jedi-knight83

Fridays job was a lovely 993 RS in midnight blue. Arrived just after 9 and started on the wheels. Autoglym (AG for short) acid free cleaner with the swissvax wheel brush then pressure rinsed and repeated for stubborn marks Then the car was foamed with AG PM3 (still the best cleaner ive used) Then for those who are not familiar with the pre-wash tachnique.. foam allowed to dwell for a few minutes before being pressure rinsed off. The aim is not just to remove the foam but really remove as much dirt as possible before touching the car with shampoo so go round the car slowly and deliberately with the pressure washer from the bottom up getting all the drit and grime off. This process more than any other is what will save the car from swirls which are inflicted from poor washing of dirty cars Car was then shampoo'd with AG shampoo and conditioner, Clayed with Sonus Green, Rinsed, Dried and put inside. And now for a few swirl marks... Not showing up on the camera as well as in real life and even in ambient light you could easily see the marks in the panels! Polishing was done with Megs polishing pads and ip3.02 on some panels and FA106 on others. Strangely for Porsche paint IP3.02 wouldnt give a hologram free finish.. softer paint than usual i guess??? So FA106 was used after the IP and on most panels FA106 did the trick on its own. Before and after with the camera tripod and lights unmoved. Before After After in the sun Polishing work was finished about 6pm, car was then rinsed down to remove dust. Now for the Dodo Juice Pre Wax Cleaner. For those who dont know this is a brand new product which has been knocking around for testing for a few weeks and should be in the shops within a month. I have tested these on a few panels at home and have been very impressed with the results.... so much so i thought it was time for its first use on a whole car. 10p sized amount of product on a round foam pad and rubbed over the paint in straight lines passing each secton 3 times. "Oh no i've just got it all over the rubber... thats going to be a pain to get off... oh no ... wait it rubs off easy and.. .0oh flipping heck... that rubber looks good" Yes Dodo Juice Pre Wax Cleaner is pretty amazing on both smooth and textured rubbers and plastics leaving them lovely and glossy. The residue on the paint cleaned off easily MUCH easier than HD Cleanse and left the surface glossy and very wet looking but literally squeeky clean. HDC doesnt give that squeek (possibly the fillers the HDC lays down giving a very temporary protection??) Yes Dodo Juice Pre Wax cleaner breaks all the rules and is easy to use, leaves a great clean finish, safe on rubbers and is going to be very cost effective :doublesho Other brands better either pull their finger out and produce something better to rival this new cleaner or they may be in trouble Anyway.. back to business.. Car all cleansed it was time for the 61% Vintage wax. Applied wax to roof, rear, rear wings with a foam pad and then buffed. Then did the doors, front wings and bonnet and buffed. I found this better personally than doing the whole car before buffing. Windows cleaned, Arches dressed and tyres dressed with non slip, non greasy dressing, final wipe of the paint and finished at 9.51pm Now throughout the day both myself and the owner were pretty impressed with how wet and glossy the paint was looking and at how the colour was changing with light from different angles... but when it came time to photograph the car i was tired and had the camera on the wrong settings so they pics look a bit dead and boring (compared to in the flesh) Thanks for looking and reading Nathan

oh cool its a kohler tap isnt it?? whats the RRP?

Morning.. Another long day yesterday. Left the house later than planned and thus hit the traffic on my way to the job. Saw that funny Scrubbers van on the way though which cheered me up! http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=40826 The job was on an 'unnamed road' and didnt have a house number so the satnav took me to the middle of the road.. As i was driving down it trying to see the house names i saw a house with 3 amazing cars outside (but not the Vanquish) and just though.. ooh nice.. maybe i'll pop a card through their door when i leave tonight. Upon closer inspection that was the house i was looking for and and Vanquish was tucked away in the double garage :) The car was fitted with some lovely 20" Asanti custom wheels with the centres painted body colour and it also had thicker mesh in the bonnet vents and grill making it look that bit more special. Quickly got on with the job. Pre wash with PM3 via the foam lance Wheels, Shampoo, Clay, Tape up, PTG check showing about 200 on the roof and 140 everywhere else. Under the lights you could see faint swirls and also some light buffer trails. A chat with the customer revealed it had been machined before by his previous valeter. Menzerna 106ff on a megs polishing pad removed what swirls were there and also finished down perfectly to leave a hologram / buffer trail free finish. Worth a mention that Menzerna was behaving itself again on a damp day! When its good.. its very good... when its bad...... The polished paint Once all polishing was complete at about 5:30pm the paint was treated with the premium paint cleanse including the wheels. The i applied a coat of the Vintage wax via foam pad to the whole car before starting to buff off. I found it a little harder to buff than usual but the up side as FAR less wax holograms after the first buff and none after a quick second wipe an hour later. Wheels were also waxed. The wax curing Then the glass was cleaned, tyres and arches dressed, interior vac'd, wiped and leather conditioned Was 10pm and very dark once i finished so no stunning daylight shots.. but im going back to do the other cars and also will be doing a monthly maintenance on the vanquish so will have chance to get daylight shots later. One of the other cars im returing to do is a 700+ bhp Corvett :) The finished pics of the Vanquish on and lastly... i took this on my phone... possibly the COOLEST bathroom tap in the whole world. touch sensitive on/off and temp controll and the led colour changes as the temp changes! thanks, Nathan

Hi Steve herisites got it pretty spot on with his explanation. What i would say if your gonna try it yourself is practice on some test panels before giving a go on your car. Ive had alot of hours with the machine polisher and its a tricky tool to use perfectly especially if your car has alot of curves or angles. Make sure the rotary you buy has variable speed down to 900rpm and you wont need to take it higher than 1800rpm. Keep it moving to avoid excessive heat build up. Use very small amounts of polish and work them alot to break the abrasives down. I normally work on areas no bigger then 2ft squared at a time and pass over between 10-20 times with the machine to make sure you get a good finish. Thats about it really. good luck and dont forget to practice on some scrap panels first.

Another black swirly car today... and yet again been subjected to an automated car wash by the previous owner. It was so bad that even in the shade you could see the scratches when standing a couple of feet away from the car! So left the house at 8am a bit later than planned. Foam pre wash with AG PM3 Wheels with AG Acid Free Shampoo with AG Clay to remove lots of red paint flecks with Sonus Green Machine with ip3.02 on megs polishing pad After the wash and clay pics of defects.. After polishing and checking in the sun for holograms... of which there was none :thumb: Another before and after Working round the car making sure as many of the marks were polished out took about 7 hours and even then some of the deeper ones remained but the level of correction was pretty amazing considering how it was. Paint cleanse and 61% vintage wax was applied and removed with the help of the owner (otherwise i would have finished int he dark!) Final pics in low light with a tripod Walked back in the door at home at 10:30pm job done.

nope.

Thanks Jim Work has certainly got up to a very high level much quicker than i had expected and im over the moon with how things are going. Yes i get taken out now and again but to be honest after a 12 hr day there isnt often much time. I got the day out at silverstone with 2 of the CGTs though... which was nice

The Alpina B5 is a E60 shape 5 series with a 4.4 Supercharged V8. Only down side according to reviews i read was lack of LSD but this is booked in to have one retro fitted asap. Anyway.. this is a second hand 06 car and needed bringing up to standard. Upon arrival. During the PM3 foam process In the low light of the morning i thought there werent that many swirls to contend with.. Once clayed and inside under the lights though it was fairly bad and was clear it had been machined in the past with pretty bad buffer trails especially over the roof (which was tough for me to reach and im 6'4). Paint corrected very very nicely with 1-2 hits of ip3.01 on a polishing pad. Before swirls After polishing By the time i had finished polishing this huge car i was pretty exhausted and it was pretty late and as it could be kept inside for a few days i agreed with the owner to return later in the week to complete.. .. this occured saturday morning when the paint was cleansed and waxed with the 61% Vintage wax. And this was howed it looked once complete.. And outside... in the sun to show the defect correction.. and yes i did notice slight wax hologramming which was buffed off again when it was back in the cooler garage. Thanks for looking

