Detailing Becky

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Detailing Becky

Now. Back again and I am going to say that you are a nuisance! I finally started car washing. I floundered half way through thr forst one and had to be rescued from the drive way by the women who finished him off by which time I cluld barely stand. And all this because of this thread! Having got Noop clean I stood back and thought it looked really clean.. So today I thought a quick polish up with Autobrite spray. Oh dear me a close look at a white car after a year and with a long hot summer, it had a fair bit of tar and grot so out with the clay bar. Just centres of both bumpers left to do now and it really looks good. I have an old exercise mat that enabled me to do 80% lying down including the sills and door jambs and bottoms of the doors. I was going to post soem pics but Noop put his coat on and hid in the garage because of a massive rain storm. ( 6 drops of drizzle) Enough to stop me today though.
Anyway apart from telling you you're a nuisance for starting me off I wanted to give a bit of practical advice on clay blocking which I learned the hard way. I hope this will help.

Consider if you REALLY want to start this. Its addictive as once you see the result, its a bit like a drug.

1. Remove the bigger tar spots before starting as it will make the bar last longer. Dont worry about perfection as the clay bar will remove the rest and fly spots too. You can feel when then paint is properly clean
2. Dont be too mean with the clay bar. Use a bit the size of half a cotton wool ball thats been wet and squashed. Knead it a bit to make a pad about 1.25 inches across and 0.25 thick. Start gentle and you will soon establish how much to rub. I find two fingers pressure is enough.
3. Do the white car first. You can see so much better on white when the paint is clean. You can thus learn how much and how hard you are likely to need to work the bar before moving to a darker colour thats more difficult to tell. It will save elbow grease.
4. Start on the top and work down. THe paints cleaner and the block will last longer this way. You can clay block all the glass to good effect. As the clay picks off the dirt you can turn it so you use a reasonably clean pad on the best / most obvious sections like bonnet and doors. When the clay looks fairly grim put it on one side for use on the door bottoms and then lastly the sills /wheels /wheel trims.
5. You can do all the black plastic but be gentle and dont rub too hard as you can melt it enough to make shiny spots with over-use.
6. Be generous with the lubricant. Particulalry on plastic,
7. I was worried about the grot in the used clay bar scratching the paintwork as I progressed. (before I started.) I have had no issues with this at all using the above tactics. I finish the clay off on the wheels and the areas where muck is thrown up and then bin it.
8. Buff off and be preapred to be amazed. I was the first time.
9. You will need a new coat for Beckie to wear once clean so flies cant sit on her and birds cant poop on her......

Then there's the after treatement etc etc

At least my neighbour says even Daffo, now 11 years old , looks brand new. Last timwe was just after a striaght water wash.

Tip of the centuary. In hard water areas a big squeeze of vinegar into the rinsing water is worth its weight in gold as it prevents limescale spots. I dont expect you have this issue in sunny Scotland. I find acid rain does the same job and often wash teh car in the rain then no leathering off is required,
 
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Now. Back again and I am going to say that you are a nuisance! I finally started car washing. I floundered half way through thr forst one and had to be rescued from the drive way by the women who finished him off by which time I cluld barely stand. And all this because of this thread! Having got Noop clean I stood back and thought it looked really clean.. So today I thought a quick polish up with Autobrite spray. Oh dear me a close look at a white car after a year and with a long hot summer, it had a fair bit of tar and grot so out with the clay bar. Just centres of both bumpers left to do now and it really looks good. I have an old exercise mat that enabled me to do 80% lying down including the sills and door jambs and bottoms of the doors. I was going to post soem pics but Noop put his coat on and hid in the garage because of a massive rain storm. ( 6 drops of drizzle) Enough to stop me today though.
Anyway apart from telling you you're a nuisance for starting me off I wanted to give a bit of practical advice on clay blocking which I learned the hard way. I hope this will help.

Consider if you REALLY want to start this. Its addictive as once you see the result, its a bit like a drug.

1. Remove the bigger tar spots before starting as it will make the bar last longer. Dont worry about perfection as the clay bar will remove the rest and fly spots too. You can feel when then paint is properly clean
2. Dont be too mean with the clay bar. Use a bit the size of half a cotton wool ball thats been wet and squashed. Knead it a bit to make a pad about 1.25 inches across and 0.25 thick. Start gentle and you will soon establish how much to rub. I find two fingers pressure is enough.
3. Do the white car first. You can see so much better on white when the paint is clean. You can thus learn how much and how hard you are likely to need to work the bar before moving to a darker colour thats more difficult to tell. It will save elbow grease.
4. Start on the top and work down. THe paints cleaner and the block will last longer this way. You can clay block all the glass to good effect. As the clay picks off the dirt you can turn it so you use a reasonably clean pad on the best / most obvious sections like bonnet and doors. When the clay looks fairly grim put it on one side for use on the door bottoms and then lastly the sills /wheels /wheel trims.
5. You can do all the black plastic but be gentle and dont rub too hard as you can melt it enough to make shiny spots with over-use.
6. Be generous with the lubricant. Particulalry on plastic,
7. I was worried about the grot in the used clay bar scratching the paintwork as I progressed. (before I started.) I have had no issues with this at all using the above tactics. I finish the clay off on the wheels and the areas where muck is thrown up and then bin it.
8. Buff off and be preapred to be amazed. I was the first time.
9. You will need a new coat for Beckie to wear once clean so flies cant sit on her and birds cant poop on her......

