ilogikal1

Okay, they're pretty cool. I'll forgive you for not spending as much time here then.

Also, subsequent layers have been applied all round. Some things I've learnt - the issues with the first layer of OB Glaze was very much due to (massive) over application. When applied properly it's a breeze to work with. HydroCoat Hybrid is also much easier to apply properly with coating applicator and suede cloth. Top tips; Use a coating applicator block with a suede microfibre to apply any liquid LSP, it's a lot easier to get a thin layer - can you tell which one I used for OB Glaze? Apply OB Glaze in the dark under UV lighting, it'll revelutionise what you think you know about applying an even layer because you can very much see high spots; Also, OB Glaze is very difficult to photograph well with a cheap UV torch on a blue car however in person it's very noticable. on the photo above, the bonnet section, headlight and the angle of the bumper around the headlight are all coated, whilst the vertical sections of the bumper (across the bottom and the left hand side below the bonnet gap) are not - basically everything you can see is, everything you can't isn't! As a side note, if OB Glaze leaks, it's very easy to trace where it's leaking from... Okay, that's enough UV photos (for now anyway). The car is now wearing: The passenger wing mirror has 1 coat of Carnauba Glaze. The driver wing mirror has 1 coat of PTFE Polishing Sealant. The roof has 2 coats of Poorboys Black wax. The passenger side third of the boot lid has 1 coat of Carnauba Glaze topped with 2 coats of HydroCoat. The driver side third of the boot lid has 1 coat of PTFE Sealant topped with 2 coats of HydroCoat. The middle third of the boot lid has 1 coat of Carnauba Glaze topped with 1 coat of PTFE Sealant topped with 2 coats of HydroCoat. The passenger A-pillar trim has 1 coat of Carnauba Glaze topped with 1 coat of HydroCoat topped with 1 coat of Natty's Black wax topped with 1 coat of HydroCoat (because I forgot I'd waxed that...). The driver A-pillar trim has 1 coat of PTFE Selant topped with 1 coat of HydroCoat topped with 1 coat of Natty's Black wax topped with 1 coat of HydroCoat (because I forgot I'd waxed that too...). The passenger third of the bonnet has 2 coats of OB Glaze. The middle third of the bonnet has 2 coats of HydroCoat Hybrid. The driver third of the bonnet has 2 coats of HydroCoat. The passenger headlight lens has 3 coats of OB Glaze. The driver headlight lens has 3 coats of GTechniq G1. Both front wings, doors, rear quarters, rear bumper and some sections of the front bumper is all wearing 1 coat of CanCoat - just to note none of this was wiped down before CanCoat was applied, hence much of that has Pre-Wax Cleaner under it but some has Scholl S30+ under it instead. The trim is wearing HubiKote HubiTrim. Most of which is still curing, which will take 12 hours, but I still need to do the glass, wheels and tyres, so expect beading soon. I'm also expecting a funky new toy from Direct Hoses to arrive this week...

Who knows.... In theory, unless anything chages between now and then, I'm planning on doing a proper detail when I have more time in April. However the bonnet should be good for a year now. That said, I've still got plenty of products left over, so I may never stop "testing".

Top guy, cheers for all the forumy things you’ve done for the club over the years, matey. Does this mean that with less behind-the-scenes things to do, you'll have more of an in-front-of-the-scenes (?) presence again?

