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How many of you have spend a little too much time over the bank holiday weekend with your P&J?
Mine was basically yellow after the pollen bomb over the last week, plus it's done about 25 miles in the last 2 weeks, and was last washed, erm... 'a while' ago... AND being an ex-lease car before I bought it in October, I don't think it'd had a proper detail in the 3 years of it's life.
Which means I've just spent about 6 hours today getting it to this state (poor pics, but I'm knackered!):
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I gave it a pre-rinse to get the worst of the yellow dust off it.
Wheels thoroughly scrubbed
2 bucket wash
Rinse with rainwater
De-tar of the bonnet/sides (oh my god did it need this, felt like sandpaper running your hand down the lower doors! Literally hundreds of tar spots on each door)
Clay bar of the bonnet/doors
Auto finnesse Tripple coating (inc door shuts)
Meguiars ultimate fast finish
Windows cleaned
I could have spent another 5 hours on it, before even thinking about a polish.
And it really needs attacking with a DA, the bonnet is swirl city and the passenger side has been driven through a bush at some point, light scratches all the way from the front wing to the rear 3/4 panel. Nothing that a good DA couldn't correct, but the prep work would be crazy as it needs a full de-tar and proper clay bar all over.
At least it's now got some protection on there, and hopefully the worst of the pollen is behind us!
Well I have at least washed both our cars. First time in about 8 months. Does that count?
Well I have at least w̶a̶s̶h̶e̶d̶
detailed both our cars. First time in about 8 months. Does that count?
Does now. 😉
That looks like a great job 🙂
Dunno about detailing, but my Mk2 GTi was leaking oil and a little coolant over the front of the block from the rocker cover gasket area. New, upgraded gasket fitted, plan now is to use a gentle Dodo Juice engine degreaser plus steam cleaner on the block, not so much for cosmetics, but so I can see if bad things are leaking out generally.
I'm also pondering repainting the faded red GTi stripe on the front grille.
I should probably wash it as well and replace the rusty screws holding the rear number plate on.
None of this feels very urgent tbh.
Was going to give ours a proper clean and polish to get 4 years of accumulated scratches off, but didn't get any stuff bought in time.
Any suggestions for products and online ordering would be appreciated
I 'detailed' my car earlier in lock down and it rained the next night. Pretty water patterns though
What's this detailing cleaning of cars you speak of!? 🤔
I had planned to do a wheels off clean and ceramic coat them . But instead I painted the kitchen so its on the back burner
On the cards for our two cars. New to the whole detailing scene - not looking to do a concourse job but a better than 'bucket and sponge' job. I also want to apply ceramic coating but really should do a proper polish first so not locking in imperfections...but that is opening up a whole new world I wasn't aware of leading to a situation where it will take a couple or three days to wash the car rather than 30 mins!
Also only got a single garage so doesn't seem to make sense to polish and ceramic coat outdoors where airborne contaminates can settle on the car and get locked into the finish.
I did my annual polish and wax sunday. Then got pollen bombed over night.
Finished polishing and sealing yesterday. Took ages but looks great and should be fine for another year.
Nope, still not got to my octy. Still to many other jobs and looking after two preschool kids. I try and do a full detail each spring and a lap top up in Autumn but never managed either let year.... Thank heavens for sonax bsd!
The wife's i10 got its first ever full detail just before lockdown, Restoring the paint after 6.5 years of abuse, and looks good. A bit dusty at the mo though.... Hoping it'll rain and wash that off.... Should still be beading for a couple of months yet
I resprayed part of my bumper that had some really big and deep stone chips. Looks really good now. I quite enjoy minor body work repairs, with a bit of care and patience you can get a really good finish and a couple of rattle cans is a lot cheaper than a body shop.
can someone point mcmoonter at this thread. He has a disco that needs a little work I believe
Just came here to post that...
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-resurrection-land-rover-content/
Spent the day cleaning my Mini Clubman.
Rinsed, washed ,de tarrred , dried then Sonax BSD all over, plastic trim and tyres dressed, wheels waxed, interior hoovered and glass polished with Autoglym glass polish.
Already covered with pollen and dust......
I did my annual polish and wax sunday. Then got pollen bombed over night.
Finished polishing and sealing yesterday. Took ages but looks great and should be fine for another year.
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Cleaned inside and out, polished and back in the garage under car cover.... for the foreseeable. More importantly all the bikes are cleaned and serviced
Sick E46M3. I traded mine for an I30N. Have not used it much, covered up waiting. Only mod is rally flapz lol.
Just a coating of Fusso Soft99 Dark Wax. Then in got covered in dust, then it rained and now it looks filthy despite not moving an inch for weeks.
Some impressive work there!
Unlike McMoonter’s Landy which needs to be less green, I did a bit of work to make mine more green!
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Lovely ^
When did this "detailing" become a thing? I appreciate that there's always been a car cleaning industry but there does seem to have been an massive upgrade in it's status since the moniker first appeared.
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@mcmoonter my Superb didn't look too far off that before I started, the recent 20-25 degrees here in the south seems to have made every single plant release all it's pollen at once, everyone's cars were yellow!!!
When did this “detailing” become a thing? I appreciate that there’s always been a car cleaning industry but there does seem to have been an massive upgrade in it’s status since the moniker first appeared.
Since there's been a whole industry and market for it I suppose.
As with everything, there's different levels, things have moved since the days of washing your car with a gravel filled sponge and drying it with a chamois...
Lols at the Badger pic 😂
Mine wasn't detailed, not up to those standards but I gave my wifes car and mine a really good wash and wax this weekend. They both looked fantastic and I questioned why I don't do it more often.
This morning both cars are covered in dust and pollen. That is the answer why I don't do it more often!
Ooooh! So many shiny cars.
I was working.
Bear that’s brilliant. 😂
6 hours?
6 HOURS?!
When i can't see out tge non wiped areas of the windscreen... I might clean the windows and splash the left over water about a bit...
Spent about 4 days trying to get the exhaust off my Panigale to deal with the wobbly heat shields. Finally got it off after dismantling what felt like the entire bike and decided to give it a clean up whilst off.
Have now painted the heat shields a satin black so once back on I think it’ll look better
Oooh, Panigale.
1199?
@joshvegas - yep, 6 bloody hours.
It's the first proper wash and protection I've given it since I bought it, and I was trying to undo nearly 3 years of poor washing. I could easily have spent another couple of hours. Then started polishing it....
If anyone in the SE is handy with a DA and fancies a project, let me know 😀 Happy to put in the effort for prep.
6 hours?
6 HOURS?!When i can’t see out tge non wiped areas of the windscreen… I might clean the windows and splash the left over water about a bit…
Not much else to do at the moment.
I'm putting some effort into getting rid of the stink in my car. 9 years of wet kit, and a recent upturned dishwasher have not been kind to it 🤮
‘Fraid so, just a lowly ABS model so nothing fancy. But it feels like a rocket ship to me and I think it looks pretty 
That is a thing of beauty Flange, it really is
Nice! Owner of the 'other' Italian brand myself.
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Plus my old VFR800 in the background. God I loved the noise it made. Straight cut cam gears, delkevic pipe, V4... An old 'detailing' before and after from winter:
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Thank you! It’ll look better once I’ve finished with all the fixing and a few upgrades. New chain and sprockets, new tail tidy, I’ve got a new screen to go on and my mate is painting the nose fairing as it’s a bit chipped. Will be nice when it’s done.
Ooh I love a Tuono! Such a nice bike to ride and fits us taller folks. Factory too, so all the flash bits. I’d love ohlins for mine but they’re all the electronic versions on eBay and that’s a right faff!
@MoreCashThanDash I've just started using Autofinesse products and find them really good and each product has a guide to use on the product and their website!
New to detailing, but my car was covered in road grime and mud from collecting something from a farm pre lockdown, it had the following:
Pressure Washer Rinse
AutoFinesse Citrus Power sprayed all over
Pressure Washer Rinse
Wheels and Arches Sprayed, Scrubbed and Rinsed
2 Bucket Wash Top to Bottom inc shuts
Pressure Washer Rinse
Dry
AutoFinesse Glisten spray on wax
Wheels Sealed/Waxed
Chrome Polished
Tyres Dressed
Glass Polished
The spray on wax has left a really good shine to the car. Typically the car has been peppered with seagull droppings which have wiped off with a damp cloth really easily!
@ta11pau1 how do you find Autofinesse Tripple? I had some generic polish around which I used before Xmas which did an okay job, but tempted by this product as the others in the range have really worked for me.
Walking around you can certainly see who the key workers are, they are the ones with no car on the drive or if it is it's filthy as they don't have the time or energy to even through a bucket of water at it
Well if they want to drop it off at mine I’ll happily wash it for them
things have moved since the days of washing your car with a gravel filled sponge and drying it with a chamois…
Have they?
I have the same car as the OP, albeit in silver. It's 2 years into its lease & it's been washed once, and that was when the dealership serviced it 🙂
There is a reason why I picked a silver one! The extent of my detailing at the weekend was to throw away the rubbish from the door pockets.
Hope you didn’t leave it under the trees for the birds to crap on and pollen to fall on 😂
I've got a 25 year old Caterham 7 with bare aluminium bodywork and black fibreglass wings and nose , the bare Ali parts are looking pretty tatty.
Anyone know whats the best approach to make it look a bit neater without attempting to polish it up to a mirror finish. I was thinking that a brushed Ali finish would look pretty nice and probably be more hard wearing than going for a mirror finish, but I haven't got a clue about how to achieve a nice uniform brushed Ali finish.
@ta11pau1 how do you find Autofinesse Tripple? I had some generic polish around which I used before Xmas which did an okay job, but tempted by this product as the others in the range have really worked for me.
I like it, it's got a light polish and a glaze so fills a few of the swirl marks, I've also got the full carnuba wax Radiance for the full treatment. I'm most impressed with the Meguairs ultimate fast finish, so easy to apply and just gives the final coat and protection. Takes maybe 5 minutes to do the whole car with it.
This is what's in my box of tricks, although I've run out of citrus power so used fenwicks bike wash for the wheels, it did the trick and cleared the months of brake dust!
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