Gave my new Octavia vRS its first detail by me yesterday. Well looked after by the previous owner so looked quite good to begin with.

 

Some before pics: -

 

 

Dirty derv exhaust pipes!

 

Started on the wheels with a rinse, Bilberry 5:1 on the wheels, Megs APC on tyres and arches, scrubbed them all with brushes and a noodle mitt, then rinsed. Applied Auto Finesse Oblitarate and Iron-X. Barrels inparticular bled a lot!

 

 

Wheels were then rinsed, dried and had a coat of Collinite 845 applied. Tyres were dressed with Meguiars Endurance Tyre Gel.

 

 

Then onto the rest of the car. Snowfoamed with Autobrite Magifoam, then Megs APC with a Valet Pro brush on badges, fuel filler cap, window seals, grills, etc.

 

 

Foam was rinsed off, then the car was washed using a well known household shampoo (due to the previous owner's welcome use of wax once a month!).

 

 

Then the decontamination process. AF Oblitarate was sprayed on the lower half of the car, wiped with a MF then rinsed off. Iron-X was then applied, bit of bleeding here and there.

 

 

The car was then clayed using Bilt Hamber medium grade clay. The roof and boot lid were particularly bad here, this coming from a quarter section of the roof.

 

 

Not much pictures from this point on, the car was foamed again then dried with a Poorboys Waffle Weave drying towel, then brought in the garage for polishing. No DA's here (although may ask for one for Christmas!), Meguiars Ultimate Compound on a Lake Country Light Cut Hand Pad. Hard work, made a bit easier by the Lake Country pad, but unsure of its effectiveness as the car didn't have much swirls in the first place, suffice to say it looks good! The car was then waxed with Collinite 845, exhausts polished with Autosol and fine grade steel wool.

The finished article: -

 

 

Thanks for reading!

Superb bit of work

Regards whoosh

Nice - I see a lot of people claying with latex gloves on and often wondered why.  I definitely prefer to do all my work by (bare) hand  only.  I think its because I like running hands over areas clayed to ensure totally free of contaminants as I go along.

Me too Jason.

Part of the process is being able to feel the paint surface as you proceed

They're quite thin gloves so I could still feel the surface of the paint as I was going along. I had them on due to the previous stages using tar remover and Iron-X so wanted to protect my hands from them. Just something I prefer doing.

Ok mate

Incidentally...Get a DA polishing machine. A Xmas gift is a must

 

Far quicker and more effective...DA's are pretty fool proof too and give great results

Yeah it's definitely something I want to move towards using in the future.

Looks bang on. How long were you at it?

Looks good, that is a cracking colour! 

 

Definitely put a DA on your xmas wish list though!

Looks bang on. How long were you at it?

 

 

Probably about 5 hours in total, mainly took up by the claying, polishing and waxing stages.

 

Thanks for all the replies btw.

Great job.

 I actually love using 845,

Great job.

 I actually love using 845,

 

Thanks, same here. Really easy to use, little goes a long way, quite cheap and lasts ages! Everything you need from a wax IMO.

She's looking good Dan. Pleased she went too a good home.

very nice work. bet your chuffed with the results

very nice work. bet your chuffed with the results

She's looking good Dan. Pleased she went too a good home.

Thanks Matt. With a DA I should have it looking even better, on my Christmas list!

Looks mint fella,but then again it is in the best colour

Nice results. Always used Britemax for the exhausts - how easy is the AutoSol to work with?

Very easy to work with, a fair amount of scrubbing involved but got great results with it. I think it does depend on how bad the exhaust pipes were in the first place though. My old Fabia vRS had really bad black marks that Autosol and steel wool couldn't remove, but with the exhausts on this car they came up a treat. Heard good things about the Britemax metal twins, may give them a try in the future when I run out of Autosol.