How To: Create the Perfect Paintwork Show Car Shine (UK Style)

[glojo]

Thanks once again sir - you're a true gent.

Well said,
John

 

[Goldfish11]

Thank you for your kind words, I am just trying to save others time and energy. Its taken me months to find all this stuff out, with lots of frustration at times, so if it means others can have a go, without the hassle then that would be great. To think 12 months ago I thought throwing a bucket of Turtle Wax Shampoo over the car was serious car care! .

Long range weather forecast not looking good for car care activity. We may even have snow on Christmas Day here.

 

[Howard]

QUOTE[We may even have snow on Christmas Day here.]QUOTE

Woo Hoo !!!!! :bannana:

 

[Goldfish11]

QUOTE[We may even have snow on Christmas Day here.]QUOTE

Woo Hoo !!!!! :bannana:

This is completely off the topic but check out www.weather.co.uk gives you a nice car care weather forecast for the next 10 days for your post code.

 

[Busker]

This is completely off the topic but check out www.weather.co.uk gives you a nice car care weather forecast for the next 10 days for your post code.

So that'll be no car care until at least the 28th December then - thanks! Well at least it gives me more time to order the rest of my "Perfect Shine" stuff.

 

[Dieselman]

Thank you for your kind words, I am just trying to save others time and energy. Its taken me months to find all this stuff out, with lots of frustration at times, so if it means others can have a go, without the hassle then that would be great. To think 12 months ago I thought throwing a bucket of Turtle Wax Shampoo over the car was serious car care! .

Long range weather forecast not looking good for car care activity. We may even have snow on Christmas Day here.

Thanks for looking out all the deatails here.

I think it would be fair to say you have definately raised the profile of car care on this forum.
Over the years I have tried many products and been dissapointed in many of them, I could never get that supershine-wet look.
Now I know it's down to the type of product and the order they are used in and that no product can really perform more than one task sucsessfully.

Regards

 

[Goldfish11]

Completely obsessive behaviour (Picture 1 of 3)

Well you may have noticed the ambient temperature increased over between Christmas and New year . I decided to do the Perfect Shine. Used wifes car for past week and kept mine garaged.

I first used the 1z Paint Polish, then 1z metallic to remove the light swirls. I then used my P21S paint cleaner. (This produced a fantastic finish). This was followed by 1 coat of Klasse All in one (CarLack) and then 3 coats of Klasse Sealant Glaze (Acryl Wax) allowing 24hours between coats to allow it to cure. The 3rd coat did make a noticable difference that suprised me as I thought I may be wasting my time. I had to keep reminding myself to keep the Sealant Glaze whisper thin on application because it is difficult to remove, removal was helped by just breathing on the area (distilled water is an other option.)

Attached is a photo of the finish just with the Klasse. Tomorrow I will apply some P21S concours wax (weather permitting). But I was so impressed with the Klasse finish I thought I would put this photo in. The metallic in my obsidian black looked as if it was just popping out of the paint, and as you can see the reflections are pure.

One neighbour thought I had just bought a new car! Wife thinks it is definitely more shine then at any other time she has seen it. An other neighbour said I was a disgrace to the street because my car was too clean .

One comment from all who have seen me over the past few days is I am completely mad, but then again some people garden, play golf or read books I just polish cars And worst of all once I have run this down the motorway it will be covered in muck again

 

[Goldfish11]

Picture 2 of 3 Klasse finish.

Here is an other, note sparkly wing and amazing reflections.

 

[glojo]

Hi Goldfish,
Your ears must be burning. We purchased the Autoglym 'stuff' for the car and the 'Boss' attacked it this morning.

The weather at present is cool, but not cold and the polish went on a treat.

After polishing the whole car she literally dusted off the polish and was left with a beautiful shine.

Onto the Autoglym Protection. This came out of the bottle like water? She used the polisher to apply it all over the car and then left it for a couple of hours. What a disaster!! Poor old girl was spoilt by the ease of using Autoglym polish, but this stuff was totally different. It was very, very difficult to get off. Is this normal?

The temperature was about 12 - 14 degrees and it looked like it had dried, plus the polish had come off very easily.

What do you think we done wrong?

Happy New Year,
John

 

[Goldfish11]

Picture 3 of 3 Klasse finish.

And finally.

 

[Goldfish11]

Hi Goldfish,
Your ears must be burning. We purchased the Autoglym 'stuff' for the car and the 'Boss' attacked it this morning.

The weather at present is cool, but not cold and the polish went on a treat.

After polishing the whole car she literally dusted off the polish and was left with a beautiful shine.

Onto the Autoglym Protection. This came out of the bottle like water? She used the polisher to apply it all over the car and then left it for a couple of hours. What a disaster!! Poor old girl was spoilt by the ease of using Autoglym polish, but this stuff was totally different. It was very, very difficult to get off. Is this normal?

The temperature was about 12 - 14 degrees and it looked like it had dried, plus the polish had come off very easily.

What do you think we done wrong?

Happy New Year,
John

John,

The gloss protection needs to be applied very very very very very thin. I put about 2 drops of the stuff on the PC soft pad per panel. You need just enough to create the finest haze. Then leave for as long as possible, when the weather is good I will leave it on for 6 hours but leave it for at least an hour. If it is on nice and thin it will come off quite easy.

Dont worry I did precisely the same thing when I first used it, I put far to much on and it took me hours to get off and I had to rub so hard I even put some fine cloth swirls on the finish, I ended up repolishing with Super Resin a few weeks later and then applied the Extra Gloss super thin. So tell the boss she is in good company.

If you have made a complete mess of things, try useing some AutoGlym super resin to remove it, I am sure this will get it off. Then leave the car until tomorrow and try again with the Extra Gloss protection. You may find you have loaded the PC pad so much that you dont need to apply any more. It takes about 15 minutes using the PC to do a complete coat of Gloss Protection because you need such a thin coat. Rubbing off then takes about the same amount of time with a micro fibre cloth.

Extra Gloss protection is well worth using, It does enhance the shine and increases protection. Remember with car care products it is often "the less the better" in application.


What do you think of the above pictures?

 

[glojo]

Hi Goldfish,
Thank you very much for the re-assuring advive.

Your car, is as usual immaculate. I have now diagnosed you as having Compulsive Polishing Disorder

Your car is immaculate and I am definitely envious.

John

 

[Goldfish11]

CPD (Compulsive Polishing Disorder)

Hi Goldfish,
Thank you very much for the re-assuring advive.

Your car, is as usual immaculate. I have now diagnosed you as having Compulsive Polishing Disorder

Your car is immaculate and I am definitely envious.

John

The problem is CPD is really catching once you have a Power Polisher It wont be long until you catch it.

Spring is a particularly bad time of the year for this disease, the longer warmer days means the CPD bug starts to multiply.

First symptoms are thoughts like "I wonder what the car would look like with 2 or 3 coats of AG Extra Gloss, instead of one"

Long term sufferers can be found in car care shops looking aimlessly at polish products.

The final stage's result in sufferers using Zymol or NXT tech wax as an aftershave lotion and using Detailing Spray as a deodorant.

 

[glojo]

I wonder how many different brands of car polish, remover, restorer, protector, renovator, etc. etc. etc you have, and is this another symptom?

I am concerned that this might be the first symptom as we now have Autoglym and Meguairs decorating our shelves and usually I would never have dreamed of buying a different brand of polish before using up all of the first batch

Again, I blame you!

Happy New Year and thank you very much for all your very constructive advice.

John

 

[Will]

Looking good Golfish - and to think that I felt better after cleaning and waxing my wheels twice yesterday!

Good to see somebody really looking after their pride and joy - it is a lovely position to be in when you have access to a garage and more than one car so that you can really pamper your motor!

Cheers,

Will

 

[Goldfish11]

Looking good Golfish - and to think that I felt better after cleaning and waxing my wheels twice yesterday!

Good to see somebody really looking after their pride and joy - it is a lovely position to be in when you have access to a garage and more than one car so that you can really pamper your motor!

Cheers,

Will

The problem with my garage is I have 3 cm of clearance either side of the wing mirrors and when I drive it in, and about 20cm at the rear and 10cm at the front when the door is shut. I can then only open the door on one side, so if I drive in forwards I have to move all the front seats to there maximum rear position climb over the centre console and exit through passenger side, avoiding kids bikes, freezer etc. Reversing in it is easier to get out. So I reverse in, polish one side, drive out turn the car around and do the other side, this has to be done between rain showers. (Much to the amusement of the neighbours) So car care in the garage is bit like doing a Houdini escape routine. Roll on spring when it does not rain (much) so you can do the whole routine outside leaving the car on the drive between coats, and using it on the road with out it getting covered in muck. Just give it a quick dust off with a microfibre cloth before the next coat.

Just heard wifey is going out tomorrow and son has dentist appointment so may have to take vehicle on road before getting my final coat of wax on All I need is a few hours of dry and a little sun so I can get some quick photos to remind me of how good the thing can look

WHEELS - Oh no I have not done these yet, and I spotted a few stone chips on the alloys. This could be next weekends project!!!!!!!! A tip from the Goldfish Car Care book of quotes.....

"A smart suit with dirty shoes looks terrible, but shine your shoes and a poor suit looks great"

So I now have a great suit but my shoes need attention.

(Told this to one of my neighbours, all he does now is clean his wheels each week to put me to shame )

 

[Will]

The problem with my garage is I have 3 cm of clearance either side of the wing mirrors and when I drive it in, and about 20cm at the rear and 10cm at the front when the door is shut. I can then only open the door on one side, so if I drive in forwards I have to move all the front seats to there maximum rear position climb over the centre console and exit through passenger side, avoiding kids bikes, freezer etc. Reversing in it is easier to get out. So I reverse in, polish one side, drive out turn the car around and do the other side, this has to be done between rain showers. (Much to the amusement of the neighbours) So car care in the garage is bit like doing a Houdini escape routine. Roll on spring when it does not rain (much) so you can do the whole routine outside leaving the car on the drive between coats, and using it on the road with out it getting covered in muck. Just give it a quick dust off with a microfibre cloth before the next coat.

Just heard wifey is going out tomorrow and son has dentist appointment so may have to take vehicle on road before getting my final coat of wax on All I need is a few hours of dry and a little sun so I can get some quick photos to remind me of how good the thing can look

WHEELS - Oh no I have not done these yet, and I spotted a few stone chips on the alloys. This could be next weekends project!!!!!!!! A tip from the Goldfish Car Care book of quotes.....

"A smart suit with dirty shoes looks terrible, but shine your shoes and a poor suit looks great"

So I now have a great suit but my shoes need attention.

(Told this to one of my neighbours, all he does now is clean his wheels each week to put me to shame )

I know how you feel - treated my last W202 and my (now sold) Lexus LS400 to the same sort of pampering last summer!

I'd hate to imagine how many days I spent 'perfecting' the shine on the LS!

Something like one week on-and-off to totally de-contaminate, remove tar, clay bar the whole body, repair any stone chips, remove trim and lenses and clean around these areas clean exhaust tips, under the wheel arches, remove all the swirls/fine scratches with pink foam and G10 and lots of water misting, hand glazing and then waxing and waxing the entire body!

The results were amazing! You really do astonish yourself every time when you go that extra mile - as you say, after waxing the body, it looks good, but after the second or third wax, the shine becomes so, so deep and the paint looks deep, wet and rich!

Interior was a similar story, but the leather came up lovely, especially considering this was a 10 year old car which had covered 87K miles!

Roll on March/April for the longer days and warmer weather (well, ok starting to improve weather!)

Have hardly touched my current W202 since I have had it (could do with the full process) but will hopefully get a good going over in the spring!

I sypathise with your garage problems, the main garage is about 16ft square or so, but there is so much junk in there you have to do a similar process of working on one side at a time!

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,

Will

 

[Will]

The entire car was this clean!

 

[pammy]

wow

 

[Will]

Self-refurbished alloys!