All Detailed Out!

[ukanalyst]

Well taking a risk on the weather yesterday I decided to use all my new cleaning goodies and give my car the clean of it's life ... and 16 hours (over 2 days) later and I'm kn@ckered but the car is the cleanest it's ever been and ever likely to be again

Some pictures and a video from the process:

Day 1

Here's how the car started off:





First to decide which of this stuff I will need and more to the point if I'll have enough wheel cleaner



I narrowed it down to this little lot:





First job: Clean outside of wheels then remove them to clean inside, polish inside and out and seal inside and out:



From this:



to this:



to this (Brite Wheels where have you been all my life!??? Wonderful stuff!!):



Now Polishing and sealing:



Hit a snag on the offside rear wheel in that the wheel nuts were seized on so after hurting my hand and trying everything including standing on the wheel brace to get the last three bolts off I had to take half an hour out to head off to Screwfix and Halfords for my bargain of the week ... a Torque wrench from Screwfix for £13.99!! (1/2" drive Pro Sockets from Halfords - I didn't trust my current 17mm socket not to snap as the bolts where that tight! for £17.99) and it did the job with ease Phew!



Next job (7 hours later for four wheels!) first two car washes (one after the other for super cleaning) and that means SNOWFOAM Time :

This much Snowfoam with one of the sample packs of AG shampoo added for good measure then topped up to about half a litre with water:



Snowfoam in action: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0twuasLNM5I



Looking Clean!:



Next job was Clay and WOW @ the muck in the clay considering it'd had two washes:



Last job was to high pressure rinse the quick detailer off the car just as it was going dark

Day 1 ended around 9:30pm and I was shattered ... just enough time to head off to the cinema to watch Batman until 1:30am
at which time it was throwing it down ... so thankful it didn't rain at all during the day despite what BBC Weather said

Day 2

Day 2 was a little more dodgy in terms of the weather stakes but again BBC was thankfully very wrong who said heavy rain all day ... I got away with one light shower while I was drying the car after the first wash (Neighbours must think I'm mad drying my car in the rain ) and even ended up sunburnt!

First Job - Wash car:



Next was to cautiously polish the car with Super Resin Polish area by area keeping an eye out for rain all the time:





Next job - Extra Gloss Protection:



Next job - Another coat of Poorboys wheel sealant on the outside of the wheels while the Extra Gloss Protection dried (with a bit of help from a very glamorous assistant and A1 Tea Maker ... Massive thanks to Mrs Dave )



Then Glass Polish followed by RainX:



Next came the Poorboys Nattys Blue Paste Wax ... dead easy to apply but a bu99er to take off when dry ... two coats on the bonnet:



Final job before collapsing was to treat the rubber seals and plastic trim areas with AG Vinyl and Rubber care:



Job Done!! What do you think?

[Duncan]

Job Done!! What do you think?

Alright I s'pose.

Looking very nice there Dave! When I saw the table of products I thought "Ferk me, how many products?!!!" lol - but you narrowed it down to a good select few.

lol at the snowfoam. You've gone from me/us persuading you that a snowfoam lance makes a huge difference, to now where we can't stop you! lol

BTW, not really the best idea to use a torque wrench to loosen really tight nuts, quick way to knacker the wrench. Best thing is a breaker bar.

[rushy]

Top work there mate, love the foam vid, vxrmarc better be looking over his shoulder.

[Thunder]

Great job you've done there But worth it

it's surprising how much road dirt the clay brings off My silver vectra was just the same when i first clayed it

[Mrs Dave]

And day 3 of "Operation Sparkle"... Off the the lake district to get nice and muddy again! hehe

[mark1319]

Looking great Dave and a good write up to match

The only thing I'll say is you don't need that much polish(SRP) or if you use that much work it until it's barely visible A little goes a long way in detailing so they say

[mitch1965]

That, my mate, looks the dogs danglies!!! I thought i spent time cleaning mine but never that long on it!!
I think i shall have to get some claying stuff for mine & give it a whirl!! Also that poorboys sealer for the wheels too, as i have signa's on mine!!

[Caterman]

Nice work Dave

[Stevel]

Top job Dave and Mrs. Dave.

[gregc]

great job can i bring my car round for you to do????