BluKoo
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Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
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I know some of you guys are into detailing so I thought i'd show you what my bro has been up to at work the past week.
I pretty much copied and pasted from DW so apologies if some of it doesn't make sense...
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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 (www.aberdeenfoyer.com). 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.
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LukeD
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Registered: 23rd Jan 07
Location: Shropshire
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excellent thread. enjoyed reading it.
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mattk
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Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
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Very interesting, Id love to be able to do that to my own car
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Jenko_Sport
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Registered: 25th May 06
Location: Stoke-on-Trent
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Baah fairly liquid ftw.
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BluKoo
Member
Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
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quote:
Originally posted by mattk
Very interesting, Id love to be able to do that to my own car
You should get yourself a machine polisher and then go to the scrappys and get an old bonnet to practice on.
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Matt L
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Registered: 17th Apr 06
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cool stuff, would love to have the time, effort and knowledge to this to mine.
or be able afford to pay someone to do it.
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Jenko_Sport
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Registered: 25th May 06
Location: Stoke-on-Trent
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Im going to be getting a rotary polisher matt in the non to distant future and new house will be perfect to do it.
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Matt L
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Registered: 17th Apr 06
User status: Offline
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what kind of polisher would i need?  (cheap?)
and what are the chances of me completly ruining my car if i attempt it myself 
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Jenko_Sport
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Registered: 25th May 06
Location: Stoke-on-Trent
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Its not hard just need a steady firm hand well steady arms lol.
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sand-eel
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Registered: 15th Mar 07
Location: carluke/braidwood--IRNBRULAND
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what does he do about stone chips etc?
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Jenko_Sport
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Registered: 25th May 06
Location: Stoke-on-Trent
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by sand-eel
what does he do about stone chips etc?
Cry
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mattk
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Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
User status: Offline
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he would commit suicide if he saw my car then
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Hammer
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Registered: 11th Feb 04
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Interesting read as always 
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BluKoo
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Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by sand-eel
what does he do about stone chips etc?
They can repair them to a certain extent.
He fixed a small chip on the door handle of a Gallardo once...
quote:
Using a fine artists brush I firstly applied the white ground coat:
This was then allowed to dry and then topped with the pearl layer:
The last clear coat layer was then added once the pearl had fully dried:
If the chip was on the front of a car and on a flat surface, they can fill it with paint, then wet sand it down so the new paint is totally flush with the old paint, making the chip nearly invisible.
[Edited on 20-03-2009 by BluKoo]
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Ben J
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Registered: 31st Jan 05
Location: Cheshire
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Pity your bro is so far away....i'm after a full correction detail for the vixxer after the bodyshop swirled it
[Edited on 20-03-2009 by Ben J]
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Chris x
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Registered: 11th Sep 08
Location: Bexhill
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Ben J
Pity your bro is so far away....i'm after a full correction detail for the vixxer after the bodyshop swirled it
[Edited on 20-03-2009 by Ben J]
Pics? The crash looked pretty bad from what I can remember.
Top thread btw
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c20let
Member
Registered: 25th Jun 05
Location: Aberdeenshire Drives: VXR Astravan,Evo 9GT,mr2 tbo
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nice one, i emailed them the other day about getting my evo done, they're booked up til end of june. hoping to get mines done in july.
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3i_gaz
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Registered: 29th Nov 07
Location: Liverpool
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seen them on detailing world, immense work!!
and as for the guy in cheshire i know a good detailer whos based in preston but will travel mate.
u2u me if interested dude.
not trying to steal vusiness here either lol jsut recomending a mate.
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AK
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Registered: 5th Jul 00
Location: Aberdeen City
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nice cars, nice read.... still not conviced all that fannying around is needed though. Granted its nowhere near as bad as that FanBoy and his VXR (these cars are actually worth more than the polish)
I have a friend who gets his RS4 and TT 'detailed' read cleaned... costs something like £1800 a year He gets the shit ripped out of him.
I'd only consider getting this done to a car that was worth a lot of money, and I was going to keep for a long time.
I'm a firm believer in DIY.
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Graham88
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Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
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It's mental, but a bit too anal for my liking.
It's impossible to keep a car clean like that which gets driven everyday.
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Ben J
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Registered: 31st Jan 05
Location: Cheshire
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Chris Corsa B
quote:
Originally posted by Ben J
Pity your bro is so far away....i'm after a full correction detail for the vixxer after the bodyshop swirled it
[Edited on 20-03-2009 by Ben J]
Pics? The crash looked pretty bad from what I can remember.
Top thread btw
Pics of the swirls? They are pretty light so only visible under bright lights etc.
Bodyshop did spot on job with the repair, but they "valeted" it for me and have swirled it and added a few light scratches.
[Edited on 20-03-2009 by Ben J]
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AK
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Registered: 5th Jul 00
Location: Aberdeen City
User status: Offline
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does anyone else think that they use the pics to highlight swirls, and then not alter the pic, but change angles etc to lessen the swirls (along with the polishing/cutting)
Maybe i'm just a pesamist.
(i'm not saying the above company does.... just 'detailers' in general)
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BluKoo
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Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by AK
does anyone else think that they use the pics to highlight swirls, and then not alter the pic, but change angles etc to lessen the swirls...
How can you say that, when they're both under the light of a 3m sun gun? And when you see a 50/50 shot like this?
Edit: Sorry, I didn't see this bit...
quote:
Originally posted by AK
(i'm not saying the above company does.... just 'detailers' in general)
[Edited on 20-03-2009 by BluKoo]
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Chris x
Member
Registered: 11th Sep 08
Location: Bexhill
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Ben J
quote:
Originally posted by Chris Corsa B
quote:
Originally posted by Ben J
Pity your bro is so far away....i'm after a full correction detail for the vixxer after the bodyshop swirled it
[Edited on 20-03-2009 by Ben J]
Pics? The crash looked pretty bad from what I can remember.
Top thread btw
Pics of the swirls? They are pretty light so only visible under bright lights etc.
Bodyshop did spot on job with the repair, but they "valeted" it for me and have swirled it and added a few light scratches.
[Edited on 20-03-2009 by Ben J]
Before and after pics of the damage.
That was very kind of them to do that for you lol
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J-Dog
Member
Registered: 5th Jun 08
User status: Offline
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That must have been the dirtiest Porsche i have ever seen, but what a difference after.
Nice work
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