Detailing Question

[addo]

Maybe one for Vince or Timmo?

I am using G3+ compound by hand, then Autoglym Radiant Wax. According to my reading of internet comments on the "wax" this is best sealed over with another product. Normally I wash a dirty-but-clean car with the trade packaged Autoglym shampoo/wax stuff.

Any suggestions (not Zymöl Royal Glaze at £1500/tin, either)?

Thanks, Adam.

[Citroening]

A good combination I like is Autoglym Super Resin Polish and then topped off with Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection - gives a real deep gloss shine - or if it's a darker coloured car, then Autoglym Ultra Deep Shine.

Aqua Wax is good too, especially as the car can still be wet from washing it and it still works fine...

[addo]

The "Super Resin" thing is a funny quirk of marketing; even the Autoglym reps have said (outright) it is currently the same as Radiant Wax, but in a retail package. I'll have a look to see what is offered locally, and if prices are stupid will buy offshore.

[Timmo]

Yup, Radiant wax Is the trade version of Super resin, Supremem is the trade of Ultra deep shine, Liquid hard wax is the trade of Extra gloss protection, etc.
if your G3'ing by hand then make sure you keep it well lubricated, water is fine, i use either that or glass cleaner (screenwash watered down) does make it a Lot easier to work with, is Also a good plan when your finished to give the car a wipe over with Isopropyl alcohol if you have any as it will remove any left over compound from the panels, often the cause of 'hollowgramming'
Radiant wax Or supreme Both contain Quite high levels of Silicone oils designed to work as fillers, hence why in approximately 3 weeks after use the fine scratches they Hid have re-appeared! supreme has a higher level of the oils to create a deeper shine to the dark colours, this can work as an advantage though, if your wanting a genuinely nice polished clean surface then there are quite a few product thta are silicone free now adays,
but, a simp[le coat of Radiant after a G3'ing can give Very good results,

longevity wise, if you simply want a good clean up on the car and really dont want to have to do it again for a few months then yes, you'll be needing something like a sealant or a Carnauba wax, depending muchly on the colour of the car the different effects can be had from the use of one or both, i use 4star ultimate sealant, which gives a beautifal clarity to the reflections, and top it off with a Colinite Wax (476s on light colours or 915 m.d.e. on dark colours) the wax's offer a Great depth to the colours, and on metalics make the Flake pop out! a good clean and topped off with a Single coat of carnauba wax will give you a good 6-7 months protection and effortless cleaning, double coat it and your looking close to 10-11 months, i use a few of the poorboys range on some of the cars, purely because its cheap and Good! and the wax smells like bubble gum! hahah! but you can get a polish, a sealant and a wax for under £50 and it'll do a Very good job indeed!!

i machine polished the estate in August last year, G3, ipa wipe down, polish with what ever i had in the shed (i genuinely cant remember! might have been poorboys??) and then a coat of colly 476, now, its not been touched since other than half a dozen washes, nothing else, and its still producing lovlely little beads on the surface,

you can very easily go mad and spend a Fortune on high end wax's, sealants and polishes etc. and to the mere mortal you Wont be able to tell the difference!! - back along several many years!! when the site 'Detailing world' was in its infancy, ~ when i joined there were sub 500 members and i was the first 'pro' cleaner on there, none of the high end gear got a look in over the budget products, £10/L polishes etc. as it got more popular the budget ones got side lined for the more exotic etc. it was descided that a blind test needed to be done and with the help of a sales manager at the local Vaux dealers to a Large workshop onew of the guys had 7 identical Corsa's were cleaned up using the same products, to the same level, wiped down with ipa and each had a Different wax applied, starting at the £15 a tub uptoi the £5k a tub ones! each car was numbered and parked in a well lit spot, all the attendies to the meet were given a bit of paper and asked to put which they thought had the best shine, depth etc on it, suprisingly, the Expensive wax's didnt outperform the cheap ones as expected!! the cheaper provem wax's punted Well above their weight and proved its not the cost of the product that matters but the way its used!!!

sorry, rabbiting on some now, the coffee has kicked in!!!

basically on the original question, Yes Super resin/radiant wax on after the compounding will be fine for a few weeks, add a sealant for a few months protection and top with a wax for many months!

[addo]

Cheers for the "pro" input. As a barge collector, total square metres/feet of paintwork are one reason that enduring glosses are desired!

What polishes do you recommend for restoring this surface? So far it has been compounded by Prado with a dash of curry.

[Timmo]

Mothing a bit of isopon p38 and a rattle can won't fix!

[lexi]

Nice "detailed" explanation of waxes etc. I know nowt about this.

Like many things though I think it has went OTT? Bit like a hi-fi forum..........all name dropping. That and companys selling stuff.
Ashamed to say that I did the Vel today with only what was in my stash. Washed it then fed the plastic lower trim with something in a bottle
Did the leather with stuff I had.......... for leather?

Waxed it with............wait for it!.............MER polish. Well I had a litre of it ? It aint bad. Very yesterday of course now.

I look in on Detailing World.

[Timmo]

Mer! Hehe, not seen that for a while! Used to suggest the Only thing Mer is missing is de!
To be honest though, it makes No difference to me how people clean their cars, I have no intention of stopping people and telling them they are doing it wrong as half DW seem to think is acceptable!
Used to be Almost Weekly arguments on there of peeps who where complaining on how trade places used sponges and not the two bucket method, shampoo refined from nuns dribble, and purified water filtered through the undies of 100 vergins and taking atleast 2 hours to wash the car! Yet obviously, Not one of them had even stepped foot insdie a trade cleaning dept. Let alone worked in one!

