Citroen Xsara Picasso

Today's detail was a low mileage and well cared for Citroen Xsara Picasso.



Bryan and Stu worked last night to prep the car ready for machine polishing - washing and claying the car ready for today's work.



The paintwork was not bad on this car - it was a well cared for example for sure, and being grey any marring on it was well masked. The paintwork was best described as lacking a little in gloss with mild haziness on the finish...



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The plan of attack for this car was to restore a gloss to the finish and give a crystal sharpness back... Using the rotary and the PC, and Menzerna PO106FF Final Finish,



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the finish was burnised to a high gloss. Spread at 600rpm, two or three passes at 1200rpm and then worked until clear with medium pressure at 1500rpm. The refined with two or three passes at 900rpm. This restored a gloss and sharpness to the finish:



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Being a tall car, and me being a shorty, I was using a set of steps and some one handed rotary technique to work on the roof...



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Steel grey is an awkward colour sometimes, but the machine polishing delivered a nice gloss to the paint with a good wet look shine also, ready for protecting. The machine polish finish:



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Durability was called for in the finish, so we cleansed the paint using Dodo Juice Lime Prime (the easiest to use, and one of the best looking cleansers on the market IMHO) by hand. Then for durability, Collinite 476S was chosen as the wax. This wax also adds a nice little extra gloss to the finish as well.



The end results:



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Hi Dave



Great work, the rotary is easy to control with one hand?? The silver came up really nice.



I like the way you bring "ordinary" cars to your posts too.



Geoff
 
Dave,



Great work as usual. The trim on the vehicle looks great, what was your process/products, if you don't mind sharing?



Thanks,



Pete
 
Awesome work Dave, Super wetness and shine on the Picasso! So the Dodo Juice Lime Prime is in your opinion a great product to use? Always looking to see your work!...........Angelo.........:usa
 
steelwind101 said:
Hi Dave



Great work, the rotary is easy to control with one hand?? The silver came up really nice.



I like the way you bring "ordinary" cars to your posts too.



Geoff



When I'm using the rotary two handed, my second hand over the head of the machine is simply there as a guard and also to vary the pressure over the head, all the control comes from my back (right) arm... So one handed working with the rotary is easy to control, providing you go with the flow of the machine and dont fight it.





HAN said:
Dave,



Great work as usual. The trim on the vehicle looks great, what was your process/products, if you don't mind sharing?



Thanks,



Pete



Meguiars All Seasons Dressing. Applied with a foam applicator and buffed. I particularly like this, lasts pretty well and dead easy to apply. Use it on my wheel arch liners too, just spray on. Dirt doesn't seem to stick as well to it, making cleaning easier, and it gives a nice black look to arch plastics. :)





zoomzoom mazda5 said:
Awesome work Dave, Super wetness and shine on the Picasso! So the Dodo Juice Lime Prime is in your opinion a great product to use? Always looking to see your work!...........Angelo.........:usa



The Lime Prime was designed to be easy to use while still delivering the results of other cleansers, and for me it meets its brief very well. Its nice and oily, doesn't dry and cake like Zymol HD Cleanse can but rather stays workable and easy to spread and work in for many passes. Removal is a cinch, whether you remove right away or leave a few minutes. It adds a little wettness to the finish too, much like HD Cleanse which was my favourite feature of the Zymol cleanser. But with the ease of use of Swissvax Cleaner Fluid. The Lime Prime now lines up alongside Victoria Lite Cleanse as my favourite paintwork cleanser.
 
Looks great dave, unfortunately there are a lot of cars and areas where you just have to go one handed, you look safe in doing so good work.
 
tdekany said:
Dave, what camera do you guys use?? The pictures always look excellent. Thanks.



Just a plain and simple Olympus C-360, 3.2 Megapixel. Bought years ago. Nothing special as a camera, but it does the job so I've never really wanted to replace it. :)
 
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