First time detailing

[Dubz]

Done my first semi proper detail on a car. I stupidly didn't take pictures before as it wasn't meant to be a 4 hour long clean rather a 40 minute clean. The car up close has awful paint as it's a work mule and is parked under trees and has emulation paint on it and very heavy use scratches.

Never really done the whole process I don't know if I did too much or whatever.

The process I did was,
Wash with shampoo
Dry
Wash with just water (my car shampoo leaves a really bad oily film)
Dry
Clay Bar
Wash with water
Dry
Polish
Wash with water
Dry
Wax which was left to cure for 2 hours
Re-wax heavy scratches as it seemed to clear them a bit

Things that could have gone better would be if someone didn't take my alloy brush and use the last of the alloy foam cleaner and leave the empty bottle on the shelf and the plastic trim blackener.

Here's the end result and it's 1000x better than how it was at the start.

Tomorrow I'm doing the Merc in the background, the Twingo and maybe a swift. Busy day

 

[BlackTwingo-i]

Nice!! I recon you could make it a bit more simple though, heres roughly what i do

Spray car
Wash with shampoo
Spray away shampoo
Dry with microfibre towel
Clean wheels
Spray wheels, dry off any overspray
Clay
Polish away clay residue
Remove polish
Wax
Do windows/trims while wax is on
BUFFFFF

 

[Dubz]

I thought washing the car again after claying would be good as loads of crap came off the car and I didn't want to move that crap around while polishing.

Off to halfords now to get more cleaning stuff.

New clay bar, car shampoo, microfibre cloths, wax, alloy brush and alloy foam cleaner. I feel its going to be an expensive trip

 

[BlackTwingo-i]

Well, you should only really use a clay bar when machine polishing, or atleast using a higher grit polish by hand

When you use the clay bar you are just removing all the tiny bits of welded on dirt and road deposits, so moving the clay bar about will start to scratch the surface nomater how clean you keep it, machine polishing will remove all of those scratches

I guess your probably right though, i never really needed to wash it after on the twingo cause it never ever really got chance to get properly dirty, but be careful! Youl soon know if there is a peice of grit smaller than a fine grain of sand stuck in your clay!!

Im currently wetsanding my car.. Wow, this brings out a whole new level of shine :|

Anybody remember my re-painted front bumper, that looked slightly dull?

 

[lgonzalez]

I'd be really scared about sanding my paintwork :-/ I'd probably go do more harm then good!

 

[BlackTwingo-i]

Youde think that, but ive been here sanding with 1200 grit on the same area for long than youde think was enough to take of the laqcuer, but its just coming up a treat! If you do it right it soo easy

 

[BlackTwingo-i]

Ill let these pictures do the talking.. Cant be bothered doing a write up haha

 

[Dubz]

I need to wet sand some of my car to get all the little clear coat scratches.

Got a nice £61 receipt for my car cleaning stuff :/

 

[BlackTwingo-i]

Jesus, what did you buy!?

 

[funky_d]

Great result on the Landy! I think overall though a proper "detail" would address everything - wet sanding, dealing with faded plastics, whole interior inc carpet shampoo and cleaning up the dash and so on. As well as having the wheels off and doing all the insides of the rim and all the arch lining and stuff.

But who the hell can be arsed with that :lol: Good job!

 

[Dubz]

Jesus, what did you buy!?

I don't have the receipt on me atm but I got
Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection
Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner
Autoglym Clean Wheels
Alloy brush (can't remember what brand)
Pack of Microfibre pads (Wax pad, Polish pad, interior pada and tyre dressing pad)
3 Microfibre clothes
G3 Clay bar (The stickiest thing in the world!)

There's probably something I forgot.

Just did the ML320 in the background of the landy pics. I couldn't do the middle of the roof the car's so big (someones also taken the step ladder). Currently waiting for the wax to dry now. The car had never been clay'd, polished or waxed before. My a 1/3rd of my clay bar is now brown...

Great result on the Landy! I think overall though a proper "detail" would address everything - wet sanding, dealing with faded plastics, whole interior inc carpet shampoo and cleaning up the dash and so on. As well as having the wheels off and doing all the insides of the rim and all the arch lining and stuff.

But who the hell can be arsed with that :lol: Good job!

Mehhhhh in my head a detail is more than just washing the car and I did more than wash the car

 

[Dubz]

One of the first times the ML hasn't been cleaned by Croatian cleaners nearby.

Going to give mine a clean today. Hopefully it shouldn't take 4-5 hours as its tiny compared with the ML