Wash with Armorall car wash, wash with Dawn, clay bar once, clay bar twice, step one Mothers pre-wax
07-04-2004, 03:04 PM
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Wash with Armorall car wash, wash with Dawn, clay bar once, clay bar twice, step one Mothers pre-wax
spot Mothers scratch treatment, step two Mothers polish, step three Mothers solid wax.
I realized when I bought the car last year that the finish was in bad shape, I resigned myself to touchless car washes with the hot wax treatment every couple washes during the winter and then did hand washing a couple times this summer. The car has many large rock chips, several deep scratches, many small chips and is covered in a spider web of small scratches. I didn't realize it was also covered in thousands of small black and brown particles until I started the clay bar.
So after over 12 hours spread over two days I've got it looking better, but not great. I figure I've removed about 95% of the particles (clay bar is really amazing), reduced the effect of the spider web of scratches and in some areas, like under the door handles and the stock sport wheels, significantly reduced visible scratches to the clear coat.
Apart from the time, everything went quite well. I'm sure the wheels added 3-4 hours because they were in rough shape. I had some cheap bulk towels bought from Canadian Tire which loved leaving bits everywhere - I also bought some micro fleece at the same time and used those after each step to clean and polish things properly.
So - I figure I've stopped the deterioration of the paint and have to decide if I can live with it or get something more aggresive (professional wet sanding?) or maybe try the 3M scratch removal products.
No pics - it just looks like a clean car - but after going over every surface about 15 times my favourite part of the car is the rear quarter panels around the tailights - they really merged the angles together nicely.
I realized when I bought the car last year that the finish was in bad shape, I resigned myself to touchless car washes with the hot wax treatment every couple washes during the winter and then did hand washing a couple times this summer. The car has many large rock chips, several deep scratches, many small chips and is covered in a spider web of small scratches. I didn't realize it was also covered in thousands of small black and brown particles until I started the clay bar.
So after over 12 hours spread over two days I've got it looking better, but not great. I figure I've removed about 95% of the particles (clay bar is really amazing), reduced the effect of the spider web of scratches and in some areas, like under the door handles and the stock sport wheels, significantly reduced visible scratches to the clear coat.
Apart from the time, everything went quite well. I'm sure the wheels added 3-4 hours because they were in rough shape. I had some cheap bulk towels bought from Canadian Tire which loved leaving bits everywhere - I also bought some micro fleece at the same time and used those after each step to clean and polish things properly.
So - I figure I've stopped the deterioration of the paint and have to decide if I can live with it or get something more aggresive (professional wet sanding?) or maybe try the 3M scratch removal products.
No pics - it just looks like a clean car - but after going over every surface about 15 times my favourite part of the car is the rear quarter panels around the tailights - they really merged the angles together nicely.
07-04-2004, 03:27 PM
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OK - couple pics
My favourite part
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/62512/rear_quarter_panel.jpg">
Some reflection off the hood
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/62512/reflection.jpg">
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/62512/rear_quarter_panel.jpg">
Some reflection off the hood
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/62512/reflection.jpg">
...
07-05-2004, 05:21 PM
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No beer but some Greek food and shots of ouzo with a bunch of neighbours ... ;)
Already a layer of dust from the construction at work ... but I'll get some pics and short videos of the driving school next weekend.
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