Another session today. Pretty much the same as my last one but with a few differences.
Maintenance wash. I also got to use some new kit that I have been wanting to try:
- Detail Guardz
- Auto Finesse Mercury
- AngelWax Enigma Corona
- EZ Detail Brush
Method- Rinse
- Koch Chemie Gentle Snow Foam & MTM Hydro 22.2 Foam Lance
- Wheel clean using separate wheel bucket, CarPro Reset shampoo, Microfibre Madness Incrediflair Wheel Mitt, Wheel Woolies, EZ Detail Brush & Envy Detailing brushes
- Rinse
- 2-bucket contact wash using CarPro Reset shampoo, Microfibre Madness Incredimitt & Envy Detailing brushes
- Rinse
- Towel-dry using Klin Korea Evo
- Blow dry of panel gaps and other water traps with BLO AIR-S dryer & MF cloth
- Quick Detail using FeynLab Detailer (matches my coating), Costco yellow MF cloths & Klin Korea Zero finishing cloth to buff
- Exterior glass clean with AngelWax Vision & In2Detailing Korean Waffle Weave Glass Cloth
- Exhaust tips polish with Auto Finesse Mercury
- Exterior plastics dressed and sealed with AngelWax Enigma Corona
- Tyre dressing using Tuf Shine Tyre Kit
Some thoughts...Still learning but I definitely feel as though I am becoming more efficient with my regimen. Today I used my new Detail Guardz and I have to say they work brilliantly. Not having the PW hose snag under the wheels really helped speed things up and allowed me to be more focused on the job. Definitely a worthwhile purchase.
I have now found the sweet spot for my snow foam lance and mixture with the Koch Chemie GSF. Didn't end up adding some Koch Chemie Green Star to the mix to give it a bit of extra bite, as I am still not sure if that will affect my ceramic coating. Suggestions and advice welcome. Attacked the wheels whilst the foam was dwelling. Tried out the EZ Detail Brush and, thankfully, it fits easily between the brake disks and the wheels - which the Wheel Wooly wasn't able to - so, impressed with that!
Contact wash. Incredimitt & Reset. Brilliant! Job done. Enough said.
After a good rinse, I then attacked some of the tar spots by spraying a little Tardis on a MF and dabbing the individual spots, leaving it for a little while and then giving them another wipe with a clean MF. This worked well and despite having to give a few of them a bit of a 'fingernail scratch' from under the cloth, it was definitely preferable to a full decontamination session - though, I will do one in a couple of months or so.
Full rinse after the Tardis and dried off with the Klin Evo and the BLO AIR-S dryer to dry out the water traps. This time I remembered to open up my doors during the drying phase and ended up grabbing a MF cloth and doing a full job on the door shuts and jams, which felt nice.
Quick Detailing - Again used FeynLab QD as it is the same brand as my coating. After feeling that I was going through this too quickly, I used it much more sparingly this time and still ended with great results. A little definitely goes a long way. Lesson learned.
Exterior glass cleaned up with AngelWax Vision and a waffle glass cloth. I also filled up my washer reservoir with AngelWax Clarity. Whilst the In2Detailing cloth gives clean and streak-free glass, it grabs quite a bit more than I like on the second pass, using the dry side. I am currently looking at getting one of the diamond weave ones from The Rag Company, which are meant to be much better in this regard.
Finally got round to treating the exhaust tips to a going over with Auto Finesse Mercury metal polish. This is really good stuff. It goes on as a paste and then you buff off with a clean MF. It brought the tips up a treat using just elbow grease and I discovered that the large exhaust tips on the ClubSport are just the perfect size that I can wrap a MF round my fist and give the inside rim a good polish as well!
Oo err, missus! I am going to try and make sure that I use this every wash now, so that I keep on top of them.
Next, I managed to treat all the exterior plastics to a going over with AngelWax Enigma Corona. This stuff isn't cheap but it cleaned up, dressed and Sio2 coated all the blacks. Applied with a MF applicator and then buffed with a MF cloth. Doing the honeycomb grille was a bit of a pain but, luckily, the holes were big enough for a good portion of the applicator to fit through, so I managed to get it done without it taking too much time and the product left everything looking a shade deeper black than previously, as well as leaving them with a matte, factory-like finish. Looks nice!
Lastly, I got to use a product that I have wanted to try for ages. The Tuf Shine Tyre Kit. It's advertised as a semi-permanent tyre dressing. You get a tyre brush, a bottle of tyre cleaner, a bottle of tyre clearcoat and an applicator sponge. First, you spray the tyre cleaner around the tyre, agitate with the brush and the product immediately foams up brown as you work it in. You leave it for one minute, rinse off and then repeat the process until the cleaner foams up white when agitated. For me, each tyre took 4 applications of the cleaner until it was going white. -
I am guessing there was dressing used by the dealer on there. The clearcoat is a very runny, milky substance. You basically dribble some onto the applicator sponge and then have to work it in with a finger, or else it runs down your wheels. I found that dabbing the sponge round the wheel at first and then rubbing it round the tyre worked best. It goes on milky which seems a little concerning at first but this isn't the case once dry. After the first coat, the tyres had matte finish with no sheen. I left them to dry and then applied a second coat and this one was more like a 'new rubber' finish and was much more to my liking, so I felt that I didn't need to go for a third coat. I don't like really shiny tyres and two coats was perfect. The results were good and, apparently, topping up the clearcoat after a wash, every few months, is all that is needed. If it does what it claims, I will be more than happy.
As the sun was out today, I started the session fairly late on and so, by the time I had packed up, there wasn't much in the way of light left, so I didn't get any good daylight pic's. I did get a couple when I went to grab a McD's for my tea, though...
I will try to get a couple more in the morning.
As said earlier, any tips, tricks, advice or suggestions are very much welcome! Thanks for reading and I hope my documenting my foray into detailing helps someone out in some way.
See you next time!