herisites

Lovely motor 8) 1100um :shock: thats a bit deep isnt it?? Nathan, i dont suppose you could do a little guide on how to apply wax by hand could you or point me in the direction of some good tips? I have just received my Victoria Concours wax which i have heard so many good things about, i want to apply it by hand but i know that it could be very easy to apply too much and waste a good wax!!

Oh and im not impressed with the added chicane (Edwinas) just before the lake esses (or dunlop esses as they are formally called) as its ruined the pace you used to get round the esses and although it was added to reduce bad crashes on the esses it actually creates a LOT more smaller crashes and collisions now its added! GAY! :lol: Devils elbows also a nasty bend if taken wrong, seen many a highside there in my time and if you crash there at a high speed you know about it. A guy i used to know came off there and he was in a bad way after and he was an 18 stone bodybuilder!!

Haha i know mallory as well as my own COCK :lol: Mallory has racing practise days every wednesday so we used to practise there a LOT and the first racing group we were in raced mainly at mallory. I actually like the track despite being small and with very few turns and no left handers really. Gerards is an awesome corner, you can pick up some bloody high speeds round there, into triple figures easily ME ON GERARDS and i have even had my elbow down there before by hanging RIGHT off the bike :twisted: :lol: Yep it would be interesting getting round the hairpin in a car with a poor lock! Good job cars dont go round the Bus Stop as thats tight on a bike :shock:

That is at Cadwell, havent done Oulton yet.

:lol: Nah he's only just bought his beemer! I dont fancy wheel polishing, looks like fcuking hard work :shock: i actually have all the buffing stuff for a drill to polish up metal as my dad polished up the frame on his racing R1 which come up awesome! You can of make it out in THIS pic.

Yeah i saw that ad lastnight, its awesome!! And THIS toyota advert shows that 4x4's are getting pretty good!

Yeah i would like to have a go with a tornado red car to see if i can tackle oxidization as well as swirls. I would imagine i could as it will cure the fading whilst getting rid of swirls. Im doing a red BMW soon which is actually pretty mint but the owner wants it looking perfect for shows etc so i said i would machine it. I might find that even though it looks very red that a machine polish will bring it up that little bit which im actually looking forward to seeing.

Marcus, the pads i use are just the 6" ones that came with the polisher which arent the best tbh, there are 3 different ones for different polishes etc which is good but they have squared edges and the soft ones are very prone to tear if you catch an edge or a crumpled bit of masking tape and sprays foam all over the car! :mad: but i will just use them for now until they are nackered then get some proper ones, either megs ones or the Sonus DAS ones with a 5" backing plate. As for clay i use Sonus Green clay as its quite mild so doesnt leave any damage but at the same time still does the job. You can buy these in sets of 2 with a little box to store them in or individually HERE. You can still use the QD with them, i tend to use the Sonus Glyde but thats because i got that with mine.

Well i cant really compare as i havent used a PC but thats the choice of the pros and supposed to be very good to learn with. I just went for the rotary because it was cheaper at £40 on ebay plus delivery so about £50 all in. Its not the best out there, the likes of the Makita's are £170 on ebay so i imagine are a lot better but i just wanted to learn so the silverline seemed good enough. Thats definately a good deal you got there though!

Yes mate all the polishes i mentioned above are Menzerna which is all i have used so far (apart from some AG Paint Renovator first time). Yeah £40 does sound like a a good deal, is that for larger bottles though? A good deal is the Menzerna starter kit from cleanyourcar which is 5 250ml bottles for £30.95 which is a cracking buy and they will last you a fair while, you will mainly use the IP and FF though so the rest should last an age. Yeah i have been told numerous times im brave for starting on the rotary, but i couldnt justify a PC just yet and i knew if i folled guides and practised on a scrap panel (or sisters old golf :lol:) first then i should be fine. Its not as difficult as some people make you, you just have to get comfortable and let the polisher do the work not try and make it go where it doesnt want to etc.

