Detailing.........Getting into it a little....
30-05-2012, 05:35 PM
#42
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As i have just got a new car i have joined the M3cutters site, and the detailing section on there is superb.....so i have gone and got all the gear to see what its all about.
But, you dont seem to here much of it on here....just wondering who really goes to town on there cars......I know theres a few but i would of thought more would be having a go.
If i still had my 3DR i would be doing it all the time......but it wasnt such a big thing 6 years ago
But, you dont seem to here much of it on here....just wondering who really goes to town on there cars......I know theres a few but i would of thought more would be having a go.
If i still had my 3DR i would be doing it all the time......but it wasnt such a big thing 6 years ago
You have done exactly what i done when i joined that site mate.
Two guys to look out for are reflecto and bruno, they really no there shit
Some of the work is unreal at times, loads of time and effort tho oh and a lot of cash, your only just scraping the surface, before long you will be right in about all the different theory's and brands.
I`ll keep an eye out for you on cutters, im on there more than here now and have been for 2 years.
Did you get that car you were talking about on lambchops thread then?
30-05-2012, 08:53 PM
#43
Well i,ve tried helping you out as best i can , end of the day if the car is how you want once your done thats the important bit i guess, good luck with it .
Retro Al please do as it,ll give me more chance of more work
31-05-2012, 09:01 AM
#45
OK, so carrying on from where I left off on what I do (I forgot to add that I have a RoMan Reverse Osmosis system (4 stage) and do a final rinse with DI water. But next up comes claying. There's a wide range of clay bars available, but the one I use more often than not for general purpose is Sonus Green. As for lube, Sonus also do a lube, but I don't rate it as highly as their clay bars. I'd recommend either Dodo Juice Born Slippy or make your own lube with any suitably slippery shampoo and DI water. Hyper Wash is good for this. Anyway, claying speaks for itself really, just use plenty of lube and do it panel at a time. It really works wonders decontaminating the paint and you can also clay glass, but make sure you use a clean piece of clay if you do. Keep turning and kneeding the clay as you go and even the cleanest of cars will leave black marks in the clay. Once you've finished the panel should feel smooth and glass-like to touch.
Once that's done and rinsed (I use a QD for that) and dried then it's time to look at paintwork correction. Now, much of the next few steps can be skipped for the regular clean and detail, it's not something that should need doing too often. You can either skip to the final polishing stage for a light polish or straight to the finessing stage.
Now I use Menzerna Polish and Lake Country CCS Pads. Each colour pad is a different grade to suit the different grades of polish, working the way down from the most to the least abrasive. I check the paint and swirls using a Paint Detective PTG and a Cree LED Torch (£30 worth of torch that does the same job as a £450 3M Sun Gun. Fair enough it's more awkward to hold a torch, but on one forum someone found out exactly what bulb the sun gun uses and bought a cheap cordless drill and made his own Sun Gun for about £30). Obviously if the paint is too thin then you need to go steady and miss out the intensive polishes. Also best to have a smaller pad for working the edges and smaller areas.
I use a Makita Rotary and a nice, flexible backing pad, so I have plenty of control and can build up speed, but go steady and practice on scrap panels first before getting too advanced. I could write a book on all the do's and don'ts, but most of it is common sense and there's plenty of guides online.
Not everyone does, but I always follow this up with a "Finessing" stage, using a Lake Country Black Finessing Pad and Poorboys Black Hole or White Diamond Glaze. This can be applied by hand, but I always prefer to follow up a polish with a light machine glaze.
Next up I apply Poorboys EX-P Sealant by hand. I prefer to use a sponge applicator pad and a Sonus Microfibre, but whatever suits you best really. After all that not everyone would use a pre-wax cleanser, but I always do. Most of the time I would use Dodo Juice Lime Prime, although on blacks and dark blues I usually do a Zymol Detail as I believe those colours always come out better with Zymol, so use HD Cleanse.
Then comes the wax. Now this really depends on the colour, the time of year, how much use the car gets etc etc etc.
Around the winter I'd always use Collinite 476s for its durability. In summer sometimes I'd use Poorboys Natty's. It's not at all durable, but it gives the glossiest finish for its price. If I'm really going to town on a light-coloured car I'd use Dodo Juice Supernatural or if going to town on a dark-coloured car I'd use Zymol Concours.
Exactly how I'd apply it and how long I'd leave it on would again depend on the wax, but once I'd given it a good couple of layers I'd then finish off with Zaino Z8 Spray Sealant (Most people treat it as a QD, strictly it isn't, but actually it works amazing as one).
That's the bodywork sorted, I'll add a bit more again later on interior and stuff...
Once that's done and rinsed (I use a QD for that) and dried then it's time to look at paintwork correction. Now, much of the next few steps can be skipped for the regular clean and detail, it's not something that should need doing too often. You can either skip to the final polishing stage for a light polish or straight to the finessing stage.