If like most peeps you don't want to have to fork out on cleaning products then there's so much choice of Great products
There's more to life than panicing that someone might park next to you in a car park, especially when most of them were billy base models! Oh, and they were all german car Mad, if you didn't have a vw with bentley wheels you were out the group!!
Quite a lot of us old time users deserted when it turned like it,

If you don't want or infact Need to spend a fortune on products and have the latest kit then a selection of around £50's worth of items will give you a Great looking car and last you a good few years of using! I'm about a 1/3rd the way down my big pot of wax, and its done a couple of yacht hulls, countless cars, a few bikes etc. Will prolly last close to 10 yearts for the average user lol! The key is Thin layers! Cover a panel like a wing in one go and wipe off, I had 4 different wax's at one point and realised I had more than I'd ever need, I only ever used 2, polishes I had Loads, different ones for different colours, silicone free and heavily oiled ones, realised after a while I was only getting new ones as I Wanted them! Cut it all down to the ones I used regularly and enjoyed using! That said, have a Huge box full of different polishes, bottles of things the writings worn off from in the shed, things I bought used once or twice and forgot about! Never made it into the go to Box!

Due to health I've not been actively cleaning cars on a large scale basis for a number of years but do a few here and there just for fun and my personal enjoyment,

[addo]

Here's a picture for Timmo, of how finicky I get.

As a side note, should I not be washing each panel after compounding? That's how I've always done it; wash, rinse, wash rinse, pat dry, compound, wash, rinse, pat dry. Then either a clay barring followed by another wash/rinse/pat dry or straight onto the polish and buff.

I checked out HD Wax pricing and it will cost me a bit to try out; given I am usually "generous" in my application, maybe two cars in a tin?

[Timmo]

Okay, so your routines a bit mixed up there fella, good wash, clay bar, compound, polish, no need for the washing inbetween, G3 is designed to work with water, it helps the compound break down in use and effectively you should be able to keep going till its gone, leaving a clean panel ready for last stage protection, ir: wax, when ever I do a car I use either water, glass cleaner or watered down Quick polish/detailer, keeps the panels clean, keep a few cloths about and after your done compounding just wipe them over, I use a wipe over of isopropyol alcohol as it cleans any left over traces of compound away pre polishing, to give the cleanest surface for the polish to work on,
I do understanbd that you have higher temperatures out there to work with but you should still be fine with out washing every panel,
The clay bar is best used post wash pre compound, its designed to remove any traces of fall out from the road and air etc., using it post compound kinda takes away the edge of the compounding, if you caught anything and left a mark you'd have to re compound that area, if you see what I mean,

Attention to detail is very important for me and cleaning when I do them, door shuts aee one of those areas a lot of people leave out, as yours, I always give them a polish and a quick brush of copper grease on the hinges, on a few cars show preps back ion the days I was interested in them we used to put clear grease on so it didn't make it look dirty at the show! Fortunately for my health and sanity I lost interest in shows not long after! Hehe! Never understood Why at the French Car Show they allowed german cars in to display! Sorry but theres a Huge hint in the title!!! Became too chavvy, too many billly basics on the same wheels as everyone else,

I'll dig out some pictures of the 16v from my photobucket dreckly,

[addo]

The clay bar seems finer than G3? That's why I've always used it after. Could never get a "reliable" answer on G3 vs G3+ differences, but the plus in litre bottles suits my pricepoint. You can feel when the stuff is cutting correctly.

Had a laugh when reading that fallout remover is basically oxalic acid diluted. Timber whitener! I'll observe safety precautions sometime and give this a shot.

[Timmo]

haha, yeah the fall out removers quite harsh stuff, most likely why clay bars never come with it, just as they are or with quick detailer,
G3's, the original is pretty much like the Original formula created in the late 50's / early 60's i think it was, just a few minor tweeks, the G3+ iirc Can be used without water as has had some added lubricity to the formula, there is an advamced too which is somewhere inbetween the two,

couple of post clean Bx pics!



zoomed in of above

one of my fav's, 10 mins down the coast road,


couple of a good friends Xantia,












and a sneaky couple of one of my fav's!!






the friend witht he Xant is down at easter with her vsx estate, which she doesnt know yet is going to get the Full treatment, She makes the most amazing curry, so in return of the randomly sent food parcels that arrive from wales her car will get the treatment!! hehehe!

[Citroening]

Timmo, I must say that your Valver is brilliant! In fact, when looking at the pictures of it the thought even crossed my mind that I'd rather have that car than a Visa GTi.

Is it on the road and can we expect to see it at any events this year?

[Timmo]

Sadly, tis off the road at the mo, is sat safe and sound up at my pops on the drive, is due home this year so can bring it back to Gleamingness and get back on the road, needs a top end rebuild after stem seals hardening, but otherwise, all good, Love that car, bought it in 2001 with 80k on it, and every time I've driven it its given me a Massive smile! Don't care that by current standards its out classed, I'd take it over anything else everyday!

[addo]

So, what's the deal with treatments for plastic and rubbery plastic trim - like the moulds around estate rear or side glass? What about black bumpers (unpainted type) or side rubbing strips?

Again, it's that quest for a durable finish, much as anything else.