ilogikal1

I must be the only person on here to remain unaffected. Then again, I do wear this every time I log in just to be sure.

The dealer won't have allowed enough time for the car to be properly finished, hence the poor job. There's also a fair chance that correct products for the paint (or job!) weren't used either as they'll just use a generic bottle of AIO which gets used on all cars going out the door. If you really are set on using a professional; http://www.summit-detailing.co.uk/. And you'll be after the correction detail.

Yep, that's just about covered all the options from a yes or no question.

Pads. And yes, prime them first either with a mist of QD or water, or thinly spread the polish over the face of the pad with your finger before touching the panel depending which technique you prefer.

Glad to be of assistance, buddy.

Polish - 2 or 3 pea sized blobs on the pad, spread on the panel then work. Wax - a swipe with the applicator and then apply to the car. Sealants - depends on the sealant; some I apply like a polish but spray sealants either get sprayed onto the panel then spread or sprayed onto a microfibre cloth and spread onto the panel. It's trial and error that determines which.

No problem.

Yep. From those, the Megs and AF are good for paste/hard waxes. Blackfire and Flexipads are better for sealants & liquid waxes (IMO), but still good for other waxes too.

Personal preference with regards to wax - foam applicators (like the yellow Megs ones), microfibre applicators, finishing pad, fingers, whatever works for you. Personally I like the Dodo Juice Supernatural Finger Mitts. Polish should be applied with the pad with the required level of cut.

You would clay before polishing so getting a pro. detailer to "sort it" should include claying as part of the pre-polish cleanse routine. You certainly wouldn't then clay it again after polishing (well, not for another 6 months or so), and you should be aware that clay can itself mar the paint so it may need polishing again after you've clayed it. You might want to consider a filling glaze in the mean time. If you want to have a crack at it yourself, you can (not necessarily will) get a half decent finish polishing by hand (it certainly won't be perfect though as Ekona mentioned), you could then use a filler heavy glaze to hide the remaining swirls before sealing and/or waxing. Obviously this option is a temporary measure as the swirls will still be there when then glaze wears off.

Glossy!

I somehow managed to miss that picture first time, the car looks well GM. The scenery looks okay too I guess.

Cheers mate.

You're about 77 years too late for that, Will. :scare:

And not that cheap supermarket stuff either, it needs to be purchased exclusively from Shell.

It does look a bit high. It could just be where it's parked, especially as s/he has turned the car around to take photos of the other side rather than just... you know, walking around it. The car doesn't look particularly level in any of the photos... although that could just as easily be the sellers camera skills though (or maybe even just my eyes!).

Congratulations on the new job, Rob, I'm really happy for you mate. Not so sure about the choice of transport though.

That's debatable.

At least I know why golf balls have dimples now.

Well they got that wrong, for a start. An F1 team (from memory it may have been B.A.R.) conducted several tests in their wind tunnel to determine if it was worth retaining a professional detailer to determine that if the paint was perfectly smooth and polished it'd be more or less aerodynamic. It made no measurable difference. If it doesn't make any difference to a car so reliant on aerodynamics, it's going to make even less difference on the road. If I can find the source again I'll post it up.

You just had to say it, didn't you?!

The button operates the headlight washers independently. The windscreen washer will also operate the headlight washers every third time when the headlights are on. Also check the washer bottle level, if it's too low the headlight washers stop drawing fluid before the windscreen washers do.

It's not really a QD though, is it? It's much more a spray wax, regardless of how it's marketed. However, I found it difficult to get streak-free finish with it on the Z without a lot of work. I did find it easier going on harder paint, but even then I wasn't exactly blown away by the finish (compared to what was underneath it). You seem to have got to grips with it a lot better than I have though, your Z looks great there.