Paintwork a little flat....first time detailing advise and steps needed

if ur doing ur work by hand its not gonna gunna look perfect in one hit it took me a good few months to get some depth to the paint
personally i wouldnt put t cut hate the stuff the product i use are zymol shampoo meg or 3m clay with detailer (only clay twice a year) dodo lime prime lite then duragloss 101 clar coat polish to give the wet look then finish with dodo super natural then maintain by correct washing method two buckets lamb wool mitt etc and dry with micro fibre drying towels. however there are still some swirls in the paint which will require some machine work id recomend etting ur machined first is the paint is pretty flat then maintain it correctly and you should see some good results.

heres how mine looks after many months of hand care not perfect but pretty good

1 thing to remember DO NOT USE T CUT...

polish i entirly ur choice depends wa type of look ur after i went for the wet look as think it make phantom black look awrsome try a few websibe and shop around on like clean ur car or elite car care monza read up on a few and see wa take ur fancy its also dependant on budget but if ur running a 4.2 v8 ur budget should be fine lol you also have a look on here at other phantom black cars n see wa prosess polish they used if ur happy with the results they had
get some more pics up when u had another go n keep us posted

CMD said:

1 thing to remember DO NOT USE T CUT...

Click to expand...

i second that nasty nasty stuff , there are so many products on the market these days its hard to choose but i would defo finish it with a quality wax like darren used on his a4 dodo juice is great stuff i use it myself on my car , meguairs stuff is very good also

id recommend doing the routine of washing the car properly first. its all about the prep work mate. firstly get the paint as clean as it can be. use a APC to remove and break down contaminents. wash the car i.e 2 bucket method.

use tardis or similar product to remove most of the tar, road grime etc and then use iron x which breaks down the chemicals which tardis cant do and then wash off and then clay the entire car. make sure you get everything off the paintwork as it all helps to bring clarity into the cars paint.

once clayed i would opt for a paint cleanser like dodo lime prime, apply to car and remove via instructions. this will help leave the paint in a nice clean state ready for future products. for black i would opt for poorboys black hole as this gives a nice deep finish to the cars paint(leave on for an hour for a deeper finish) but it is a wipe on wipe off product and you can do 2 coats if you wish but no need.

once buffed off you can apply either a wax or a sealant. dodo blue velvet or purple haze will be good for your car in a good price range. chemical guys blacklight sealant will be another good choice to for your car, it has nano technology so bonds to your cars surface and will protect the paint for a long time. you can leave for 15-30 mins each coat and just put around maximum of 3 coats on then you know you have good protection.

you havent got to use the products i have just mentioned as there are lots out there but i find these products work well on black/dark cars when doing things by hand

dodo juice lime prime then a coat of poorboys sp sealent

It'll need a good de-contamination - tar remover, iron X etc
Then polish - I use poorboys on mine but a lot of the guys use menzerna polishes with good results
Refine with poorboys black hole
Then finish with a quality wax/ sealant. I highly recommend valentines waxes, great product

As above, a good finish is all in the prep. Be prepared to spent a least a day to get the paintwork sorted!

depends how confident you are to use the machine,

i was showing this to a customer yesterday who saw me machine polishing a car, said that he was going to buy a dual action polisher to use as its 'safer' than an orbital or rotary like you linked above, i told him it was nonsence and more of a money making gimmik,

basically i got my hardest pad and my harshest compound and then got an old panel to show him,

first test was on the flat of the panel, factory paint, my rotary starts at 10 and goes to 25 slowest is about 700rpm, i then jacked it up full speed and pressed it down hard into the paint for 30 seconds, and it didnt burn through, i then did the same on the edge this took 15 seconds of hard constant pressure to burn through...now given i was at 25 and we go no higher than 15 it shows you how safe the rotary is,

so now your happy to use one, what do you use?

well most of the pros use 3m perfect it range,

fast cut plus -green top combined with green pad
fine polish yellow top with yellow pad
ultrafina blue top with blue pad iirc or yellow


these followed by a good wax, autoglym hd is around £25 and very good for the money, this lot will set you back about 60 plus polisher and will do around 10 cars,

thats my choice and can turn paint like this:





into paint like this:





hth

jake

for me, autoglym hd wax, for its price compete very well, esp against waxes twice its price

Hello mate from car paint warehouse (Car refinishing suppliers)
alot of this (Autoglym) (Meguiers) etc... is very retail
your best option is to look for a motor factor in your area.
CLEAN THE CAR FIRST!
you will need to purchase Farecla G6 Rapide or 3m fast cut + (which is becoming hard to get hold of with the japan disaster) dont ask why not a clue this will cut back a very thin layer of the paint work to bring the gloss retention back up. (DO NOT DO THIS TO OFTEN OBVIOUS REASONS YOU WILL EVENTUALLY HAVE NO PAINT LEFT ON THE CAR)
you will also need a hard white mop head to go on your polisher 14mm is standard size.

FARECLA G6 RAPID 1Ltr LIQUID COMPOUND | eBay UK

3m Fast cut plus. 50417 1Kg bottle. | eBay UK

FARECLA G-MOP standard compounding head 14mm white | eBay UK

while polishing/mopping a car always keep the mop head flat on the panel and not on a angle and never work to hard on 1 area keep it moving. mop the entire car (HARD WORK!)
once you cut it back you will then want a fine compound i would recommend farecla g10 (3M's fine compound not up 2 scratch with g10) with a new 14mm white compound mop head
repeat same process as above.

you will then want to use a polish with a soft black mop head 14mm
i would recommend you presta ultra polish hard work but very good
repeat same process

Presta Chroma Ultra 1500 Polish

Now being a black car you will always get swirl marks.
best swirl remover on the market in PRESTA SWIRL REMOVER (BLUE)
with a very soft mop head

Presta Chroma Swirl Remover

FARECLA G-MOP standard polishing head 14mm black | eBay UK

this will removes an swirl marks left from the other processes

then go for a very high quality wax dodo juice very good finish with microfibre cloths

Dodo Juice Supernatural premium wax 200ml v2 | eBay UK

hope this helps

any problems finding this stuff please dont hesistate to contact me at work

sam Bristol BS4 5QR 0117 3009058 Swindon SN2 8AJ (If you live anywhere near either of these pop into our branch)

we sell everything bar the dodo juice

1ltr Farecla G6 Rapide (Around £19.00)
500ml Farecla G10 (Around £10.00)
1ltr/948ml Presta Ultra Polish (Around £18.00)
1ltr/948ml Presta Swirl Remover (Around £20.00)
White(Hard) Black(Soft) Mop Heads 14mm (Around £6.00 Each)
Microfibre Cloths (10) (Around £10.00)

you shouldnt go wring using these products

YouTube - ‪Farécla G6 Rapid Compounding Tutorial‬‏
YouTube - ‪Farécla G10 Polishing Tutorial‬‏
YouTube - ‪Polishing Demonstration with Chroma Ultra Polish‬‏
YouTube - ‪Buffing Using Presta Swirl Remover‬‏

you do really only need three product,

fastcut -green top
fine polish - yellow top
ultrafina

never been a freclair fan myself, always lacked the cut of 3m, 3m actually own meguirs now too