Welcome to the forum! Definately the best choice in colour and model but then i am biased :lol:

I got my polish from http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk and i just got the 250ml bottles to start out with thikning they wouldnt last long but i have done 2 cars so far and have plenty left so they last well. The 3.01 IP is £7.95 but is out of stock and has been for a while but there is PO91L IP which is £6.94 i also have this and it does the job. The Final Finish again there are 2 types i have the 106FF which is £8.95 but there is PO85RD FF which is £7.95, i dont have this though so dont know what its like. The #83 is a medium abrasive which is why it probably isnt good enough, especially with a PC as remember i am using a rotary which builds up more heat and thus produces more cutting power than the PC so the IP was good enough and even the #83 may work with it, with the PC you may need a more powerful polish such as the Power Gloss which is £6.94 and is a very high abrasive polish so use with caution, i had to use some on the golf and it just made sure i kept my pad moist with some QD and i didnt let the surface get too hot, i had to go over again though with a FF after as the PG leaves lots of scratches behind.

Yep VAG paint is definately the toughest paint! What i usually do mate is mask off a testing section on the bonnet and then i start with the lightest polish on the softest pad and then work up from there which i learnt from THIS guide on cleanyourcar and detailing world. And i also watched videos on Youtube (which would benefit you because they are all with the PC). My usual method is Intensive Polish (or in your case would be either SFX-1 or #83) spread at 600rpm, then worked at 1200 for a few passes and then slowly worked at about 1800rpm and make about 8 passes or as many as needed until the polish starts going hazy and clear, then i slow it back down to about 1200rpm and make lighter passes to finish it off and remove any holograms that might have been left from when the polish was at its most abrasive. If needed i then go over with a final finish but its not always needed if you break the intensive polish down fully as that effectively then becomes a final finish because the abrasives are much much smaller.

I am going to be ordering some Victoria Concours myself tomorrow, the red wax not the yellow as the red i believe is supposed to give superb results on dark red cars and with mine being blackberry i thought it would be a good choice. So im looking forward to getting it and seeing how it looks. Im also going to try some Clearkote Red Moose Glaze as again i believe it would give good results with the blackberry 8)

Yes mate im in Rushden so if you are ever in the area let me know and we could meet up, im on the forum 90% of the time so just drop me a PM. I started life on the 3 step - about a month ago :lol:

Cheers Karl, get that polisher out mate! Even i havent got all the Megs pads But i wouldnt compare myself anywhere near the capabilities of Nathan yet, he is truly a legend at detailing and its watching his work that inspired me and i would be glad to be half as good!

No probs mate :lol: give me a bit more practise first and i will gladly help you out 8)

TBH though the before shots aren't very good to show how bad it was, it was worst at night time with a flood light on, every inch of the car was covered in swirls it made me cringe which is why i offered to machine polish it for him. But the after shots do show how nice it has come up, you cant beat black VAG cars when they are at their best imo but i wouldnt own a black car, too much hassle to keep looking nice :shock:

MK1Campaign, Thanks :D yeah black AND vw paint for both my 1st and 2nd time machine polishing isnt a bad start :lol: im sure it will be a relief when i get to work on a car with nice soft paint!! Jim, Cheers Jim, i have picked it up quickly as i have become sadly addicted :oops: :lol: i have been looking on Detailing World a LOT and been researching different products so am gathering up quite a collection of different polishes/glazes/waxes etc now! It wont be too long until i will offer to do other peoples cars but for now i would like a bit more practise on mates cars that dont really care if i dont make it much better :lol: i noticed on my sisters golf that a few areas i have left the odd hologram which kind of knocked my confidence a bit after saying i would do the golf but i read about how they were caused which is basically not breaking the polish down enough and moving too quickly and so took more time and care on the golf and so far so good!

