Dream Machines

It depends where you go Most shops - cut and polish, hand wax silicone rich industrial products used on interior and engine bay What I do - from 250 to 1500 (limos mainly from 1200 +) Paint correction - three step machine polish so every mark is removed. Paint correction, enhancement and protection - four to twelve step deep clean, correction, shine enhancement and protective coating Orange peel reduction - permanent burial without abrasives - 5 to 50% buried in most cases Exterior unpainted plastic/rubber/urethane/resin trim moldings machine polishes with glass and acrylic based polish and protection system - non abrasive. results are permanent Deep cleaning, softening and conditioning of vinyl and leather - non greasy. dry to touch. soaks in Mag wheels clayed, polished, sealed Wheel arch cleaning, blackening Glass polishing and rain repellant coatings GLARE product treatments time - 8 to 60 hours from the basic service to the best

the old man sure knows his stuff. what brand tyre shine did he put on? The main concern with tyre shine on walls is it discolours them this however can be fixed

That is one aspect people do not understand. True professional detailing and enthusiast detailing as well, takes a lot of time Myself and colleague's in the UK and USA spend up to five days on some cars that's what it can take to get a concourse show car finish from factory paint Involves deep cleaning to bring the colour back to the paint, lifting up the metal flake to the surface, paint correction (all marks removed), enhancement to increase wetness, depth and clarity Plus interior, exterior trim polishing and more

Here are the clay bar makes I have and the differences Clay Magic/3M - blue or red Red is heavier grade and will marr dark colours Blue may leave fine marrine if paint has iron filings on it Contains soap and perfumes thus needs a soapy lubricant for it to work best Can start leaving bits on your hands once it is soaked with lubricant a few times Bilt Hamber - UK made bar with no soap or perfumes the soft bar is more kneadable and as effective as the 3M blue bar and half the price water or quick detail spray can be used with it and will be easier to wipe off residue trick - cut the bar in half a few times and re knead to reveal the middle layer that has not been used yet microwave a bar for 20 seconds (MAXIMUM) to soften it if it becomes difficult to knead

I was curious to see how Damian would do with the Car wash scene

Victoria - Eurogloss prestige, Final Inspection are just two of the finest over there Make sure the detailer you choose if not one of these two, doesn't leave buff marks on it

Its a damn good but expensive tar and sap remover that's it

Anything that is water based, not solvent based and that is silicone free, will be fine The water based ones will be usually a matte or satin finish and the solvent/silicone based will be glossy The solvent dry rots rubber and vinyl and can affect plastics over time My personal favourite is Driven to Perfection VRL, a creamy water based product that absorbs into leather, vinyl and rubber and that does not leave any residue to wipe off Wipe on, walk away For best results always clean your interior dash, console, door skins and seats with a non acidic, PH neutral or low alkaline silicone/solvent free cleaner Check meguiars MSDS sheets on their website if you want to know which ones are solvent and silicone free Most stuff is fine, just keep clear of some high gloss products (silicone-solvents) that are not dry to the touch and that attract dust The cleaner I use every day at my shop is this one (gallons of course) http://www.autoprodetailproducts.com/product/Soft

So far I've never used nulon, mostly motul (600 C dot 5.1 brake fluid), Redline (water wetter, SI 1) and Fuchs 10 W 40 fully synthetic the car has definately improved alot since putting those fluids in To stop the whine in my Tickford AU XR, I put redline 85W250 heavy shockproof diff oil in the car might cause drag and lower accelleration pickup but it worked

Wax eraser is the product that will remove polish from the grains of textured trims

Aussie Gold Showroom sealer glaze spray for wheels is my choice spray on, leave to dry and cure on the wheels - done no more brake dust build up Killer on paint and interiors too I love it As for tyres - dunno. have tested a tonne but don't like any of them

yes indeedy. I highly recommend Zaino, GLARE, Toughseal and any sealants/waxes from wax it From other thread, The trims around the windows and the wiper arms- glare micro finish and pro polish the windscreen cowling - G Techniq C1 - see here Please note: this was a sample from G Techniq UK, I do not work for them or sell it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S28-XvUYdYE

The trims around the windows and the wiper armns- glare micro finish and pro polish the windscreen cowling - G Techniq C1 - see here Please note: this was a sample from G Techniq UK, I do not work for them or sell it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S28-XvUYdYE

Zaino is definately one of the better amino functional resin based sealant systems, though I've been told that it has problems with water spotting on occasions Eight months is around about the durability time that some friends have indicated I am about to test Z8 against Aussie Gold Showroom sealer glaze spray, Prima Slick, Duragloss 923 and Driven Quick spray concentrate I still believe that prepping the paint with clay bar, detox (deep cleaner that brings natural colour back and reverses porousness and oxidation) without abrasives and then either Glare or Menzerna polishes before using Zaino, is more beneficial as you will have a water like slick feeling paint finish with perfect mirror image reflections even before the Zaino will be applied and that should enrich the paint more But for those who won't spend or don't have the time to do all that, Zaino is fantastic For the market it was made for, which are enthusiasts who want to aply a few products and get a great shine, it is great. I don't use it as I am more into using GLARE non abrasive systems to bury orange peel and provide the shine or a combo of Menzerna and other polishes to get as close as possible to new paint job and show car perfect finish before any sealant goes on the car. Sealant and wax are just the icing on the cake, I am a big fan of the Glare finish line. The new Advanced is an amazing sealant and all surface gloss enhancer