Firstly, just to acknowledge that I've sort of done a Carnauba Glaze, PTFE Polishing Sealant, Hydro Coat thing before (back on page 11). However I didn't really conclude that and I'm doing it again anyway. So there. So some things have occured. To start with, the entire car has been CC Pre-Wax Cleaner...ed (?), and despite pulling out a lot of dirt from the paintwork, it is no good for removing waterspots - in fairness it was a long shot but I had hoped that the chemical cleaners would help. It did not. Applied by hand with a microfibre pad everywhere except the bonnet which I attacked with a black CG Hex Logic pad on the DA - it's a finishing pad, so doesn't offer any cut either. I then ended up actually polishing the bonnet with Scholl S30+ on a green LC Contant Pressure pad, just a couple of quick passes so not a perfect finish but rather just enough to give bare paint. I also gave the headlights a quick pass with the polisher whilst I was there. The bonnet was then given a wipe down with Gyeon Prep. The boot was then taped up for Car Chem Carnauba Glaze. This was applied to the passenger side from the wing mirror, up the A-piller trim and down about two thirds of the boot; After than was applied, the boot was re-taped up and PTFE Polishing Sealant was applied to the driver side from the wing mirror back to two thirds of the boot; After that was applied, a coat of Hydro Coat was applied from A-pillar, across the boot to the other A-piller. This was physically applied with a cotton make-up pad, with each section given between 5-6 minutes to cure before being buffed off. I really do like using this stuff it's so easy to spread over a decent area with minimal effort and get a thin, even coverage, it's also really easy to buff off and leave a great finish. The roof and the A-pillar trims were then given a layer of Pooboys Natty's Black Wax The bonnet is currently wearing HydroCoat on the driver's side, HycroCot Hybrid in the middle and Ob Glae on the passenger side; Each was applied with it's own microfibre pad and buffed with it's own microfibre cloth to avoid contamination, and following the instructions from the Car Chem website (and bottle labels), namely; HydroCoat was spread thinly over the panel using overlapping strokes, allowed 5 minutes to cure, then buffed off. As mentioned, this is delightful to use whether it's applied woth a cotton pad or a microfibre pad - even if it's over applied, because it's a liquid, it's really easy to spread further. Being an old-school Car Chem product, it doesn't have any fancy colouring, fancy scents or fancy labels, so it's just a cloudy liquid that smells solventy with a clear label. HydroCoat Hybrid was significanly overapplied - when the instructions say a small amount, they mean a tiny amount (I'm fairly confident in saying that one single spray from the sample bottle could have done the entire bonnet. I missed the words "small amount" and, being a new bottle, got about 2.5 sprays on the pad... for a third of the bonnet!). It was spread over the panel using a cross-hatch pattern and as thinly as I could manage, however in hindsight it wasn't that thinly at all really. It was left for 5 minutes to cure... which it didn't, so I buffed (read, re-spread it) and gave it another 5 minutes before rebuffing. Despite over-applying, the only downside is that it didn't cure in the 5 miuntes and the panel was still wet. It was still really easy to buff (and re-spread). Now, this is a new-school Car Chem product, it has a fancy colouring (blue), fancy scent ("ice cool" - no idea what that is in real life, but it does smell delightful!) and a the fancy new labelling; which, if it included such things (being a smaple size, that's limited), makes it much easier to read the information the label. I'll come back to that. OB Glaze was spread over the panel in overlapping strokes, allowed to cure for 15 minutes then buffed off, per the instructions. This was also really easy to apply, it spreads forever and day and you can easily see where you've applied. However buffing was a different matter - I feel that 15 minutes is too long as I encountered som resistance to buffing. It's like a partucularly tough wax that's been over applied (and perhaps that was more the issue, that I over applied) where you have to "break through" with the first swipe of the cloth before being able to buff properly. To the naked eye it looks okay (not great, certainly not quite streak-free) but under the UV torch it looks horrendous with streaks everywhere. This is just the first coat though, and I've planning on doing at least one more (again, I'll come back to that) so hopefully another coat will even it out. We'll see. Anyway, being an old-school Car Chem product, this also has no fancy colours (other than the UV brighteners... does that could as a colour?), no fancy scents and a clear label. Being a (reasonably) clear liquid (it does have a violet tint to it around the edges in daylight, almost like it's reacting to the UV rays or something!) in a clear bottle with a clear label makes reading the label a little tricky really. It also just smells of solvents. To recap, currently; The passenger wing mirror has 1 coat of Carnauba Glaze. The driver wing mirror has 1 coat of PTFE Polishing Sealant. The roof has 1 coat of Poorboys Black wax. The passenger side third of the boot lid has 1 coat of Carnauba Glaze topped with 1 coat of HydroCoat. The driver side third of the boot lid has 1 coat of PTFE Sealant topped with 1 coat of HydroCoat. The middle third of the boot lid has 1 coat of Carnauba Glaze topped with 1 coat of PTFE Sealant topped with 1 coat of HydroCoat. The passenger A-pillar trim has 1 coat of Carnauba Glaze topped with 1 coat of HydroCoat topped with 1 coat of Natty's Black wax. The driver A-pillar trim has 1 coat of PTFE Selant topped with 1 coat of HydroCoat topped with 1 coat of Natty's Black wax. The passenger third of the bonnet has 1 coat of OB Glaze. The middle third of the bonnet has 1 coat of HydroCoat Hybrid. The driver third of the bonnet has 1 coat of HydroCoat. The passenger headlight lens has 1 coat of OB Glaze. The driver headlight lens has 3 coats of GTechniq G1 (because I found I had some, so why not?!) Keeping up with all that? Oh good. Per the instructions, Hybrid can layered after 1 hour. There's no mention of layering OB Glaze, but I understand it's based on Nano Shell which can be layered after 90 minutes (it does need 12 hours to cure before it can get wet though). HydroCoat however requires a mere 8 hours between layers. Therefore the plan is to do another layer later tonight/early tomorrow morning and them maybe a third layer of each tomorrow. Nano Shell does state to only apply a maximum of 2-3 layers, so I may stop at 2 layers but then I may not. I think it'll depend entirely on how OB Glaze reacts to the 2nd layer more than anything. Also, if you're paying attention you may have noticed I've missed a few panels. I'm still undecided what's going on the rest of the car. I also need ot start building up layers of Glass Sealant... Also apologes for the pictures, I seem to have left my actual camera not where I am so these were taken with a phone. Unfortunately that phone is an iPhone, so the pictures are not great.

