Sparkly

[Hogster]

I clayed and polished my smartie yesterday!



It doesn't quite have the deep shine I was hoping for (or at least it doesn't now after a night of rain ), but it's still pretty clean!


David

[lalli_d1]

Re: Sparkly

oooohhhh sshiney!
im thinking of respraying my wings and door pannels before i polish and wax mine. the l/h/f wing has been repaired and its a diffrent shade of white.

[ianbooth]

Re: Sparkly

That is hot!!!

[ajprice]

Re: Sparkly

Very nice, but you missed a bit .

[problemchild1976]

Re: Sparkly

what polish did you use????

the plastic painted panels come up soooooo good with the clay bar

JJ

[Lady Muck]

Re: Sparkly

WOW, looks fantastic.
Great work !! :silvertri

[W32 TTF]

Re: Sparkly

I clayed and polished my smartie yesterday!



It doesn't quite have the deep shine I was hoping for (or at least it doesn't now after a night of rain ), but it's still pretty clean!


David

Hello David when you say it doesnt have the deep shine you were hoping for what do you feel is missing?

I see a very shiny car with plastic panels. Depth of shine really only comes from the condition of the panels and short of detailing out all the swirls and scratches with a rotary your not going to really see much more of an improvement.

Talk me through what you did step by step and maybe I can give you hints on something you have missed and some extra steps to get the really deep shine your after.

a Decent wax will add maybe 5% to the finished product but tbh the finish is acheived by 95% prep and polishing

[Hogster]

Re: Sparkly

Thanks all!

W32 (sorry I've forgotten your name!) - My process is as follows:

- Wash with Meguiar's Gold Class shampoo and Sonus Sheepskin mitt (rinse with jugs of water, and mitt rinsed in a bucket of clean water before being put back into the suds)
- Dry with giant microfibre drying towels
- Clean outside surface of windows with RainX 2-in-1 cleaner and rain repellant
- Clean inside surface of windows with Halfords glass cleaner
- Dress tyres with Turtlewax ICE Tyre Shine
- Clay all paintwork and panels with Sonus SFX Ultra Fine detailing clay (and lube)
- Polish all paintwork and panels with Klasse All-in-one and buffed with microfibre buffing cloths
- Give all paintwork and panels a quick spray and with Chemical Guys Synthetic Quick Detailer (buffed with mf cloths again)

I've heard the Autoglym Super Resin Polish is meant to give a super wet look to the paintwork ... my main concern was the swirl marks which are still present. I guess those can only be removed with a rotary polisher?

Thanks for any input you can give!

Cheers,


David

[W32 TTF]

Re: Sparkly

Its Ben

Well you have the basics right wash with two buckets, deep pile wash mitt, clay, microfibre cloths. so nothing i can do more for you there.

The one thing i have found is that all in ones are good they do exactly what theey say on the tin Polish and wax all in in one but they are never outstanding at both your far better taking the extra hour and using seperate products.

However you have not put any Real lasting protection on the finish Quick detailer is just that it removes small deposits dust etc and imparts a very temporary shine. you really need to ge a good wax on there to keep to looking good otherwise you will find the finish degrading just after one night of heavy rain.

Super Resin Polish is one of my staple polishes it works really well in terms of correcting your swirls your not going to see that much of a correction in terms of removing the swirls as Super resin polish has a high filling compound. You still need a good wax ontop to maintain the finish though

Depth of shine really will only come from clarity and until you get rid of the swirls your going to be abit stuck with only acheiving a certain level depends on how far you want to take it. heres a few pics of My old MR2 i cant post them they are too big so just direct links. really shows the difference of what can be acheived.

Before at 8am
After at 8pm
Swirled
Corrected

All done with a rotary polisher you have to be a little more careful with plastic panels over metal but I wouldnt recommend someone go out and buy a rotary and attack their car with it as you can do alot of damage with one if your not sure what your doing

[coolfart]

Re: Sparkly

Looks stunning!!!

Now, do you want to come & give my focus a good going over please.....that has more swirl marks & scratches than anything else!!!! (It was like that when I bought it & as it gets filthy every day seems pointless spending loads of time effort on it!!!)

[J500ANT]

Re: Sparkly

Maybe the lack of deep shine is down to the lack of sun?

[Hogster]

Re: Sparkly

Wow those before / after pics really show the difference! :eek:

So are you saying I should now apply the super resin polish (or similar) using a rotary polisher to fill in the swirl marks, and then put a layer of wax on top? Is that done by hand or with the rotary polisher as well?

What are the problems associated with using a rotary polisher? Have found this one which seems to have quite good reviews?

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_189810_langId_-1_categoryId_165640

Thanks for your advice!


David

[W32 TTF]

Re: Sparkly

With Respect what you need to do It depends on whether you want a Flawless finish or not.

TBH youd probably be ok going out using some Quick detailer on the car now and putting a Wax ontop to keep it looking good and when when we are garunteed some better weather in a month or two then spending a day on it as before you polish with a rotary you need to make sure the car is spotlessly clean dont want to pick up a small bit of grit in the pad and put in some 900rpm scratches.

The Halfords link is not a Rotary polisher thats an orbital buffer. and i would say avoid that one as TBH the finish you can acheive with them is not much better than by hand its just quicker. However you can leave buffer trails with them very easily which you dont want.

The problems with A rotary polisher is basically they are large Angle grinders with soft start, low gearing and variable rpm 900-3500rpm. im talking about bodyshop grade rotary polishers
Rotary polisher Unless a car is brand new freshly painted and not flattened you dont use wool mops or anything like to detail a car. I use variable density velcro backed foam pads to correct paintwork on cars. but even with all the right equipment and years of experience you have to be Very careful still not to Burn through the paint or lift the paint from the metal by generating too much heat.

Take your concentration off what your doing for 3 seconds and you can burn polish right through to the base coat/primer or worse the metal. ITs had happened to me once when I was still learning and I had to pay out to respray the panel to match. And for the amount of outlay in purchasing the right stuff in the first place you may aswell get someone to do it for you who has everything already.

I have spent many years working with these mainly on aircraft but I do cars too its a quite delicate and long process often a car can take 2-3 days to fully correct but most smarts can be done in a day leaving you with a better than when it rolled out of the factory finish. Even old cars with Very faded dull paint can be brought back with the techniques i use. No Respray on this one 1st pic it had its remoable hardtop fitted. 2nd pic is a new cabriolet hood thats not been brought back or treated you cant bring back holey mouldy hoods rememeber no new paint has been near this car

Proper Before
Proper After

[832ark]

Re: Sparkly

I'm just starting to learn about detailing and I'm probably going to start with a random orbit machine as I've heard that these are more forgiving (I have used a rotory several times before but find it quite scary.) I'm wanting to find a polish to remove some moderate swirl marks, then a glaze (which if I understand correctly will help fill any remaining swirls) and then finish off with Swissvax Best of Show wax. Any comments on my plans or suggestions for polish/glaze?

probably something like this:

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=10487537&fh_view_size=10&fh_start_index=20&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB&fh_search=sander&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_refview=search&ts=1269267660072&isSearch=true

[Hogster]

Re: Sparkly

Gosh that's put me right off trying rotary polishing myself! :eek: Burning through to the bare metal! :eek:

Would I still see an improvement using the Super Resin Polish? And then a wax of some sort? Do you have any recommendations for waxes?

Many thanks for your advice


David