Stutopia

Now that’s the coating is cured and it’s safe to do so, I’ve done some beads for the true detailing tragics like me. Due to the unseasonably warm weather these are @ilogikal1 style beads, created in a controlled environment, not the big naturals I prefer These beads are high and tight, just how I like to wear my afro.

That’s the end of my time working on the BRZ in the shop and my photos under the lights. The rest of these are just outdoor glamour stuff for my own enjoyment. So what have I learnt this last few days then? It's hard to do damage to the paint with a DA, soft pads and non-aggressive compounds. It's easy to do damage if you don't mask up properly. Work a small area until you get it just right, then get to it. Playing with the toys in a detailing shop is a quick route to an empty bank balance. I need a new DA, possibly two. A lamp. A blower. It's hard work working the paint by DA, you think it'll be easy after doing it by hand, and it sort of is, but they're heavy and want to get away from you and make a racket and make your arms ache. I eat too much fast food when work is tiring. It's addictive, I want to polish everything now. I think I like this more than my office job. Relax when polishing. Keep control but don't tense up. Let the machine do the work, use the force Luke. Last but not least, obviously, it’s a huge treat for someone like me to get to spend time in a professional detailing environment, asking questions, chatting about products, watching and learning; even more so to get hands on the pro goodies and, most importantly, get some tuition. As with most skilled things, technique trumps tooling every time, so it’s been great to spend time picking things up before I’ve had the chance to pick up too many bad habits and without the need for me to blow the GDP of a small country on bits and bobs. I reckon I might even have a chance at taking out some swirls on some of the family cars now. Thank you to Mick (Chongo over on Detailing World) who dropped in and generously spent time showing me what to do and what not to, as well as what to look for under the lights. However, the big thanks need to go to John at Deadeye Detailing for his time, patience and expertise. It’s been absolutely brilliant to see what you can do to transform the grimmest of paint and to noticeably enhance paint that already looked in decent shape. Thank you. If you’re considering a detail and adding some protection, I’d definitely recommend you check out John’s previous work at http://deadeyedetailing.co.uk and give him a shout for a quote.

Having been driven home and back, Day 2 began with a snow foam and two bucket wash. I must say that the BH Autofoam is even more impressive when fired out a heavy duty pressure washer, instead of the nice runny foam I get at home from my Karcher, this produces a heavy, dense shaving cream that holds its shape for quite a while before dripping away. Left to its own devices, out of the sun, I’m sure it would cling for 20 minutes! Just because I can, I fired up the Dezyna Dog Gizmo again. This is definitely my favourite pro-tool. Sadly John isn’t as impressed as me, pointing out that it moves the water around too much, instead of blasting it off the car. Whatever. I love chasing the water away with it. Up on the ramp I found this unpleasant surprise, no idea what has done it, but it must be me as it’s fresh and crud free – needs touching up pronto before rust takes hold Being up in the air meant a rare opportunity for wheels off cleaning. I really dislike cleaning wheels at the best of time, particularly fiddly ones with narrow spokes, this means I don’t do it as much as I should. They got hit with Bilberry to start with, concentrated spray on and as shampoo in the wheel bucket. Hmmm, I’ve not really fallen for this product. It looks like it should be a fallout remover, with its deep reddish purple, but it isn’t. I’m not convinced by it as a wheel shampoo either, I can't see me dropping Envy Evolution or AMMO Plum for the time being. Next up was Red 7 fallout remover. It seems to do the trick, in that it smells like the inside of Mr Creosote’s jockstrap and turns contaminants to a purple streak, again I haven’t fallen in love, CarChem Revolt won’t be being dislodged from my shelf just yet. This is the Red 7 after brush agitation, but not much falling out, as I had washed them at the weekend, including a Revolt stage. This next item, I did fall in love with. My current AMMO woollies were superb on the RAYS, but are just too damn thick to go through the BRZ wheel spokes, but this little beauty gets into even the tightest of apertures – EZ Detail Wheel Brush – I’ll be having one, no doubt. The wheels got a fairly familiar (to me) coating of Gtechniq C5 and as you’d expect from this range, they look glossy, repel water and should last 3-6 months. This is the first time I’ve bothered to coat wheels, rather than wax, so I’m hopeful it’s up to the job, because (did I mention it?) I really hate cleaning and protecting wheels. Like. A LOT. With the car up in the air for wing and door inspection under the lights, it became clear that they had seen a bit more action than the bonnet, roof and boot. Accordingly, Scholl S20 Black was broken out. Apparently this reduces down from a cutting compound to a finishing one, just through the work time on the panel. All thanks to the miracle of diminishing abrasives. As with any product which claims to do multiple jobs, it all sounds a bit too good to be true to me. But, I must say that on a yellow pad, it shifted the majority of my scratches and left a stunning finish, so that just shows what I know. Polished Bliss goes so far as to use the phrase, “Holy Grail of polishes”. Looking at these pics, I can see why they’re so effusive. These first few pics don’t appear to show much, but it’s much harder to photograph corrected paint than I expected, particularly maintaining focus. @Ricey put a great post on Faceballz the other day, showing how the wider shots with big reflections can hide defects, rather than reveal them, so I’ve included these lamp shots to try and showcase the finish. Slightly wider shot. Up in the air is truly the way to work on the side of your car. Instead of tending to rush a job to save either my back or knees, all of a sudden you can take your time and get eyeball to eyeball with the paint. Now, I have to tell the truth here. I’d like to say that the wings and doors were expertly corrected by my fair hand, but John did the work here and I studied and took pictures. Remember the monster defect from Day 1? Well this is what was left of it after a few passes with S20 Black by a professional. Visible under the lights, but you'd need a keen eye to find it outdoors This is the final shot of the naked paint, pre-coating. Not a bad finish to aim for! Another great pro tool, the Scangrip Sunmatch inspection lamp is so much better than the LED torch I use to try and find swirls. The light is super sharp and is a must for finding defects. Naturally I quickly decided I needed one in my life, until I found out later in the day that they’re the best part of two hundred sheets. I learnt quickly in my time in the workshop, and it’s well worth remembering if you go to a professional detailer for a quote, EVERYTHING in detailing is expensive. I daren’t even look at the price of the floorstanding lights. On to the final stage, this is where it gets interesting (well for me anyway, perhaps for you, if you’re still reading!). I’m a natural sceptic, accordingly any kind of superduper sealant/coating/wax/spray/magic dust which claims to be an all in one glossifier, anti-stone chip, anti-etching, super strong but flexible mega product that lasts for 100 years always seems a bit far-fetched. However, the boss advised me that the Ceramic Pro range was so good that not only did he literally wet his pants when he first saw it, but he became a fully paid up fan boy. I was further swayed when another pro detailer dropped in during the week and told me similar tales of being a converted sceptic who was won over by the product upon use. This was enough to convince me that having a chance to have it on the BRZ was not an opportunity to be passed up – especially as it’s about £219 for 50ml So here it is. Much like myself, it’s not very tall but the magic juice inside makes the difference. It’s a bit unforgiving to the untrained, so I was placed on long pile buffing duty for this, away from the business end, which was applied by a trained professional. It needs to be worked relatively quickly but isn’t a huge departure from the Gyeon and Gtechniq sealants I’ve applied in the past. In a nutshell, don’t use too much, spread evenly and precisely, wipe away promptly with one towel, look for high spots and buff again with another towel (my job). After only a few minutes it leaves a very pleasing level of clarity and gloss. Once complete, the coating needs a minimum of 8 hrs out of the elements, so she spent the night in the workshop. I returned this morning to pick her up and have a feel of her, ooooh and indeed errrr. Well, what can I say? The slickness is phenomenal. You know what paint feels like when it’s been clayed to perfection, and it’s glossy and glass like? Well it’s beyond that. It’s super, super slippy. It’s so super slippy I’m sure that as well as feeling immense, the car actually goes faster. Slipping through air which struggles to grip the newly slippy panels. I’m going to keep an eye on my MPG, as I’m convinced the reduced drag will mean an extra 5mpg I may be a little over excited, possibly the drag coeffiecient hasn't been affected that much, but I must admit that having been a bit of ceramic coating sceptic, I’ve certainly been won round on the look and feel front. In terms of its ability to repel dirt (mainly bird s**t around here) and traffic grime, only my first wash after some motorway miles and standing in the elements will tell. The same can be said of longevity, I’ll be keeping a close eye on her for the next 6 months at least. The marketing describes it as “permanent” but I’ve not drank so much of the koolaid that I’m willing to buy into that just yet.

I’ve used a DA before, mainly correcting cloudy headlights, but only briefly on the soft paint of the Z. Many have advised me that you don’t need training to use a DA, do some reading and youtubing, understand the process and then only the simpleset of simpletons can do damage. However, I’m looking to do more than just not doing any damage, I’d like to also achieve some correction and/or gloss enhancement. The biggest obstacles for me thus far has been having to work on my own car, with no space for a scrap panel to practice on and having to do so outdoors. Which is always a mixture of too hot paint and all manner of dusty contaminants blowing onto the working area. And that's when it’s not raining. This was a chance to work indoors, out of the elements and with proper tools to help find the pesky defects I started by tidying up my garage and arranging some of my stuff. This had absolutely no bearings on proceedings, but it felt like suitable pre-study. Naturally the first order of the day at the workshop is a snow foaming. Good to see a familiar face from my shed, in the professional domain, Bilt Hamber Autofoam. One of the many perks of getting to work in a professional environment is the tooling on hand, like a serious jet washer which makes petrol smells and insanely thick foam. Another familiar face, the Gyeon Q2M Silk Dryer is my current favourite drying towel. This absorbs water like nothing else on earth and is super soft on the paint. It’s a distinct step up from the excellent Woolly Mammoth I was using before, it’s just so absorbent. If I had one complaint, it’s difficult to wring out once it gets saturated, but that doesn’t matter if you’re doing a BRZ sized car and you’ve sheeted most of the water off. More exciting pro tooling, possibly my favourite piece yet, a dog blower. This is a leap up in drying, even from the excellent Gyeon towel. No more water lurking in badges, handles or wing mirrors I’d have one in a heartbeat, if they weren’t £750 a pop! I must find a budget alternative, eliminating touching the paint during the drying phase must be worth it. Next up some new-to-me product Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine (ONR). I don’t know what this product is meant to be, but it certainly does the job as a lube. Also new to me, Zaino Clay Bar, more like a putty or plasticine than the Meg’s and BH clays I’ve used previously, very nice, and soft. No horror shots of a filthy clay bar I’m afraid, my paint was more or less spotless So that’s the easy bits out the way, time to try something new; a paint activated, three digit, random number generator. You pop it on the paint, wait a split second and it display a three-digit number, usually in the one hundreds. I’ve no way to know if it’s true, but some people believe these numbers to be the depth of primer, paint and lacquer on the panel. Apparently, this number means there is “plenty”. As well as minimising the risk of my incompetence, part of the reason for the upcoming pad and polish combo is that my paint is in fairly good nick. This is it, post clay and naked – like Demi Moore in Ghost, ask your parents kids. As mentioned earlier, it’s quite difficult to pick up scratches on camera, particularly without the lights, which were in use. Low on swirls but with quite a few random deep scratches, like this pesky bugger. After a thorough demonstration, I’ve been advised I have been handed a fairly idiot proof a combination of products, so it was time to get cracking on my paint. The combo in question is a DAS-21 polisher, a yellow finishing pad and Scholl S40 polish, all primed for my beautiful WR Blue Mica paint. S40 bills itself as a gloss enhancing polish, free from fillers, so it is safe enough for a clown like me but also doesn’t flatter me too much by filling up the scratches instead of removing them. I have no frame of reference on this versus other products, it’s my first proper run, but I really like the way my paint looked after this. The bonnet on the BRZ is nicely shaped for a noob and divides nicely into 4 sections. There are no significant creases and no furniture like washer jets to get in the way, a good place to start. I don’t have a 50/50 to show you (the boot vid below sort of is) as I was way too absorbed in what I was doing to bother with photos mid-way through, got a rather nice one after finishing the bonnet though. The gloss coming out very nicely if I do say so myself, quite pleasing for a first run. Unlike when I’ve done this at home on warmer paint with Menzerna Medium and Super cut polishes the Scholl doesn’t seem to turn to dust, it can be worked for ages, and even after all these passes it was still quite oily. This was great for me as I have previously mistakenly used too much product, hoping it will keep it wet for longer, I should have just spritzed cold water. The process on these sections for me was two cross hatch passes at 5-6 with some pressure on the DA, then two more at 3-4, also with pressure, then two at 3 with only the weight of the polisher pressing down. Next up the A-pillar, roof and boot lid – all of the easy to reach and work on horizontal surfaces. A cheeky little roof reflection shot. Not perfect, but not many defects left. I did have the chance to go more aggressive, but for a car that never goes indoor, I elected to keep some of these and keep the paint for inevitable future corrections. The roof on the BRZ is a royal PITA to work on, it’s super flexible and prone to bending & denting under the smallest amount of pressure. Fortunately, the roof doesn’t attract much in the way of scratches, so there was less need for pressure on the machine. I quite liked the way it looked afterwards. Here’s a quick vid of the boot after the right half has been polished, left side naked. Once again I got to enjoy access to a bigger selection of tools than I have at home, namely the Vertool Mini DA a.k.a. “the 75”. This little thing is ace for a noob like me. It’s light, it doesn’t fight you and it simply refuses to bog down. It is used at lower speeds than the DAS-21 steps outlined above. The width is perfect for the boot spoiler, A pillars and roof sides on the BRZ. I can all of a sudden start to see why pros have so many different polishers, the versatility of size and throw is super useful. My Meg’s DA is a butter knife compared to this scalpel. Sorry for the brochure shot of the 75, I forgot to take a real pic. You can see how compact this little guy is compared to the DAS-21 – the only downside is the speed selector dial is located out of view when operating it. On Day 2 we get her up on the ramp and move on to the horizontal panels, then, with a bit of luck, onto nano-cermaic coatings. Oh and the small matter of dealing with this absolute bugger of a defect the PO skilfully buried under a mountain of glaze. If that image isn’t scary enough, check out the horror movie… Last but not least, a bit of a secret project this one, so don’t tell anyone. I’m breeding caterpillars which eat dirt and excrete gloss. Once we get the mutation just right, this will be huge. P.S. if anyone sees one of our early prototype mutants please let me know, it's a 9ft, 300lb purple caterpillar which answers to the name Archibald.

Due to a variety of circumstances I shan’t bore you with, an opportunity presented itself for me to spend time at a local detailing company. The detailer in chief, John, would be spending some time showing me around a DA, pads, polishes, and also a glimpse into the world of nano-ceramic coatings. This post covers having a go at working on my car and both the familiar and new steps in doing a one stage correction. I should say now that I have enhanced the images in this post, not to remove blemishes and defects but to increase contrast and definition to show the defects in my paint. One of the first things I learnt is that it’s not always easy to capture the look and real world 'feel' of paint with a camera.

Looks nice, the 'mouth' is a little bit too smiley, but other than that, I'd be ok with driving that.

Remember kids, dealers are for your drugs, not your car.

That's great, glad it's moving in a confidence inspiring direction.

Glad you got this sorted mate, it sounded like it was ticking you off a bit when we were chatting on the CAT day. Have you managed to make any of the changes you talked about on the day, like the ARBs? Has it helped?

Thanks for doing that, the more people who do the better forums can recover from this heinous attack on sharing knowledge.

It's gorgeous mate. Now leave it alone!

Good to finally get out this summer. Bumper turnout for "North West", kudos to those who were up at 6am to get here. Some cracking '50s and 70s on display. And in the VIP section... Thanks @Spatt for sorting it all out and leading

Are you allowed a 52" widescreen TV on your windscreen?

Shame about the late start.

It might be useful if you could post up a couple of links/screenshots to other forums where the layout is more up your street. Thanks.

Sorry to read this, I hope you can make a success of this campaign and make a positive difference.

Please form an orderly line Ladies, no queue jumping!

Got it, I'll have a look in my big bag of trim clips.

I've got loads of clips knocking about mate, drop me a PM with a photo of the ones you need and I'll get them over.

Contracting is great, do it.

I've found that, since my last contract finished, relaxing and doing small projects in the shed is brilliant. It's not very lucrative sadly...

I hate wax. Something synthetic and sprayable gets me going!!! How come you're head over heels for just the one brand? Have my favourite brands, AMMO, Sonax, Gyeon, but there isn't one that just does everything for me!

I don't a stinking tutorial on the wheels of steel, I'm OLD!

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