So it seems Carrera GTs are a bit too boring for people... only 365 view of my last thread compared to 1000 on all my others... lets see if i can interest you more with this then! What a long day. Left the house at 7am and got back at 11:15pm. The car didnt look too dirty upon arrival but during the wash process the owner got to see just home dirty it actually was. Pre wash with Autoglym PM3, Shampoo, Clay and the paint was already looking much more reflective. As the sun shone through the trees you could see the swirls clearly and even in low light the paint was looking amazingly dull and flat in places. Inside and undert the lights.... oh dear! And i've noticed since getting home that the camera hasnt shown just how bad the car was!! So after testing all the polishes i got upto ip3.02 on a polishing pad which did the trick. wet sanded a couple of areas on the bonnet and wing and then set round polishing the whole car bit by bit. The menzerna polish behaved perfectly today which meant although it was a long tiring day.. it wasnt a frustrating one. Most panels corrected with 1 hit although i passed 3-4 times at 1800rpm and then about 10 at 1500 and a further 10 at 1300 to get a crisp finish with one hit. Action shot.. Before wing After wing Before boot After boot (annoying very deep scratch just where i had set the camera up for a photo. this was improved afer a second hit but not fully removed) Before rear wing After rear wing Once polishing was complete car was rinsed down again to get all the dust and residue out of gaps, then dried, Paint Cleased with HD Cleanse and waxed with 61% Vintage wax. Glass, dressings, leather, final wipe down. Must say yet again how thankfull i am for the hospitality of my customers. Tea, buscuits, chocolate, chicken pie for dinner etc!! And now for the finished shots.. unfortunately it was a bit dark by now! Thanks for looking

Greetings... not posted work up for a couple of weeks.. this is what ive been up to.. I was booked to do a new 997 GT3RS but it was away having a suspension set up. So instead i had to make do with this.. poor me! (997 RS will come another day) Got my AB lance back the other day so car was foamed, shampoo'd, clayed, Machine Cleansed to get rid of what minor swirls i could (did a pretty good job), waxed with Vintage 61% carnauba wax. Didnt really get many pics of the process as my batteries were dead so had to keep turning the cam on and off to try to get the battery to last long enough to take a shot. As there isnt much to write up about that detail i'll quickly add a couple of pics from monday... Vintage topup on another CGT And a brief write up of lasts Fridays job. 3.2 V6 Audi TT with minor swirls thanks to an owner who knew what he was doing with the wash technique. Machine polishing with IP 3.02 sorted out the swirls and really brightened the paint up to show an amazing flake (althogh i didnt get any pics of this) Again waxed with Vintage 61% carnauba wax. Before After wash After clay and being taped up for polishing 6 or 7 hrs later (i forget exactly) Thanks for looking

Afternoon. I did this car back on thursday. Owner had contacted me a while ago as the car was 4 years old and had been treated toa few kosovan 'i'll shine your car up special' washes resulting in it looking a but dull and lifeless. The owner spent the whole day down in the garage watching and learning and even giving a hand in buffing off in the final stages. I'd also have to say this was the most hospitable of customers (ive been fortunate to work for some really nice people but this toped the list) With lunch and dinner and endless cups of tea and choccy biscuits etc. Usual pre wash, wheels, shampoo and clay. I started quite late on the day and then complications with a location to wash the car had meant it was about 12:30 before taping and PTG checks were done so i didnt mess about with photos but the swirls were meduim on all panels apart from the roof which wasnt bad atall apart from a few RDS and it was a bit dull and hazey.. but no swirls really. 106ff didnt do much, 3.02 took about 80 - 90% out but 3.02 with a drop of powergloss left its own marks... so back to 3.02 and panels that needed it were given 2 hits. All corrected by about 7pm and then on with the Premium wax cleanse and Premium 61% wax. Id just like to take the opportunity again to voice my disappointment and disgust with the Z*m*l company for the stupid, unreasonable restrictions they are putting on using their name and would like to say i fully support Detailing World's decision to blank the word from the forum. Great products... terrible company Back to the car... all finished, dressed and wiped down by about 10:30pm... Probably took a few hours extra because i was explaining things to the customer and stopping for food and drink more than usual but it was actually a nice relaxing end to a busy week and i didnt mind the late finish atall being in a nicely lit dry garage. The photos... got cut short on my photo shoot as another car came in and needed to park in the spot where my car and all my stuff was so it was a quick rush to shuffle cars and pack up but here are the ones i got.. owner was over the moon. having a week off next week. thanks for looking

