jedi-knight83

am already planning to come to bournmouth area for a week early in the new year... how much does it cost to come across to IOM and would there be somewhere to stay?

i spray with a strong tfr and then jet wash them carefully so you dont get any muck or water in the car. brings them up lovely.

updated in first post.

So while i remember... I did 3coursemeal's VR6 over the past 2 days and he happened to have rather nice black recaro's.... so i took the oportunity to take some pics to go with the process. Ive tried a few ways of cleaning leather and a few different products (not all of them) and im happy with this one. There are other ways and if you get on with those then thats great but this is to help those that have no clue where to start or are to nervous about tackling it themselves. the only slightly annoying this is that the photos dont show the full extent of the change... but hopefully Jim will stick his comments here aswell about what he thought of them. You will need: Vacuum cleaner with thin nosel attachment Interior detailing brush (i use the megs one) Source of heat (i use a hairdrier..... she'll never know :D ...unless she reads this thread) Bucket of warm - hot water. Leather cleaner (i use Autoglym leather cleaner) Leather conditioner (i use Gliptone Liquid Leather conditioner from http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk) 1x cotton cloth 1x microfibre cloth 1x chamois 1x interior sponge (there not foam like exterior ones but rather made of a honey comb plastic type thing. Step 1 Vacuum interior. Get all the dust, grit, coins, food etc from the creases of the seats. dont be afraid to get right in there with the vacuum nosel. use a stiff brush if needed to get muck out. Step 2 I have gone back to using Autoglyms leather cleaner after trying the gliptone one. I think they are both as effective as each other at removing dirt but the AG one is easier to use for me. Spray the cleaner over the whole seat. I probably did about 9 squirts for the base and 9-10 for the back rest. dunk the interior sponge into the bucket but semi wring it out so it not dropping with water... you dont want to get the seats too wet but you will need some water to mix with the cleaner. start rubbing the whole seat. i use circular motion to start with medium pressure as you aiming to work the cleaner into the leather. go over a couple of times. Then take you chamois and rinse in the warm water and wring till its damp. Then wipe the seats down. your aiming to remove all of the soap from the leather now. rinse and wring the chamois regularly. it may take several wipes to remove all the shampoo. Repeat this cleaning process on all leather including the door cards. You may need to change water after 1 side of the car as it will have become very soapy. you may also at this point notice how much dirt you have removed. If your seats are heavily soiled you may need to carry out this cleaning proceedure 2 or 3 times per seat. OR..... you could try some AG interior cleaner. This is a stronger mix and is not pH neutral but it is more effective at cleaning. Use in exactly the same way but follow with the proper leather cleaner and make extra sure to remove all soap as it will react with the condtioner and turn the leather patchy for a week or so but then it will return to normal. Step 3 You now need to make sure the leather is properly dried after the wash. I use a hair drier and pass it slowly over all the leather to dry up water marks and then hang it inside over the rear view mirror, close the doors and leave for a while while i do another cleaning job on the exterior. Raising the ambient temp in the car is key to the effectiveness of the conditioner. If the leather is cold the conditioner will not soak into the leather anywhere near as much as if it is warm. I normally leave for a good 15-30 mins while i apply some wax to the car. When you return to condition the leather leave the hair drier running for the remainder of the process. Apply the conditioner using a soft cotton cloth. Use a small amount (10p size) for 2-3 panels of leather if it has not been treated in a while. I normally wipe the condioner over the panels quickly and very unevenly just to distribute it and then start working it in thoroughly in a circular motion really working it into the leather, all the edges, cracks, seams, joints etc. DO this to all the leather in the car inc door cards. Step 4 Get a cup of tea or a beer of something (bit worrying i mentioned tea first :oops: ) and leave the conditioner to soak for AT LEAST 2 hours... the longer the better though and keep the heat source in the car. With leather that is very dry i normally return after 2 hours and pass the hairdrier over the leater at about 6" distance to really warm it up and then using the same cloth as before rewipe the leather. There is normally enough conditioner left on the cloth that this wets the surface of the leather again... if needed adda small amount of conditioner to the cloth again but dont over do it. When your happy its all soaked in as much as its going to (idealy after the 2-3 hours) then take a damp Microfibre cloth and wipe over the leather to remove any conditioner residue. The result should be very soft, supple, great smelling leather. I would re condition (no need to re clean) after a month and then at 6 month intervals after that to keep them in top condition only cleaning when you feel they are dirty again. Hope this helps. Nathan

your most welcome.. i hope yo ugave the bmw guy my number :)

was back finishing the VR6 today. did the leather with gliptone liquid leather (full leather cleaning write up to come..) and then gave the car another coat of collinite wax. Finished all the glass in and out and conditioned all the black plastic... then stood back and enjoyed... well after taking some pics. The flash photography doesnt really show these off very well. The seats were in excellent condition but quite dry. The gliptone soon sorted that out though and are now lovely and soft. Then i had to do the secretarys car.. and rest.............and drink :D Nathan

i might be interested aswell in s3 ones.