I have a plan forming. It's a plan that involves no less than 6 LSP's (maybe 7), 3 different cominations (maybe more) and upto 3 different brands... or 4 if you count the different Car Chem brands as different brands. I just need to figure out what's going where. The plan is Car Chem Pre-Wax Cleaner all over - because waterspots. An area of Car Chem Carnauba Glaze Polish - which in theory should give 2 months protection on it's own. An area of Car Chem PTFE Polish Sealant - which in theory should give 3-4 months protection in it's own. An area of Car Chem HydroCoat - this will be physically applied (rather than diluted & sprayed on a wet car). An area of Car Chem Carnauba Glaze Polish topped with Car Chem HydroCoat - because they play well together and should, in theory, provide more durability than separately, as I'm applying each separately it seems reasonable to test this. An area of Car Chem PTFE Polish Sealant topped with Car Chem HydroCoat - because that ^. An area of Car Chem OB Glaze - because I have it and I haven't used it anywhere near enough. Plus UV brightener, so I can actually see when this one has fallen off with a UV torch. And who does't like gimmicks?! An area of HydroCoat Hybrid - because it's new so I have to. An area of Poorboys Natty's Black Paste Wax - because I have it but haven't used it, so principals. This may even top something else to see how well wax bonds to it. The rest might be topped with Gyeon CanCoat - because winter. I'm thinking HydroCoat, HydroCoat Hybrid and OB Glaze on the bonnet (which will be wiped down with Gyeon Prep after the Pre-Wax Cleaner, so will be applied to bare paint). The boot will be half PTFE Polish Sealant topped with HydroCoat and half Carnauba Glaze topped with HydrocCoat. The horizontal panels will most likely have CanCoat applied. The roof might be some cobination of CanCoat topped with/or Poorboys Black. Maybe.

Pretty sure I can get them wet... Ahem. I'm not even sorry.

You can't wash cars!! Don't you remember the three rules? Don't get them wet. Don't expose them to bright light. Don't feed them after midnight.

Can’t say that I have, never seen their products anywhere before let alone used them I’m afraid.

