My First Detail - 8 - 9 Hours?

[warnesey333]

So I've just finished my Second year at Uni (Warwick University) and I've ended up coming out with a First in computer Science so all's good!

Anyway - 2 weeks ago my parents bought me my Golf MK4 2.0 GTI in black and I'm in love - doesn't make my girlfriend happy!

Today was really my first day off as I've had about 4 weeks non-stop revision before.

Started at around 12 noon and ended up finishing about 8:30 ish.

Here's how it went:

Wash down with Power washer and Foam
Basically used Elite Snow Foam and covered the car with it. Left this for about 10 minutes while I filled my 2 buckets!

Hand Wash and Dry
For this I used 2 buckets. One had hot water with Poor Boys Car Shampoo in and the other simply had cold water in to wash my mitt.
I didn't use a sponge! I had bought myself a Lamb's Wool Mitt.
- I started with doing a panel at a time, making sure it was thoroughly clean and then drying it using a Microfibre cloth

Clay!
The car was looking clean but not very elegant and shiny!
This was my first time using clay and I was quite reluctant but went for it.
I used the Meguires Clay and Lubricant Kit and did the whole car. Certain panels released a LOT of dirt onto the clay and some released very little.

Comparing 2 panels I was EXTREMELY happy with how they felt. The clay'd (sp?) panel felt extremely smooth compared to the other panel.

T-Cut
The car has quite a few scratches - very small but slightly noticeable.
I walked around the car and put a bit of masking tape against areas that needed T-Cutting.
Applied the T-Cut and then buffed off. It helped to flatten a lot of scratches near the fuel nozzle.

Maguire's Polish
Next was the Polish.
I had bought a 10" buffer off of ebay. Simply applied the polish to the car and then buffed off (after applying to the whole car).
The car was now shiny!

AutoGlym Wax
The final detail was the wax. Now I've never done this before so I was quite worried when it seemed to smear.
I didn't know how much to apply but tried to use the same amount in all areas.
I left the wax on for about half an hour and then buffed off. Fortunately it looked the same as when it had been polished so I was happy!


That's the bodywork done - now for the alloys and windows.

For the windows I simply used some window cleaner I got from Halfords - seems to do the job well!

For the alloys - I removed each alloy (UNFORTUNATELY I found out they were not genuine R32 Alloys but they still look awesome! )
Cleaned both the inside and outside, applied a bit of copper grease and put the wheels back on.
It looked like the wheels had not been taken off and cleaned for a LONG time due to the amount of brake-dust there - took about an hour and half just for the alloys.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the alloys - just the car.


IMAGES

Car Before



Car During



Car After






Mirror Shot!







Thanks for reading! Comments are welcome - Advice is appreciated!

Jack

[Guy]

for a first crack at the whip thats a super effort and good to see that you have been so careful

try a glaze or a sealant between your polish and your wax treatments... you will notice a difference!

[warnesey333]

Cheers guy,

I won't be doing it again for like another 3 - 4 weeks (completely anyway without clay)

I'll get some and try it


Jack

[DrewiD]

well nice,, good job there m8   

[Uruk Hai]

Looks very nice, when I do mine I'm gonna try

Autoglym SRP  - Polish

Auotoglym EGP  -  Seal

Dodo Juice pruple haze -  Wax

[simonpolly]

When i was my cars i wash them with mer car shampoo,then red auto glym polish,buff off and then gold auto glym,wipe on leave for 1 hour and buff off,it seals the polish and works really well.I have a vw touran and a 13 year old astra sport,the astra`s paintwork looks good as new(astra is sadly to be scrapped in aug as i`m using the scrappage deal from the gov to buy a mk6 gti which is due to arrive mid aug.)

[AlanD]

Nice effort !

Only downer is its a black car. Give it a few days of use and it will be filthy again

[warnesey333]

it's already got dirt on it just a bit of dust tho!

Windows are worse....

[AlanD]

Tell me about it, Cleaned mine for Brands last week and by the Sunday its a state, all the pollen and sh!t in the air seems to gather as a layer of dust that REALLY stands out on black cars.

Never again.

[warnesey333]

Yeah - especially this time of year. I might start and just rinse it down every other night. Although saying that - there's already enough damage to the painwork from the previous owner