cleanyourcar
New member
Brief:
Swirled, scuffed and scratched Seat Ibiza GTi, which be fair when I first saw it looked in pretty good shape, but then black always does from a distance.
Here's the car after a quick hose down ready to be cleaned and pampered.
Before:
Wash:
The car was pre-treated with Carlack special cleaner on the wheels, arches, plastics and the entire lower half of the car.
The car was then rinsed before being washed using the two bucket method with lamswool washmits and Carlack Shampoo.
Dried using Sonus Ultimate Drying Towles.
Alloys cleaned with Carlack Special Cleaner using a microfibre mitt.
Clay
It was obvious from the dragging whilst drying the car had quite a bit of bonded contamination so as the car was in for a full machine polish we opted for Sonus Grey being aggressive this always removes the contamination but does tend to leave some marring on Black cars.
We split the bar in two and worked round the car keeping one half in a bucket of hot water swapping frequently to keep it soft and easy to work with.
I showed Ben how do do a panel and left him to do the opposite side whilst I continued. When I came to check the panels it was obvious there had been a bit of a problem, either with using a contaminated bit of clay or rinsing had splashed some grit back onto the car. Under normal daylight it didn't look too bad, but I was horrified to see just how bad the door was under artifical lighting.
Polishing:
As you can see much of the paint was marred badly and suffering from all the usual swirls and scratches.
One of the main reasons Ben wanted to come over though was because of the faded white line visable in the above and below pictures. The previous owner had applied car stickers, but when he came to remove them, it looks like they had somehow reacted with the paint and actually etched their imprints onto the front wings, doors and three quarter panels. Ben had tried T-Cut :doublesho on the stripes which he said improved them slightly but they were still there.
Paint thickness readings were taken from all round the car with there being an average of about 105 microns all over and the car taped with 3M 3434 masking tape.
To tackle the 'faded' stripes I initially thought a quick pass with Power Gloss would sort them, but every pass only improved them slightly removing more clear coat each time. The rear wing had a really nasty key scratch though so we were prepared to work this panel as hard as was required to remove the fading. After about 5 hits with Power Gloss on a 4" Sonus SFX-1 pad the stains were totally removed taking about 15-20 microns with them.
If I had any wet and dry this would have been the far better solution as I won't lie it was taking ages.
(you can just see in this picture the micro marring left by the Power Gloss)
Once Power Gloss had corrected the sever defects the whole panel was corrected using Menzerna Intensive 3.01 by Makita.
This left a LSP finish, but as Ben wanted to get stuck in after a brief bit of tuition he followed round using Menzerna PO85RD on a SFX-3 pad. The results of the PO85RD were definately worth it leaving a deep reflective shine.
Just as that door and wing had been completed the sun broke out for all of 5 minutes which made for a nice picture.
After this we just cracked on as time was flying by so only managed to grab a few more pictures of the polishing stage
Trims & Tyres
All glass was cleaned with Swissol Crystal, another new product and not suprisingly it did a great job.
Tyres were done with Swissol Pneu yet another new product to me and I have to say on inital application the single best tyre 'gel' I have ever used. It didn't sit on the surface, but reacted with the rubber like no other i've ever used. Alloys waxed with Poorboys Wheel Sealant.
All the plastics were treated to Carlack Pastic Care which really did the business on the side skirts.
Waxing & Sealing
After the results achieved with the Ford Focus ST a couple of weeks ago on black it would have been rude not to do the same on this one, so again the same intital process was used:
1. Carlack Systematic Care (Klasse AIO) applied with PC using a SFX-2 pad and buffed off with some Ultra plush cloths.
2. Carlack Long Life Sealant (Klasse Sealant Glaze) applied by hand using a damp microfibre applicator wiping on and then buffing off a panel at a time
I then wanted to follow with P21s as this is the combo many people seem to go back to and the one preached on Autopia.
This was applied to the whole car left to cure for 5-10 mins. and then buffed off. Impressions were it was very very easy to use and without doubt deepend the finish perfectly but didn't seem to detract from the levels of gloss at all. Very impressed.
It was then just a case of giving all the nooks and crannies a final dust down and to take some artistic afters.
Thanks again to Ben for bringing the car over and getting stuck in and thanks for reading!
