Clark@Polishedbliss
Professional Detailer
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2007
- Messages
- 226
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 16
- Location
- Aberdeen
- Website
- www.polishedbliss.co.uk
Well this was an interesting start to the week, and my second longest detail to date! Rich was snowed under with various other duties so i was on my own for this one too, and only Monday and Tuesday to get it done...
Monday:
This was the car in question, booked in for a full correction + Zymöl:
The RR is only around 18 months old and the owners obviously take good care of it as it was fairly clean (for a 4x4 anyways) upon arrival (interior was pretty much spotless), just the usual mud and grime in the arches....
...and the wheels were pretty clean except for the inner rims which looked pretty dirty...
Wash:
So, as usual - the car was foamed with Meguiars Hyper Wash and left to dwell for 5 mins...
....before being rinsed at high pressure. I then cleaned the wheels with Shampoo Plus (for the faces) and Wheel Brightener for the inner rims (these took a while and i still couldnt get them to 100% due to pitting), along with a wheel brush to get into the gaps:
The arches were then cleaned with another brush and Meguiars Super Degreaser:
The car was then washed with the 2 bucket method and Shampoo Plus before being rinsed, Autosmarts Tardis was then sprayed onto the lower half and wheels and then wiped off to remove the larger lumps of tar. I then clayed all the paintwork and glass with Meguiars Aggressive Detailing clay, this removed ALOT of bonded contaminants, especially the back windscreen and roof. I then foamed the car one last time, rinsed and then dried off with a waffle weave towel and the leaf blower.
Total Wash/clay/drying time: 5 hours
Polish:
By the time i had the RR inside and taped up it was around 2:30pm due to the lengthy washing process and customers dropping in for products/advice etc (i'll let you off though Skid seeings as you brought cream cakes, cheers :thumb:
). My work hours are meant to be 9-5 but i knew there was no way i was going to be sticking to that for this one, much to the annoyance of Angela (think she worries about me more than i do myself :lol: ).
So, prepared for the long haul ahead i set about taking paint readings.
Some areas were good:
Some weren't so good!:
This wasnt what i wanted to see as the car was pretty swirly/scratched:
I settled upon Menzerna's 3.02 and a 3M black polishing pad @1800rpms for the correction (paint was between BMW & Ford paint, not hard but not soft either), but for the first few panels it didnt want to play ball and left feint buffer trails, so i placed the bottle infront of our super duper new heaterD) to get the Menz to work a bit better, whilst heating the panels i was about to machine with the halogens:
The 3.02 quickly settled down and i was able to finish down LSP ready, the first few panels that had buffer trails would have to be re-machined later:
50/50 (excuse the smears):
Rear 1/4 before:
After (some RIDS remain):
I worked my way around the car and stopped at 9pm, knowing i had another long day ahead on the Tuesday!
Tuesday:
With the heater switched on for 10 mins before i started, the Menz again worked fine, and it was t-shirt only temperatures in what used to be a freezing cold unit!
I finally finished the machining with the 3.02 and went back to the bonnet and drivers wing to refine with PO85rd and a blue 3M finishing pad. This left me with a bit of a dilema - as the finish was noticeably sharper in my eyes. To check that it wasnt just down to the fact these panels had been done with the 3.02 not working 100% i did a test section on one of the doors and i could still see an improvement, this isnt common in my experience as the 3.02 usually leaves a very sharp finish, but on this car compared to the finish of the 85rd it wasnt great.
Now, to the customer and 99% of the public they wouldnt notice, but i could and by this time it was a bit like Rich's detail on the Evo he recently posted - it was getting personal and i wanted the best finish possible, even if it was going to kill me!
I knew this was going to lead to me having another late night and even more importantly i was going to miss the Rangers v Barcelona game on the telly, THATS how committed i was to getting the best finish possible! :lol:
So, on with the 2nd stage of machine polishing using 85rd and a blue 3M Pad@1800rpm's....
....(2000rpm's on the larger areas to speed things up a bit). I love the blue pad, it give so much "feel" to the rotary and stays perfectly centred for the duration of the polishing.
A couple of shots after 85rd:
I finally finished machining at around 7:30pm, so that had been around 17 hours straight machine polishing! The results at this point were worth it though and i could now hear the football on the radio without the whine of the Rotary so i was happy
The masking tape was removed and the car was dusted down with the Zymöl duster before i applied the Vintage wax by the red side of a German applicator, using Field Glaze to keep it slightly damp which seems to help in application.
This was left while i did everything else on the car.
The arches were dressed with Meguiars All Season Dressing on an MF pad (air suspension comes in handy for this bit!):
ASD was also applied to the exterior trim such as the steps and under the bumpers etc, Vintage was applied to the wing mirrors and window rubbers though as these werent so faded/grey looking.
The tyres were dressed with Blackfire Long Lasting Tyre Gel, wheels were done with Poorboys Wheel Sealant and the interior was also detailed, although this took 10 mins as it was very clean anyways
Last job before the final wipe down was to buff off the Vintage, done with a Poorboys DMT. The wipe down was done with Field Glaze.
I finished at 10:30pm and was pretty tired by this point as you could imagine, so i decided to take the majority of the after pics on the Wednesday morning when the customers came to collect the car.
