After 8 hours of detailing, I've learned that Blitz is awesome!!!

I

imported_Intermezzo

New member
So yesterday I spent a lot of time detailing my wife's black BMW. These are the steps I took:



1. Washed the car.



2. Clayed the hood, windshield and front edges of the roof - is anyone else in So Cal getting these damn little white specks all over the front of your car? There were thousands of them when my wife came back from Santa Barbara and I couldn't even remove them with Finesse-It 2! Even with Clay, it took a substantial amount of effort.



3. Went around the car looking for swirls to fix and attacked them by hand with Finesse-It 2. Many thanks to BradB. for his tips on using this product properly. I finally think I've got the hang of it. This step took the longest time as I applied it in 1'x1' sections at a time to the entire hood, trunk & portions of the side doors. Although FI-2 does leave a nice glossy finish, I still had to follow it up with P21S GEPC because under certain lighting angles, a faint amount of residual marring is still left over (my technique still isn't anywhere near Brad's level!).



4. Re-applied GEPC to all other parts of the car - a breeze to apply and remove.



5. Dressed all the plastic trimming.



6. Applied Blitz Wax - I applied it much too thick and when buffing, I got an alarming amount of powdery, chalky residue granules all over the car & into the seams. It probably took longer to clean all the residue than it did to apply and buff the wax. I used a detailing brush, a foam paint brush, about 20 cotton swabs, and nearly emptied my hardly-used Stoner's air-Gust can to get all the residue out of the cracks and did a final QD.



All I can say is that despite this morning's soreness, I'm very happy with the car's shine. Very deep, very wet. This is in contrast to P21S Carnauba...which is more of a brighter shine. I think Blitz accentuates the black color more. I'd like to say that Blitz is better than Souveran and P21S, but I don’t think this would be fair as I haven’t used Souveran or P21S after such an extensive prep.



I wasn't able to take any pictures yet (out of film and don't have a digital camera). I'll try to take some this afternoon and have them scanned.



Tony
 
Great work Tony!:up I agree with you, Blitz is one of the best caranuba's available today. At $15/tin it's probably the biggest bargain in car care.







Looking forward to some pics, knowing you I bet that Bimmer looks amazing. :bounce
 
Autopians,



I have found that Blitz layer one after a full paint prep

is a little bit of a bear but all additional layers go on nice

and buff even easier.



Let us know if you find the same thing.



Also Inter, let us know the difference between days 1 & 2

and days 3 & 4 when you had a chance to wash + show off.



My guess is you will be very happy.
 
Good job, Tony -



Couple of suggestions -



I haven't seen Brad's suggestions for FI-II - can you give me the URL? I have found it nearly impossible to get a haze-free finish with FI-II but you can get way closer and with a lot less time using an orbital. I sincerely believe this is not a great product for use by hand because it takes so much work before the abrasives break all the way down into fine polish.



if the "white specs" responded to the clay bar they were "above-surface" adhered gunk. Next time, feel for these - and clay bar first. Rubbing with compounds tends to NOT knock these little guys off all that well - in fact the pad rises over them and leaves a little unpolished "shadow" a tiny bit bigger than the bump itself.



If you have souveran try some on the black - I think it is even prettier than Blitz. (Blitz makes a great base coat for it though...)
 
Showroom, I couldn't agree more. Thanks for the kind words.



rd_volvo, I was thinking of you when Blitzing my car! lol. I'll probably have to wait till this weekend before washing again and QDing. Maybe I'll wait to post pictures till then.



carguy, yes, it definitely took a lot of work applying FI-2 by hand. In fact, even though I spent a lot of time and did a lot of rubbing, I'm not so sure the abrasives really broke down all that much. I had to do about 3 applications for each 1'x1' area that I was working on...using successively lighter and lighter pressure with each application. Even after all this, the paint was very glossy but there was still a tiny bit of haze, which was removed via a mild paint cleanser. The tips I received were via e-mail and are in my home computer. I'll send you the info when I get home tonight.



Thanks for the tips on the claybar! I no longer have any Souveran.....but a close friend of mine does. Maybe I'll try it out!
 
Intermezzo... I've been getting tons of those white specks over here on the Westside!!! It's killing me! I've also been getting a fair share of "sap" like dots from these flowery trees all over where I live.



Soap and water is all you need to remove them, however, they seem to come back within an hour after washing! :mad:
 
gs3,



You were able to remove them with soap and water? You're very lucky then, because I had to do a 'heavy' claying to get them off. Perhaps I let them sit on my car for too long.



They're driving me CRAZY... I'm very worried that they'll be all over the car again after my wife's commute today. She also has to go to Santa Barbara again later in the week....which is where I really think the source of the problem is....or at least on the way to SB which is definitely your area. I'm in Glendale.
 
gs3_4me said:
Intermezzo... I've been getting tons of those white specks over here on the Westside!!! It's killing me! I've also been getting a fair share of "sap" like dots from these flowery trees all over where I live.



Soap and water is all you need to remove them, however, they seem to come back within an hour after washing! :mad:
Click to expand...



I get those sap dots all the time on Jennifer's Accord. She parks against the fence and seems to get them all the time. I just clayed her car again on Saturday to get them off. I've found that you can pick them off with your fingernails but you have to clay it to remove all the residue they leave behind. I tried everything before I went for the clay. That stuff is just stuck on there.



The white dots would be overspray most likely. Do you live near a freeway by chance? They can come about just by parking near one that is under construction. The people that lived near the construction areas of the freeway here in SLC made hundreds of claims to have their cars repaired due to overspray. They even had contracts with local detail shops that were approved to fix the problem. One of my friends had theirs done twice in one year because it was so bad.
 
Holy smokey Tony. You've been trying new products like mad man. SLOW DOWN! LOL. :D I've also spent 8 hours last weekend and glad to know I was not the only one spending so much time.



Intermezzo said:
gs3,



You were able to remove them with soap and water? You're very lucky then, because I had to do a 'heavy' claying to get them off. Perhaps I let them sit on my car for too long.

Click to expand...



Remove them with soap and water? LUCKY! Tony, consider yourself lucky as well that at least you could get rid of the specks with heavy claying. I've had all those white specks (even black ones) all over my hood. I clayed 'heavily', rubbing alcohol, AIO, PPCL, 3M SMR, BF Polish, MG Scratch X and couldn't get rid of them all. The polishes did absolutely NOTHING. The best I could do was 3 pass heavy claying and that got rid of 95% of them. For the rest of the stubborn ones, I had to use Claymagic RED Clay bar and that did the trick; HOWEVER, it left behind some micro scratches (I guess I shouldn't clay so heavily but had to do it) and to be honest I rather have the specks on the hood than those nasty scratches. My PC got rid of some scratches, but some are still on the hood and I will just take care of it, hmm.. WHENEVER.



Intermezzo said:
I'd like to say that Blitz is better than Souveran and P21S, but I don’t think this would be fair as I haven’t used Souveran or P21S after such an extensive prep.
Click to expand...



Yes, I do think your extensive prep plays the major part of outcome which you thought to be better. Reason I think that is because my black car only has 3 coats of Zaino now, and it looks shinier, deeper & wetter than it used to be when it had **35 coats of Zaino**. All I did was polish the whole car down! Paint prep!!! :xyxthumbs



I doubt I'll ever lay down 35 coats again! Instead of spending all these time layering, I am going to pay attention to the paint and spot claying/polishing when necessary.



You are going to have pic scanned? Awesome! The only pic I've seen from you is the IS300 you used to have. I'll be looking forward to it!
 
Jngrbrdman said:
The white dots would be overspray most likely. Do you live near a freeway by chance? They can come about just by parking near one that is under construction.
Click to expand...

No, I don't...and the car is garaged whenever not in use. Whatever it is, it must have happened while she was on the freeway because 95% of the specks are on the front end of the car and windshield. I guess there is a chance of it being overspray, but if I had to take a guess, I would say that's a long-shot because none of the white specks are round-shaped. They're more elongated...almost worm-shaped...every single one. Thanks for the suggestion though Jngrbrd.

William420 said:
Yes, I do think your extensive prep plays the major part of outcome which you thought to be better. Reason I think that is because my black car only has 3 coats of Zaino now, and it looks shinier, deeper & wetter than it used to be when it had **35 coats of Zaino**. All I did was polish the whole car down! Paint prep!!! :xyxthumbs
Click to expand...

Wow!, that really tells you a few things...doesn't it?! Thanks for the info. Now you're making me want to try Zaino again!! lol Sorry to hear about your trouble with them pesky little 'specks'. I feel a little better knowing that my fellow Autopians have suffered through their own plights similar to mine.
 
I have some pics of Tony's BMW after Klasse, I will scan them this weekend and post. Man he does a great job with detailing, he has the BEST looking bimmer out there! I really applaud your effort man!
 
