This was what we were up to last week at Polished Bliss HQ, the first couple of cars are just after pics but a full step by step detail follows right at the end but we'll come to that in a minute First up was an Audi RS4 on a contract, in for a minor correction to nip out any slight wash marring picked up over the last 12 months - to be fair there was next to no defects at all as this particular customer is extremely good with his wash/dry technique :thumb: - Correction done with Menz 85RE and a 3M Polishing Pad @ 1500rpm's. - LSP - Zym0l Vintage. Next up was this 996 C4S, also on contract with us - this was in for its quarterly wax top up of Vintage having been corrected by myself previously: Another contract customer followed the 911. This was the first treatment on a stunning white R8, with correction planned at a later date I carried out a 1-day protection detail on the car: - Carbon Inserts polished with Menz 85RE and a 3M finishing Pad @ 1500rpm's - LSP: 5 coats of Werkstat Acrylic Jett. To finish the week(end) off we had a 5 month old 997 in for major correction. There was a slight twist to this one - The Porsche Club had approached us earlier on in the year to organise a meet at our premises for approx 25 members. In return, we gave away a free 3 day correction detail (including a free application of Zym0l Vintage), which was then put up for auction by the club organiser with all the money raised going to a local charity. With the winning bid for the detail of £650 and just over £1000 raised in total this was a great success - so many thanks to all members of the Porsche Club :thumb: So, on with the detail! As you can see, the car hadn’t been washed for a few weeks As always, I began with the pre-foam to loosen as much dirt and grime as possible. For this I used R222 (previously named P21S TAW) through the lance at 60 degrees: This was repeated a further 2 times and left to dwell for 5 mins: Then thoroughly rinsed off: Wheels were next, sprayed with Meguiars WB (10:1) and agitated with the various brushes: They were then rinsed off and the arches/tyres were scrubbed with Meguiars Super Degreaser (4:1): All shuts/exterior trim/badges etc were then sprayed with R222 and agitated before being rinsed off: I then washed the car with the 2 bucket method: Another rinse was followed with the application of Autosmart Tardis to help get rid of the tar spots stuck to the paintwork and wheels: The tar was wiped off with a MF towel and I then put the car inside after a final rinse. Clay stage next: Meguiars Mild was used, with very little in the way of contamination coming off the paintwork. This was about as bad as it got from the rear end: Once fully clayed, the car was dried off with a Deep Pile Luxury Drying Towel. I then applied the first coat of Gloss-It tyre dressing: Looks a bit messy to start with but this is the tyre 15 mins later completely untouched: I then go over the tyres another couple of times with an applicator pad over the duration of the detail with a final buff off at the end :thumb: The Porsche badge was removed to make polishing easier: Paint readings were taken, everything nice and healthy on the metal panels: Same for the plastics: Now, being a 5 month old car you would expect there to be very little in the way of defects - however up until this point the wash routine had consisted of 1 bucket with a sponge and chamois. This was enough to inflict enough damage to warrant a 3 day correction as a 1 step polish wouldn’t have been enough to remove all the deeper random scratches present (the high flake content of the paint doesn’t really show up the deeper scratches too well on camera): Hologram from the production line left above the door handle on the N/S door: True to form, like all other 997's I've done to date, this car had really sticky paint so I immediately went to the Gloss-It polishes. These really are a life (and time!) saver when it comes to polishing sticky paints, whether it's with a DA or rotary polisher - they very rarely dust or spit out big lumps of polish and they don’t weld themselves to the paint either. I've now pretty much mastered the art of polishing sticky paint with them and quite often find it's quicker with the DA machine (less heat build up) so this was what I used. Swapping back from rotary to DA used to feel like I was admitting defeat but now I don’t care as it gets the job done effectively and safely Extreme Cut with a drop of Evolution Polish with a Menzerna Polishing Pad were the weapons of choice: Roof before: During: Roof after: Before: After: There was quite a badly scratched area on the drivers door where some gritty bird "bombs" had been rubbed into the paint, here's a 50/50 shot during correction: Fully corrected: One thing I particularly like about the long working time of the polishes is their ability to greatly reduce or completely remove pretty deep random scratches. Here's an example of what was quite often left after 1 hit on a panel: And after a 2nd hit: Engine cover/spoiler fully corrected: Couple of pics of the defects on the back end: After correction: As plastic panels aren’t affected by sticky paint problems I was able to go back to my much preferred rotary Top of rear bumper before: During: After 2 hits of 3M Fast Cut Plus & Ultrafina @ 1500rpm's: Before: After: Onto the front end: Another area where it looked like bird bombs had been rubbed into the paint: Again, 2 hits were needed on this to gain the best possible result: Some areas of the bumpers weren’t quite as severe as the rest so only needed a 1 step polish with a softer polishing pad and Menzerna 203S: Tail lights before: After: With all the correction work completed, I then refined the finish with Gloss-It Evolution Polish on a Menzerna Finishing Pad: Marsha did her usual top job of polishing up the tail pipes: Before: After: Out came the Lambswool duster to remove any traces of polishing dust left: A wipe down with Menzerna Top Inspection was then followed by the application of the Vintage wax: A final Wipe down with Gloss-It QD was done along with all the other little details including the interior and the car was then ready for the Sunday, just a section of the bonnet remained untouched as this was to be corrected on the day to demonstrate how it was done Sunday afternoon approached and one or two rather nice Porsches started to arrive... Inside, a few pics were quickly taken as the cheque was handed over to the representative of Aberdeen Foyer who were the chosen charity (aberdeen foyer home). Also pictured is the owner of the 911 (first on the left) and the Porsche Club Organiser (2nd from the right). The afternoon itself was a great success, with a brief introduction about Polished Bliss... ... followed by various demonstrations, with the claying stage being shown here: A bit of hand polishing: Then some machine polishing: Then all that remained at the end was to roll the car outside for all to see. The car itself had just under 35 hours of my own time (and 20 minutes of Marsha's!) put into it with 23 of those being machine polishing alone - this was certainly an eye opener to some who initially thought the car couldn’t really be improved :thumb: Again, a big thank you to all the Porsche Club members who attended and a thank you to all that managed to get to the end of this post without falling asleep Got a few more nice write ups to do in the coming weeks and another "Ne Plus Ultra" is on the way also :thumb: Clark
What a day! What a work! What a car! What a garage! What a post! :thud: ...no more whats! ...just one more...what is that in the floor when you washed the car, is that a retainer of whater? Best regards. P.S: Your´s "Detail shop" is great!!!!
Wow, some amazing cars you have worked on! What a great thing for you to do for the charity, shows a lot of class. That is better than any detail!
amazing work! that blue carrera is a beauty as is your work. those are some of the best looking wheels i've ever see (cleanliness wise)
I hate you Clark... OK I'm done hating you now ! Excellent as always and congrats on the upcoming work!
Well done Clark, all the vehicles look great, love the head lights on that Audi :druling: But the blue Porche looks wicked, love blue colour vehicles :woo:
