Do as much as possible in the time available to improve the overall appearance of my car
Apologies for the lack of process photos, I just didn't have the time!
Here she is looking a bit sorry for herself, mud, crud, tar and traffic film all present and correct
before anything else, I cracked open my meguiars bug and tar remover and covered the front end and lower front wings and wheels and let that get to work on dissolving the poo.
Thankfully no need to clay as I did this 2 weeks ago.
While it was doing that I unpacked my gear and checked I had everything to get on.
The whole car was pressure washed to loosen any grit and then attached my foam gun and gave the car a pre wash with CG Maxi Suds II - this stuff is great as a pre wash, it clings to the more encrusted dirt and drags it off the car, plus it smells like marzipan
Car was then rinsed thoroughly and I set about washing using the 2 bucket method with Meguiars gold glass shampoo on a lambswool mit, door shuts were treated with sainsburys best APC and wheels were washed with a cotton wash mit externaly only.
Car was then rinsed and dried off using a eurow waffle weave drying towel - the chamois has been binned!
Already looking cleaner..
but hang on.. whats this?
This is a scratch from trying to remove bird poo without soaking it first - oh poo (litterally)
So, taking some pre soaked unigrit 2000,2500 and 3000 grit paper I sanded this down aswell as some other nasty looking scratches. For those who are now going
SANDPAPER don't worry this is very fine grade and leaves nothing more than a cloudy texture on the paint - to be removed later.The car was taped up using 3M blue - I stupidly forgot to order another role so have to make do and only tape up certain parts.
Now on to the fun part, I used a combination of Menzerna intensive and final finish polishes on a Sonus DAS green pad, going around the whole car (bar the roof.. no time)
Using the zenith point technique, spread at 900 rpm, correct at 1500, break down the polish at 1800 then back to 1500 to correct any marring left by the polish then refine at 900.
Bird poo scratch gone, although many RDS (random deep scratches.. detailing world terminology
) still remain which I havn't got time to sand out although the swirling and most of the holograms are now gone.. good times Now comes the money shot - Meguiars #7 Showcar Glaze
This stuff is high in oils and great for giving a real deep glossy shine that the AG super resin could only hope for.. is has little or no abrasive quality and can be used by hand - I'm applying with a Sonus blue finishing pad for speed sake.
Here's a sort of 50/50 - left is untreated polished surface - right is treated with #7
I went around the car with this, including roof.. heres a shot of my wing
After the #7 had been buffed off, it was time to apply a paint sealer, I'm finding it difficult to justify spending £25 on Jet Seal 109 so for now AG extra gloss protection will do, this was applied by hand over the whole car including wheels and allowed to cure for 30 mins.
While that was curing I got on to the plastics and trim, which were treated with meguiars gold class trim detailer, the rear lights were treated and polished with plastx.
Windows were cleaned using AG fast glass, then coated with Rain X rain repellent, tyres were dressed with meguiars endurance gel.
Finally the EGP was buffed off and a coat of Dodo juice Blue Velvet was put on and buffed off after 10 minutes..
Anyway.. enough words..
the finished result after 7 hours solid with only 2 cups of coffee and a glass of water!