Intermezzo said:


Wow!, that really tells you a few things...doesn't it?! Thanks for the info. Now you're making me want to try Zaino again!! lol
Click to expand...



hahah. Hey maybe give it a shot next time you polish the car again. I don't know, maybe you will still like the look of Carnauba better but I really think Zaino offers good deepness & wetness as long as paint is thoroughly prepped.. While I was SMRing my car, I did some experiments and treated couple panels with GEPC/Souveran combo, and some panels Souveran over Zaino, and left some panels alone with Zaino only. I looked at the finish very very carefully. The carnauba side reflect the lights a little inconsistently so it does look more oily (well, WET) like it has a pool of water on it, while Zaino side reflection has more consistent pattern but appears a little less oily/wet. However, the wetness is there just a little different from Carnauba. That all said, I don't know maybe I'm just seeing things or I'm too biased. I mean, I told my GF to look at it and explained my thoughts to her, and she thought I was lunatic because all the panels and reflections look the same to her. Oh well. Whatever. :p
 
Hey... I've noticed that there are a lot more Los Angelans than I thought! And yes, I get a lot of unidentified flying objects that decide to stay on the paint...



I have the white spots you are talking about, and while nobody else can really see them on a white car, they drive my crazy! You cannot really "feel" them but they scatter around... and they look disgusting under a magnifying glass.



I also have these rough, greyish contaminates that can be only seen very, very carefully under certain lighting... claying removes this but it comes back quicker and quicker. Thats when someone sent me some ABC to try... and it worked!



I now QD twice a day... once in the morning and once before I put it back in the garage. It really helps keep the car free of the LA pollution since most of them are removed nearly immediately...



Oh, and like carguy, I'm interested in hearing your stories with the Finesse-It. I have a bottle with me now, and no matter how hard I rub in attempt to break down the abrasives... I still get hazing and not-so-good results.



I can't wait to see the black Bimmer!



~bw
 
BW said:
I also have these rough, greyish contaminates that can be only seen very, very carefully under certain lighting... claying removes this but it comes back quicker and quicker. Thats when someone sent me some ABC to try... and it worked!

~bw
Click to expand...



Hey BW. Can you clarify a little bit. Are you saying claying removes the contaminants but they come back, while ABC removes these contaminants as well but they STOP coming back? Or are you saying claying cannot remove these specks totally but ABC removes it? (Because I thought clay is more effective to remove above surface contaminants). Do you have any specks that cannot be removed by CLAY but ABC does the trick?



Sorry for so many questions. I'm trying to figure out an alternative way to remove these specks if they do come back, because I really don't want to use the CM Red bar again!



By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :D
 
Hi William! It's funny that I'm also talking to you right now as I respond to this...



Supposidly, claying doesn't completely remove the contamination and neutralize the acid leaving a "bloom" for it to come back. When mixed with water, it comes back... and blah blah... something like that.



So sorry, I'll never be a Ron Ketcham. :D



However, whatever what the ABC did, it did seem to keep those greyish dots away from appearing. Sorry for not having a "real" explanation...



Keep in mind that this is for the greyish dots, not the white specks we are dealing with now. I have no idea where these white ones come from... either the environment or pollution... whatever.



And as I just said (and you probably know,) its my birthday TOMORROW!



:D



(wow... three big grins in a post)
 
birthday.gif
hb2.gif
 
BW,



Happy Birthday!



Thanks for the info......I'll send you a PM with the FI-II notes. BTW, you're in PV? Cool, I know a few people in that area...very nice neighborhood.



Ali,



Thanks for the compliments. I'm glad you like the pictures I sent, but in all honesty, I'm sure everyone else here have cars that shine just as good..if not better. :) Do you mind e-mailing them to me before posting?



Thanks.



Tony
 
William420 said:
I mean, I told my GF to look at it and explained my thoughts to her, and she thought I was lunatic because all the panels and reflections look the same to her. Oh well. Whatever. :p
Click to expand...

Your GF and my wife could probably spend hours trading stories about us and our lunatic-like detailing obsession! :)
 
Tony-have you tried the Hand Polish again yet? If you use a little less and work it until it's nearly clear, it is easy to buff off. Might add a little more 'pop' after the FI-2 and GEPC. Besides, you have 32 oz, it would be a shame to let it go to waste, right?



Too bad about the specks you are getting-maybe she got behind a work truck? We have a lot of road construction around here, so I am more worried about rock chips and busted windshields than overspray.



BTW, post pics when you get a chance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top