The £5 Detail (yes honestly!)

[Dieselman]

Just had a quick look at this thread & I'm glad the guy above has saved me the disitation and put it in a nutshell. But to simplify these statements I will prove to you guys when I have 5 minutes that putting household polish on a lacquered panel will cover it in holograms. I will apply this to a freshly corrected, heavily ipa'ed panel and put it under a sun gun moving a crossed it. All I can say now is promise you it will be extremely smeary.

Cheers
Michael

Here's one I did earlier If you use very little product and don't apply it directly to the paint it'll be OK. I wouldn't drive around with it looking a mess

As said, smears are usually over application, not the product.

I would be interested to see the results though

 

[R2D2]

LOL. Washing my car is proving fun as it dry so quickly I'm having to do a panel at a time

 

[R2D2]

For those who are worried. R2 has today been washed with AG Shampoo, polished with Resin polish and finished off with extra gloss protection. Looks lovely, even better than Pledge LOL.

 

[Sp!ke]

You need to wash your car after the sun dies down now summer is here.

 

[JDMUK]

Fair play for trying it but saying pledge is the same or contains the same chemicals as a more expensive detailing product is like saying the jerry can full of fuel in my shed that's nearly a year old is the same as some fresh v power.....

And now you are saying it looks even better with autoglym over the top.... Kind of contradicted your self lol.

 

[mikec32]

Hi bud,

I don't want to be funny, but the photo above you would never see a hologram in your paint. You need a photo of the bonnet with the sun high in the sky directly facing the bonnet. Even better, short video of the same image moving left to right. Infact give me an hour and I'll post some pics and videos of what I mean

 

[mikec32]

Right buddy this is what I mean,

In order to see any types of defects you need a light source (sun, sun gun. halogen, halide etc) as a reflection shot will not show up anything. especially holograms created by household polish.

Take for instant last weeks job for me, A 2011 Range Rover Sport Autobiography. without light source and just a reflection all paint could look pretty sweet. Fot instant take a look below at the photo of both front wings.

Both have been degreased, washed, chemical bathed, dried, clay bar system and ipa'ed. the left side has had no machine polishing/paint correction yet still looks pretty reflective. The right side also under dull light, has been fully paint corrected. So you can kind of see that it has a deeper reflection, but not much difference.

But put these panels under light source and you can see a very big difference. Please take a look at both of these videos showing the difference between the corrected panel and the none corrected panel on this range rover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D95Fyc3yhGA&list=UUZiqN1uWPu1T-Y2wjqLpyfg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZrLBwFAhlY&list=UUZiqN1uWPu1T-Y2wjqLpyfg

as with the 50/50 phtos of the exact same car:

and what black looks like perfect without defects in it:

So all im trying to say is all paint can look lovely in a reflective/non direct sunlight shot. The key is getting it to look perfect in direct sunlight:

Hence it would be great to get shots of your bonnet in direct sunlight after it had been applied to your car. As it gives a great insight to what it actually looks like.

Cheers Bud,

Michael

 

[R2D2]

Hi Michael, what you do with cars is amazing. I'm not casting any doubt on your skills, expertise or anything else. For the sorts of car you work on its all fantastic. My post about Pledge is not about comparing Pledge with a £1000 detail , its about stuff people can try on their older Merc or cars like mine that spend zero hours in the studio but do spend 17000 miles a year on motorways. Whilst I'd love my car to be made "like new" in your hands, I know that the next day it would get ruined on a dirty old motorway. I'm afraid in my world direct light and studio conditions just don't exist. Poor old R2 lives a hard old life but I try to keep him clean! Thanks for all your amazing photos of cars you work on. They are fantastic

 

[mikec32]

Haha I totally appriciate at that buddy, and it is far from a pop! Its fantastic that you enjoy a good car cleaning session and you enjoy it for a past time. All im saying is the sun is what makes a car show up all its blemishes. The idea of keeping yur car looking good is so that it looks great on a sunny day. Because if it looks good in the sun it will look good in any light condition. So if pledge makes a car look shiney out of the sun doesnt mean its going to look good in it. And if it doesnt look good in the sun, then its a no go product. No one likes smeary paint in the sun bud, especially a man of your uber clean charactor but yes, this was why I was interested to see what it looked like in the sun. As this is what pledge tends to do to paint:

 

[R2D2]

Ooh that looks bad! Mine never looked like that but neither did it look as good as it could or does with, in my case, AG products.