Hi all,

The first half of this week was spent giving my daily driver, a modified Skoda Fabia 1.9 TDi, a minor enhancement and protection detail. It had been about 800 miles since it's last wash, and the last 330 of those took place last Saturday through snow, ice and gritty brown slush (bizarrely, the car was cleaner at the end of that journey than before. Anyone know why?)

Yep, it was pretty cold

Snow foam...dwelling onto snow :p

The wheels were cleaned with Bilberry and a detailer brush (going to seal them soon methinks), and the car was then washed using the two-bucket method, lambswool mitt and Dodo Born to be Mild, leaving me with this:

The car was then clayed using Sonus Green, with Last Touch as lube. Once this was done, it was time to assess the paint. The previous weekend, I attended Dave KG's tuition day and learned the importance of good lighting. So I purchased a Brinkmann Dual-Xenon for spotting defects. The majority was just very minor marring which would not show clearly on camera, but there was a peculiar spot of staining on the roof and door frame.

I tried the least aggressive pad/polish combination in my arsenal-Menzerna PO85.RD, Chemical Guys Hexlogic black finishing pad and my new SIM180 rotary I wanted to use this instead of my DAS-6 so I could really get to grips with it.

Happily, this gentle combination (using the Zenith Point technique) tackled the roof staining with ease. For the purposes of comparison, I left the patch of staining on the door frame in this shot. It was swiftly removed after :thumb:

I particularly like this reflection shot taken after I had done the roof:

That was Monday over. Tuesday morning saw me polish the rest of the car...unfortunately the photos did not come out well :(

While I was in the house having lunch, my mentalist father thought he'd leave a surprise on my camera

:lol:

Now came a part I particularly enjoy, waxing, especially when it's a wax I haven't tried before. Especially when I got said wax for half price :thumb: Valentines Concours. Using it as directed (small sections, thin coats, let cure for no more than 2-3 minutes), I though this was lovely, lovely, lovely! Smooth buttery consistency (not at all grainy), nice smell of vanilla, buffs off with little effort, and leaves a great finish. If it lasts until I come home again at the end of March it'll be getting a big thumbs-up from me :thumb: Oh and the wax applicators that came with it are much better to use than the generic circular yellow ones. I applied 2 layers of this.

Now, I wanted to get it outside at this point to get some proper 'afters', but I couldn't get it up the driveway! So at this point I decided to do the interior and engine bay, as well as trim dressing etc.

Engine bay treated with Aerospace 303:

The interior was thoroughly vacuumed, all plastics cleaned with Megs APC (hadn't done this before, and the crap that came out of the door pockets was disgusting! All gone now though) and glass cleaned with Megs NXT Glass Cleaner. This was followed by a fresh Sun Washed Cotton Magic Tree. yes, I know it's a Magic Tree, but it smells damned good :p Last better than my Chemical Guys New Car Smell

And so ends Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning, I managed to get it out of the garage and back up the driveway So here's some decent 'afters' for you all.

All comments and criticisms welcome, that's how we learn :thumb:

Nice!

Thats looking really good!

Nice!! When you doing the boat then????????

Cracking work mate. Love that colour to.

Great devotion to duty - makes me feel particularly bad ! :S

Nice work there mate and I am guessing not too far for you to travel to one of Dave's sessions...............

How you find the step up from the DA to the Rotary then?

The colour of your paintwork is very nice and the hard work is clearly seen in the afters, thanks for sharing..............

Now on the hunt for a Brinkmann (tough....) as it looks like a good bit of kit.

Thanks for all the kind comments folks

Nice!! When you doing the boat then????????

I did the hull of the boat in April using SRP with a D/A, followed by Collinite 476, standing on shonky home-made scaffolding. That was, erm, interesting Did look good though...

Nice work there mate and I am guessing not too far for you to travel to one of Dave's sessions...............

How you find the step up from the DA to the Rotary then?

The colour of your paintwork is very nice and the hard work is clearly seen in the afters, thanks for sharing..............

Thanks Well here at home (Outer Hebrides) I'm a million miles from anywhere, but I study in Glasgow so it was just an hour or so up to Dundee for the tuition day.

Funnily enough, I found it to be a fairly easy transition, and provided you read all the guides etc and just use common sense (plenty of practice on scrap panels etc if you can get them would be a bonus too) then it's not the massive learning curve people make it out to be. There's a few key differences to be aware of that can go against you, but you can just as easily make these differences work in your favour too. I'm a convert !

You're welcome

Now on the hunt for a Brinkmann (tough....) as it looks like a good bit of kit.

Motorgeek have them

http://www.motorgeek.co.uk/brinkmann-maxfire-dual-xenon-rechargeable-spotlight-p-401.html

If anyone's interested I have a slightly more detailed write-up on Detailing World:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=147642

I had trouble uploading all the images onto Briskoda

Cheers,

Andrew

Thanks Well here at home (Outer Hebrides) I'm a million miles from anywhere, but I study in Glasgow so it was just an hour or so up to Dundee for the tuition day.

Funnily enough, I found it to be a fairly easy transition, and provided you read all the guides etc and just use common sense (plenty of practice on scrap panels etc if you can get them would be a bonus too) then it's not the massive learning curve people make it out to be. There's a few key differences to be aware of that can go against you, but you can just as easily make these differences work in your favour too. I'm a convert !

You're welcome

If anyone's interested I have a slightly more detailed write-up on Detailing World:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=147642

I had trouble uploading all the images onto Briskoda

Cheers,

Andrew

I started on a Rotary and then went for a DA and having spoken to a fair few people I have now invested in a Rotary and have been doing some work here and there on Jules' motor and my own............wasn't that hard to change like you say but I still have a soft spot for the DA and it's capabilities..........

Brisky only allows a certain amount of images per thread I'm afraid..............