prices are on my site (see sig) or corrado forum offer on this link http://the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/viewtopic.php?t=47208 if your after anything more bespoke you'll have to pm me what your after. cheers

i should think so. i have another A4 cab i need to do there actually so i can make a weeks holiday out of it... anyone else in this neck of the woods want work doing?

if you have water, pressure washer, electricity (means i can use the car compared to the van) im sure i could take a short holiday in devon :D

http://the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/viewtopic. ... 466#599466

I was booked in to do a full detail with paint correction on this Corrado VR6 today. The main reason for calling me was the damage on the bumper seen in the pics below caused by a dog trying to fetch a bottle from under the car! After claying the car though i checked out the paint and it was in really good condition so instead of machine polishing the whole car i talked it over with the owner and went with SRP to just bring some shine back. Anyway.. pics and process. Before Wheels cleaned with AG wheel cleaner, Strong TFR mix for body and pressure rinsed, AG Shampoo, then Clay which brought up some dirt but the owner had clayed it a few months back so there wasnt too much. Then the bumper... Started with 106FF = nothing power gloss = some but not much AG 03B = more but still loads left. AG 03B again = still loads left So.. i decided to use some 1200 wet and dry paper. Got it down to a level i was happy with although some of the deeper marks were left. Polished back up with 03B > final finish 106FF So that done... and like i said the car being in good condition it was on with the SRP And then Megs #7 glaze. The light was good at this point so i took some pics. these are before the collinite but it was still looking pretty good at this point. Then 1 layer of collinite 476s before it was dark. Will be going back tomorrow to apply another layer of 476s, do all the rubber and black plastic, glass and the interior, and will get some pics in better light. Nice to be working on a corrado again... brought back fond memories of my old one :D will update tomorrow. cheers Nathan

hmm...not under much pressure to perform now then :oops: just got your PM 3corsameal, full detail will be fine but with the short days i may not finish it all tomorrow and will prob have to return friday... that ok?? also it might be nice if there is room inside for some of the work... especially if its lit in there when it starts to get dark at 3:30pm hate the short days. was working till 9pm in another clients garage (on that db9) and it was great. wish everyone had those facilities

you joking? This is the garage from the outside The house is an old georgian 3 story manor house set in about 10 acres. He has a full time gardener and a full time house keeper. Hardly a tramp.

hmm wonder why you couldnt see my photobucket but you could see Therapors? hey 3corsameal, will that be there on thursday?? :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ ... sDB925.jpg

well i drove it from his house to the garage (quite a drive actually) and i was scared poo-less.... you cant see a thing out the windows and its so long and wide. When i was backing it into the garage i was just on tickover but it wouldnt quite get it up the small lip so i bliped the throttle and got a whole heap of wheel spin :oops: Id def crash it within a day if i was allowed to go any further i think.. im too used to my 4wd now :(

ok so kev seems to be the current king of fitting lots under the bonnet. 3.0 with a turbo. Looks very jam packed under there for your next trick i want you to try this though 8) 6.0 V12 :roll:

usually best to wash again after the clay but then anything else is a bit of overkill IMO

i'd not used it before starting my business and was sceptical at first.. but after using it on my S3 i could really see and feel the advantages. for £12 is well worth the try if you have never used it before. some areas of my car were clean already so i didnt think it was doing much good... but on mine the roof and the doors were filthy and once completed the car shone like it had never shone before Claying is now a regular part of my detailing steps when working on both my own and other clients cars. It only needs to be done every now and again though. a good wax and regular washing will stop the dirt becoming bonded to the paint anyway. Clay is the place to start if you have never detailed your car though.

db9 has more paint in sq ft but its soft so relatively easy to work with. Rado paint isnt soft!

hmm, competition! :twisted:

YES!!!! ;)

oh dear... people i have worked for have thought that there is nothing much to cleaning... until i clean their car. they all.... bar none... stand there after and say... wow.. didnt know it could look like that. where is your db9 owner based? i'll come and give him the free sample and show him how it SHOULD be done

Clay.... there is a really good guide here. http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4829 Basically i use it every 6 months... during a major detail when i know im going to rewax a car. Caly is an abrassive and will take off wax layers aswell as all the other crap on the car. Like polish, you can get different grades of clay. For most people the megs quick clay will be fine. Clay also tends to leave marring (faint scratches) so i always follow with a hand polish like super resin polish