In the meantime, I treated myself to this; Car Chem's terrific value litre bottles of 6 random products for £15 (+P&P). Considering most of there products on both the old & new site retail for £10+ for litre sizes, I couldn't resist. Now these mystery boxes are packed with 6 random products from Car Chem's entire stock, old & new. I suspect this also includes left overs/unclaimed stock from other brands that Car Chem supply too, largely because there are a number of products that Car Chem don't appear to offer directly (either in the current lineup or the originals lineup nor do I, as a long term customer, recall them offering directly previously either, however I am accutely aware that Car Chem are an industry supplier, hence the suspicion. There were, of course, also some products I was hoping for and some some I really didn't want to receive, but if given the price I thought it was well worth the risk. As mentioned, I used Ultra Snowfoam - not usual Car Chem fare, this is a clear and particularly thick, gel-like consistency more akin to shampoo than usual red, watery CC snow foam. It has a scent that I can't place either, again akin to that of a shampoo I think. It does say on the bottle that it can be used as either snow foam or shampoo in the bucket, and diluted 1:200. I applied the very scientific "chuck some in the bottle (which already had some usual CC snow foam in - about 200ml maybe) until I'm bored of waiting for it to pour" method. I estimate probably another 200ml (ish) of Ultra, then topped up with warm water (about 400ml of water), thrown at the car through my oldest foam lance turned ll the way to - then back half a turn. It produces a thicker foam than "usual CC" (as I've now dubbed it), but nowhere near the thickest that I've used (that's a good thing!). Its about as thick as I'd want my snow foam to be, any thicker and it won't slide off the panel well enough to actually take any dirt with it. As a result it offered good cling time and it still cleaned pretty well. That said, the run off is still sat on the drive now (about 3 hours later). I'd quite happily use it again but I definitely don't have the patience for pouring it - being a very thick consistency, it's like pouring treacle. That said, it's in a litre bottle so I could probably just stick my foam lance on the bottle and use it neat. I might try that next time. Also in my mystery box of self-giftiness, I received; Which I probably won't use, although it does say it can be used on interior trim & dash so I'll at least give it a try on the interior plastics. Which I'll probably use on door & boot shuts, but again that's about it. This also doesn't appear to be usual Car Chem fare as their waterless wash & wax is green. Which is a delightful product that has previously removed 14 years worth of dog from a relatives car with a single use. I will probably have to go looking for reasons to use to use a whole litre of it, but I do like Odour Eliminator. Some purple Revolt. I don't know much about this product, but I've heard it's okay. Actually no idea why it's purple but I'll definitely take it anyway. What can only de described as a life time supply of glass sealant. Okay, it's not a ceramic coating, but I'm still working my way through the 100ml of Ultra Glass Sealant V2 I bought about 6 years ago! This can be layered for greater durability of 4-6months, but it's so easy to apply it's not a problem to top up fortnightly/monthly anyway. So I may never buy a glass sealant or coating ever again now. Also as a bonus, I also got; So yeah, not bad for less than £20 delivered to my door really. Especially as litre of Glass Sealant alone would set you back £70, snowfoam is £12 per litre, waterless wax & wax is £16, QD doesn't appear to exist in any form, Odour Eliminator is £11.50 (£12 for the original version), Revolt is £14 and HydroCoat Hybrid is... okay, that's currently free with the code in fairness. Still, even ignoring Glass Sealant, £53.50 + a product that doesn't exist + Glass Sealant for about £18 will do nicely thank-you-very-much! Reviews may follow. I'm not promising any time soon though!