Then there's the after treatement etc etc

At least my neighbour says even Daffo, now 11 years old , looks brand new. Last timwe was just after a striaght water wash.

Tip of the centuary. In hard water areas a big squeeze of vinegar into the rinsing water is worth its weight in gold as it prevents limescale spots. I dont expect you have this issue in sunny Scotland. I find acid rain does the same job and often wash teh car in the rain then no leathering off is required,
Hmm, wise advice about becoming obsessed with detailing. Think I'll have to watch that as I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I can easily see myself parking on the furthest away parking space in the supermarket car park instead of just half way across it if I'm not careful!

Thanks for all those tips, invaluable for a "detailing virgin". So it looks like I should do Becky first? That should really please her as she's usually the "poor relative".

Our water is very soft here, people even used to put it straight into batteries to top up - in the days batteries could be topped up - without any apparent problems.

Very glad to read what you said about "grot" in the clay bar building up as it's used and eventually scratching the paint. I was very worried about this but it would seem it's not a problem as long as you are "sensible".

I've got a full day of grandchildren tomorrow - on my own with them because Mrs J is visiting her friend near Munich - so I'll be so puggled (pugglt) by the time I get them back to Mum and Dad in the evening that I'll be totally scunnered (scunnert) and fit for my bed only. However, as I've spent less on the set top box than I thought I might have to and I can do the installation myself (no dish needed now and the terrestrial box is a wee bit cheaper) on Wednesday I plan to order some, or maybe all, of the detailing supplies. For better or worse I've decided to take a chance with most of the Bilt Hamber stuff. Hopefully the weather will let me get stuck in before the weekend.
 
Just in case anyone is interested, and to round off the subject of that freeview box.

It's a Humax Aura 2TB 4K HDR Ulta High Definition. Ordered on line from John Lewis at midday on the Sunday and it was delivered sometime on the Tuesday (it was waiting for me with my neighbour when I returned in the evening from looking after the grandchildren so not sure exactly when it came). It's got JL's automatic 2 year guarantee. My own TV only does 1080 so this box is "future proof" for when I need to buy a new TV. Set up was an absolute doddle. In fact the picture is excellent - there's obviously a lot of "clever" upscaling going on in the new box - The new box has linked automatically to my old 42" Panasonic Led TV without needing to teach it to link, so It takes the TV out of standy when I switch on the box and putting the TV back into standby automatically puts the box to standby, Clever eh? The old sat box was always pretty slow to wake up and then start the TV. This new box is "greased lightening" by way of comparison and it's ready to view within seconds of pressing the box's standby button.

The sound in particular is worthy of mention. Played back through the TV it doesn't sound much different to the old Sat Box but when routed through my AV Amp there's a very obvious improvement. Speech is noticeably clearer and the whole "sound stage" is more expansive. They've definitely improved it when compared to the old Sat Box. In fact it's been the thing I've noticed most, Although it's someway short of a Blu Ray sound track it's pretty good for off air stuff..

There's a shed load of additional features which I haven't tried yet, Today I'll be logging in to the likes of iPlayer and other catchup apps and maybe more.

So, in conclusion, I'm absolutely delighted with my new purchase and looking forward to exploring it's many features.

PS. Forgot to say, It also does "Voice search". So, for instance, if you want to see the weather, you just press the top left button on the remote and say to the remote, "search (or find works too) weather" and the weather pops up. Very handy. Tried it for "Bangers and Cash" and it found that too.
 
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I never knew there were so many different ways of washing/cleaning/ polishing to perfection one's beloved Panda !
Fed up with getting scratches/marks when car parked from not so careful drivers - any suggestions of best cheapest easiest way to make good .. please
 
I never knew there were so many different ways of washing/cleaning/ polishing to perfection one's beloved Panda !
Fed up with getting scratches/marks when car parked from not so careful drivers - any suggestions of best cheapest easiest way to make good .. please
The best thing for this that I have ever bought is my DA polisher.
Using 2500 or 3000 grade pads will get rid of scratches and follow up with a finishing polish - non silicon type to restore the shine. I have then successfully sprayed with a properly matched rattle can followed by a laquer if required and then using the DA agan to remove any signs I have been there. Without the double action polisher I have never done any paint that would pass muster, SInce getting it I am confident in tackling many jobs. Often I find the marks are just in the top surface and these can be reomved by polishing with it. Doing it by hand would take a life time. I resprayed the entire side of my mothers car like this and the finished job put most professional paint work I have experienced to shame. DA polishers are not cheap but one small job you do yourself is enough to justify the cost. Its also very good for headight erpolishing. As a muppet I can safely say muppets can do it.
For chips and minor paintwork spots the chipsaway (.co.uk) system is most certainly worth its cost and leaves almost invisible repairs. I have had 4 lots from them and all have been a perfect colour match.
 
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