As a detailer who likes the social side of what I do, tuition details are one of my favourite parts of detailing - working with someone and teaching the detailing process on a car as you see the results for yourself. Very rewarding The subject of today's tuition detail belongs to Stuart (Spoony), who came up today with his mate Andrew and a rather nice blue VW Golf TDi. Only thing was, the paint was looking a little flat, especially at the front where there had been a front end respray - so the task of the day was the general swirl correction and the restoration of the gloss to the resprayed areas. The car on arrival: First up were the wheels which were cleaned with Bilberry cut 4:1, and the arches cleaned with Meguiars All Purpose Cleanser cut 4:1... Agitation on wheels with a Swissvax Wheel Brush (possibly the best wheel brush on the market for wheel faces? I think so )... The onto the washing stage - before the two bucket was the car was foamed and rinsed - no point in inflicting any mkore marks from poor washing at the start of a detail just because its being machine polished anyway... besides this allows a useful part of the tuition detail, covering the washing techniques. Meguiars Shampoo Plus through the foam lance... After the washing stage, it was onto claying... Bilt Hamber Soft Clay was used here, using Last Touch as a lube (yes, I know its designed to be used with water, but I like the slickness of the lube an on cars with a lot of large rough fallout, it is less prone to light marring). Light pressure, keeping the clay in the palm of my hand (not the finger tips, as pressure here will inflict marring if not careful - palm of the hand is more evenly spread)... Sweep clay side to side until it feels like it is running smooth... You can see the grime the clay is picking up out of the paint: With the car clayed, it was time to move up to the polishing bay for the paint correction... After a good wash and clay, the car was already looking much better but you could see the deep blue was no shining to its full potential: A closer look reveals why. The respray finishing not quite up to standard, leaving a haze and dullness to the finish, combined with deeper scratches and general swirls robbing the paint of its true beauty. So, onto the front end first of all and working up through the abrasive scale by rotary we found that 3M Fast Cut Plus on a Meguiars W7006 cutting pad was the way forward. The paintwork under the gun before: The process. Correction and gloss restoration was carried out using 3M Fast Cut, applied on a W7006 pad as follows: Spread at 600rpm Builf speed to 1200rpm, get residue spread evenly Increase the pressure and move speed to 2000rpm and then work at this pace, reducing pressure towards the end of the set Buff off residue No refinement stages here, this was saved for the finishing polish, and the choice here was Meguiars #205 Ultra Finishing Polish. The more I use this, the more I like it, and love its flexibility. Application here was a "Double Zenith Point" method which I have been working on quietly in my "detailing lab" for the past wee while which as given me the best results out of the product. Basically, both the speeds and the pressures are increased to the working level, and then both reduced at the same time... Spread at 600rpm , light pressure Begin working at 1200rpm, light to moderate pressure Work at 1500rpm for two to three minutes, with medium pressure Refine at 1200rpm, light to moderate pressure Burnish at 900rpm, light pressure and slow (one inch per sec) machine movements The result of this machining process was a dramatic increase in the depth, gloss and clarity of the finish: Deep scratches and hazing removed... Couple of after shots under the gun... (more at the end of the machine section, after IPA wipe ): Driver's door using the above methods... Befores: Afters... I'll admit I am not a fan of the halgoen light for assessing the paint finish for reasons discussed before - they can mask light hologramming... They are great for general work lights though. But out with the Sun Gun to assess the true quality of the finish... Andrew seen here using the DA and a thin Detailers Domain polishing pad to fit neatly into the painted grille... And to great effect in these afters... The passenger side door was looking rather sorry for itself in terms of lack of depth to the paint... Serious marring in the finish under the gun... Correction and refining process as above restored the gloss... And rid the paint of the swirls, with a nice crystal sharp finish Standard paint regions did not require aggressive compounding for the correction process, and Stuart worked away with Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish to remove these swirls... Refining carried out with Meguiars #205 as above: After full machining, the car was wiped down with IPA mixed 50/50 with water (used neat can be troublesome owing to fast evaporation robbing you of your work time). The overall finish after machine polishing stage only... Under the Sun Gun to assess the finish... Paintwork cleansing and glazing was carried out using Lusso Revitalisin Cream applied by hand which added a little extra wet look sheen to the dark blue, and then the whole lot protected using Victoria Concours wax... like revisiting an old friend, it was great to see how this wax still holds its head high amongst far more expensive company. It was a great wax a couple of years ago, and its still a mighty fine wax Glass was cleaned with Stoner Invisible Glass. Plastics dressed with Meguiars All Seasons Dressing... the black underskirt on the front bumper was damaged in the bodyshop, and appeared to have been sprayed with basecoat Tyres were dressed with Meguiars Endurance Tyre Gel. End results in the unit... Alas, no sun today, but outdoor shots in a lovely East Coast haar... Another very enjoyable detailing day, great to meet Stuart and Andrew and I look forward to seeing you both at a meet soon - and the car as well! :thumb:
I've said it before and I will say it again, I absolutely love reading your write ups. I learn a LOT from your posts. Excellent job on this one, in my opinion you do some of the best work I have seen.
Fantastic write up! being that I am just starting out detailing it's good to see something like this because I learn a lot Great detail and beautiful blue on that car!
Dave Excellent write up and great work and I learn on every of ur write ups :worship2: :applause2: Cheers
So did the customer leave with an overwhelming respect for what you do to a car?? Most people don't understand what is put into a detail like that, and I would feel after your tuition details it would have them leave a different person.. Great detail as usual..
Dave..Fantastic job on that car!! Not to blow my own horn, but you are one of the few that I have read on here that likes to run up to high rpm's like I do on the buffer. My old one I used to use was a fixed speed unit that ran at 2300..although you could feather the trigger to alter the speed. I always enjoy your posts..thanks for posting!!
Fantastic as usual Dave. Great transformation, and well written informative post as always. Look forward to seeing the car in the flesh soon also. Gordon.
Amazing transformation on that Golf!!! By the way, how is fuel economy on that thing, it doesn't use a lot of fuel, does it?
In this case, Stuart left with a much better understanding of the processes and also a good appreciation of the power of the rotary, he didn't believe the results here could have been achieved by just machine polishing ... The tuition details are very enjoyable for this reason, and working with folks as they do get a great feel for what goes into the detail plus they get the rewards for knowing that the results that are achieved they played a part in, and there is self satisfaction in that When compounding I frequently run the rotary up above 2000rpm, and on wool I have been known to be using 3000rpm... You've got to watch temps, and be careful of what you are doing of course, but the potential correction power at high speeds should never be overlooked Owner reports up to 60mpg from this one - 1.9TDi running 115bhp IIRC, there are a few variants of this PD engine. Very economical powerplants
That'll be a British gallon though thinking about it - 4.45litres... Probably more like 50m.p.USgallon...
