2 Stage paint correction and a coating on my white GLE/ Das6 Da and koch Chemie

[chrisk2010]

heavy cutting with wool pads can cause marring or pig tails, esp on softer paint but if the paint doesn't respond to a heavy cut foam pad then wool is always the best bet, you will also find that they don't heat up that much so helps with panel temps, no matter how good you are with a compounding set, you will always need to finish down with at least a 2nd stage anyway so it removed any marring from the cutting.

Appreciate the advice it pretty much confirms what i thought.

When i get around to it i was going to do a test section with a green hex logic and some scholl concept, if no good move to and orange if still no good green and a heavier cut compound.

I'm trying to go at it gently because i'm so rusty lol.

 

[LeeJV]

Green Hex pads are only for light cutting buddy, and generally ok for for light correction but no good on harder paints or with a heavy compounding set

lake country Blue HDO pad or Koche Chemie Red pads, they do need warming up a little first to make them a little more workable. Koch also do wool pads designed to work with the H9 compound too but not tried them yet

 

[chrisk2010]

Green Hex pads are only for light cutting buddy, and generally ok for for light correction but no good on harder paints or with a heavy compounding set

lake country Blue HDO pad or Koche Chemie Red pads, they do need warming up a little first to make them a little more workable. Koch also do wool pads designed to work with the H9 compound too but not tried them yet

i know mate, light cut is all thats needed really which is why i wanted to work my up.

There are three deeper marks bonnet, tiny one one the roof and some weird one on the boot that need attention. I was going to go at them with a microfibre and foam interface but you’ve rekindle my interest in wool bur may get both and see what works best.

I have looked at the koch pads but haven’t tries them either.

The quick detail was all the time i had for a machine polish and it was 95% improvement.

 

[LeeJV]

sometimes that's enough buddy, chasing 100%correction is very time consuming and in many cases its not possible anyway. I've seen so many people saying they can do a full correction in a day!!! From my own experience its simply not possible.

 

[chrisk2010]

sometimes that's enough buddy, chasing 100%correction is very time consuming and in many cases its not possible anyway. I've seen so many people saying they can do a full correction in a day!!! From my own experience its simply not possible.

I agree i dabbled back in the day, working at my old mans forklift company we had two spray booths for stripping forklifts to bar metal and respraying and on occasion we'd do the odd car / car part or work on our own cars in the evenings you could easily drop 30 hours into a correction on an average sized saloon.

I saw on the detailing group on facebook on guy reckoned he does a full correction and ceramic coating from start to finish (prep and cleaning included) in 7 hours lol! unless he has a ten man team in prefect sync i call BS, a decontamination takes me 7 - 10 hours depending on whats needed and the level on contamination.

Again i really appreciate all the advice Lee i know i have been picking your brain a lot lately, i ordered Carpro Elixir and Ech20 and a few wash mits and other bits last night looking forward to trying them out.

 

[LeeJV]

I agree i dabbled back in the day, working at my old mans forklift company we had two spray booths for stripping forklifts to bar metal and respraying and on occasion we'd do the odd car / car part or work on our own cars in the evenings you could easily drop 30 hours into a correction on an average sized saloon.

I saw on the detailing group on facebook on guy reckoned he does a full correction and ceramic coating from start to finish (prep and cleaning included) in 7 hours lol! unless he has a ten man team in prefect sync i call BS, a decontamination takes me 7 - 10 hours depending on whats needed and the level on contamination.

Again i really appreciate all the advice Lee i know i have been picking your brain a lot lately, i ordered Carpro Elixir and Ech20 and a few wash mits and other bits last night looking forward to trying them out.

good stuff. Buddy, I'm always happy to help out in anyway i can, , i do however get frustrated with people sometimes because they googled something and criticize a product or technique without having first hand experience. The web is full of really bad advise and some of the worst I've ever seen is on detailing forums
the amount of debates about PH levels drives me completely Nuts!!!!!.

Another frequently asked questions are what's the "Best" product to use..... Depends on what you want from that product etc

looking forward to seeing how you get on with the Carpro stuff and mitts etc, if you need anymore tips buddy, just shout.

I too was brought up in the industry, my Dad was a car painter and i was always working with him at weekends in the booths, My current full time business is carpet and upholstery restoration So i know quite a bit about PH levels etc, i also work part time in car detailing. And have my detailing course booked for later in the year, so will be building that side of the company over the next few years , just saving up to have a full 3 Car detailing garage built Soni can run the company from my own premises etc.

 

[chrisk2010]

I do find the the forums a bit ........ bitchy. The problem IMO is there are so many products now days and for the most part they all work depending on the result you want which gives way to a lot of conflicting information, because what works for one might not work for another or give the expected result.

For example most swear by BH double speed wax and yes if your going for a quick wax and protect it's easy to apply, last well and is great stuff for that purpose as that's what it's designed for, however for me i find it creates a shadowy effect on the paint work of my car although it can't be seen on the lighter Zafira so that's what i use it for.