Cheers Tim
Swirled, scuffed and scratched Seat Ibiza GTi, which be fair when I first saw it looked in pretty good shape, but then black always does from a distance.
Here's the car after a quick hose down ready to be cleaned and pampered.
Before:
Wash:
The car was pre-treated with Carlack special cleaner on the wheels, arches, plastics and the entire lower half of the car.
The car was then rinsed before being washed using the two bucket method with lamswool washmits and Carlack Shampoo.
Dried using Sonus Ultimate Drying Towles.
Alloys cleaned with Carlack Special Cleaner using a microfibre mitt.
Clay
It was obvious from the dragging whilst drying the car had quite a bit of bonded contamination so as the car was in for a full machine polish we opted for Sonus Grey being aggressive this always removes the contamination but does tend to leave some marring on Black cars.
We split the bar in two and worked round the car keeping one half in a bucket of hot water swapping frequently to keep it soft and easy to work with.
I showed Ben how do do a panel and left him to do the opposite side whilst I continued. When I came to check the panels it was obvious there had been a bit of a problem, either with using a contaminated bit of clay or rinsing had splashed some grit back onto the car. Under normal daylight it didn't look too bad, but I was horrified to see just how bad the door was under artifical lighting.
Polishing:
As you can see much of the paint was marred badly and suffering from all the usual swirls and scratches.
One of the main reasons Ben wanted to come over though was because of the faded white line visable in the above and below pictures. The previous owner had applied car stickers, but when he came to remove them, it looks like they had somehow reacted with the paint and actually etched their imprints onto the front wings, doors and three quarter panels. Ben had tried T-Cut :doublesho on the stripes which he said improved them slightly but they were still there.
Paint thickness readings were taken from all round the car with there being an average of about 105 microns all over and the car taped with 3M 3434 masking tape.
To tackle the 'faded' stripes I initially thought a quick pass with Power Gloss would sort them, but every pass only improved them slightly removing more clear coat each time. The rear wing had a really nasty key scratch though so we were prepared to work this panel as hard as was required to remove the fading. After about 5 hits with Power Gloss on a 4" Sonus SFX-1 pad the stains were totally removed taking about 15-20 microns with them.
If I had any wet and dry this would have been the far better solution as I won't lie it was taking ages.
(you can just see in this picture the micro marring left by the Power Gloss)
Once Power Gloss had corrected the sever defects the whole panel was corrected using Menzerna Intensive 3.01 by Makita.
This left a LSP finish, but as Ben wanted to get stuck in after a brief bit of tuition he followed round using Menzerna PO85RD on a SFX-3 pad. The results of the PO85RD were definately worth it leaving a deep reflective shine.
Just as that door and wing had been completed the sun broke out for all of 5 minutes which made for a nice picture.
After this we just cracked on as time was flying by so only managed to grab a few more pictures of the polishing stage
Trims & Tyres
All glass was cleaned with Swissol Crystal, another new product and not suprisingly it did a great job.
Tyres were done with Swissol Pneu yet another new product to me and I have to say on inital application the single best tyre 'gel' I have ever used. It didn't sit on the surface, but reacted with the rubber like no other i've ever used. Alloys waxed with Poorboys Wheel Sealant.
All the plastics were treated to Carlack Pastic Care which really did the business on the side skirts.
Waxing & Sealing
After the results achieved with the Ford Focus ST a couple of weeks ago on black it would have been rude not to do the same on this one, so again the same intital process was used:
1. Carlack Systematic Care (Klasse AIO) applied with PC using a SFX-2 pad and buffed off with some Ultra plush cloths.
2. Carlack Long Life Sealant (Klasse Sealant Glaze) applied by hand using a damp microfibre applicator wiping on and then buffing off a panel at a time
I then wanted to follow with P21s as this is the combo many people seem to go back to and the one preached on Autopia.
This was applied to the whole car left to cure for 5-10 mins. and then buffed off. Impressions were it was very very easy to use and without doubt deepend the finish perfectly but didn't seem to detract from the levels of gloss at all. Very impressed.
It was then just a case of giving all the nooks and crannies a final dust down and to take some artistic afters.
Thanks again to Ben for bringing the car over and getting stuck in and thanks for reading!
Cheers Tim
:goodjob
