Gday Autopia,
I'm an Australian enthusiast who stumbled across this site about a week ago, and have spent many, many hours reading, researching, reading again, and then viewing outside the forums for more!, I never thought an autopian society like this would exist, its just great :up
Now a quick background and a request for some advice.
Three years ago I bought my first car after looking for 12 months. It had to be a HR Holden (66-67). I lucked out when I found mine bigtime (its easily doubled in value since!). It had recently been restored, including a new paint job, of brilliant champagne metallic gold, and coated in '13L of clear coat' (so says prev. owner). Some months later I was talking to my friends dad about his recently award winning car, and he said he just started using a mothers 3 step polishing process. I hadnt done anything apart from wash my car, so I dove in and got set up. So begins my entry into the world of detailing.
Now I've always tried new things to get my car pretty, a slow rise from newbie if you will, and have ultimately been satisfied with the results.
But nowdays my car has alot of swirlmarks, and has lost its shine in need of a good polish and wax. And then I found this site.
Claying is new to me, SMRs aswell, and I now have a proper understanding of what each product does, and its uses. Armed with all this knowledge I went hunting at autoparts stores today.
While I'd love to order alot of stuff to try off of the net, I'm not financially prepared to right now and my car isnt looking its best. PC is out of the question for now, too. Heres a list of products I have or can get locally,
Meguiars Claybar - only one Ive found locally so far, but seems fair in price and performance.
Meguiars #9 - I was after something a little more harsh then the mothers prewax cleaner this time around as the swirls are more noticeable.
Meguiars #7 or Mothers Step 2 - I'm willing to try something new here, but finding it is something else all together.
Meguiars #26, Gold Class, NXT, Mothers Step 3 - I was hoping to find some #16 today, but had no luck. #26 seems
I would love to try klasse twins and p21s aswell.
Heres the dish, Ill be claying my car for the first time, and I might as well have a go at the swirlmarks, but I dont know if I should go the #7 and #26 now or use up my mothers and wait for a few months and order in some fancy stuff. Will this set do wonders for my metallic gold? I had new whitewall tyres put on before christmas too, and was wondering what care is best for them. I only have meguiars endurance gel, the purple stuff, that I used on my older tyres, what an awesome goo that is!
Heres a pic after a three phase (the best its had) from christmas 2003,
http://autopia.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=11120&papass=&sort=1
My gallery has other shots too, although I've since learnt about what pictures to take, thanks to autopia.
Its alot to take in all at once, but I always had the bug and its decided to bite properly right now
I'm an Australian enthusiast who stumbled across this site about a week ago, and have spent many, many hours reading, researching, reading again, and then viewing outside the forums for more!, I never thought an autopian society like this would exist, its just great :up
Now a quick background and a request for some advice.
Three years ago I bought my first car after looking for 12 months. It had to be a HR Holden (66-67). I lucked out when I found mine bigtime (its easily doubled in value since!). It had recently been restored, including a new paint job, of brilliant champagne metallic gold, and coated in '13L of clear coat' (so says prev. owner). Some months later I was talking to my friends dad about his recently award winning car, and he said he just started using a mothers 3 step polishing process. I hadnt done anything apart from wash my car, so I dove in and got set up. So begins my entry into the world of detailing.
Now I've always tried new things to get my car pretty, a slow rise from newbie if you will, and have ultimately been satisfied with the results.
But nowdays my car has alot of swirlmarks, and has lost its shine in need of a good polish and wax. And then I found this site.
Claying is new to me, SMRs aswell, and I now have a proper understanding of what each product does, and its uses. Armed with all this knowledge I went hunting at autoparts stores today.
While I'd love to order alot of stuff to try off of the net, I'm not financially prepared to right now and my car isnt looking its best. PC is out of the question for now, too. Heres a list of products I have or can get locally,
Meguiars Claybar - only one Ive found locally so far, but seems fair in price and performance.
Meguiars #9 - I was after something a little more harsh then the mothers prewax cleaner this time around as the swirls are more noticeable.
Meguiars #7 or Mothers Step 2 - I'm willing to try something new here, but finding it is something else all together.
Meguiars #26, Gold Class, NXT, Mothers Step 3 - I was hoping to find some #16 today, but had no luck. #26 seems
I would love to try klasse twins and p21s aswell.
Heres the dish, Ill be claying my car for the first time, and I might as well have a go at the swirlmarks, but I dont know if I should go the #7 and #26 now or use up my mothers and wait for a few months and order in some fancy stuff. Will this set do wonders for my metallic gold? I had new whitewall tyres put on before christmas too, and was wondering what care is best for them. I only have meguiars endurance gel, the purple stuff, that I used on my older tyres, what an awesome goo that is!
Heres a pic after a three phase (the best its had) from christmas 2003,
http://autopia.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=11120&papass=&sort=1
My gallery has other shots too, although I've since learnt about what pictures to take, thanks to autopia.
Its alot to take in all at once, but I always had the bug and its decided to bite properly right now
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