herisites 0 Posted February 18, 2007 Well its starting to become qute a common thing with me now, detailing cars. My mate is selling his Audi A3 1.8T and asked me if i could clean it for him. Being the good friend i am i accepted his request and spent 5 hours today cleaning his car. The car was in a bad state when he came to me, he just drives the thing and rarely cleans it and when he does clean it he gets the hand washers at tesco to do it. So the paint had seen better days, it had quite a lot of swirls and was just generally dirty. Ideally the car would need a machine polish and i told him that but as i dont have one i made do with Megs Scratch-X, the Megs 3 step kit, AG SRP, and a whole lot of elbow grease :lol: THE PROCESS: - Wheels cleaned first with AG Wheel Cleaner and rinsed. Then tyres were cleaned with AG Rubber Care and left to soak in some tyre foam (cheapy stuff is all i had sadly). - Then the car was soaked a LOT due to the amount of crap on it and finally washed with AG Shampoo and using a Megs Wash Mitt. Then dried using a m/f drying towel. - The next step was the cnut which was 2 layers of Scratch-X which was really stubborn on his bad paint, but alas we soldiered on and after 2 coats and VERY nackered arms it was starting to look nice :D - Then we applied the Megs Step 1 Paint Cleaner to prep the paint for a polish. - Gave it a polish with AG SRP and not Megs Step 2 as i prefer SRP. AFter this it was really starting to shine and looked fantastic in the garage with all the lights shining on it. - And then finished off the paint with Megs Step 3 Carnuaba Wax. - Finally done all exterior plastics with Megs Trim Detailer and cleaned glass inside and out. I was very pleased with the results and my mate was very very pleased with them! Although its still not perfect due to not using a machine polisher but to sell it certainly looks great enough. Just a couple of pics: I took some pics outside but it was quite dark so cant really see the finish but it still looks pretty shiny. And a good pic with my C in the background 8) All the pics can be found HERE Cheers, Rob. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Son of a Beesting 0 Posted February 18, 2007 How flipping posh is your house! Good work on the Audi Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted February 18, 2007 Cheers, its not that posh :oops: :lol: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
G60Jet 1 Posted February 18, 2007 i did mine today too. started at 10:30 ish finished at 5 and i've not even done the inside yet. Wash it twice, dried, step on of meg, clay bar, step two and three etc. they went round with the tyre stuff before doing all the detailing with the brush to remove the polish in the cracks etc. Tomorrow i will do the Glass and interior, all the door checks etc. it looked ace tonight. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted February 18, 2007 Sounds good, any pics? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted February 18, 2007 I have posted this car up in the Ebay and Misc section as for sale if anyone is interested :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
G60Jet 1 Posted February 18, 2007 Sounds good, any pics? Nope i ran out of light. I'll get some tomorrow Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The_Dude 0 Posted February 18, 2007 Looks nice... you fancy cleaning my motor? lol. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted February 18, 2007 Looks nice... you fancy cleaning my motor? lol. No thanks im nackered and got afew more mates asking me to do theirs :roll: :lol: Get out there and do it yourself, its theraputic almost :lol: and very rewarding afterwards 8) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
STORM 2 0 Posted February 18, 2007 Its good to see (and share ) the efforts of a good clean and polish. Really makes a difference to the value of the car. I made an extra £1000 on my Cooper after spending 8 hours on a deep valet - the dealer couldn't believe how immaculate it was! Result was an extra 1K on the trade in values I had gotten earlier from several different dealers. Well done Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted February 18, 2007 Cheers mate, 1k extra is fantastic from a good valet :shock: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Riley 0 Posted February 18, 2007 Superb work Rob 8) Neil. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jedi-knight83 0 Posted February 19, 2007 good work there Rob.. see how much hard work it is getting a car nice after its been neglected... and people get funny at my charges sometimes :roll: dont worry ive not forgotten your PM about your corrado. Just got a couple of busy weekends coming up but i'll come and sort it for you soon i promise! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 2 Posted February 19, 2007 I've got the Megs stage 3.. really must pick up one and two at some point and give the car a proper going over!! The Audi looks great! :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted February 19, 2007 good work there Rob.. see how much hard work it is getting a car nice after its been neglected... Good lord you are not wrong there mate :shock: he thought it looked good after just a wash! He couldnt believe the difference when you actually give it a proper detail, he was really pleased so i was happy to do it really. Jim - deffo use the 3 step mate its great, the wax expecially, it smells superb for a start and really gives a nice deep shine! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted February 20, 2007 Superb work Rob 8) Neil. Cheers Neil :D Its all down to your advice and products though mate :D Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Riley 0 Posted February 20, 2007 Superb work Rob 8) Neil. Cheers Neil :D Its all down to your advice and products though mate :D Any time Rob 8) Neil. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted February 26, 2007 My mate came over again yesterday and we gave it a top up of wax after washing it first obviously :wink: it was still looking really good after last week but now looks great again 8) And this time as it was only a top up wax the sun was out so i got some good pics of it! Cheers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted March 19, 2007 Well as it was mothers day on sunday i thought i would treat my mums car to a good clean being the nice caring son i am :wink: :lol: Its a silver '01 Audi A4 2.5 TDI Quattro and in the hands of me and my dad is an animal (although not as quick as my C but grips like a b*tch! :shock:) but in the hands of my mum is a daily driver which unfortunately is 99.9% of the time. Being a daily driver it very very rarely gets washed and it was a state and i couldnt bare it any longer so spent the weekend on it. The first thing i did was clean the wheels as they were black! I used AG Wheel Cleaner and a wheel brush and although it cleaned them up it sadly showed the real state the wheels were in which is not good, they are curbed and the paint is bubbling quite a bit in places. Luckily im very friendly with the guy who refurbed my rims so he will be sorting them out. I also washed the brown tyres with AG Rubber Care and then moved onto the body. Knowing that it hadn't been washed for ages i knew that it would have a lot of built up dirt so the first step was to let is soak in TFR and was then rinsed off. This removed the majority of dirt which i was quite impressed with! Then i washed it with Megs #00 Hi-Tech Wash and using a Megs wash mitt. Then dried with m/f drying towel. At this point i started something new which i will do from now on! Claying! I felt the paint after it was dried and it was very BITTY :lol: so i knew it needed claying. I purchased a Sonus Green Clay and Lube package from cleanyourcar.co.uk. I used the green clay as it is ultra fine so i thought it would be best for my first time use. Although tbh with the amount of bonded contaminents (big words :wink:) it probably would of benefitted best from a more course clay. Then following guides from both Neil and from Detailin World i clayed the whole car. I took my time and used plenty of lube whilst regularly re-working the clay to keepit warm etc etc and i was completely amazed at the results! I gave the car another wash after claying it and this is how it looked: I wheeled the car out and took some pics at this stage: I could of quite happily left it like this as it looked stunning compared to before but i cracked on after dinner. Wheeled it into the garage as it got dark whilst i had dinner and faffed about a bit :lol: and first thing i done was use Megs Step 1 Paint Cleaner to prep it for polish. Then lashings of AG SRP (1st layer applied to whole car, left to dry and wiped off, then applied 2nd layer) After the 2nd layer of SRP was removed i then glossed the tyres with Megs Endurance High Gloss Tyre Gel and applied with a foam applicator. This really made the tyres shiny black and is supposed to last well so i will see how it does. This stuff also smells really nice :D Then i applied the 1st layer of Megs Step 3 Carnuaba Wax to the whole car with a Megs foam applicator and left to dry whilst getting a well earned cuppa then come back and removed it. Following day i cleaned the glass inside and out, cleaned all the exterior plastics with Megs Trim Detailer and applied a 2nd coat of wax, and finally it was done!! .... for now, gotta clean the interior soon as its a sh*t hole :( I didnt get a chance to take some finished pics as my dad grabbed the keys straight away and went out in it. But it just looks a bit better than the pics above lol. Next on the list is my sisters Golf Mk2 and my mates E36 BMW :) not quite Porsche Carrera GT's though :cry: one day maybe :lol: Cheers, Rob. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted March 22, 2007 Does nobody care then :( Only joking :lol: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fla 9 Posted March 22, 2007 Does nobody care then :( Unfortunately no mate :wink: No seriously, some good work done there - i'm just jealous because i dont have a garage to use for car work though. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted March 23, 2007 Yeah the garage comes in very handy, not only for when it gets dark but with the cold weather it keeps the moisture and wind etc off the car when applying polish etc. I am doing my mates E36 BMW 318is M3 rep this sunday so i might pop some picks up if anyones interested :lol: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VR6 South 0 Posted March 23, 2007 Does nobody care then :( Only joking :lol: Of course we all care :lol: . Nice work! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Riley 0 Posted March 23, 2007 Good work Rob,glad the results show 8) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
herisites 0 Posted March 24, 2007 Ok so i gave my car a detail today because i have ordered some Collinite 476s wax so i thought i would get her blinging and then put some of the wax on and then i can leave her for quite a while with just washes each week. I wont do a big write up and i have only takn pics of the after shine and reflections just to show the finish. The process was: * Car soaked in TFR and rinsed off using my new and fabulous Superspray. * Wheels cleaned with just warm water and shampoo due to being refurbed and not allowed to use acid cleaners on them * Car washed using Megs #00 High Gloss shampoo and a Megs wash mitt and dried with microfibre drying towel. * Clayed the whole car using a Sonus Green clay bar and Sonus lube. Then washed the car again. * Then i used Megs Step 1 Paint Cleaner to prep the paint for polishing, * 2 coats of Autoglym SRP (applied liberally!). * Then i used Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection which i hadnt used before and i was amazed with the results, it gave the paint a wet look shine! And thats it so far. My Collinite 476s was delivered this morning but nobody was in so its now at the post office which doesnt open until monday so i cant wax it so i shall give it a wash on monday and then apply the wax. But tomorrow i shall clean the interior, windows, trims and tyres etc to finish it off, but thats AFTER doing my mates beemer so i will post some pics up of that as well tomorrow night :D Anyway pics! Bonnet reflection shot: Roof reflection shot: Im bloody nackered now so god help me tomorrow doing my mates beemer! I will have to get him to do most the work :lol: Cheers :D Rob. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites