imported_Dave KG
New member
Todays detail for the Dundee Tag Team (The Krankies) was a solid red Renault Clio 1.2 S that has been slightly modified externally by the owner with a couple of skirts and spoilers, and the paintwork had been resprayed in places, but more on this later.
First of all, the white wheels were treated to Meguiars Wheel Brightener and Autoglym Tar Remover to remove some quite sever tar deposits, especially on the fron wheels and after a thorough clean the pearl effect of the paint started to come through.
The car was then pre-foamed with Autoglym Powermax3 through the Karcher foam gun (small, simple, but does the job very well) and rinsed off, and the car was followed by a two-bucket was with Megs Shampoo Plus using a Serious Performance Mitt and dries with a Sonus Ultimate drying towel... Now the car was rolled into the garage for paint inspection.
As Bryan took some PTG readings, I clayed the car using Sonus Green clay and Meguiars Last Touch (neat) as a lube. PTG readings reveales areas of the car which has been resprayed, some more recently than others. The resprayed areas were suffering from bad hologramming, patches of the paintwork looked like they had been washed with wire wool and other parts of the paintwork had just mild scratches. This car was a bit like a patchwork quilt, and no one combinatiojn was going to work on the whole car so it nwas a case of try and check as you go this time.
While Bryan started cutting in the bumpers and skirts by PC, I set up a rotary for work on the bonnet which had only light swirls and some deeper scratches...
First off, I trialled Menzerna PO106FF Final Finish on a polishing pad which did a good job of removing the swirls but many of the deeper marks remained... with a good paint thickness (~170 - 200um) to play with, and an amount inside the error of the gauge (small) removed, I decided to step up to Menzerna PO85RD3.01 on a Meguiars polishing pad and this removed 90 - 95% of the deeper marks which we were happy to proceed with, as the panel had been resparyed so I didn't want to be too gung-ho with it... The result of just the IP finish:
I followed this with Menzerna PO85RD Final Finish, but on this hard paint I was not convinced it was making a noticebaly difference to the clarit of the finish from thoroughly broken down Intensive Polish so we opted to stop with just the Intensive Polish.
Onto the front wing, and the plan immediately changes as its plastic. So back to a low abrasive and work up again (two rotaries come in handy here! :thumb: ), but it was found that IP on a polishing pad was the best combo. The front winf before polishing:
and the wing after polishing:
The drivers door looked like it had been washed with wire wool!
This was masked up for a 50/50 shot. To clear this marring, two hits of IP were required on a polishing pad, and the paint on the door (original) was thinner so I decided to stop after this to avoid wearing away too much clearcoat - about 90 - 95% correction was achieved safely here. 50/50 shot:
and the completed door (note the deep scratch not removed but left owing to the thinner paint - sometimes its just not safe to achieve a 100% perfect finish unfortunately...):
Now, the rear wing and B-pillar had been resprayed and polishes in the bodyshop, rolliong the car out into the sun revealed a little marring and hologramming:
Two hits of IP again were required here to remove this marring:
Tim now for some lunch, so a half hour break with sausage rolls, beans and toast and coffee - nice one Bryan! :thumb:
Back outside and into the garage and there was a noticeable jump up in the temperature, the garage now being positively hot. Never mind, off with the fleece and back to polishing but this is where things started to misbehave a little... The Menzerna PO85RD3.01 started to cake a little on the paint, not spread evenly and cause the rotary to hope, the polish seeming to dry out and dust quite quickly... Odd, I thought, and on a pad that had just been well spurred too. So I swithce to a new pad, same result so I use regular spritzes of Last Touch to help keep the polish alive but I was struggling to break it down in the high heat of the garage - I wonder if it was perhaps too hot for the Menz to function properly... I altered my technique to suit and got a rather long winded way of working the polish using little spritzes of Last Touch to keep it alive, but it was very slow going and I was just not convinced I was properly breaking it down in the heat. So, I