sort of synthetic selaent or a wax. A good affordable wax would be something like Meguiars NXT or the Turtle Wax Nanotech again just apply and leave to cure for a few minutes, usually if you just apply to the whole car by the time you finish the first stuff should be ready to buff off with a microfibre towel.

Thats the oaint now protected, the more layers of sealent/wax you use the better.

[BobbyD]

ahh nice topic, a month back i applied quite a few coats of carnuba wax and then finished it off with some meg`s nxt polish.

altho my first 106 gti was rather shiney, i took the piss polishing it almost every other day and it never got dirty. anal i know.......

[Brisa]

Both lovely motors and kept very well by the looks of things. Polish shouldbe thrown on first and then a selaent (synthetic wax basically) like NXT wax and then a natural wax such as Poorboys Nattys Blue with carnuba to give the shine.

[Guest]

Very cool.

Any of you who say you can't tell the difference are being pretty ignorant. Detailing is taking car cleaning to a new level really. For example if you go and look at any car you'll see swirls in the paint (known as cobwebs) a good detailer will get these out and restore the paint to a better than new finish - example a:

See the difference?

I'm looking to detail my car before I head off to uni and dont have a clue where to start. I am really keen for keeping it clean and wash it once a week at least, but it needs a good polish as it stands.

The last time I polished it i used all autoglym products. I started with the restorer, then the super resin polish, then used the high gloss wax.

The autoglym seems ok, but certainly hasn't got rid of the swirls. They'll seem less obvious for a bit, but a couple of hundred miles later they'll be back again.

Any chance of a link to the products you used brisa? and a quick guide? Your car looks excellent.

James

[endofreak]

Well said man.

Detailing isn't just about making a car look nice and shiney. It's main purpose is to return the paint back to how it was when it was new.

My wee clio is 8 years old and before the weekend the paint was a little dull and didn't feel great when you ran your hand across it. The bumpers and plastics that have been painted also looked a little whiter than the rest of the car. Now the car has a really deep shine, reflections appear a lot sharper and it feels like glass when you run your hand across it.

[Brisa]

Good to see someone showing an interest...

For swirl removal you are really removing a few microns off the clear coat of the paint or in your case (mk1 golf?) on single stage paint a few layers from the paint.

When I am removing swirls I am using a porotr cable 7424 but not everyone wants to give that initial outlay for private use. PC 7424

A product such as meguiars scratch x isnt as harsh as the likes of T-cut but worked until the polish has broken down will remove the majority of swirls by hand. People put polish on with a little rub and leave it to haze then buff off. This is fine to help leave a nice gloss but for it to do its proper job it needs worked until it has almost disappeared. It will be hard work by hand but you will get results.

There are olishes with a range of oils/glazes in them to help mask swirls to a certain degree, Autoglym super resin polish is one of these, its a do it all kind of thing. Its abrasive so it will help remove swirls if worked for long enough (one of the most underated hand swirls removers) but will also fill in any left with resins that will harden and mask the swirls. This then needs sealed with something like meguiars nxt for a couple of coats, just rubbed on, left to cure and buffed off.

That should be your swirls minimised, to keep them away top up with the super resin polish every month or so and keep it nicely waxed. Try not to use a sponge if you can and using one bucket to keep your soapy water in and one clean one to rinse your sponge only helps keep swirls away (known as the two bucket method).

Scratch X

NXT Wax

Autoglym SRP

Also check Tesco's for cheap Autoglym.

[Brisa]

Hello, not much posted from me in a while. Hopefully that will all change now.

Started off by cleaning my boss' van at the end of last week. He was looking to sell it and just wanting it to be red and the interior cleaned. Stickers he wasn't prepared to pay anyone to remove

Started off by giving it a rince down with the pressure washer followed by a coating of CG's Maxi Suds. After this I washed it with a lambs wool mitt and some megs #00 (which I found to be pretty good first time using it).

After this I give it a claying which smoothed the paint a good bit. Gave it a quick wash again with #00.

I masked up and tested some megs #80 with a sonus white enhance pad which proved to be what I was after (not major swirl removal just getting oxidised paint back to life). :buffer:

That is graffiti on it haha

The van was then given a coat of harlys wax and buffed off with nice new mf's.

Tree Shot :thumb:

Wheels with Elite (Northern Ireland not the one on here) wheel cleaner and tyres with megs endurance. Trim with Gold class trim detailer as I had loads left lol.

Interior vacumed with Karcher wet and dry jobbie. Seats cleaned with Elite (NI again) upholstery cleaner and a soft brush then wet vacced out. Trim floor and doors cleaned with Megs APC then dressed with armourall matt wipes.

Closest seat done other one not

Next was my dads car, he has been layed up for the last few months with a month in hospital with burns to his feet and skin graft etc. Thought since it won't be long until he is up and about again I would give his car the once over. Just a quick one (well thats how it started out).

Pretty much same steps as the Vav only it required some Menz PG with a LC Cutting pad followed by Menz IP with a SFX Enhance pad. Finished with Collinite. (got playing with vaccing wee lines haha)

Edited March 2, 2007 by Brisa

[Guest]

Wow!! your dads car looks pimp!

Is the tape there to stop the polish/wax getting on the bumper? if that happened it would tend to make it look shit wouldn't it?