After a few months of gathering lots of info, advice and basic know-how, today I finally got stuck into our Chilli Red R53.
In all fairness, the car wasn't in a bad state. Or so I thought, until I polished it up! The paintwork has been looked after by the previous owner who was clearly a two-bucket system user - as we are. But there were lots of very fine swirl marks and a couple of gentle scratches in a couple of places, so I decided a couple of weeks ago to go the whole hog on this polishing malarky and buy a Maguires Detailing machine.
Products used...
Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II car shampoo
Autosmart Tardis tar and grime remover
3M Masking tape (Blue stuff)
Menzerna 106F finishing polish
Blackfire Wet Diamond Carnuba Wax
Black Wow
Autoglym Bumper Car - for the tyre side walls
About 4 billion microfiber cloths - Lenore is not best pleased at the amount of washing to do.
Autoglym glass polish
And what I did with all that stuff is....
1. Rinsed the car down with a power washer.
2. Using two bucket method and Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II shampoo the car was shampooed one side at a time, rinsing each panel as I went along as it was a hot day (at times) and the suds would dry in otherwise.
3. Rinsed the whole car using the sheeting method, allowing the water to sheet of each panel.
4. Sprayed the car one panel at a time with Autosmart Tardis to remove all tar and tree sap deposits. Wiping each panel down after soaking for 5 mins or so.
6. Washed car again, using sheeting method to rinse again.
7. Dried car with microfiber cloths from Costco.
8. Stood back and watched rain soak car.
9. Dried car again.
10. Stood back and watch rain soak car.
11. Dried car again.
12. Stood back and watc.......
....
...
17. Dried car yet again.
18. Taped up bumpers and light area's to prevent polishing over.
19. Using the Maguires detailing machine, I got stuck into polishing the paintwork. Putting a cross of polish on the foam pad, dabbing that pad onto the car in several places on the one panel. Then I started on a slow speed, working up to a high (but not highest) speed. I also sprayed the pad and the car bodywork with a little Maguires quick detailer to give better lubrication to the foam pad.
20. After polishing each panel, I wiped the panel down completely before moving onto the next panel.
21. Repeat for each panel including the roof.
22. At one point I did try to turn the machine down from medium speed to low speed, but turned the dial the wrong way. The result can be seen in one of the photo's. Frikking polish went everywhere. Splattered all over my leg, my eyes, right up the side of the car, onto the roof and over Lenore who was busy waxing the other side of the car. A lesson learned.
23. Once all polished, stripped off the tape and wiped whole car down again to get rid of residue polish.
24. Stood back and discovered that despite masking off the bumpers, I still managed to get it all over the bumpers, the roof trim line, the front grilles, etc., etc. Made mental note to do a bit more masking next time.
25. While I was finishing off polishing Lenore got started on waxing with the Blackfire. In all, 3 coats of blackfire went on all panels.
26. Black Wow treated all the bumpers. it seems to have taken the polish off. Either that, or it's making a good job of masking it. I may get up in the morning to find it's all showing through again.
27. Treated the tyre side walls to the Autoglum bumper care - looks good for at least 20 mins - long enough to take photo's.
28. While I was doing the tyres, Lenore was doing the windows with the Autoglym glass polish.
29. Took photo's - see below.
Lessons learned:
A) The Maguires detailing machine is god. The crap it took off the car, the depth of shine it gave the paintwork and the speed it did all this in, there is no way you could get the same result by hand. Aside from my mishap setting the machine going too fast one time, it was really quite easy to use. What I did learn is that, it is OK to put it on top speed, but you have to build up to it, and it MUST be turned up to top speed while the pad is on the car. And that is a three-handed job, because when you turn the speed up the thing shakes like buggery and you need two hands to keep it steady. So I had to keep asking Lenore to turn the dial at the back to speed it up. Team-work rules.
B) More masking. I really should have spent more time masking more black bits off. It would have made the job easier in the end.
Results:
I am very happy with the results. I think it has really brought the red out of the paintwork. The car has never looked - simply put - to shiny! There are still swirls, but nothing like as many as before, and I think I will be able to completely remove them next time, but using the machine faster for more of the time. It's just a case of getting used to this new tool.
Even Lenore (who is a true believer in the Diamondbrite discipline) is seriously impressed.
Ok. Enough ramblings....
The photo's follow.
A.
PS: If anyone dares to say it doesn't look any different from before to after, I shall visit them in the small hours and stick a bat up their night-dress.
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