The whole PH thing makes my eyes roll too especially when merely touching the car when cleaning removes the LSP over time. Some come across that applying a pre-wash or snowfoam will strip coating off when really dunking the mitt in soapy water and rubbing the car all over, hitting it with pressurised water then drying probably removes more.

Much better learning to build on the coat whether it's to apply more of the same product or finding another product that bonds well with the lsp and works as a sacrificial layer if that makes sense?

Either way 100% correction is what needs to be achieved first to really get the best from a car.

 

[Wotchmaker]

Good thread

 

[LeeJV]

Thanks mate


Took almost as long to write that up as it did to the work.

 

[bmb1959]

Hey again , The Car is now completed,
Early start today, started at 7am this morning, gave the car another full wash in my usual method.. This may seem a little OTT but it actually helps make sure all the polishing dust and airborne dust is no longer on any panels and also shows if I have any polishing oils left over.
Fully rinsed down with DI water and dried with a blower, Its now time for some fun.
My coating of choice this time round was the new V3 Wowo's Crystal sealant, I've heard lots of positive reviews about this and have been very keen to try it out, as its 1 product that will cover every part of the car except Tyres.View attachment 95941
My choice of application was to Cut some 70/30 pearl weave towels into 4 and wrap these around an applicator, I gave the sponge block a mist with some water so that it didn't absorb the product, then wrapped my cloth over that, I chose this method to make application easier and more controlled in the same way I would apply a ceramic coating.
View attachment 95942View attachment 95943View attachment 95944

So as with all cleaning and detailing I always start a the top and work down, 1st up was the roof,, roofrails, glass the trims on the top of the car,, I gave the applicator 2 sprays of product and then worked a section of about 18x18" in a crosshacth pattern, then took a clean MF towel and levelled the coating off, then used a 2nd towel to give a final buff.
View attachment 95945
Application and removal is really simple, I had no problems in any way.. once buffed off it leaves a very silky finish, not extremely slick like a wax based product but still very nice. The product says it can be used on all ext surfaces, so I applied this to the rubber trims around the glass and I was really impressed as it completely restored the colour like new giving a nice sheen to the finish, How long this will last on rubber I'm not sure but definelty worth the effort to find out just how much of a product this is.
View attachment 95946
Now happy that the entire top half of the paint and glass is done, I moved onto the all the panels of the car in the exact same process as before, after every full panel was complete I used a fresh removal towel for every other panel to make removal easier as the coating is quite thick and clogged up the towels pretty fast making product removal a little more difficult.
I coated the entire car Including all the plastic, rubber, glass, grilles, doorshuts, running boards, wiper blade arms, chrome etc etc and yet still only used a little over 1/4 of the bottle, The product only requires 1 coat to last 12mnths but can be stacked if you choose, so even if this only last 6 months 1 bottle should give me 2 years of protection.
I then finished off coating the tyres with some Carpro pearl, Mixed at 1/1 and dried with a Heatgun, I coated the wheels with KKD R evolve a few months back so they didn't need anything other than just a wipe over with some Di water to remove any dust.
All in this has taken me 5 days from start to finish and that included cleaning the engine bay and inner wheel arches too, the only little downside is that My little Das6 has been given too much abuse and started to fail, I've done 3 full car corrections with this little tool so it was worth the money, but its time for an upgrade now.
Thanks for taking the time to read the thread, hopefully this has helped some of you that are thinking of doing something like this. Its Not an easy job by any means The single biggest tip I can give you is To be Patient, take your time and have fun in the process.

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Nice job

 

[Wotchmaker]

Thanks mate


Took almost as long to write that up as it did to the work.

How is the coating holding up? If I recall it stated 12 months life span. Still looking good?

 

[LeeJV]

How is the coating holding up? If I recall it stated 12 months life span. Still looking good?

Hey buddy

The coating held up really well, I only applied 1 coat, it was washed weekly using BH Autofaom prewash and shampoo, and was still there when I sold the car last month.
The only thing added was Carpro Elixir as a drying aid, it's a great product to use on all surfaces including rubber trims and glass.

@chrisk2010 also used the products on 2 of his cars, so he can also vouch for its durability

 

[cluffy]

Fantastic job. Agree with an earlier post that white is a difficult colour to show in photos. Had my [white] C63 fully detailed and ceramic coated last week at a cost of £600 so you've certainly saved yourself some money...

 

[chrisk2010]

@chrisk2010 also used the products on 2 of his cars, so he can also vouch for its durability

I certainly can, it isn't often i'd recommend a product usually because it takes so long to judge the result but on our old Zafira it held up amazingly well with minimal maintenance right up until we got the new car which was about 7-8 months and was still happily working. One of the things i really liked about it which i mentioned in a post was how well it kept the plastics looking great especially the lower parts on the front bumper.

The new car is well coated in Wowo's so I'll report back later on in the year on how well it's holding up.

 

[LeeJV]

Fantastic job. Agree with an earlier post that white is a difficult colour to show in photos. Had my [white] C63 fully detailed and ceramic coated last week at a cost of £600 so you've certainly saved yourself some money...

£600 Blimey, that's cheap.