Holy cow, that ain't good Have you been washing the car with a high pressure washer or gun at a self serve commercial car wash place like Pro wash They usually run at 1100 psi and at that pressure, the paint can be damaged if the water is sprayed at the paint from within a few feet If that's not the case and you have been hand washing it then it is definately a ford australia factory caused problem Geez it looks thin

Each to their own I actually detail a black HSV Astra VXR for a lawyer and he is just as fussy but that's good, it inspires me to do my absolute best. Fussy people rise higher than others who easily settle

Try an abrasive polish - Menzerna Intensive or Final Finish work well Yeah that detail by marc over there in UK was something unreal, good on him

Good on you tree monkey. I am with you 100% there Cars are getting more expensive and paint quality should get better with each model, no the same or worse

Armor all is alot better than it used to be The main problem with some interior protectants is they are solvent and silicone based. The silicone gives that glare and also silicone never truly dries and can't bond with the surface thus it slings off tyres and trims in the rain. The solventa can cause dry rot of the vinyl and plastic I don't know if armor all is at fault in this case, maybe not but there are still these types of products available today, mostly from bulk industrial cleaning products

Obviously they use outdated polish products because Menzerna and the new ones don't do that The way to get the white stains is simple Use Glare micro finish and professional polish - these products deep clean and polish those plastics Others have hinted at a wax eraser (some sort of stick that cleans) I made my own burnishing cream to fix trims with that problem and make them shiny Then I put this over the top http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S28-XvUYdYE G Techniq C1 - a crystal laquer. superb high gloss protective laquer. The trims on both my AU and my fathers BF Turbo ute were done with my burnishing cream by machine then G Tech C1 on top of that

Why not give products that FI has suggested a test. Heck I'll throw you some samples if you wish. I have tested these and eighty other brands in the last fifteen years but don't stand still or settle, I keep moving forward, hungry for a better result. Technique is far more important than product too. As a professional detailer day in day out who does only high end market work, I demand from myself and my polishing product selection such as Menzerna, Aussie Gold, G Techniq P1, GLARE, PRIMA, Driven and a few others that no one else in Australia knows of yet, more than the general public does. I have to so to keep people with their nice vehicles coming back for more. I want exterior trims of falcons to be permanently gloss black without the use of any dressings or dye's, paint to be look as deep and as wet as a swimming pool and so much more. The reason myself and a group of other professionals like Final Inspection achieve the results we do on not just paint but every surface of a vehicle is due to our drive to achieve better and the techniques we use with our products like Menzerna

Well written by Mr FI I highly recommend Bilt Hamber Auto clay (england) as there is no need for any clay lube, just use water, prefferably demineralised or Reverse osmosis water from a filter system A far superior bar compared to Clay Magic/3M blue (IMHO) as it doesn't contain perfumes or soaps that make the bar fall to pieces, it doesn't turn to concrete like 3M/CM blue does and best of all it is much easier to knead It's available here in Australia http://www.ppc.au.com/autoclay1.htm I source from here http://www.bilthamber.com/autoclay.html

Thankyou very much to Damian for the pics I presume that Ford are still using PPG 2K paint system though using a different application method than in the E series and AU series vehicles that's about the same as my fathers BF XR6 turbo ute (white) The white colours have quite alot of peel which some of it can be buried but only you I think possibly be able to sand peel out from a factory finish (I certainly won't do it) What I have noticed from all the falcons I have detailed is this, BA - base to XR models had medium to heavy OP - GT had far less orange peel and a slightly thicker overall coating BF - white's had a terrible pineapple peel look and slightly foggy reflection - GT and Typhoon still better than the rest Medium -Hard abrasion resistance when new, medium resistance after a few years of constant UV and heat exposure Some of the BA to BF vehicles have a slightly grabby feel to them when machine polished though not as bad as the Japanese paints which suffer from Sticky clearcoat which needs more oils to be added to the surface prior to correction being done

Aussie Gold Showroom sealer glaze (body shop safe) should outlast all interior protectants and leave a dry matte finish It gives up to eight months protection from just a quick spray and wipe. Not suitable for leather

As for dedusting - A warm damp chamois (microfibre chamois is best) and a spritz of water or quick detailer spray (doesn't matter what brand) is a good way of removing dust, cigarette ash etc Actual cleaning and protecting a dashboard Quality foam pad (meguiars pads, GPI contour pads or a microfibre or 100% cotton towel) with any vinyl cleaner is fine