So, quick recap, seeing as I've clearly not done any detailing at all since Last Chri... er, since the previous festive period (yep, totally avoided getting that somg stuck in my head again there!). One headlight was half coated with C5, the other half coated with Mohs back in May 2018, the other headlight was treated to some headlight restoration wipes which lasted all of about 12 minutes before failing, being polished (to clean it all off) and then coated with... something (I honestly don't remember!) in September 2018. Both headlights now need polishing again. Then I completed the fallout remover test, had a... "discussion" with Bilt Hamber about the results. At the time, my wheels were wearing 16 month old C5. That was, I think, the last time I threw anything considerable at them, protection wise. I'm fairly certain I will have topped up with various things (BSD, Wolf's Nano Wheel Coat, various other short term stuff) along the way, the last of which would have been December 2018 because I've done literally no cleaning of the car at all in 2019! Meanwhile, as far as I can tell (because I can't remember, I rely on this thread to tell me what I've done!) I last applied Gyeon CanCoat in May 2017 (back on page 22 forthose interested). The car's looking particularly clean and shiney in the pictures from May 2018 (page 24) so I suspect I've added something then - it looks polished and/or coated, but I've negelecte to mention that I've done anything to the paintwork. I don't think I did a full on coating, so it could be as simple as WetCoat but frankly, who knows! I did however mention in Decmber 2018 that I topped up the "coating" (possibly 19 month old CanCoat, possibly 7 month old something else!) with Bathe+ & Hydro Seal. Then I did nothing, for 372 days, or 53 weeks and 1 day, or 8,928(ish) hours. Which brings us from 21st December 2018 right up to today. Today I cleaned the car for the first time in 2019. Surprisingly enough, the Bathe+, Hydro Seal and possibly 31 month old CanCoat (that, I remind you, has a 6 month life span...) hasn't survived the year. Given this, the car was surprisingly clean still - I mean, it needed a wash but it wasn't filthy at all. Except the front wheels. They were filthy. So today was a cleaning day; I spent a good few hours on the wheels and tyres, including fall out removers (yes, plural, I've usning up left over stock. Doing a good job of it too, I've finished off 6 bottles of the stuff today), APC, foam, and proper contact wash. The wheels were tended to in a entirely random order (the correct order being Ryan, Floyd, Rita then Frankie, for those keeping track), namely Frankie, Rita, Ryan then Floyd for the first round, Floyd, Ryan Frankie then Rita for the second round and also Floyd, Ryan, Rita then Frankie for the tyres. Floyd and Frankie were filthy, in fact Frankie still isn't completely clean but I lost interest. Ryan and Rita's rubber took forever to get clean too. I don't know what those two get up to back there... Anyway, all wheels are (mostly) silver again and all tyres are quite black again. Surprising, Floyd is still showing patches of protection here and there. The rest of them however, are not. At all. I then moved onto the paintwork; snow foam with Car Chem Ultra Snow Foam (I'll come back to that), fallout remover (Iron Detox and Revolt when that ran out), APC (AutoSmart G101 for those interested) on all plastics, engine bay and boot shuts, then another foam with Super Suds Shampoo wash and a final rinse. Sadly time does not allow for much more than that this time round, so no clay, tar remover, paint cleanser, polish or anything else I would normally do at this stage. Instead the plan is to get something on the paintwork to see me through to Easter when I hope to have more time to do a full job on it. With that said, I still have no idea what I'm going to lay on the paintwork (or wheels) tomorrow - I'm torn between wanting to use CanCoat, Hydro Seal Hybrid and a number of waxes I bought and still haven't used at all yet. A comparison test may follow...

I haven't actually tried wrap myself, however I'm sure the OP can provide some insight on that front. Shy of removing and respraying the headlights, I'm struggling to find anything that lasts longer than a year either.

It depends how bad they are. Polishing may require anything from light cut compound/pad up to wet sanding to restore. Standard rules of engagement with any polishing; start with the lightest cut and work up if you need to. You might need a multi-stage polish working back down to finish if they're particularly bad (and you definitely will if you need to wet sand). As for sealing, anything with UV protection will do a job; Short term - wax/sealant every month when you do the rest of the car. Mid term - coating or wrap of your choice. Long term - UV resistant top coat. Or any combination of those.

Delivery is only £4...

You'll want to stick to light-medium cut polishes on soft Nissan paint, ideally matched with an appropriate pad (even if polishing by hand). Scholl S20 Black and S30+ are still my 'go to' polishes for soft paint. As always, start with the least agressive and work up if needed.

I’m not sure there’s many more Dutch fans who don’t already turn up to all the European races (except Italy) anyway.

It correlates directly with the poor quality free coverage. Despite ITV dropping the bar for quality coverage to the floor for years, closely followed by the BBC who, although initially raised the bar somewhat, slowly reduced the quality year after year before giving up and Channel 4 continuing the same trend, fewer people were willing to pay to watch good quality coverage on Sky. Seems it's not quality coverage that people want, it's just free coverage. Without that, a lot of casual fans just walked away. With free coverage giving up (almost) entirely now, there's actually been a slight increase in viewing figures this year.

Not to mention being the 2nd thread started by the same guy in the same week. Same title and everything. Even posted both in entirely random sections of the forums... Bruv.

Even despite a YouTube video? I mean... YouTube!

Oh alright then.

In fairness, my rant was aimed more at the **** poor lazy effort that passes for journalism these days, using completely unrelated and random pictures just for the sake of having pictures instead of a story.

Equally, it could be an asthmatic 1.1 diesel with 76bhp...

No one actually read the article then? Article: Hyundai are planning on making a car. Also the article; here’s a random, unrelated 6 year old concept that Hyundai once drew, because we wanted pictures. Everyone: Hyundai is putting that exact car into production, it’ll be awesome! Its like all 47 threads on the new Z that is “definitely” going to happen because someone at Nissan made passing reference to an old model one time.

Although it does offer me 50% off my first purchase... that’s more like it!