zymol were trying to get me signed up as an approved detailer. with the initial fee, compulsary training and products you looking at £7k in the first year (raising to approx £13k next year) and £2500 each year after that Its a rip off. all you are paying for is use of the logo and the fact you can say 'i am an approved zymol detailer' They only hold the registered tradmark rights for the logo and the zymol work with the 2 dots about the o.. not the plain writen word 'zymol' and they cannot legally restrict someone, professional or not, from saying i use zymol products. They will bully them and threaten leagal action as thats the kind of company they are but as long as you dont use the logo or claimto be approved then your fine. Their waxes are good but the company is terrible!

I wasnt going to bother showing the DB7 as i didnt get many pics.. but thought i may aswell tag it onto the bottom of this one. Anyway.. todays car was a BMW E30 M3 Evo 3 Sport. I like to give a bit of history on these less common cars so here it is.. Arrived at 9am and the car was sitting outside looking pretty grubby and the swirls showing up clearly in the early morning sun. The great thing about this customer is that aswell as having an awsome collection of cars he has a genuine passion for driving them and using them as originally intended. So the usual tar up the sides, heavy brake dust and general road grime. Upon arrival Prewash with AG PM3, Wheels with AG Acid Free, Shampoo with AG S&C, Clay with Sonus Green, Tar with AG T&G. a quick shot of the swirls in the sun.. Paint readings were up and down to say the least. Bonnet, Roof and Boot were original single stage paint. Sides were resprayed with clear coat. Lowest readings was 99um on the bonnet though so all pretty safe.. and this was after taking alot more readings than i used to after some friendly advice from Gary at RR. After testing polish i went with Menzerna IP 3.02 on a Megs yellow pad. Bonnet Before Bonnet After Boot Before Boot After The pad after 1/4 of the bonnet Spoiler removed for access to boot lid. Also removed front and rear plates. Time was ticking. Started polishing at 11am and finished at 6pm. Time for the Premium Paint Cleanse (We all know what it is by now but trademark laws enforced by an over sensitive american company mean im reluctant to post the name). The premium finishing wax was 61% carnauba content. Dressings, Interior cleaned and Leather fed. 8:30pm now and dark skies thanks to crappy english weather so not the best photos in the world. the DB7 was done on Monday and was the same process as above and also took 12 hrs. Shifting the car around, dodging showers and a later start to the day though meant i didnt bother taking photos till it was all finished. Owner contacted me because his own efforts with Zymol Carbon haddnt left it looking like my photos had shown him it 'COULD' look. On arrival it was clear to see why.. 6 year old paint that was hazey and swirled. Photos.. Thanks for looking.. off to london tomorrow for another correction detail.. then a day off.. YAY!

This was a test of my endurance, determination, patients....trying to work for 2 days on a car and concentrate... while the smell of bacon is wafting through the door is blooming difficult! The car itself... although taking 16hr was pretty straight forwards. The car is a 1998 DeTomaso Guara. Originally costing appox £100k (ferrari 355 money at the time) its not supprising only 4 made it to the uk. It has a BMW 4.0 V8 producing 300bhp and only weighs 1200kg. This car has been in storage for some years but has recently changed hands so the new owner got me over to sort things out. The process was Pre Wash > Wheels > Shampoo > Clay > Polish (about 9 hrs!) > Premium pre wax cleanse > Premium 61% carnauba wax > Interior > Glass > Exhaust > Dressings > Wipe down > Photograph. Paint corrected relativly easily with ip3.02 with 2 hits on some panels. And here are some photos.. Swirls before: Paint after correction: Thanks. Nathan

This one was up for £101k One before was a black one with the original wheels that belonged to one of my other customers... It went for £135k and was then resold a few months later for £150k!!

