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Full detail...

10K views 23 replies 11 participants last post by  paulsjagg2019 
#1 ·
I have only just bought my XE and I was considering having it professionally ceramic coated, but the more I looked into it the more it didn't suit me, was a bit concerned on a car I drive everyday that I may not be able to remove scratches too easily.

I have done some paint correction before and have a DA and pads / polishes, so I decided to renew my product stash (including a jet wash with foam lance) and spent the last week and most of today getting to a stage where I'm pretty happy. Cost 25% of that of a professional and I would have been happy with this from a professional....
 

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#6 ·
Looks great I don't think a detailer could have done any better
 
#9 ·
Mind sharing exactly what was used in terms of kit? (DA, pads, polishes etc)

I'm thinking of doing the exact same. Currently a weekend enthusiast with a full wash process (wheels, prewash, snow foam, 2 bucket, rinse, dry, wax), but this is on the cards once the sun starts to head away for the year.
 
#10 ·
JasperTheJag said:
Mind me using exactly what was used in terms of kit? (DA, pads, polishes etc)

I'm thinking of doing the exact same. Currently a weekend enthusiast with a full wash process (wheels, prewash, snow foam, 2 bucket, rinse, dry, wax), but this is on the cards once the sun starts to head away for the year.
I'd also be grateful to know this! I do the same as JasperTheJag and the car looks good but I've never obtained anywhere near as deep a shine as in these photos. I'm not sure Corris Grey will ever give such an impressive finish but it's worth a try!
 
G
#11 ·
It looks fabulous and some colours react much better to the elbow greas methods. Red is one of those colours. When we had the two Rovers and I did the full works on them my wife's red one always looked better than my silver one. Bluefire, my XE colour, also comes up fantastic. Yesterday I just gave it a thorough wash and rinse with Demonshine, then dried. It brought all the polish back from a few weeks ago. It looked so good that I used Meguiars tyre gel for the first time on it and that stuff is fantastic. Two coats with abot 15 mins between and the shine on the rubber is superb.
 
#12 ·
Ok here goes...

3 stages, clean, repair, protect.

The cleaning
I used jet wash then snow foam (Auto Glyn) polar blast, then I used a clay bar and AG rapid detailed as lubricant, then used AG Magma to get anything else off!

Repairing, this is all about removing defects in the paint ....it's what gives the deep gloss.

After cleaning I dried the car. Ages ago I bought a DA polisher from cleanyourcar.com (or Uk can't remember) and I bought 3 buffing pads and 3 grades of polish. The theory is you only use what you need to, do you start with fine pad and fine polish and work your way up to coarse pad and coarse polish (depends on how hard your paint is and how much correction it needs)

I am totally self taught and there are loads of tutorials on YouTube ... that's all I had in terms of training. It does take practice so try it on a car that isn't so critical if you can 😉 not that you will week. It by any means !!!

I only needed the fine polish and fine pad. Pics below of polishes and DA. It takes around 2 days to do the whole lot with prep, repair and protect.... Well it does for me anyway!!

I use rapid detail and micro fibre cloths to get the polish off so you can check the paint for the scratches / hazing etc you are trying to remove.

Then once you are happy, you protect. I used AG super resin polish ( I sound like an Auto Glym rep- I'm not - but they do have some great products if used correctly!!)

After the AG resin polish I put two coats of AG HD wax on... lovely stuff. Smells amazing and goes on like Silk. Used collinite in the past which is great but not as nice to work with...

On the wheels, used AG magma again, then used red mist sealer - couple of coats. Makes getting brake dust off so much easier next time...

And that's it...easy 😉🤣
 

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#13 ·
Vespa said:
It looks fabulous and some colours react much better to the elbow greas methods. Red is one of those colours. When we had the two Rovers and I did the full works on them my wife's red one always looked better than my silver one. Bluefire, my XE colour, also comes up fantastic. Yesterday I just gave it a thorough wash and rinse with Demonshine, then dried. It brought all the polish back from a few weeks ago. It looked so good that I used Meguiars tyre gel for the first time on it and that stuff is fantastic. Two coats with abot 15 mins between and the shine on the rubber is superb.
We too used to have a night fire red rover 800 and totally agree it looked amazing when polished 😎

Eagle eyed may notice we have a caesium blue f pace too (in the reflections 😉🤣) that would look amazing but it's soooo big the thought of doing this fills me with dread
 
G
#16 ·
There is nothing more satisfying (and back breaking for me) than spending the day doing the washing, claying and polishing then standing back and thinking a job well done. The other boost is when others comment on how good it looks.
 
#17 ·
I fully agree with Autoglym stuff, it's excellent, I can spend hours on a thorough clean, unfortunately I then have to park under a tree, the birds really admire my paintwork and show me their appreciation, ahh well nevermind... out with the wash bucket for another pleasant few hours, :lol: :D
 
#18 ·
Very nice work.
One word of caution though.
I don't know if it has had an MOT before you bought it or it is due in the future but you need to get a set of legal number plates otherwise it won't pass.
Be handy if you get entagled with VOSA too as they will prohibit it and you will need it recovered back home.
 
#20 ·
PhilB said:
Very nice work.
One word of caution though.
I don't know if it has had an MOT before you bought it or it is due in the future but you need to get a set of legal number plates otherwise it won't pass.
Be handy if you get entagled with VOSA too as they will prohibit it and you will need it recovered back home.
Thanks Phil, I'm aware of the issue but I have run with the same plate for 5 years now and not had any issues (accepting there is always a first time 🤣)

At. MOT time there is always a legal set in the footwell of the car to ensure its legitimate 😉and the MOT station is pretty pragmatic
 
#21 ·
UV Blue said:
I fully agree with Autoglym stuff, it's excellent, I can spend hours on a thorough clean, unfortunately I then have to park under a tree, the birds really admire my paintwork and show me their appreciation, ahh well nevermind... out with the wash bucket for another pleasant few hours, :lol: :D
I find washing the car quite therapeutic ... except when my girls are whizzing past on their scooters and bikes...I get fed up of asking them not to scoot past the car 😬😳🤣

On the flip side it gets me out of other jobs in the house and I have something to show for it when finished 😉
 
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