Car Polish

Back from more obsessive web searching and the concensus seems to be;

i) Intense preparation including an initial strip with washing-up liquid (once only event), followed by stroking with a lubricated clay-bar!

ii) wash with Autoglym shampoo

iii) Apply resin polymer sealant, Klasse seems to be America's favourite, God knows what in the UK.

iv) Polish with a synthetic polish (two stage process); Zaino seems the fave of the forums (has a new UK distributer). Allow to "cure" for a day or so.

v) Apply three coats of Carnuba wax; Swissol/Zymol.

Repeat the wax every month, and the Zaino every six months.

Then there is the soft-top, wheels, interior, leather and detailing, all of which require different (but no less complicated) methods.

It's a lifestyle program.

My wife, while doing her usual smirking at my investigations, said "will you do mine too." In her dreams.


BTW there are pages and pages of info just on the correct poilishing cloths and how to wash them.

You're right. Regular hand washing is easily the most important way to keep the paint in good nick. My previous car was solid white and I put that through the car wash without concern as white is the toughest paint finish by far (it's the titanium oxide pigment). My present car is Japanese, metallic with a really thin soft clear-coat which scratches if you look at it. A car wash would have destroyed it in a year. I'm selling the Mitsubishi now, and although the used market is in dire straits the dealers have commented on how good the paint looks and at least made some sort of an offer.

So what's replacing the Evo then, Doc?

Steve

The Evo turned out to be the wrong car for me. Too too fast, and the chav image became unbearable. Every set of lights became an opportunity for Burberry wearing Saxo drivers to gesticulate and shout abuse.

I'm going back to conservative anonymity with a Saab convertible (aero natch.)

Nice one Doc I can see it. Good choice on the SAAB I like them.
A high perfomance car needs to be slightly more subtle than Evos Wrxs and Cossies. A recent drive in an AUDI RS6 was an eye opener (in more ways then several). Most people ignored it but you still had the 1.1 Nova and Saxo boys recognising it and trying to get there very loud stereos and big exhausts to beat it.Mind you knowing you can blow off most things on the road is sort off cool. It should have licence health warning on it.Too dangerous for me I frightened myself with it ,mind you I expect one gets used to it and the initial excitement wears off.

Howard

Howard/Rocking

I know its taking it off topic a bit, but the question now has to be asked... What are THE best sheep in wolfs clothing cars?

A starter for ten... The Original Accord Type R.. Not in evo territoty of course but still a laugh... if only for its bland pipe and slipper image covering up a riot of an engine...

quote:

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Originally posted by BigH47:
I expect one gets used to it and the initial excitement wears off.

Howard

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Can't honestly say that's true with the Evo, it demanded keen attention all the time/ For example if I drove over a bump in the raod, the resultant slight increase in pressure on the accelerator would hurtle me off like a rocket. It never got boring, just a bit wearing when I wasn't in the mood.

The best sheep in wolf's clothing is probably the BMW Z3, but I suspect you meant the other way round. In that case I'd say the Audi too.

Back on topic. I've been totally sucked in to the American "Detailing" forums. There is a healthy debate raging between pure-cotton terry towling vs. new microfiber polishing cloths. I love it. Here I was thinking myself a lone polishing nerd, when in fact it appears that almost everyone in the USA, land of the automobile, is behind me.

quote:

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Originally posted by Hawk:
Howard/Rocking

I know its taking it off topic a bit, but the question now has to be asked... What are THE best sheep in wolfs clothing cars?

A.

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The Audi TT has just been voted "Gay Car Of The Year" at the Gay Expo

your right... i did mean wolf in sheeps clothing! and I always thought the tt looked a bit girly a modern day white golf convertable!

Q cars as they used to be called have the look of standard but go like stink when required.
The original Cossie without the Spanish Armada wings.
Volvo T5R my fave Q car.
Audi RS6
Alfa 147 with the 3L V6 in it.
My mates Anglia with a 1650cc lump. Slightly lowered suspension and 165 tyres the only clues. After weeks of him blowing away a 2002 Bee-eM the guy finally caught up to my mate at the local bowl and found out he had been duped.In the last week I have had 2 drives in an A6 convertible top up and down both diesel 2.5 V6s not Q cars but quite impressive. Auto box was preffered because of the acceleration and fierce cut out chip the manual was a pain to use unless you were very gentle with the throttle.
Never used to be girlie/gay cars they were always called hairdressers cars.

Howard

Q-cars

The Honda Civic with original VTech engine from about a K-plate (I think), looked like a shopping hatch or saloon, but with 160bhp from a 1.6 litre non-turbo engine. Nice

Steve

It's a grand old team to play for...

Rover 827 V6 Automatic from the mid 90s

Looked plain, as most 800 series did, but went of a shovel like ...t when floored.

Manual version was awful......

Back to the topic.
After extensive obsessional research, I decided to go for the Zaino system
Zaino USA
bought direct from the UK importer
Zaino UK importer

Tried it yesterday and I'm impressed. The system involves thorough cleaning then the application of a polymer coat with a catalytic curing accelerator. This enables multiple coats to be applied in one session. I found it very easy to apply compared to a conventional polish, like Autoglym.
Can't comment on the longevity yet, but it certainly is shiny.

All the stuff you get at halfords, etc,autoglym,mer,turtle-whatever,is all basically made up of 2 main ingredients,chalk,& petroleum distillates,hence the white dust when polishing.I use the Zymol stuff,Yep its stupid-expensive, even for the bottom-of-the-range gear, & you're supposed to keep it in the fridge,as its plant-extract carnuaba can go off, which is silly, but it's great stuff.You have to "deep-clean" the car with their cleanser,but it really does remove a whole lot of built up crap, & then wax,which is the easy bit. Great results, but just don't tell anyone how much the stuff costs, you'll never win that argument! Cheers, matt.

Any piccies before and after ?

I'll try to get a photo, but being a light silver car, it is difficult to show the effect. A lot of the appeal is tactile, having used the whole Zaino "system" including clay-bar, the car feels so glassy that I can't stop stroking it. O.K. I'm off for a lie down now.

The Zymol carnuba wax is apparently the best thing to put on top of the Zaino system when it is complete, but the Zymol evaporates and washes off quite quiickly, so is only really a temporary "show" coat.

p.s. kerbed a wheel at the weekend so looking for a solution to that, any suggestions?

[This message was edited by Rockingdoc on Mon 29 November 2004 at 10:23.]

Re;"kerbed a wheel,any solutions"
1 park properly
2 don't let the missus drive the car

Sorry mate, no offence meant,but someone had to do the gags.
Seriously though,we've all been there,I certainly have.A wheel refurbishment is normally about £60 per wheel & up,depending on the amount of damage. Most good tyre fitting places know someone who'll do it.I would say to do it straight away, otherwise it's something that just gets put off indefinitely,& then you sell the car on in the winter with very dirty wheels,when hopefully the buyer won't notice the damage too much.
All the best, matt.

Hands up, it was me guv. One of those bloody old-fasioned granite kerb stones at least a foot high. Front wheel went down a drain and grazed near the centre of the spokes. Just down to the metal by about 1mm, so may not even need filler, just a thick primer.
Didn't think of asking at a tyre-fitters, thanks for that. How will they match the colour I wonder. I suppose the match doesn't need to be as perfect as for adjoining body panels.
I'm half tempted to have a go myself, but that's likely to put the cost (and snidey abuse) up if I then have to take it in.

Just phoned my local (good) tyre shop. 40 quid per wheel including; refit tyre, rebalance and new valve. Sounds like a bargain.