This week in a change from usual i have been working on a few porsches :lol: First off a 993 GT2 that was up for sale so was a case of cleaning it up ready for the viewing. Pre wash > Shampoo > Clay > Premium paint cleanse > Premium 47% Carnauba wax Then down to sevenoaks area for these.. blooming long day fitting them both in.. which wasnt helped by the fact i arrived late due to having to get my tyres changed before the trip... noticed the previous night i was running a little low!!! Whoops. Anyway.. the cars.. or first actually.. the wax... Zymol Vintage to be precise.. £1800 in the shops. Applied to your car for slightly less than that :) The Boxster S was up first..After a lovely sunny day.. when it came to take the final pics.. it rained!! thankyou england! Pre wash > Shampoo > Clay > Premium paint cleanse > Premium 61% Carnauba wax > Leather fed with Liquid Leather And then the GT3 RS fresh from a track day at Spa Pre wash > Shampoo > Clay > Premium paint cleanse > Premium 61% Carnauba wax Then a couple of astons to finish the week off.. but will do those at the weekend. Cheers.

Its been a while since i posted up here.. been busy and then the forum changed... but here is a catch up on some of the cars ive done recently 07 plate Audi A6 3.0 V6 TDi (protection detail) Porsche 996 GT3 Mk1 Cobalt Blue (only Mk1 gt3 in this colour) (Full correction detail) 07 plate Range Rover Supercharged (protection detail using Dodo Juice wax) Aston Martin DB9 with new Sport Pack (protection detail with owners Zymol Vintage wax) 07 plate Aston Martin DB9 Volante (protection detail using Dodo Juice wax) 07 plate Porsche 997 Turbo (protection detail) Porsche 996 GT3 MK2 (Full correction detail) Ruf 3400S (Full correction detail) Tiny bit of info on the car first... this is an original Ruf.. in that it was purchased as a Ruf not a Porsche Boxter and then upgraded after purchse (although it makes little difference in real terms) The 3400S is a boxter shell and chassis with a 3.4 911 engine giving 50bhp / 40lbft over the boxter S. Also has upgraded suspension and custom exhaust along with the 19" Ruf design wheels and GT3 seats... Its also a funny colour as you will see! and thats caught up with the big ones.. lots more to come.

incredible :D

yeah best just to face the fact its never gonna sound like a 6 cylider car... which is why im now after an e46 m3 csl :D but if you can get over the lack of sound its an amazingly acomplished all round car that is a greta long distance cruiser and great funa nd extremely fast when you want it to be... which for me is 99% of the time which is why i only avaerage 20mpg :D

my mind wont change on the interior but it is all personal preference i think it looks cheap and tacky BUT... saying that when i drove in a half leather car it does hold you in the seat better. The full leather looks more classy and smarter (all in my opinion) but you do tend to slide more than with the alcantara.

That would be good mate. You can valet it while you're here :)[/quote:7a3dd] i could... but if you want that doing can you book with me in advance. As i'll be in my car i will have only brought enough stuff for the 1 car i have booked in so will need to know if i should bring extra. cheers

my full black leather noggy had the black headlining. i think its something you could spec. one a slightly different note... :) which foam cleaner do you use?

just seen your in worthing. i'll be down there next month. got a job in brighton and then going to goodwood FOS and staying in the area. if you have it by then will have to meet up one eve. good luck with viewings tomorrow.

any alcantara is a bit of a paint to keep clean actually as it likes to hold on to the dirt. its never been a problem for me though as i really cant stand the half leather option. it was a no cost option on the s3 so there are a fair few knocking around but i hate it. i had full black leather on my noggy and i have full silver leather on my current mineral grey s3.

well ive had 2 now and researched them well. im still saving up to change the suspension as this is another relatively weak area of the car. its quite soft and very understeery compared to the corrado vr6 setup (although my vr6 was lowered etc) £1k will get a nice set of koni fsd dampers / h&r springs / adj tie bars (needed for lowering) / r32 arbs and that will sort everything out. not bad as standard... but not great.