This is why I am so annoyed at myself as the Customers arrived this morning 9:00am sharp and were in a hurry so i didnt get anything like the amount of afters to do the final finish any justice, so unfortunately this is all i got! Apologies :wall:
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=537829#post537829
Monday:
This was the car in question, booked in for a full correction + Zymöl:
The RR is only around 18 months old and the owners obviously take good care of it as it was fairly clean (for a 4x4 anyways) upon arrival (interior was pretty much spotless), just the usual mud and grime in the arches....
...and the wheels were pretty clean except for the inner rims which looked pretty dirty...
Wash:
So, as usual - the car was foamed with Meguiars Hyper Wash and left to dwell for 5 mins...
....before being rinsed at high pressure. I then cleaned the wheels with Shampoo Plus (for the faces) and Wheel Brightener for the inner rims (these took a while and i still couldnt get them to 100% due to pitting), along with a wheel brush to get into the gaps:
The arches were then cleaned with another brush and Meguiars Super Degreaser:
The car was then washed with the 2 bucket method and Shampoo Plus before being rinsed, Autosmarts Tardis was then sprayed onto the lower half and wheels and then wiped off to remove the larger lumps of tar. I then clayed all the paintwork and glass with Meguiars Aggressive Detailing clay, this removed ALOT of bonded contaminants, especially the back windscreen and roof. I then foamed the car one last time, rinsed and then dried off with a waffle weave towel and the leaf blower.
Total Wash/clay/drying time: 5 hours
Polish:
By the time i had the RR inside and taped up it was around 2:30pm due to the lengthy washing process and customers dropping in for products/advice etc (i'll let you off though Skid seeings as you brought cream cakes, cheers :thumb:
). My work hours are meant to be 9-5 but i knew there was no way i was going to be sticking to that for this one, much to the annoyance of Angela (think she worries about me more than i do myself :lol: ).So, prepared for the long haul ahead i set about taking paint readings.
Some areas were good:
Some weren't so good!:
This wasnt what i wanted to see as the car was pretty swirly/scratched:
I settled upon Menzerna's 3.02 and a 3M black polishing pad @1800rpms for the correction (paint was between BMW & Ford paint, not hard but not soft either), but for the first few panels it didnt want to play ball and left feint buffer trails, so i placed the bottle infront of our super duper new heater
D) to get the Menz to work a bit better, whilst heating the panels i was about to machine with the halogens:
The 3.02 quickly settled down and i was able to finish down LSP ready, the first few panels that had buffer trails would have to be re-machined later:
50/50 (excuse the smears
):
Rear 1/4 before:
After (some RIDS remain):
I worked my way around the car and stopped at 9pm, knowing i had another long day ahead on the Tuesday!
Tuesday:
With the heater switched on for 10 mins before i started, the Menz again worked fine, and it was t-shirt only temperatures in what used to be a freezing cold unit!
I finally finished the machining with the 3.02 and went back to the bonnet and drivers wing to refine with PO85rd and a blue 3M finishing pad. This left me with a bit of a dilema - as the finish was noticeably sharper in my eyes. To check that it wasnt just down to the fact these panels had been done with the 3.02 not working 100% i did a test section on one of the doors and i could still see an improvement, this isnt common in my experience as the 3.02 usually leaves a very sharp finish, but on this car compared to the finish of the 85rd it wasnt great.
Now, to the customer and 99% of the public they wouldnt notice, but i could and by this time it was a bit like Rich's detail on the Evo he recently posted - it was getting personal and i wanted the best finish possible, even if it was going to kill me!
I knew this was going to lead to me having another late night and even more importantly i was going to miss the Rangers v Barcelona game on the telly, THATS how committed i was to getting the best finish possible! :lol:
So, on with the 2nd stage of machine polishing using 85rd and a blue 3M Pad@1800rpm's....
....(2000rpm's on the larger areas to speed things up a bit). I love the blue pad, it give so much "feel" to the rotary and stays perfectly centred for the duration of the polishing.
A couple of shots after 85rd:
I finally finished machining at around 7:30pm, so that had been around 17 hours straight machine polishing! The results at this point were worth it though and i could now hear the football on the radio without the whine of the Rotary so i was happy
The masking tape was removed and the car was dusted down with the Zymöl duster before i applied the Vintage wax by the red side of a German applicator, using Field Glaze to keep it slightly damp which seems to help in application.
This was left while i did everything else on the car.
The arches were dressed with Meguiars All Season Dressing on an MF pad (air suspension comes in handy for this bit!):
ASD was also applied to the exterior trim such as the steps and under the bumpers etc, Vintage was applied to the wing mirrors and window rubbers though as these werent so faded/grey looking.
The tyres were dressed with Blackfire Long Lasting Tyre Gel, wheels were done with Poorboys Wheel Sealant and the interior was also detailed, although this took 10 mins as it was very clean anyways
Last job before the final wipe down was to buff off the Vintage, done with a Poorboys DMT. The wipe down was done with Field Glaze.
I finished at 10:30pm and was pretty tired by this point as you could imagine, so i decided to take the majority of the after pics on the Wednesday morning when the customers came to collect the car.
This is why I am so annoyed at myself as the Customers arrived this morning 9:00am sharp and were in a hurry so i didnt get anything like the amount of afters to do the final finish any justice, so unfortunately this is all i got! Apologies :wall:
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=537829#post537829
