Buying New Equipment

[Stevie-Boy]

Ha ha yes you could jack all your gear in and buy some Turtle Wax

[Stevie-Boy]

I haven't joined detailingworld as I'm still too new to it all really. I would feel too intimidated posting anything on there in fear of elitists coming along and tearing me apart. Maybe you will correct me and tell me it's a super friendly place that is all about love and help. That would be great

 

Just to show the new products I bought so far, I thought I'd share the pics of the job I did on this Fiat 500. I have new products coming in the post tomorrow from Polishing Bliss so any future jobs would contain more steps. Anyway, forgive the fact it isn't done on my Zed and here we go:

 

I had been promising my friend I'd do his car for a while. So we booked it in and it was suitably dirty for the occasion which was brilliant:

 

 

 

 

So the first thing I did using the Nilfisk was to hit it with Bilt Hamber Snow Foam onto the dry car.

 

 

I tried to work this to about a 4% rate but it was my first shot so it could have been anything really. I did run out part way through. I used about 250ml the first time and then about 200ml the second time.

 

 

 

At this point, I rinsed the car off but left it wet ready for the clay. I used a Gyeon woolie mitt and G3 clay mitt:

 

 

 

After this it was ready to be washed:

 

 

This was two bucket method with Autoglym shampoo:

 

 

Door shuts done, petrol flap, inside boot etc:

 

 

Here it is washed and ready for the wheels:

 

 

I used Auto Finesse Imperial for this and a detailing brush:

 

 

Came up pretty nice:

 

 

After this I rinsed the full car down again and then dried it ready for the next product:

 

 

I used Tripple with a new microfibre applicator and a new luxury buffing towel:

 

 

 

As above, I also did metal polish on the exhaust tip and backbox for that stage.

 

 

Next product was a coat of Bilt Hamber double speed wax applied with the pad and towel that are supplied with it:

 

 

Was getting some really cool flake pop at this point:

 

 

Added some tyre finish just using the Turtle Wax product that I already had:

 

 

And this is how she ended:

 

 

Took me about five hours to transform it:

 

 

Summary:

 

Absolutely loved the Auto Finesse products. I was working in sunlight and the way Tripple went on and came off was just so great. I had been using Meguiars polish in the past which is probably going in the bin now or kept as an emergency product! Enjoyed using the snow foam and I think it helped, the car looked pretty clean even after I rinsed that off. The Imperial was great on the wheels. I have limited wheel products so I gave them a light clay to remove some of the tar. Love the Bilt Hamber wax. I've ordered a bunch more pads and towels and some Gyeon glass cleaner and an Auto Finesse trim cleaner. Looking forward to more involved cleaning in the future.

 

This was an external clean only so I'm looking forward to branching into some interior products too.

 

I could get into the world of trying products and comparing but I have to say, loving Auto Finesse.

 

Big thanks to ilogikal1. I dropped him a few questions the night before, the usual panic stuff. Arrgh, how much snow foam do I use, how long do I leave the Tripple on for etc etc and he was really helpful in answering everything. Appreciated

Edited June 6, 2017 by Stevie-Boy

[Paul K]

Stevie.

 

dont be intimidated by the DW forum, novices (I include myself in that BTW) are welcomed and encouraged...loads of tips and product reviews etc...plus some nice owner cars that have been redone completely...

 

nice job on the Fiat BTW...however...i would have gone with the clay mitt after the 2BW, then rinse of again....basically because the Snofoam, will not completely remove the surface crud, and you could pick up debris in the mitt and introduce scratches

[Stevie-Boy]

That's a great tip thanks Paul. I did half wonder that when I was doing it. I think when I clayed the 350z, I'm pretty sure I washed it, clayed it and then washed it again so it must have been in my mind somewhere that this was a sensible plan.

 

EDIT: thinking about it. When I clay the car, I was using the mitt in the other hand and cleaning the area first with a good wash and using that constantly as the lubricant for the clay. Hopefully this step would have helped to remove any naff from the body before the clay touched. I will deffo do a full wash in future before the clay though

Edited June 6, 2017 by Stevie-Boy

[ilogikal1]

Big thanks to ilogikal1. I dropped him a few questions the night before, the usual panic stuff. Arrgh, how much snow foam do I use, how long do I leave the Tripple on for etc etc and he was really helpful in answering everything. Appreciated

 

No worries at all, always happy to help.

 

 

The only real thing to be weary of on DW is the fanboys. Certain people will always swear by a certain brand, no matter what the question actually is, be weary of over-hyped new products/manufacturers that are very much just the latest fad and you'll be fine. Broke and surrounded by detailing gear, but fine!

[Stevie-Boy]

Got home from work last night and decided to do a little wash on the car. Turned into a little bit more, had fun though.

 

The products were working well from last time so I just did wash, dry, trim dressing, interior dressed, boot trim dressed, engine bay dressed, glass cleaned and tyres dressed.

 

Washed with Autoglym shampoo, all dressing with Auto Finesse Dressle, glass done with Gyeon Q2M Glass and tyres with Turtle Wax.

 

Star of the show was the luxury drying towel from Polished Bliss. Having a decent drying towel is an absolute revelation to me. It was sucking up water in one pass, very impressed.

 

Since the last update, I've bought a Miele C3 Powerline vacuum for the car and it's great, very good for the car.

 

This is not bad for what was just a straight forward 2BW with no new products added:

 

 

 

 

 

Was only a quick job really so impressed how well the engine bay came up for that. Will be spending more time under there trying to make it look great.

 

And of course, the inevitable bird lime down the side this morning, just reminding me of exactly whom is in charge around here: