polishing the clio?

[phillip.stephen]

Ive been looking about to see what the best car polish is to use on the car, My trophy looks abit fader in colour compared to some others that i have seen in the pictures. It makes such a difference giving it a good wash and polish, if anyone has any tips on what to buy please let me know.
many thanks
phillip

 

[Cue]

well....the process i would follow is;

1. blast with a jet wash - karcher etc
2. snow foam lancer, leave for 10 mins
3. two bucket method car wash
4. blast with jet wash again
5. use a pre-cleaner like dod juice primer
6. rinse with cold water
7. fine (ish) clay bar
8. next comes the sealant/polish
9. wax
10. lastly detailing spray to give it the best glass like finish possible.

for products - take a look at www.14detailing.co.uk or pm 7mat on here.

All the above will not just clean but restore the paint and leave it 'detailed'. Having said that a professional detailer will probably have a few more stages in there.

Alternatively you could give permagard a call and they'll do everything for you and finish it with a polymer resin that locks the colour in and stop it from further oxidisation.

 

[scott]

This is what i had done to mine, very good job, read the thread below, scroll right down as the lad that did it has also posted photos.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5468

 

[hoolio]

It sounds as if you've not too much experience so i'd start simple, Cue's method is sound but as for products the skys the limit so here's the basics.

a good lambswool wash mitt (meguiars)
Nice ph neutral shampoo, I use swissvax but lots swear by duragloss
Clay bar and lube, (The megs kit is a really good beginners combi, get the one with just the spray lube and bar it's about half the price of their main kit)
Autoglym EGP and SRP polish/sealant (you can also use this on the wheels)
You will also need some applicator pads and some microfibre cloths
You can put a wax over the autoglym's but they should be enough on there own.

I think this lot is probably the best "start up"for the money and can be bought almost everywhere but i think 7Matt stocks it all.

Edit; because my wax sentence made no sense at all.

 

[phillip.stephen]

Thanks for all the tips lads, i will post some pics on here when i get the time to clean it properly.

 

[StevieH]

Agree with everyone else here,

snow foam
2 bucket wash
dry
srp (applied by rotary)
egp/ jeffs werkstatte (by hand)
p21s wax (by hand
beer.

only use clay if your paint work is really contaminated as (especially if polishing by hand) the micro marring the clay leaves can be a pain to remove.

For more tips get over to detailingworld as theres a wealth of information on there.

Don't get wraped up in this weeks latest products as quite a few seem to fall in and out of fashion quite quickly over there just stick to rthe tried and tested products like the autoglym range.

Warning: Getting you car immaculate is both a time and finacially expensive business the typical cleaning routine above will take approx 10 hrs.

 

[hoolio]

I wish mine only took 10 hours, i normally have to take a week off work.

 

[StevieH]

I wish mine only took 10 hours, i normally have to take a week off work.

Ha ha, I only get it out when the weathers nice so it never really gets that dirty, plus 10 hous is to do the body work only, I'll normally do the wheels on a different day.:lol:

Must admit since the last time I polished it i've only been washing it and giving it a quick coat of p21s and it's stayed mint for a couple of months now.

 

[hoolio]

Aaah wheels, managed to those down from about two hours to an hour and a half each :shock: