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

[Goldfish11]

Diamondbrite and the perfect paintwork shine

Will - this looks excellent, I am thinking of doing a bit of research on wheel and tyre cleaning to perfect shine levels. I have found lots of good internet sites so watch this space, but you seem to have got this area sorted so perhaps we should start a thread together.

Pammy - I have been thinking about the diamondbrite/perfect shine issue and whether you can do any thing on these permenant finishes. My thoughts are that effectively Diamondbrite and all these long term paint care systems are paint sealers. I can see no harm in putting a high quality wax on top, for example P21S Carnauba or I guess zymol. As long as you get the car really clean, no tar spots or muck on the finish these in theory should go on fine and would not be detrimental to the Diamonbrite. The key thing is not to use a cleaner wax. High quality waxes have no cleaning agents so should just sit on top of the diamondbrite.
These are my thoughts and it would be worth a risk. and as they say you never get the real reward without a small risk :bannana:



Final coat of P21S Carnauba is delayed due to rain and storms over the midlands and worst of all, car needs to leave the garage in 1 hour, so now the whole thing will have to be washed down before waxing. Perfect Shine will now need to wait until an other day. But I guess I can always take a picture of the beading :bannana:


UPDATE.

Got final coat of P21S on car, between showers wind also dropped, car looks amazing, but finished 5 minutes before having to go out. Managed to dodge puddles for about a mile then a big lorry came along and sprayed me with muck . Anyway bonnet and near side still nice and clean so may be able to get photo tomorrow if weather brightens up.

 

[glojo]

My vehicle has had the Mercedes-Benz protection 'thingie' but I just cannot resist throwing more polish at it. (or getting 'the boss' to do it )

My main reason for the protection was for the interior, and this package has been brilliant. We have a long haired German Shepherd that travels in the rear of our car and I have never seen a vehicle 'clean up' so easily. I have read all the moans about light interiors being difficult to keep clean but ours has never been a problem.

Externally I have to say go for it and slap some polish onto your pride and joy.

Regards,
John

 

[pammy]

Pammy - I have been thinking about the diamondbrite/perfect shine issue and whether you can do any thing on these permenant finishes. My thoughts are that effectively Diamondbrite and all these long term paint care systems are paint sealers. I can see no harm in putting a high quality wax on top, for example P21S Carnauba or I guess zymol. As long as you get the car really clean, no tar spots or muck on the finish these in theory should go on fine and would not be detrimental to the Diamonbrite. The key thing is not to use a cleaner wax. High quality waxes have no cleaning agents so should just sit on top of the diamondbrite.
These are my thoughts and it would be worth a risk. and as they say you never get the real reward without a small risk :bannana:

Thanks for this -as it happens I have a supply of DB anyway so I can feel a good session coming on - one day when the weather is a bit kinder Better buy some nice stuff too then

 

[Satch]

Bloke over the road has an Audi A6 in Black which suffers badly during his commute and is often Grime Brown.

Wife was off to some event in it, it was a disgrace and he was away. Heeding his stern warnings never, ever, to put it through a car wash she started washing it. In no time at all it was stunning! A perfect miracle of glossy Audi Bastard Blackness.

I was moved to go across and ask what miracle product she had used.

Answer left me speechless: Flash and a quick once over with Mr Sheen.

 

[Goldfish11]

Thanks for this -as it happens I have a supply of DB anyway so I can feel a good session coming on - one day when the weather is a bit kinder Better buy some nice stuff too then

My biggest recomendation is to invest in a Porter Cable 7424. I have been using mine over the past few days and it means you can easily polish the car. I remember my first hand polish of just 2 coats took me a whole day last year. I can now do the same two coats in about 90 minutes and I am not warn out, and the finish is far superior.

Check out my Power Polishing thread. I know Glojo's wife has been having some fun over the past few days with his PC, so it is very Lady friendly.

Now you have the Diamondbrite, use a paint cleaner, then re-apply the Diamondbrite, then put your nice stuff on top. When applying Diamondbrite use a sponge, cut it in half, (half for stage 1 and half for stage 2) and then apply it whisper thin. A bottle should do about 3 cars. On the other hand you could forget the Diamondbrite and get sum CarLack68 or Klasse and use this to get that perfect shine.

 

[glojo]

Here is our attempts at polishing the E-class. Getting a vehicle to show a reflection is not easy when it is a light colour, but we have made the effort. My wife has done a fair bit of the work and I have laid on the floor helping as best I can.

Using a Porter Cable Polisher is very straight forward and we let the weight of the machine do the work. The only problems I can envisage is reaching the roof, (this might not be to bad on an SLK) and the weight of the 110volt transformer. That is very heavy and if you look at one of the reflections you will see the transformer on a trolley. The other picture is of the roof of the car showing a reflection of the light.

Bye for now,
John

 

[glojo]

Take two

 

[Goldfish11]

Perfect Shine is completed - P21S top layer

Finally managed to get a photo. Despite being on the road and having some muck on it the car looks amazing. These are with the final P21S top coat. This has reduced the "bling" of the Klasse finish and seems to put a glow on the paintwork which is difficult to describe. The depth is also amazing. The obsidian black paint is now looking very very black.

PS The reflection is clouds not swirl marks, honest.

 

[Goldfish11]

Perfect Shine 2of2

A final picture of the result of the P21S top layer.

 

[sym]

Very impressive !! Will have to get round to spending some more time on this polishing lark !

S.

 

[Will]

Looks brilliant Goldfish - excellent effort!

Cheers,

Will

 

[Goldfish11]

The Polishing Company - Special Deal for MBclub members

Michael Milbourne runs the Polishing Company who are one of the UK suppliers for P21S has seen thread and has got in touch with me.

www.thepolishingcompany.com

He has kindly offered to put a special pack together for MBClub Members, I had a little discussion with him and thought the following would be useful to members. So this is his offering.

I would be happy to put a kit together for your members as follows

1 Complete P21S car care Kit with a choice of either lambs wool wash mitt OR large Microfibre Chamois OR Large microfibre Drying Towel (worth £12.95 each)
This would retail to members for £59.99 plus p&p which would be about 20% off normal retail
It includes shampoo wheel gel cleaner and wax plus a 2oz 303 protectant for trim and I’ll add in a microfibre polish cloth worth £4.50. P&P is £10

This is more than half the cost of a basic Zymol kit

The Complete P21S car care kit includes (as taken from the website):

Complete Car Care Kit

A complete kit to clean polish and wax your car.

The Kit includes a non detergent shampoo and a super wheel gel to make your wheels sparkle.

The highly rated and recommended P21S Gloss Enhancing Polish then prepares your paintwork for waxing and giving it a super smooth finish with a stunning shine.

Finally, apply the P21S Concours Look Wax for stunning depth of shine and protection. Easy to apply and easy to take off... The best value wax and polish kit available.

This deal will mean you can either get a nice lambs wool mitt so you can maintain the shine (but do use the 2 bucket method), or drying towls etc. I think this is very good value.

We have had some long email discussions but here are a couple of extracts -

"All waxes (carnauba) no matter how good ‘die’ after about 8-12 weeks so this is about the maximum you can expect. P21S lasts very well and lasts easily 8 weeks in the British weather. I rate the P21S very highly. A friend who is a Zymol authorised detailer was amazed at the results and he uses nothing less than Vintage at £1400 per jar ! "

"I also own a red M3 (E30) I used to use Zymol Titanium but the shine didn’t last...... With P21S you only need to polish the car once a year (or twice if you are fanatical) and then just wax every few weeks to maintain the shine."

For those who don't want to go through the pain of doing the complete perfect shine process this kit should get you some excellent results.

Please email Micheal at: [email protected] or telephone on 01379 640208 and quote MBCLUBGOLDFISH for the deal. This will not be available through the PolishingCompany website, but if there are any other bits you need do phone Michael as I am sure he may be able to do you a deal or advise you, Polishing is after all his business.

He has also said he would love to come along to a GTG to meet up with us, he has done this for a few clubs including TVR so it may be worth taking him up on this offer if you are arranging a GTG.

 

[glojo]

Hi Goldfish,
Your car is obviously the king of shine, but I am so pleased with 'the bosses' efforts with our vehicle.

We have had a new E-class loan vehicle for a couple of days. Yet when our car was returned and parked alongside the new one there was an amazing difference. The courtesy car was a greyish colour which was slightly, darker than our tealitte blue, yet our 12 month old car looked like it had a glass finish.

Brilliant and a lot of the credit goes to you and all your advice. I am thinking of sub-contracting the wife out for the odd car polishing job!

Bye for now,
John

 

[pammy]

Michael Milbourne runs the Polishing Company
www.thepolishingcompany.com
He has kindly offered to put a special pack together for MBClub Members,

Wow - brill piece of work - have a narna :bannana: and a rep point

He has also said he would love to come along to a GTG to meet up with us, .

That would be so good - and if he brought these packs along - I'm sure we'd look to buy. Perhaps Clumber would be good?

 

[Shude]

Brilliant and a lot of the credit goes to you and all your advice. I am thinking of sub-contracting the wife out for the odd car polishing job!

That would be so good - and if he brought these packs along - I'm sure we'de look to buy. Perhaps Clumber would be good?

Excellent we could buy the stuff and then John's wife could apply it all! This is the best two birds and one stone story on the forum!

 

[glojo]

Excellent we could buy the stuff and then John's wife could apply it all! This is the best two birds and one stone story on the forum!

Nice one Shude,
Just as well my wife does not look over my shoulder Otherwise I might be getting 'stoned'

Regards,
John The coward

 

[GregE240]

What a great thread.

Although a Zymol man myself, I have to give a polite round of applause to the P21S alloy wheel cleaner. Michael sold me a 1 litre bottle after someone told me that the Porsche alloy cleaning gel was P21S rebadged and a whopping load of margin added for a laugh.

There is simply nothing better or safer for your wheels, and I've tried everything, believe me, including the Zymol wheel cleaner.

Greg

 

[Goldfish11]

Hi Goldfish,
Your car is obviously the king of shine, but I am so pleased with 'the bosses' efforts with our vehicle.

We have had a new E-class loan vehicle for a couple of days. Yet when our car was returned and parked alongside the new one there was an amazing difference. The courtesy car was a greyish colour which was slightly, darker than our tealitte blue, yet our 12 month old car looked like it had a glass finish.

Brilliant and a lot of the credit goes to you and all your advice. I am thinking of sub-contracting the wife out for the odd car polishing job!

Bye for now,
John

Thank you for all the positive comments, and the banana. John's amazing finish is the result of the good old Porter Cable and Autoglym. Imagine what your wife could do with some P21S in the spring .

I placed an order with Michael today, so pass the word, he deserves to get some business.

My car is no longer "king of shine" more like "king of S$%t" , Four days of the M1 means it looks awful, will have to see if I can find time to clean it this weekend.

 

[Goldfish11]

The Polishing Company - Update

I got my nice kit from the polishing company yesterday. Its really good, you get a nice little brief case for all your P21S products, so I have been walking around the office showing off to all my colleagues (I now look like a real car care professional ) There is also lots of information on the products, the claims for the 303 Aerospace Protectant are quiet impressive (Sun Factor 40 for cars!) I will give this a go on my dash but it seems you can use it on tyres or any vinyl or leather to protect from UV damage. The lambs wool mitt is really nice. I gave the car a quick wash tonight.

Michael from the Polishing Company has also contacted the Carlack people and has got some sample products and will be trying them out over the coming weeks. He has the vision of putting together a "Perfect Shine" kit for the MBClub with the Carlack Acrylic protection products and P21S so you can just shop with him if you want to. He just needs to sort out import quantities etc.

He also says Carlack are about to launch some products for the new Nano Paint technology, he is getting more details on what this is about but watch this space

And don't forget if you contact Michael quote "MBClubGoldfish" for your discount

 

[GrahamC230K]

Just a tip for anyone who struggles to clean between the letter on their badge - KOMPRESSOR owners in particular!

Autoglym Tar Remover. Disolvles the dirt without having to get your tweasers and cotton buds out!!

Squirt it on, leave for a second then just wipe over and it cleaned better than when I was trying to do it in detail with just shampoo.