Latest ever winter prep? Perhaps, but I’ve only seen salt on the road twice thus far so no big deal. Plus I’ve now moved into my new house and garage so it was worth waiting for.
First off I’ll say that I didn’t really intend to do a write up due to the fact I don’t own a camera at present, so a few low quality iPhone snaps had to do.
Products used
Dodo BTBM
PH neutral snow foam
Bilberry wheel cleaner
Tardis
Iron-X spray
Autofinesse soft clay
Dodo born slippy lube
Britemax #6 QD
I4d fluffy drying towels
Costco MFs for odd jobs
Supernatural buffing MF
Good quality short pile MF (unknown brand)
IPA 2:1 de-ionised water
4l de-ionised water douse
Silverline rotary and Festool backing plate
Menzerna Final Finish PO85
3M Yellow polishing pad
Werkstatt Prime Strong
Swissvax applicator
Werkstatt Jett Trigger – Carnauba
Aerospace 303
Autosol / Wire wool / WD40
First things first, assembled my new hose reel (soon to be wall mounted)
And 2x400W lighting rig
Jetted off loose dirt
Wheels cleaned with a weak concentration of Bilberry, EZ brush, small brush for bolt holes, and a sponge for the flat external faces.
Wheel protection still active! (These are my winter wheels).
Foamed and left to dwell. Shuts, trim, and crevasses agitated with a small brush.
Washed with hot water and Dodo BTBM using 2BM with a Dodo sheepskin mitt (yeti or wookie or something).
Jetted off and sheeted with an open hose.
Still some protection on most of the car after 6 months using Prime>JS109>Dodo SN
Car sprayed with Iron-X and left to dwell, followed by a dab/light swipe with a soaking wet MF.
Rinsed off and retired to inside to wait for my Polished Bliss order to turn up.
FINALLY! 5 miles from the depot and it took 7 hours for it to reach me since loading onto the van.
With daylight in short supply in January I set to tar removal and clay stage.
This is my first time with autofinesse clay and I have mixed views on it.
Until softened in water it is rock hard, and when softened it resembles chewing gum in its early stages. It proved to be very effective at removed contaminants, however even with very regular folding, excessive lube and light pressure it produced considerable damage when compared to my good old Sonus Green clay.
Anyway, the car was then re-washed, doused with 4l of de-ionised water and dried. I then rolled it indoors just as the rain came.
Then came inspection and masking. The pictures don’t show up anything here, but inspection via new lighting rig and brinkman handheld lamp showed only fairly light marks.
The rear end proved to be the worst area for iron, general dirt and therefore unsurprisingly, swirls.
I’m putting this down the exhaust (decat) and the hatchback shape of the car tend to create a low pressure vortex of air when driving, throwing exhaust moisture and dirt onto the bootlid/bumper.
Some areas would need something a little more aggressive, but for today I just went for PO85 on a 3M yellow pad and smaller areas with an Orane Menzerna spot pad.
This combination worked excellently, some defects remain but on the whole the car is at about 80-85% correction with an extremely glossy finish. What I lacked in ultimate correction I made up for in burnishing.
Polishing finished
IPA wipe-down followed
Prime strong applied by hand (and roof by machine, 3M blue pad)
Jett Trigger Carnauba applied with two MF method.
This pics are after 1 layer of Jett. Subsequent layers have added to depth and gloss dramatically. I will update the thread with more pictures if I manage to source the use of a proper camera.
Thanks for reading,
All comments welcome
First off I’ll say that I didn’t really intend to do a write up due to the fact I don’t own a camera at present, so a few low quality iPhone snaps had to do.
Products used
Dodo BTBM
PH neutral snow foam
Bilberry wheel cleaner
Tardis
Iron-X spray
Autofinesse soft clay
Dodo born slippy lube
Britemax #6 QD
I4d fluffy drying towels
Costco MFs for odd jobs
Supernatural buffing MF
Good quality short pile MF (unknown brand)
IPA 2:1 de-ionised water
4l de-ionised water douse
Silverline rotary and Festool backing plate
Menzerna Final Finish PO85
3M Yellow polishing pad
Werkstatt Prime Strong
Swissvax applicator
Werkstatt Jett Trigger – Carnauba
Aerospace 303
Autosol / Wire wool / WD40
First things first, assembled my new hose reel (soon to be wall mounted)
And 2x400W lighting rig
Jetted off loose dirt
Wheels cleaned with a weak concentration of Bilberry, EZ brush, small brush for bolt holes, and a sponge for the flat external faces.
Wheel protection still active! (These are my winter wheels).
Foamed and left to dwell. Shuts, trim, and crevasses agitated with a small brush.
Washed with hot water and Dodo BTBM using 2BM with a Dodo sheepskin mitt (yeti or wookie or something).
Jetted off and sheeted with an open hose.
Still some protection on most of the car after 6 months using Prime>JS109>Dodo SN
Car sprayed with Iron-X and left to dwell, followed by a dab/light swipe with a soaking wet MF.
Rinsed off and retired to inside to wait for my Polished Bliss order to turn up.
FINALLY! 5 miles from the depot and it took 7 hours for it to reach me since loading onto the van.
With daylight in short supply in January I set to tar removal and clay stage.
This is my first time with autofinesse clay and I have mixed views on it.
Until softened in water it is rock hard, and when softened it resembles chewing gum in its early stages. It proved to be very effective at removed contaminants, however even with very regular folding, excessive lube and light pressure it produced considerable damage when compared to my good old Sonus Green clay.
Anyway, the car was then re-washed, doused with 4l of de-ionised water and dried. I then rolled it indoors just as the rain came.
Then came inspection and masking. The pictures don’t show up anything here, but inspection via new lighting rig and brinkman handheld lamp showed only fairly light marks.
The rear end proved to be the worst area for iron, general dirt and therefore unsurprisingly, swirls.
I’m putting this down the exhaust (decat) and the hatchback shape of the car tend to create a low pressure vortex of air when driving, throwing exhaust moisture and dirt onto the bootlid/bumper.
Some areas would need something a little more aggressive, but for today I just went for PO85 on a 3M yellow pad and smaller areas with an Orane Menzerna spot pad.
This combination worked excellently, some defects remain but on the whole the car is at about 80-85% correction with an extremely glossy finish. What I lacked in ultimate correction I made up for in burnishing.
Polishing finished
IPA wipe-down followed
Prime strong applied by hand (and roof by machine, 3M blue pad)
Jett Trigger Carnauba applied with two MF method.
This pics are after 1 layer of Jett. Subsequent layers have added to depth and gloss dramatically. I will update the thread with more pictures if I manage to source the use of a proper camera.
Thanks for reading,
All comments welcome