Now I use Menzerna Polish and Lake Country CCS Pads. Each colour pad is a different grade to suit the different grades of polish, working the way down from the most to the least abrasive. I check the paint and swirls using a Paint Detective PTG and a Cree LED Torch (£30 worth of torch that does the same job as a £450 3M Sun Gun. Fair enough it's more awkward to hold a torch, but on one forum someone found out exactly what bulb the sun gun uses and bought a cheap cordless drill and made his own Sun Gun for about £30). Obviously if the paint is too thin then you need to go steady and miss out the intensive polishes. Also best to have a smaller pad for working the edges and smaller areas.
I use a Makita Rotary and a nice, flexible backing pad, so I have plenty of control and can build up speed, but go steady and practice on scrap panels first before getting too advanced. I could write a book on all the do's and don'ts, but most of it is common sense and there's plenty of guides online.
Not everyone does, but I always follow this up with a "Finessing" stage, using a Lake Country Black Finessing Pad and Poorboys Black Hole or White Diamond Glaze. This can be applied by hand, but I always prefer to follow up a polish with a light machine glaze.
Next up I apply Poorboys EX-P Sealant by hand. I prefer to use a sponge applicator pad and a Sonus Microfibre, but whatever suits you best really. After all that not everyone would use a pre-wax cleanser, but I always do. Most of the time I would use Dodo Juice Lime Prime, although on blacks and dark blues I usually do a Zymol Detail as I believe those colours always come out better with Zymol, so use HD Cleanse.
Then comes the wax. Now this really depends on the colour, the time of year, how much use the car gets etc etc etc.
Around the winter I'd always use Collinite 476s for its durability. In summer sometimes I'd use Poorboys Natty's. It's not at all durable, but it gives the glossiest finish for its price. If I'm really going to town on a light-coloured car I'd use Dodo Juice Supernatural or if going to town on a dark-coloured car I'd use Zymol Concours.
Exactly how I'd apply it and how long I'd leave it on would again depend on the wax, but once I'd given it a good couple of layers I'd then finish off with Zaino Z8 Spray Sealant (Most people treat it as a QD, strictly it isn't, but actually it works amazing as one).
That's the bodywork sorted, I'll add a bit more again later on interior and stuff...
31-05-2012, 11:25 AM
#47
Without that it would be de-mineralised to 30ppm (Parts Per Million). With the 4th stage it purifies it to 0ppm.
It can be used for loads of things. One of the most popular uses is for fish tanks. I bought it through the company as we have to use DI water in our forklift truck battery, but I bought it because I wanted it for cleaning the cars.
Basically, when you wash a car you can get water marks when it's left to dry (It's easy to miss a bit no matter how careful you are plus you always get a little dribble out from the door handle, wing mirror or other cracks, hence why I like to blow it out) and that's caused by the mineral content in the water. If you use DI water you're never going to get that.
So in basic terms, it gives you purified water to rinse the car off with. And also if you make your own lube for clay it's important to use purified water because if you want to give your paintwork a deep clean you're trying to decontaminate it, but the water from the tap will cause contamination itself, whereas the purified water won't.
31-05-2012, 05:22 PM
#49
I rarely do a car without polishing so never needed a filtered system,plus i think you have to fill your water tank over night it filters before it goes in the tank and takes ages
Would be good if you could fill a water tank up then it filtered it on the way to the pressure washer.
Oh the water here in yorkshire is mega soft so water spots are very minimal,for people in hard water areas i think these are a very good idea.
Would be good if you could fill a water tank up then it filtered it on the way to the pressure washer.
Oh the water here in yorkshire is mega soft so water spots are very minimal,for people in hard water areas i think these are a very good idea.
01-06-2012, 08:42 AM
#52
They're about £100, so not really expensive. I'm in a real hard water area, so find it very useful. The water comes out of two thin pipes. One is the waste, the other is the end product. It drips out of the waste pipe quite quickly, sort of a drip or two every second. You probably only get a drip every 5 seconds out of the "good" pipe, so it uses up a fair bit of water. I've got mine set up in one of the toilets at work. There's a shower in there, so it taps into one of the pipes next to the shower, the waste water pipe goes down the plughole in the shower, then I put a bit container (20litre or 50 litre usually) in the shower next to it to catch the de-mineralised water and just store it in big containers.
01-06-2012, 11:59 AM
#55
They're about £100, so not really expensive. I'm in a real hard water area, so find it very useful. The water comes out of two thin pipes. One is the waste, the other is the end product. It drips out of the waste pipe quite quickly, sort of a drip or two every second. You probably only get a drip every 5 seconds out of the "good" pipe, so it uses up a fair bit of water. I've got mine set up in one of the toilets at work. There's a shower in there, so it taps into one of the pipes next to the shower, the waste water pipe goes down the plughole in the shower, then I put a bit container (20litre or 50 litre usually) in the shower next to it to catch the de-mineralised water and just store it in big containers.
Cheers mike
