- Messages
- 1,194
As I said in my introduction post I'm a touch fanatical about ensuring my car looks spick and span. I'll apologise now for those who have seen the most of this on CTRO, but for the TRO peeps I thought I would post a updated and modified version. As its a bit of a how to/car care guide and the results speak for themselves. I hope you'll agree.
I did it in several (long) stages. Firstly on the drive, on axle stands, wheels off and steam cleaned the whole shell. Then I hand washed it with Megs top to bottom. Hand dried it with Megs Microfibre Towels and chamois leathered it off. Left to stand while I concentrated on the wheels. Washed them with Megs, hand dried and then polished with Autoglym Super Resin Polish. (I find that this is good to stop dust build up from the brakes and makes future cleaning easier). Once they were done I then waxed them with Megs Gold Class. I treated the tyres to some Megs Hot Shine, but I firstly did them with the spray and that was pants, so I scrubbed em clean and applied Megs Hot Shine with an artists paint brush, a much better and liquid look. Topped em off with a set of Richbrook anti-gypo Valve Caps. I then detailed the Type R Calipers with Honda Milano Touch up. (R81), these will later be anodised, next door neighbours business
Back to the car, I detailed the whole bodywork with Megs Quick Clay. Was surprised at how much crud was on the new paint - and the clay by the time I had finished, ball ache of a job but stopped me having to talk to the missus
After the detailing whole car washed again with Megs stage 1 and 2 and then polished with Autoglym. (thank god for microfibre, as I would have spent more time pushing white, dried polish about) That complete I waxed the whole car with Megs Gold Class. Did this entire phase 3 times - Shoulders aching now!
Used Megs Trim Detailer on all the black stuff and Solvo Autosol'ed all the chrome bits, including the wheel nuts and locking wheel nut.
The results:
My initial attempts with the Porter Cable provided very good results as seen by the following finish on the next pictures. I was however not 100% satisfied with the finish. For this round of PC'ing I used DAS orange and green Pads with Sonus SFx-2 Polish, finishing it with Megs Gold Class.
I decided that I would try a different approach this weekend, and used a different method. Firstly I jet washed the car, then I washed it with Megs NTX Ph neutral shampoo using a megs Microfibre Mitt. I did notice that the Mitt was leaving tiny swirl marks as I used it, so I change to a Megs Sheepkin Mitt, that was better as it didn't seem to leave the swirling that the Microfibre did. Again I dried it using Megs Towels, however I coated the car with Quick detailer whilst it was still wet, then dried it off, this seemed to drastically reduce the amount of watermarks left and made the claying stage far easier. Having clayed the car 4 weeks ago, I mainly concentrated on the glass and plastic. It revealed a lot of crud build up on the glass. I did however go over the bumper and bonet again to get rid of the small populace of flies that I had murdered.
I used Sonus 450 Anti swirl polish with a Swirlbuster pad, GREAT results. Highly recommend!
Once that was completed I Megs Carnauba waxed the whole car. Using a soft sponge applicator I patted the wax on rather than wiping it on (as if you were applying Calamine lotion to bad sunburn) and hand wiped this off in a single direction with Megs microfibre. Now, this is controversial, and if in doubt, don't do it. However I have had no issues with this procedure and think that it looks brilliant. The argument is whether the wax is able to breathe. Some people argue that the wax will cloud if sealed, yet I have had no problems. Like I say, If your in doubt, don't do it.
I applied Jetseal 109 OVER my final wax coat, left for 20 mins and buffed off with the PC. This I did twice.
The result:
As the Jetseal is a sealant rather than a wax, it seems to have slightly accentuated the Milano Red, a result I'm happy with.
To give you an idea of the result of the finish, spot the swirl marks. This is checked with a 500 watt Halogen Lamp.
All in all, that took me 5.5 hours and I think I have got white finger as I couldn't be rsed changing the bob weights on the PC
The finished product:
I did it in several (long) stages. Firstly on the drive, on axle stands, wheels off and steam cleaned the whole shell. Then I hand washed it with Megs top to bottom. Hand dried it with Megs Microfibre Towels and chamois leathered it off. Left to stand while I concentrated on the wheels. Washed them with Megs, hand dried and then polished with Autoglym Super Resin Polish. (I find that this is good to stop dust build up from the brakes and makes future cleaning easier). Once they were done I then waxed them with Megs Gold Class. I treated the tyres to some Megs Hot Shine, but I firstly did them with the spray and that was pants, so I scrubbed em clean and applied Megs Hot Shine with an artists paint brush, a much better and liquid look. Topped em off with a set of Richbrook anti-gypo Valve Caps. I then detailed the Type R Calipers with Honda Milano Touch up. (R81), these will later be anodised, next door neighbours business
Back to the car, I detailed the whole bodywork with Megs Quick Clay. Was surprised at how much crud was on the new paint - and the clay by the time I had finished, ball ache of a job but stopped me having to talk to the missus
Used Megs Trim Detailer on all the black stuff and Solvo Autosol'ed all the chrome bits, including the wheel nuts and locking wheel nut.
The results:
My initial attempts with the Porter Cable provided very good results as seen by the following finish on the next pictures. I was however not 100% satisfied with the finish. For this round of PC'ing I used DAS orange and green Pads with Sonus SFx-2 Polish, finishing it with Megs Gold Class.
I decided that I would try a different approach this weekend, and used a different method. Firstly I jet washed the car, then I washed it with Megs NTX Ph neutral shampoo using a megs Microfibre Mitt. I did notice that the Mitt was leaving tiny swirl marks as I used it, so I change to a Megs Sheepkin Mitt, that was better as it didn't seem to leave the swirling that the Microfibre did. Again I dried it using Megs Towels, however I coated the car with Quick detailer whilst it was still wet, then dried it off, this seemed to drastically reduce the amount of watermarks left and made the claying stage far easier. Having clayed the car 4 weeks ago, I mainly concentrated on the glass and plastic. It revealed a lot of crud build up on the glass. I did however go over the bumper and bonet again to get rid of the small populace of flies that I had murdered.
I used Sonus 450 Anti swirl polish with a Swirlbuster pad, GREAT results. Highly recommend!
Once that was completed I Megs Carnauba waxed the whole car. Using a soft sponge applicator I patted the wax on rather than wiping it on (as if you were applying Calamine lotion to bad sunburn) and hand wiped this off in a single direction with Megs microfibre. Now, this is controversial, and if in doubt, don't do it. However I have had no issues with this procedure and think that it looks brilliant. The argument is whether the wax is able to breathe. Some people argue that the wax will cloud if sealed, yet I have had no problems. Like I say, If your in doubt, don't do it.
I applied Jetseal 109 OVER my final wax coat, left for 20 mins and buffed off with the PC. This I did twice.
The result:
As the Jetseal is a sealant rather than a wax, it seems to have slightly accentuated the Milano Red, a result I'm happy with.
To give you an idea of the result of the finish, spot the swirl marks. This is checked with a 500 watt Halogen Lamp.
All in all, that took me 5.5 hours and I think I have got white finger as I couldn't be rsed changing the bob weights on the PC
The finished product:
