DARYL_-_BMS
19th July 2006, 14:43
Ian (noodle/doodle) kitkaboodle, PM'd me and asked me to put this thread up for people who aren't 100% sure on how to achieve that 'show car' shine. So I've decided to do a write up of my own personal experiences and what I think works best - i'll be using Meguiars products for obvious reasons!
A long read, but achieving this isn't a five minute scoot around the car as previous posts say - bollocks.
I've grown up with seriously tuned cars my whole life thanks to my parents, and everyday am involved in modifying, repairing and building road and race cars for clients. It's my second job other than a designer, and is my life, and my business.
What I hate most about this role is a brand new car coming in for work and as you've all seen yourself you have a walk up and down a car that's new or a few years old, and the sides, roof and bonnet of it look smeared, scratched and blemished. It looks terrible especially on a car that's having alot of money spent on it or worth alot of money. I saw a F430 recently which looked shattums eggwin. This is down to one thing, owners not caring for their car. Doesn't matter if it's a company car or your 37' roof chopped Chevy hot rod, they need looking after, like pets!
I think I'll split this into two sections. I'll start with the weekend valet, as many of you use your cars everyday communiting and don't have time to polish your cars as much as I do detailing mine, or any weekend ride or show car owner and you all probably can't be arsed to read that far!
1) WEEKEND VALET, 2 and a half hours MAX!
I don't have kids, if I did - *I'd put them on Ebay for labratories to buy. This is for people with the dreaded sprogs, or lazy fekers.
Right, preparation. The best way to start anything is sorting out what you need.
Let's use Nico's car as a prime example when getting it ready to show for Bristol on the evvoAHEM new beetle club stand lol a few months back.
Ingredients:
Two buckets
Sponge - preferably a washmitt
Meguiars Nxt Gen Shampoo
H2O - water
Car
Towels
Polishing Cloths
Nico's car is quite badly swirled, he lives in London and had a few blemishes on it from bird sh*t, car fumes, dead mice and all sorts of ill behavior.
Use a shaded area if possible. If you can't, do a panel at a time. The best way to start with a heavily soiled car is get as much dirt and crud off as possible with either a jetwash or a powerful hose. Spray in all the inner arches, under the wipers, in the seams of the wings, everywhere that is exterior.
Now get two buckets, both with nice, warm (not boiling hot) water, warm enough you could poke your knob in and confident it will not blister. Believe it or not some of my mates use Evian, that's no joke. Anyway, that's expensive, but awesome results none the less! Or even tartier, is tap water, boiled and let to cool - bacteria in the water you see, no joke mates use that method.
Rinse out both buckets. Check there's no holes! One bucket is going to be used for the shampoo and conditioner, and the second will be your rinsing bucket. By now your car should be soaking wet, (resembling an obese man's armpit in Central LA - in Summer) with hardly any traces of serious dirt on the paint - this is what leads to scratches and swirls. A good shampoo I can recommend to anyone is Meguiars Nxt Gen shampoo, it is great for any car, plus it has built in water softeners so great for urban, hard water areas.
Start at the top of the car, middle of the roof. Reason being, if you start at the bottom, you'll be dragging up the dirt - where the majority of it sits on the car. We don't want dirt up the paint do we - more scratches, more dead mice.
Work your way SOFTLY in STRAIGHT, and SLOWLY in lines across the panels checking that the sponge or washmitt isn't soiled. If it is, stop and rinse it in the second bucket properly, and then into the first bucket for more bubble action. You should rinse after every panel. Do one side of the car at a time and rinse. If the weather is warm, remember to keep the whole car wet (as if it was a beached whale) so there's no streaks and dry spotting, this can lead to serious problems.
Aha! Your car is sudded up to the max - better rinse it off then ain't ya! If you have a hose with a changable sprinkler settings on the end, set it to a 'shower' setting. If it's just a hose in general, let the water gently pour over the paintwork, getting rid of all them darn suds.
Drying:
DON'T USE CHAMOIS LEATHERS! Yes I know your thinking "EH?!?" but they are the devil's toilet paper, his arse is rough, so are they. Use a really thick, plush towel. "but they are expensive Daryl!?!" you hail! Not true, a decent shammy weighs in around £10/£15, go to Ikea and buy a few nice bath towels. They cost around £2/3 and are perfect. Reason being the thickness of the towel will pick up any loose dirt that you didn't see with your beady retina. The shammy would grab this dirt and drag it all over the ruddy car.
