Detailed the F1 (now with pictures)

[Luke_m]

Finally got round to purchasing some polish and wax last week, after I was given a machine polisher for christmas.

I was advised by the wise car detailers and paul from i4detailing as to what products I would need to be using. So thank you to JD, todd100 and martijn_b from here and Paul at i4detailing for your help.

The products i used for the detail were:
Valet Pro - PH neutral snow foam
Meguiars NXT generation car wash
Meguiars microfibre wash mitt
Meguiars natural chamois
Auto glym tar and bug remover
Meguiars G220 Dual Action polisher
Sonus SFX-3 final finish polishing pad
Sonus SFX-4 final gloss seal and protect pad
Menzerna Power Finish PO 203
Britemax Black Max - Ultra fine polishing glaze
Dodo Juice Hard Candy wax
Auto glym bumper care
Turtle wax tyre shine


So i started off by snow foaming the car

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

After the snow foam was rinsed off i washed the car using the 2 bucket method

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

I then decided to get rid of some tar and sap before prepping the car for polishing

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

With JD's advice of starting light and if you don't get your desired effect then move to something stronger, I started with the Sonus SFX-4 final gloss seal and protect pad and
Britemax Black Max - Ultra fine polishing glaze

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

I felt that this wasn't quite tough enough for the front bumber, bonnet and boot lid so step these up to Sonus SFX-3 final finish polishing pad and Menzerna Power Finish PO 203 with 2 passes and then back to Britemax and the SFX-4 pad to finish the job i was left with it looking like this

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

Just to show the difference of before and after (I no they are different sides sorry )
Before

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr
After

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

I then snow foamed and washed the car to get rid of any polish dust and lines from the tape

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

Once I had dried it again Dodo Juice Hard Candy wax was applied, I couldn't believe how little you need to use to cover the whole car and how easy it was to apply I was very impressed to say the least. After i had buffed it off the car looked like this

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

I was running out of light, time and it was begining to spit at this point so I called it a day.
The next morning I decided to start by dressing all the plastics on the car (unfortunately I didn't manage to get any pictures of this as my phone had a wobbly and went into recovery mode), ad then hovered and cleaned the interior. I also cleaned the windows using Meguiars quick detailer and applied tyre shine (although i hate the stuff!)

Had time for a quick photoshoot CSmillionaire style

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

197 detailing by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

Sorry for the long read and lots of pictures its the first time i've really posted any pictures of my car on here, and my first real attempt of detailling. I no most of you won't like some of the products I used like the chamois leather and auto glym but they are all things i had before and have yet to need to replace them.
Was also with this on the photo shoot

evo 8 008 by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

evo 8 017 by lukeymitch87, on Flickr

 

[JD]

Exceptional work!

 

[mace¬]

Reading in here just makes me want to polish my car a little bit more.

Good work.

 

[Dave.]

glad you got it sorted fella

 

[Gally]

Really well finished mate.

 

[jenic]

Looks awesome.

Love the cup spoiler too, really finishes off the R27 nicely :approve:

 

[Goodj]

Much love for an all-boxes-ticked R27 here.

 

[Silent_Scone]

great colour to get results from, looks brilliant.

 

[Luke_m]

Cheers guys.

Although it took me the entire weekend it all seems worth it, just to see the shine coming from it.

Would it be to late to add another layer of wax next weekend?

 

[Harpham]

OM NOM NOM!!!

Great work fella. I like!!

 

[Harpham]

OM NOM NOM!!!

Great work fella. I like!!

 

[JD]

Cheers guys.

Although it took me the entire weekend it all seems worth it, just to see the shine coming from it.

Would it be to late to add another layer of wax next weekend?

Not at all. In fact it's perfect timing. Give it a pressure wash down, snow foam, wash TBM, pat dry and then wax once it's fully dry.

 

[Luke_m]

Not at all. In fact it's perfect timing. Give it a pressure wash down, snow foam, wash TBM, pat dry and then wax once it's fully dry.

Ok brilliant I'll be doing that this weekend, unfortunately I'm not sure how long i'll be able to enjoy it as i'm going to be selling up to go travelling soon.

other then waxing once its dried would you say that is a standard wash, that i should be doing weekly? Or would the snow foam effect the life of the wax?

 

[JD]

Ok brilliant I'll be doing that this weekend, unfortunately I'm not sure how long i'll be able to enjoy it as i'm going to be selling up to go travelling soon.

other then waxing once its dried would you say that is a standard wash, that i should be doing weekly? Or would the snow foam effect the life of the wax?

As long as the snow foam is pH neutral there will be no issues with it stripping waxes. The same goes for the shampoo. I would personally swap out the NXT shampoo and go for something like Dodo Juice Born to be Mild.

 

[Luke_m]

I'd never really thought about shampoo damaging the wax but it makes sense now you've mentioned it. Looks like the paypal account may be gettign a bit more use this week then, I wanted to get a decent drying towel too any recommendations?

 

[JD]

http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/Dodo_Juice_Born_To_be_Mild_Shampoo_1.html

http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/I4D_Uber_Premium_Drying_Towel_1.html

 

[Gally]

One of the first things I learned mate was get decent shampoo/snow foam! I was sick of shampoo/snow faom washing away £££'s worth of wax!

 

[Fletcher]

Looks great!

 

[Luke_m]

http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/Dodo_Juice_Born_To_be_Mild_Shampoo_1.html

http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/I4D_Uber_Premium_Drying_Towel_1.html

Thank you

One of the first things I learned mate was get decent shampoo/snow foam! I was sick of shampoo/snow faom washing away £££'s worth of wax!

I've been reading through a lot of detailling threads on here lately, and can see how much knowledge you and JD have just from the amount of advice and tips you give to everyone. Its very useful and helps to make decisions on products or to get the desired finish.

 

[Kane.]

Great work :approve: always better when you do your research.

 

[Jimbo_M]

Great detail mate, you've done very well!

 

[Clio-Ell]

Shall be using simpler methods in cleaning mine now that I've read this thread.

Looks stunning!

 

[JackJack]

What sticker is that in the back window?

 

[Rich_172]

Great job there dude. Lovely car

 

[Matt W]

Nice!

 

[Luke_m]

Shall be using simpler methods in cleaning mine now that I've read this thread.

Looks stunning!

It really is worth putting the time in. You'll wonder why you hadn't done it sooner.

What sticker is that in the back window?

I'm pretty sure its the sticker that says when they were F1 world champions. Its on all the R27's and I think the R26's to.

Cheers for all the comments people