Ok guys time to add my write up for the Mk4 Golf i machine polished over the easter weekend! The car is a 99 Mk4 Golf Tdi in black (eek!) and it was in very bad condition so i offered to machine polish it mainly just as a challenge to myself as the owner (my sisters boyfriend) wasnt really fussed about the finish it had but i wanted to see if i could get it looking half decent. I took a couple of before pics but they dont really show how bad it is, it just looks like a black mk4 :lol: but here are some before shots anyway: The first thing i did was clean the wheels using AG Wheel Cleaner and a wheel brush. It had not long been washed (at a car wash :roll:) so i just let it soak for a while in the shampoo that came with my superspray (which is a great little item!): Then i washed it with Megs #00 Hi-Tech Wash using 2 buckets and a lambs wool wash mitt for the large body panels and a megs wash mitt for smaller more dirty areas including door shuts etc. Then dried with a Sonus Ultimate Drying Towel. Then i clayed the car with a Sonus Green clay bar and Sonus Glyde lubricant. Which on the main body panels didnt collect a lot of dirt but the tailgate and lower half of the doors were quite dirty: I also used the clay on the wheels to remove stubborn brake dust. Then i washed and dried it again and left for a while to completely dry off. The wheeled it into the garage to start the back breaking machine polishing! I first went over the car by hand with Megs Step 1 Paint Cleaner and then masked off a section of the bonnet and tested numerous polish and pad combinations. Final Finish on even the hardest pad didnt touch it being VAG paint :shock: so tried Intensive Polish which on the hardest pad started to remove the swirls. After the IP i went over with FF on a soft pad and it came up rather well: Here is a 50/50 shot: Some shots of the finished bonnet: Action shot: :oops: After a LONG time on the bonnet which was mainly testing combinations i masked up the rest of the side and then had the most important part: A cuppa in my fav 'Sex' mug :lol: So anyway i carried on with this combination round the first half of the car and some areas (mainly rear quarter) i even had to break out the Power Gloss which is quite scary to use as it looks like it does more bad than good as it cuts so much but after some FF came up a treat. Door before and after: Rear quarter before and after: At this point i was absolutely cream crackered due to the fact i had been gym the night before and killed my shoulders with weight training not realising i was going to be machine polishing all day the next day!!!!!! So i left it as it was in the garage and continued with it the next day which seemed to go a lot faster and easier for some reason :? I didnt use the polisher on the plastics due to me being in experienced and them not taking the same heat as metal etc so i just used some Scratch-X and elbow grease. Then covered the whole car in AG SRP to cover up any marks left behind, waxed with Collinite 476s and finally glass cleaned and tyres dressed with Megs Endurance. After Shots: 8) (thats a plane line in the reflection not a hologram before anyone questions my skills :lol:) Overall i was very pleased with how i got it looking, i was bloody nackered and dont fancy tackling a job as hard as that for a little while!! The owner was over the moon with the results and couldnt believe the difference! I even got a phone call on sunday night from my sister whilst they were both out saying that all his and her mates want me to do theirs now :roll: :lol: Thank you for looking :D Rob.

Is it just me or is that innuendo heaven? :norty: PMSL didnt realise when i typed it :roll: :lol:

No it was a non runner on blocks which is why i could just go and offer my wheels up to it. Im glad i didnt though in a way as it would of made me realise how bad mine are! :lol:

Not tried the AG stuff, might have to get some. Im exactly the same as you though, mine isn't THAT bad for swirls, i havent had the machine polisher on it yet but i have had a few sessions with Scratch-X in the past so its not terrible. BUT i still look at it and see swirls and i HAVE to get rid of them :lol:

Nope :cry::cry::cry: I will need to space the wheels out about 10mm to get them to fit!! I couldnt believe it, they didnt seem much bigger than then 280's but it was a mile out. Although Simon did mention that the TT 312's have an offset and sit quite far in compared to the 280's and 288's so i might try and fit over them for a laugh!!! :lol: Many thanks to Simon though, top bloke! Very nice meeting you and will most probably see you again at some point (especially with you being a mechanic and knowing the vr inside out :wink: :lol:)

Great pics mate! Car looks very clean and the paints in superb condition judging by the last picture which would usually show up no end of swirls! Get your wheels off and clean the arches though!! :lol: What do you use on your tyres, they are rather shiny? I use Megs Endurance which is very good but doesnt shine as much as that!