Street Dreams: White Bentley GT correction

[ULUA.LAWAIA]

I'm about to order some cotton polishing cloths from Griot's Garage (www.griotsgarage.com), and thought I should pick up some of their other products as well. I hear a few people mention that they like Griot's stuff, but never any specifics. Has anyone used their Speed Shine, Wheel Cleaner, and/or Carnauba Wax? How does it compare to the more popular products on this board, like Blitz for instance?

 

[jkochis]

Do you go into Macy's, put up a flyer to Lord & Taylor's, then ask advice about the stuff sold at L&T? Oh, nevermind....

 

[ULUA.LAWAIA]

I can see how you'd want to support CMA, but they don't own this board, they're just a sponsor. I don't think it's taboo to talk about other vendors, especially if the others carry products that we can't get from CMA anyway. Don't people here mention tacscar.com, kleanride.com, etc? Hell, even Zaino is not sold through CMA. God forbid this board should turn into a one-store-only forums like *cough* Autosupermart *cough*.

 

[carljr1989]

I use the white MF towels for interior detailing & removing wax.
The rubber conditioner is similar to Zaino(low-gloss non-oily).

Hard to beat their lifetime warranty on all products.

 

[rmccall6]

They offer some good stuff, but let your common sense prevail over their sometines rediculious marketing. I persomally use their clay (plyable, pretty-resistant to streaks, good price for 8oz), speed shine (back up QD, works good 'cept for occasional streaks), and their interior cleaner (great stuff, simplifies and shortens everything by having one good cleaner to do it all). I have used their best of show wax and was happy with the results, just not as clear or shiny as blitz, more of a softer, warmer look.

 

[RedVR6]

I have been a Griot's fan for quite some time. Started using their clay bar and Speedshine....an excellent pair...I eventually started buying other products such as the wheel Cleaner, car wash, tire dressing (my favorite of all I have tried!!) and few other odds and ends. I am more than thrilled with these products. Granted some of the products they offer are considerably more expensive than other distributors...like the PC or some of the products they resale under their name. But I enjoy looking thru their catalog and buying things from them and have never had a problem receiving products. I did however receive damaged goods last year...they replaced everything with no questions asked and overnighted the products to me.



This past X-mas, I received a total car care kit and it consists of just about every product they have to offer as far as detailing goes. I love all of it. One thing I am not overly keen on using on my paint are the cotton polish cloths...they seem a bit too course for my liking. So I use them for general cleaning under the hood, wiping my hands and around the house. The Boars Hair Brush I have too...I have been using that less and less recently though since I have been finding scratches on my girlfriend's car when I had been using it.



I do buy quite a few things from CMA as well, since I like many of the products they offer. Overall, I don't think you can go wrong with Griot's.



HTH

 

[ISLANDSBEST]

I had good service from them. And, the wheeled stool I bought was great.



Re polishing cloths. Go with either Fieldcrest Charisma (if you are looking for cotton cloths) or one of the MF brands recommended by the posters on this site.

 

[Bob Post]

Griot's stuff is for the "Garage Queen", as you may be able to tell from the site. (Extensive garage equipment) No polymer products so they tend to be "Old School" to me, but Old School in a bad way. The products they carry are "good", but you can get the same results from Meguires products for a lot less. Nothing really stands out as excellent.

 

[cahlroach]

Until I found this site, I was a pretty loyal Griot's user for several years. No complaints about there products and excellent customer service.



After coming to this site for several months, I have been slowly converted to 303, Blitz and now the Zaino line (great stuff).



The Griot's products that I still use are vinyl protectant (nice low gloss), interior cleaner (amazing), clay bar (best I have tried so far) and wheel cleaner (very save, very good stuff).



Their car care chemicals are a little pricey, but generally not too bad, but some of there tools and other equipment are very high priced.

 

[old_gonzo]

bobg -





You state that you really like the Griot's interior cleaner. What have you used it on (type of material i.e. - vinyl, plastics,etc. / and type of stain or dirt). I am looking to clean scuff marks made by shoes off of black plastic. What do you think? Effective?

 

[rmccall6]

Interior cleaner works great on all surfaces, i think it even cleans the leather better than Lexol. As for the scuffs, if they are bad, use EF-HI...what i did when the interior cleaner didn't quite cut it. But yeah its a great product (re-bottled AutoGlym Interior shampoo?), that saves time and gets good results, (Griots and 303 on the leather gives me bettter results and protection than the lexol i have used)

 

[old_gonzo]

Thank you for your response, Brad. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try the EF-HI first. Thanks again. :up

 

[cahlroach]

I use it mostly on fabrics - the last time I took my Subaru to the shop for routine maintenance - a mechanic put greasy prints on the headliner - light grey. Sprayed the interior cleaner on it and the grease came right out.