A long read, but achieving this isn't a five minute scoot around the car as previous posts say - bollocks.
I've grown up with seriously tuned cars my whole life thanks to my parents, and everyday am involved in modifying, repairing and building road and race cars for clients. It's my second job other than a designer, and is my life, and my business.
What I hate most about this role is a brand new car coming in for work and as you've all seen yourself you have a walk up and down a car that's new or a few years old, and the sides, roof and bonnet of it look smeared, scratched and blemished. It looks terrible especially on a car that's having alot of money spent on it or worth alot of money. I saw a F430 recently which looked shattums eggwin. This is down to one thing, owners not caring for their car. Doesn't matter if it's a company car or your 37' roof chopped Chevy hot rod, they need looking after, like pets!
I think I'll split this into two sections. I'll start with the weekend valet, as many of you use your cars everyday communiting and don't have time to polish your cars as much as I do detailing mine, or any weekend ride or show car owner and you all probably can't be arsed to read that far!
1) WEEKEND VALET, 2 and a half hours MAX!
I don't have kids, if I did - *I'd put them on Ebay for labratories to buy. This is for people with the dreaded sprogs, or lazy fekers.
Right, preparation. The best way to start anything is sorting out what you need.
Let's use Nico's car as a prime example when getting it ready to show for Bristol on the evvoAHEM new beetle club stand lol a few months back.
Ingredients:
Two buckets
Sponge - preferably a washmitt
Meguiars Nxt Gen Shampoo
H2O - water
Car
Towels
Polishing Cloths
Nico's car is quite badly swirled, he lives in London and had a few blemishes on it from bird sh*t, car fumes, dead mice and all sorts of ill behavior.
Use a shaded area if possible. If you can't, do a panel at a time. The best way to start with a heavily soiled car is get as much dirt and crud off as possible with either a jetwash or a powerful hose. Spray in all the inner arches, under the wipers, in the seams of the wings, everywhere that is exterior.
Now get two buckets, both with nice, warm (not boiling hot) water, warm enough you could poke your knob in and confident it will not blister. Believe it or not some of my mates use Evian, that's no joke. Anyway, that's expensive, but awesome results none the less! Or even tartier, is tap water, boiled and let to cool - bacteria in the water you see, no joke mates use that method.
Rinse out both buckets. Check there's no holes! One bucket is going to be used for the shampoo and conditioner, and the second will be your rinsing bucket. By now your car should be soaking wet, (resembling an obese man's armpit in Central LA - in Summer) with hardly any traces of serious dirt on the paint - this is what leads to scratches and swirls. A good shampoo I can recommend to anyone is Meguiars Nxt Gen shampoo, it is great for any car, plus it has built in water softeners so great for urban, hard water areas.
Start at the top of the car, middle of the roof. Reason being, if you start at the bottom, you'll be dragging up the dirt - where the majority of it sits on the car. We don't want dirt up the paint do we - more scratches, more dead mice.
Work your way SOFTLY in STRAIGHT, and SLOWLY in lines across the panels checking that the sponge or washmitt isn't soiled. If it is, stop and rinse it in the second bucket properly, and then into the first bucket for more bubble action. You should rinse after every panel. Do one side of the car at a time and rinse. If the weather is warm, remember to keep the whole car wet (as if it was a beached whale) so there's no streaks and dry spotting, this can lead to serious problems.
Aha! Your car is sudded up to the max - better rinse it off then ain't ya! If you have a hose with a changable sprinkler settings on the end, set it to a 'shower' setting. If it's just a hose in general, let the water gently pour over the paintwork, getting rid of all them darn suds.
Drying:
DON'T USE CHAMOIS LEATHERS! Yes I know your thinking "EH?!?" but they are the devil's toilet paper, his arse is rough, so are they. Use a really thick, plush towel. "but they are expensive Daryl!?!" you hail! Not true, a decent shammy weighs in around £10/£15, go to Ikea and buy a few nice bath towels. They cost around £2/3 and are perfect. Reason being the thickness of the towel will pick up any loose dirt that you didn't see with your beady retina. The shammy would grab this dirt and drag it all over the ruddy car.