Ekona Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 I treated myself to a DA this week (a DAS-6 from cleanyourcar.co.uk) and have spent the day playing with it. I thought it might be fun to post up my incredibly amateur efforts here for us all to have a giggle at! Right, here we go... Started at 9am this morning with a keen heart and plenty of energy! Before any washing, the car looked like this: One clean later with two buckets, one lambs wool washmitt and some DJ Born To Be Mild shampoo and I ended up with this: It certainly looks clean from a distance, and even standing next to it it's okay, but it wasn't long ago that I clayed and waxed it so I didn't expect it to look too bad. Time to tape up the bonnet: After a quick clay, this is how much crap I removed from one quarter of the bonnet: Yeah, naff all, so the wax has clearly done it's job well in the past. In these next few pics, the lower LHS is the one I've worked on, and the lower RHS is the comparison side I don't touch. After claying: If you look towards the lower half of the section you can see the stone chips, loads of little white flecks. Ah, the brilliance that is a low front on a black car! Time to get serious... The polishing pad, the DAS-6, and the bottle of Ultimate Compound. After one pass, I ended up with this: Not bad, but still a few chips left, so I went for another pass and was a bit more aggressive with the machine: Pretty happy with the result there, and I wasn't really going to get much more out with the compound and machine I've got. Next up is the Black Hole glaze, which is designed for dark cars and hides all the small scratches that need serious correction work. Wow! Awesome stuff, it really made a huge difference, check out the next few pics, which also give a good idea of just how bad the stone chips are: Quite a difference, I think you'll agree. On to the really posh (and expensive!) wax: Not a huge difference in the pictures, and I'll show you why a bit later. Pics with the tape removed: With the tape removed I repeated the process on the rest of the bonnet: Some shots of the car after going over it with the Ultimate Compound: Now after using the Black Hole glaze: And after the wax: These next set of pics were taken whilst I was doing a couple of other bits like the glass, tyres and the interior, and you can see the car take on a noticeable better shine as the wax takes to the paintwork more. This is why in the earlier photo the wax doesn't appear to make too much difference, as it really needs a couple of hours before you can see just how good it is: And that's it! Total work time was 8 hours and I'm knackered, I still need to give it a coat of DJ Red Mist Tropical to really seal the wax in but the wax needs 24 hours to cure first, so I'll do that next week. Sadly the sun was against me today so you can't really see in the pics just how much difference the work has made to the paint, but it's almost swirl-free now and looks beautiful. A black car may take a lot of work to keep clean, but I honestly think it's worth it when it comes out like this. Oh, and as a treat for hanging around and reading the whole thread, I also did this today: 9.2kg saved, GT3 style Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M9O OEY Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Really nice car you got there for some reason I can only view half the photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy82 Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Thats impressive for a first go and with a DA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Looking awesome mate! Put a little hammock in the back where the seats were! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruddles Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Great work! Certainly does a good job on the stone chips! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4XNY Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Amazing pics I too swear by Black hole Glaze, really makes a noticeable difference to a black car... So the wax.......even though you buffed it off, the car gets shinier as it cures? I never knew that? Every days a school day! Beautiful car too, I love 911's! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shire350Z Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Looks awesome mate, for some reason I can't see the last 5 pics? What you done For some reason I thought it was a cayman you'd bought Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richt Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Looks great, worth all the hard work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 Apparently the site (either my hosting or here) throws a hissy fit with this many pics, a refresh usually sorts it @D4XNY: Not all waxes seem to need such a long cure time, certainly the DJ Purple Haze I've got goes off a lot quicker than the Swissvax does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisS Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Top job Dan. I cleaned a soot chucking Astra sri today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Good work Dan A lot of the more expensive waxes take a while to "sweat off" after being applied. I've noticed with Dodo SN that you have to go around an hour to two later and give it another buff to give a brilliant clear finish. I forget what the reason is for it, but its something to do with the natural carnauba wax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubapics Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Good job. Did you use the DA for the Black Hole too? Or did you do that and the waxing by hand? Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cragus Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 I will be in getting in touch soon for some tips! Great result mate - well done to you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 Good job. Did you use the DA for the Black Hole too? Or did you do that and the waxing by hand? Jim Yup, used the DA for the Black Hole too, gave a much deeper shine than the bits I had to do by hand. Waxing was all done by hand though using the Swissvax applicator pad and an AG polishing microfibre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubapics Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Good job. Did you use the DA for the Black Hole too? Or did you do that and the waxing by hand? Jim Yup, used the DA for the Black Hole too, gave a much deeper shine than the bits I had to do by hand. Waxing was all done by hand though using the Swissvax applicator pad and an AG polishing microfibre. I've been toying with the idea of a DA for some time now. So please excuse all the questions. Did you tape up all the trim and did you use the DA and cutting polish on the plastic bumpers? Oh, and you need to polish your exhaust tips too Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 I haven't gotten round to doing the exhaust yet, that's next week too I taped up the nose badge but tbh it was a huge faff and my tape isn't brilliant, which coupled with my lack of patience meant that I couldn't be arsed to tape anything else up! I was just careful with the DA and did the odds and sods by hand. I did get a fair bit of product on some of the black trim which will need some black gel to sort out, but for me that's quicker than using tape. The DA is fine to use on plastic bumpers, and also (and I was a bit wary over this) on the paintshield by the rear wheel arches too apparently! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
350 Russ Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 did you use a paint cleanser after you polished and sealed or just cracked straight on with waxing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 Paint cleaner comes before polish, but because I was using a cutting compound (albeit a relatively mild one) there was no need to use a paint cleaner I've tried putting a proper sealant on after wax before (FK1000P) but I don't really like the finish it gives, hence why I just use a layer of DJ Red Mist nowadays. That said, that was back on the Zed so maybe the 911 might like it a bit more? I may give it a go on a small panel to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beavis Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Nice work Dan. I had a dabble with mine for the first time this weekend too (My DA before anyone says anything) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 Get some pics up then chop chop! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubapics Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Thanks for the responses. That's helped me to make up my mind about using a DA. Just one more though. How noisy is the DA? Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The G Man Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 What an epic job I'm surprised you had time to take the pics, might look at getting one of these DA's, does it just"float" under it's own weight or is there a pressure applied? BTW, love the Porsche Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarnie Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Sausage fingers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzee Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Very nice job there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 Just one more though. How noisy is the DA? Surprisingly more than you would think. I would imagine the more expensive ones might be a touch quieter, but tbh it's not that bad. It's the kind of thing you'd wait until at least 9am on a Sunday to use though! What an epic job I'm surprised you had time to take the pics, might look at getting one of these DA's, does it just"float" under it's own weight or is there a pressure applied? You're supposed to just let the weight of the machine do the work which is easy when working downwards, but not so when working on the side! You soon get used to it, although I did have to keep stopping myself when I realised I was applying too much pressure at various points. That's the beauty of the DA though, as you can get away with making small errors like that. Sausage fingers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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