I have also used it on the leather, but the leather in my S2000 doesn't get dirty (it leads a charmed life).

On other peoples cars, I have used it on seats and carpet - once again - fantastic

I have not tried it on scuffs, but it should work pretty well as long as the scuff is not damage to the surface, only shoe polish or whatever on the surface.

 

[old_gonzo]

Bobg -



Yes, they are just scuffs on the surface. With how low this car sits, it is difficult to not hit the door panel with your foot getting in and out. I have actually resorted to removing my left shoe when getting in and out in order to avoid the door panel. The crazy things we do!!

 

[tom p.]

They are a very good company to do business with but so is CMA.



I still use regularly: Wheel cleaner, Speed Shine with their clay, and their #3 polish.



I have used many other Griot's products over the years but the wheel cleaner is one of their best offerings. I was not real crazy about the Best of Show Wax...had a lot of trouble removing it.



I also bought a pack of the soft cotton towels...they are fine. I have acquired many of the specialty tools as well. They are of the highest quality.

 

[cahlroach]

articwhite, don't feel alone, I have been know to take of my shoes to get into my S2000. It also sits pretty low.

 

[spartacus_33]

I use their carnauba wax.They claim the best waxes contain 30% carnuaba. It looks almost like waxey jelly. Goes on smooth, polishes off easily, smells great and lasts about as long as other wax. Very good shine.

 

[edgewise]

Griots freak here after going the Zymol, then Mequires route (Currently doing some wax tests, Zaino is next...)



The liquid Show wax must be applied VERY thin, or it will be difficult to remove. I follow it up with 3 coats of the Carnauba wax, and am very happy with their products.

 

[Street Dreams]

2005 Bentley GT: Daily driver

Booked for 2 day full paint correction + winter protection

Started off with the wheels and tires. P21s gel, S&R on the inner barrels

Before

After

The car hadnt been washed in a few weeks and was fairly dirty, in this situation I much prefer to do a nice sudsy wash but with the freezing weather and snow in the forecast I opted to use ONR instead. I must say I am more impressed with ONR each time I use it, especially for situations such as this.

After a quick pass using ONR, I rinsed my mitt every panel

Dried the car off best I could outside but the rain came so I pulled it in the garage to finish drying and the rest of the prep work

Blow dried the grill, wheels and jambs

Cleaned up the doorjambs with APC 20:1 and then sealed them with Optiseal, havent used this product before and I figured this would be a good place to test it out.

Finished

While I was back there I finished the rest of the trunk area

And then the snow came, first snow this year :applause:

Moved to claying, used a medium aggressive bar for most of the car, lower panels needed meguiars red aggressive bar for some stubborn grime

Bentley had a hard clear, defects werent too bad but I wanted to get as close to 100% as possible. 2 step process used, varied between the DA and rotary. Some areas needed 2 or 3 hits to get full correction.

Before I began I took some paint readings

During correction

Driver door 50/50

Trunk

Rear spoiler before

During

After

Taillight under LED

Finished

The paint being white I had some trouble capturing good 50/50 shots, I found a video with my old point and shoot did a little better job of showing the finish before and after

#1



After correction was complete I gave the car a thorough IPA wipedown to prep for LSP

Moved onto the trim work, been dreading the front grill since I started but what can ya do:shrug: Took a quick break outside, pardon the snow on my hair and shirt :tongue:

Before

After

Finished, in total this took me around 45minutes of hand polishing and then sealing with optiseal. Very lucky the grille did not have any hard water etching!

Applying LSP by machine speed 5 (notice all the black magic or whatever car care stuff in the background, not my gear... owners stuff... got him set up with some quality QD, wheel gel and drying waffle weaves before I left, I dont want the bentley going to sh!t within a month Stop)

Tires treated with SV Pneu, at first I didnt think this was such a great product, or at leatse any better than what I have used before but now I see why it demands the price, it just works! Deep black look, minimal shine and easy application. New go to tire dressing.

Once the tires were dressed I went in and sealed them up using JetSeal

Exterior window trim dressed as well, one flat strip made for easy work

dressed up the wheel wells and de-tarred surrounding trim using an MF pad

before

Interior before, this car gets driven primarily as DD.

Conditioning the leather for a matte finish

Rosewood cleaned and sealed with BF spray sealant

Interior finished. Door seals treated and jambs sealed after.

 

[Street Dreams]

Exhaust finished, fine grad steel wool, than just a MF towel

Exterior finished

Despite me not wanting to pull the car out with some snow still on the ground, I felt I would get some flack for not posting sun pics when there was sun present so here you go...

(snow on the branches are the blobs you see in the reflection)

Thanks for looking :cornut: