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Thanks for taking the time to view another detailing thread by www.autodetox.co.uk
Yes I have been a little quiet on the forum of late this is due to me moving to a bigger & better unit, organising my Waxstock exhibit & generally working 7 days a week 10 & 12 hours a day !
I have been in the new place 3 weeks now this car was the second through the door on day one of opening ! With the new place still looking a bit rough (it has all changed since then)
The owner drove the car over to me & left it with me for a week while he was away on business, the car had 30 hours of work put into it to bring it back to life
Day 1: As always I took some time once on my own to take a look around the car & take stock of the work needed to make me & the owner happy with the result. Please excuse some of the light differences in some of the shots I was still trying to get the right setting for the new unit
Alloy:
Passenger rear quarter:
Front:
Filler: this needed a little extra attention, the drain hole was blocked & it was full of grit
Drivers side:
Even under the strip lights you can see the previous polishing haze
Exhaust tips:
The interior & engine bay were to receive detailing treatments too but more on these later in the detail
Outside for wash process, this was to entail:
* Wheel arches
* Alloys
* Door shuts
* Seals etc
* Engine bay
* Clay
* Tar removal
In preparation for the machine polishing stage later
First up as usual before I touch anything rinse off with the pressure washer, wheel arches jet washed out, treated to Bilthamber APC & scrubbed with 2 vikan brushes short & long
Each corner was treated to the same process & inspected for cleanliness
Tyres were treated to the same APC but 2 different brushes stiff bristled brush & Envy detailing brush
Rinsed the product off as I went along.
Alloys: These were in very good condition & needed no aggressive cleaning, a simple acid free cleaner diluted 10:1 worked with various metal free wheel brushes, swissvax for the faces, wool mini mitt for behind the spoke, wheel woolie large for the inners
Bodywork:
This had a multiple stage cleaning routine, starting with a thorough jet wash of course.
A good soaking with PM3
Left for a minute or two & thoroughly jet washed off. I picked up the APC bottle once again plush an Envy Detailing brush to get into those small areas around the car
Another jet wash of the car before moving on to 2 bucket wash with plush wool wash mitt
Tar remover was applied to each panel at a time, wiped gently with a disposable cloth & thoroughly jet washed the product off afterwards
During the wash stage I had my first delivery at the new unit a huge box of Auto Finesse products !
Excellent service from the guys at AF too !
The mug was mine I was taking a coffee break at the same time
Also a quick thanks to James for personally inviting me onto the Auto Finesse authorised detailer network which I was very happy to accept
Armed with a plethora or new products to play with I immediately put the clay to work, unfortunately I was so excited with my new stuff I totally forgot to take any pictures of the engine bay cleaning ! :lo:
Ok inside for clay time, I ventured into the staff room where the Af stuff were settling into their new home & picked up one of the clay boxes, cut me a piece off & set to work on the BMW
Surprisingly the car was very clear of bonded contamination, altough the clay was easy to ply, glided very well & was a joy to use
After working around the car including the glass the car was dried off with a super plush microfiber drying towel
With all the shuts, engine bay, nooks & crannies dried it was time to inspect the paint properly under the 3M Sungun
Are you ready ?
Just under the unit strip lights in the ceiling you can see how bad the roof was
Sungun:
As you can see I had my work cut out, but I love a challenge !
I set up my mobile metal halide lights, these give out a white light that is much better for spotting defects which I am looking for in a light source, rather than just a yellow light that can hide defects that need to be machined out
I started on the passenger side rear quarter, taped a section off & set about finding a combo that worked well. I settled on a 3 stage process for this car first to cut out the defects that were hidden under the marring, second to remove any marring I had inflicted & finally the third for a crystal clear shine
After the first stage:
The first stage working well I continued around the car, this stage was very time consuming
Roof:
After first stage:
Bonnet:
After first stage:
Natural 50:50 on the front wing while working on the bonnet
Drivers door:
50:50 from an assortment of angles
Pillar by the windscreen:
After first stage:
Drivers rear quarter:
After first stage:
Before:
After first stage:
Passenger door:
After first stage:
Guess the lsp ???
Just kidding ! I took the car outside for a de dust after the machine work due to the amount of dust created during the correction stages
Back inside & all dried up ready for the lsp but not before a quick look around with the sungun
Under the halide light
Paintwork looking good, time to apply Tough Coat & Desire wax
The pad was a little linty after the washing machine, this was cleaned before application
Mint rims for the alloys:
Applied & buffed off.
James sent me a tyre dressing sample which looked real nice
Metal polish on the pipes, these were heavily ****ed up & came up ok but I really wasn't happy with them to be honest
My Desire wax pot & wax mate
In its natural habitat ! :lol:
Glad I bought some wax mates (5 I think) my go to wax applicator now very ergonomic & hold the wax well on the surface, I've tried them with harder carnauba waxes & work very well with them too
For the matt spolier I used the Swissvax opaque range
The interior received a full detail too.
Started with the boot, took out what I could cleaned, hoovered & put everything back in it's place
Cabin:
Hoovered, leather cleaned, conditioned, plastics cleaned & uv protector applied
Steering wheel too, yuk !
Auto Finesse conditioner with it's its limited edition hat !
Applied & left to cure as per directions, this was wiped over a little later in the detail
Glass cleaned too
Pipes:
After:
After a final wipe down with Finale, the finished article looked like this:
Engine:
Interior:
Paintwork:
The new unit is almost finished now I'll post up some pictures in a week or so if you fancy a look ?
Thanks for taking the time to look
Thanks
Barry
Auto Detox
www.autodetox.co.uk