switched over to an old friend to finish the car: Meguiars #83. This polish seemed to revel in the heat, spreading easily and the rotary flowing effortlessly with it until the residue went clear and buffed off easily... Examining the finish under the lights, the #83 section was crystal clear, but I was not convinced by IP section - it looked good, but I just thougt I saw a hint of a hologram... Out into the sunlight that we were blessed with for a proper look and sure enough, there was a faint hologram on the door where IP had been used, yet the rear 3/4 where the #83 had been used was clear. So a hit of PO106FF Final Finish on the door quickly removed the faint hologramming and returned the finish to what I was happy with - crystal clear. It seemed to me as if the heat in the garage was drying out the lube in the Menzerna polish too quickly, causing the polish not to be fully broken down. The Menz is designed for use in controlled conditions, and I think the high heat (easily above 30degC in the garage) was causing the usually highly reliable polish some problems. This is why I alwyas carry different brands of polish with me, as the #83 seemed to really revel in the heat and was the easiest I have ever used it, where as in more normal temperature conditions the IP I find easier to use than #83, and slightly more effective also. :thumb:
Anyway, onto the LSP not the car had been fully checked in the cun for any traces of hologramming. Bryan used Zymol HD-Cleanse to clean the paint and prep it for wax while I sat and tried to get ridnof the red dots in my sight after staring at the sun reflections in the paint looking for traces of hologramming... Then, for solid red, we deicded to opt for Zymol Ital Glaze. Yes, I know, meant for Ferraris and ither Italian cars, but as I've said before, I just dont really agree with the marque specific wax idea. In the heat of the garage, the Ital was a real joy to apply - so easily it spread like warm butter on the paint by hand and removed easily by microfobre. I applied the wax while Bryan bufffed off the wax.
Then, the wheels were waxes with Smartwax Rim Wax, tyres with Megs Endurance, glass with Autosmart Glass Polish, rubbers and black plastic with 1Z Gummi Pflege stick (which was great, just like colouring in the trim with a marker pen! :lol: ).
A final spritz down with Zymol Detail spray and the car was rolled out for the after shots:
First of all, the white wheels were treated to Meguiars Wheel Brightener and Autoglym Tar Remover to remove some quite sever tar deposits, especially on the fron wheels and after a thorough clean the pearl effect of the paint started to come through.
The car was then pre-foamed with Autoglym Powermax3 through the Karcher foam gun (small, simple, but does the job very well) and rinsed off, and the car was followed by a two-bucket was with Megs Shampoo Plus using a Serious Performance Mitt and dries with a Sonus Ultimate drying towel... Now the car was rolled into the garage for paint inspection.
As Bryan took some PTG readings, I clayed the car using Sonus Green clay and Meguiars Last Touch (neat) as a lube. PTG readings reveales areas of the car which has been resprayed, some more recently than others. The resprayed areas were suffering from bad hologramming, patches of the paintwork looked like they had been washed with wire wool and other parts of the paintwork had just mild scratches. This car was a bit like a patchwork quilt, and no one combinatiojn was going to work on the whole car so it nwas a case of try and check as you go this time.
While Bryan started cutting in the bumpers and skirts by PC, I set up a rotary for work on the bonnet which had only light swirls and some deeper scratches...
First off, I trialled Menzerna PO106FF Final Finish on a polishing pad which did a good job of removing the swirls but many of the deeper marks remained... with a good paint thickness (~170 - 200um) to play with, and an amount inside the error of the gauge (small) removed, I decided to step up to Menzerna PO85RD3.01 on a Meguiars polishing pad and this removed 90 - 95% of the deeper marks which we were happy to proceed with, as the panel had been resparyed so I didn't want to be too gung-ho with it... The result of just the IP finish:
I followed this with Menzerna PO85RD Final Finish, but on this hard paint I was not convinced it was making a noticebaly difference to the clarit of the finish from thoroughly broken down Intensive Polish so we opted to stop with just the Intensive Polish.
Onto the front wing, and the plan immediately changes as its plastic. So back to a low abrasive and work up again (two rotaries come in handy here! :thumb: ), but it was found that IP on a polishing pad was the best combo. The front winf before polishing:
and the wing after polishing:
The drivers door looked like it had been washed with wire wool!
This was masked up for a 50/50 shot. To clear this marring, two hits of IP were required on a polishing pad, and the paint on the door (original) was thinner so I decided to stop after this to avoid wearing away too much clearcoat - about 90 - 95% correction was achieved safely here. 50/50 shot:
and the completed door (note the deep scratch not removed but left owing to the thinner paint - sometimes its just not safe to achieve a 100% perfect finish unfortunately...):
Now, the rear wing and B-pillar had been resprayed and polishes in the bodyshop, rolliong the car out into the sun revealed a little marring and hologramming:
Two hits of IP again were required here to remove this marring:
Tim now for some lunch, so a half hour break with sausage rolls, beans and toast and coffee - nice one Bryan! :thumb:
Back outside and into the garage and there was a noticeable jump up in the temperature, the garage now being positively hot. Never mind, off with the fleece and back to polishing but this is where things started to misbehave a little... The Menzerna PO85RD3.01 started to cake a little on the paint, not spread evenly and cause the rotary to hope, the polish seeming to dry out and dust quite quickly... Odd, I thought, and on a pad that had just been well spurred too. So I swithce to a new pad, same result so I use regular spritzes of Last Touch to help keep the polish alive but I was struggling to break it down in the high heat of the garage - I wonder if it was perhaps too hot for the Menz to function properly... I altered my technique to suit and got a rather long winded way of working the polish using little spritzes of Last Touch to keep it alive, but it was very slow going and I was just not convinced I was properly breaking it down in the heat. So, I switched over to an old friend to finish the car: Meguiars #83. This polish seemed to revel in the heat, spreading easily and the rotary flowing effortlessly with it until the residue went clear and buffed off easily... Examining the finish under the lights, the #83 section was crystal clear, but I was not convinced by IP section - it looked good, but I just thougt I saw a hint of a hologram... Out into the sunlight that we were blessed with for a proper look and sure enough, there was a faint hologram on the door where IP had been used, yet the rear 3/4 where the #83 had been used was clear. So a hit of PO106FF Final Finish on the door quickly removed the faint hologramming and returned the finish to what I was happy with - crystal clear. It seemed to me as if the heat in the garage was drying out the lube in the Menzerna polish too quickly, causing the polish not to be fully broken down. The Menz is designed for use in controlled conditions, and I think the high heat (easily above 30degC in the garage) was causing the usually highly reliable polish some problems. This is why I alwyas carry different brands of polish with me, as the #83 seemed to really revel in the heat and was the easiest I have ever used it, where as in more normal temperature conditions the IP I find easier to use than #83, and slightly more effective also. :thumb:
Anyway, onto the LSP not the car had been fully checked in the cun for any traces of hologramming. Bryan used Zymol HD-Cleanse to clean the paint and prep it for wax while I sat and tried to get ridnof the red dots in my sight after staring at the sun reflections in the paint looking for traces of hologramming...
Then, for solid red, we deicded to opt for Zymol Ital Glaze. Yes, I know, meant for Ferraris and ither Italian cars, but as I've said before, I just dont really agree with the marque specific wax idea. In the heat of the garage, the Ital was a real joy to apply - so easily it spread like warm butter on the paint by hand and removed easily by microfobre. I applied the wax while Bryan bufffed off the wax. Then, the wheels were waxes with Smartwax Rim Wax, tyres with Megs Endurance, glass with Autosmart Glass Polish, rubbers and black plastic with 1Z Gummi Pflege stick (which was great, just like colouring in the trim with a marker pen! :lol: ).
A final spritz down with Zymol Detail spray and the car was rolled out for the after shots:
