Hi all,

I'm currently raising money for my a homeless charity in Edinburgh and doing car cleaning for my friends and neighbours that I know.

Mods if this is in the incorrect section, please feel free to move

A couple of weeks ago I cleaned my neighbours Vauxhall Corsa 1.0 12v, the car itself is a 1997 R and my neighbour confessed he is the type of person who just does not clean a car and just uses it for a to b. The car had not been cleaned in about a couple of years and the trim had badly faded.

So using my trusty cleaning tools of Clay, Autoglym car shampoo, autoglym super resin polish and turtle wax (wax paste) I transformed his car from old wreck to a car that would be worthy of a car to be sold, I did have a mishap on the way (will have to look at the pics to see)

So here we go, before we cleaned it (note faded trim)

Even more faded trim!!!

Ok the little mishap due to all the dirt built up behind the badges I actually lost the two LL's from Vauxhall and the CO from Corsa, in one of the earlier pics you can note the 12v badge stuck on squint (fell off before and neighbour glued it back on)

The result of a polished and clean side

The Finished result of the car after applying some car plan back to black trim paint

Front Wheel Arch after trim paint applied

Back Wheel Arch after trim paint applied

It's still a bit sticky and my only quibble with this trim paint is that it runs with the slightest bit of water.

Two weeks on his car is still looking clean compared to mine at the moment, and I raised £10 for charity for this, my next customer has something more powerful and it's a V6....

Not your usual V6 through, pics to follow on this thread as soon it is booked in to come down to mine.

Opinions welcome.

Davy

Edited 25 April, 200917 yr by Skodaboy1983
Update 25/04/09

Not a bad effort Davy.

But please tell me you put the wax on after the polish this time

Not a bad effort Davy.

But please tell me you put the wax on after the polish this time

I remembered this time mate!! :D:O

I believe a tip with these faded plastic trims is to get a heat gun to it... should bring it back up and be a more permanant solution... just be careful not to melt it! lol

Do you want to raise another £10 doing mine

Do you want to raise another £10 doing mine

The thought did occur :P

Mine is all clean and shiny (sort of) now.

Bring it round Tam, need to buy some cleaning materials through.

Davy

Didn't realise you could clay plastic trim, or did I mis-read that ?

Nice to see you had the "boy racers girl bending over " pickie, or was that you.......... :eek: :P

I can never seem to understand why all the plastic trim on corsa's ALWAYS fade to grey/white :confused:

good cleaning job though

Shame you live so far away or you could have cleaned mine for £10

I can never seem to understand why all the plastic trim on corsa's ALWAYS fade to grey/white :confused:

good cleaning job though

Shame you live so far away or you could have cleaned mine for £10

I'll tell you why - cheap crap... my old corsa was the same so i sprayed them satin black

lol - those were the days

Cracking job mate, but at a £10 a go it would probably be easier and cheaper for you to not bother cleaning the car and just donate £10 each weekend from your own pocket.............. Wack the price up!!!!

What is this trim paint you speak of please? It looks pretty awful in the pics, does it get buffed off afterwards or something?

Looks a good effort Davy. Hope Hannah appreciates that picture...

It's carplan black trim paint at the time it was still drying when I took the pic, it can take a few hours for it to dry and alas he did manage to get it wet and it ran but I will see if I can get some pics as said neighbour is on holiday but it looks a lot nicer when it is dry.

Once it starts to dry you buff it out, it's a bit messy at first, I used to use it on my last car but got fed up of wiping it off the paint, on his car he did not mind but still made a little splash onto the paintwork.

Davy

Cracking job mate, but at a £10 a go it would probably be easier and cheaper for you to not bother cleaning the car and just donate £10 each weekend from your own pocket.............. Wack the price up!!!!

He was going to offer me more but as I know him and the first time I stuck my price down. Plus I was ment to do it over a year ago :rofl:

fro faded black plastic trim i swear by a drop of boiled linseed oil on a cloth

rub it in well and this leaves a nice shiny finish that will last for years

any excess that gets on the body can be wiped off when still wet

fro faded black plastic trim i swear by a drop of boiled linseed oil on a cloth

rub it in well and this leaves a nice shiny finish that will last for years

any excess that gets on the body can be wiped off when still wet

Neil - Thanks for that top tip

Davy

if you need some i always have "some" in hand as i use it on my rifle stocks on a regular basis

PS: BE WARNED COTTEN RAGS USED WITH LINSEED OIL CAN AND WILL SELF COMBUST ......BURN THEM AFTER USE

if you need some i always have "some" in hand as i use it on my rifle stocks on a regular basis

PS: BE WARNED COTTEN RAGS USED WITH LINSEED OIL CAN AND WILL SELF COMBUST ......BURN THEM AFTER USE

:eek: *runs out to the garage*...

just to say my next car to be cleaned is coming up tomorrow and all I'm saying is it's a V6!

oooh. Petrol or diesel?

Petrol, the car has been done, hoping to get some pics up by the weekend, but it's coming back next week for another wash, wax and polish as the paint is in a bit of a state with rust and stone chips and feels as rough as sand paper but apart from that the car looked very shiny, but the light beat me to it to getting some decent snaps.

Well I promised you a V6 and here it is....

It's a 2.0 Mazda 323 V6 SE, quite a rare car nowadays, but my friend picked this last year for £1200, it's not been cleaned in a year as it is mainly used to ferry his mountain bikes in.

Here is the starting state.

For a car that has not been cleaned in a year the dirt seemed to come off and I washed the car with some Simonez Triple wash shampoo, followed by a coat of Simonez wash and wax and finally some Halfords car polish, and the finished result is this. It still needs a lot of work done as the paint still feels rough as it's done about 112000 miles and time was not on my side so he is coming back next week to get another wash and a claying session, some of the pics are in the dark so not the best but will get some more next week when it is lighter.

Cheers

Davy