How to polish you car...

christopher storey · Post by **christopher storey** » Sat Apr 27, 2013 5:03 pm

Well, my white diamond arrived this morning and I have spent an hour comparing it with Alu-magic and meguiar's Kaolin type polish. The only difference I can detect between them is White diamond costs nearly three times as much. Another American product which while perfectly ok to use is far far too expensive in the UK . I do not predict a big future for it , and I certainly will not be buying it again

Dave K · Post by **Dave K** » Sat Apr 27, 2013 5:52 pm

Christopher,

Thats interesting, one measure I used to find out how it performed was on a fancy silver tea and coffee pot we have on display in the kitchen. The silver tends to tarnish after a short period and neither Solvol or alu magic could bite through the tarnish enough to get a good silver shine to them yet the White diamond did. The only way I could get them that clean in the past was to use the pedestal grinder with a polishing mop on it. Admit is a bit expensive.

Dave

Post by **Heuer** » Sat May 11, 2013 2:38 pm

White Diamond is now, officially, my new best friend! Decided to give the SU bells, cam covers and Cambridge Motor Sport ally header a bit of a clean and the results are superb, certainly much better than Solvol and a lot easier to use. I should say that Solvol, being quite abrasive, is very good for stubborn marks but it does leave the aluminium with a slight satin finish. A quick application of White Diamond turns that to a high shine. Not tried Alu-Magic or Meguiers stuff so can't comment as to how is performs in comparison.

ChrisC · Post by **ChrisC** » Sat May 11, 2013 3:08 pm

Seconded... I too like White Diamond. Previously I was a fan of Alu-Magic but for me WD is an upgrade. It is easier to use and produces a nicer shine. Now what else can I polish....

Post by **Heuer** » Sat May 11, 2013 3:20 pm

My car?

Dave K · Post by **Dave K** » Sat May 11, 2013 3:55 pm

I found it's good on aluminium but it comes into own on stainless steel. I polished my carb linkages with it and you can really see the difference. I also bought a clay detailing kit off Amazon, cost about ?19. I have done half of the car so far, only half because it's a right ball ache to do. If you think your car is clean you should see the muck that comes off with the clay bar and whatever it is you spray on the paintwork. The paint also feels extremely smooth to the touch. I also bought a Powerline polisher from Amazon it's comes with no end of mops and pads. It doesn't come with any polishing compound. I have been advised to use Meguiars 102 or 203 which is very mild abrasive. My car was never polished after lacquering so it should come up quite well. Once I finish the brake mods I'll get on with polishing the car.

Dave

wol916 · Post by **wol916** » Sat May 11, 2013 6:47 pm

I thought I would add this to the mix. Being a bike owner I have a lot of plastic, vinyl, metal, paint work, Perspex, glass, leather etc to clean and a few years ago one of the bike magazines did a test on every product out there. The result was quite interesting one product won in all category's even removing bugs and making the rain run off your visor, no smears, no white residue on rubber and great value for money. I have used it ever since, what I hear you ask is this miracle product.

Not tried it on the E-type yet but used on all my bikes with no problems a one stop solution for all your polishing needs. As for the ally it's worth going over it with Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax Polish as use by the British museum, I have used this, it stops things tarnishing is resistant to finger prints UV etc but you won't get that mirror like finish.

Warren

Post by **Heuer** » Fri May 24, 2013 2:05 pm

I have had Russell from Reflectlogy here for 5 days now (two 10 hour days on the Elan, three 10 hour days on the E-Type) and the transformation has been incredible. I thought the paint on both cars was pretty good as I clay bar'd both once a year and used high quality wax. Wrong! Can't believe what they can achieve with the correct combination of machine, mops and polish. From what I have seen don't even think of using a machine polisher yourself as Russell can even tell you how many microns he is removing from the surface with each pass. I will post pictures when he has finished

Asked him about Pledge and he said don't use it on your car as it is full of silicone.

ChrisC · Post by **ChrisC** » Fri May 24, 2013 2:07 pm

30 hours to wash an Etype

thats this weekend sorted then...

Dave K · Post by **Dave K** » Fri May 24, 2013 3:32 pm

David,

I have seen some of the work these detailers do on the detailing world website, fantastic. I have bought a machine polisher and some meguiars 105 and 205 and intend to have a go on my E-Type.
I am going to practice on the bonnet since it has to be stripped and painted next winter so if I make a mess of that I'll leave the rest.

Dave

Post by **Heuer** » Fri May 24, 2013 4:14 pm

It cost ?975 including materials for both cars but after 42,000 miles and 14 years I figure the ?500 for the E-Type was money well spent to take it beyond what it looked like after restoration. He not only did the paintwork but also the engine, underside, hood, glass and interior. We found three small dinks, one in the bonnet wing and two on the rear wing so I got a Dent Rescue on site to fix them (?70) under Russell's watchful eye. Difficult to describe the paint finish now but the shine is spectacular and not something you could ever achieve by hand. Highly recommended.

Dave - Russell used three gentle grades of polish and regularly checked the paint thickness using a Paint Detective gauge.

wol916 · Post by **wol916** » Fri May 24, 2013 5:51 pm

Dave,
I have spent hours machine polishing cars when my dad had his body shop. Best advice is don't liger in one place too long, avoided the edges (you will go through very quickly) they will look after themselves and most important wear an apron.

Warren

Post by **Heuer** » Fri May 24, 2013 6:10 pm

Talking to Russell he told me a lot of machines currently being offered are designed for body shops and not for detailing work. He used specialist mops and the polish was in tiny 50ml bottles enough, he claimed, for several cars. Seems to be a different skill set to those employed in body shops and Russell spent 20 years painting cars before deciding to go into paint 'correction'.

My wife was so impressed with her Elan and my E-Type she has asked Russell to come back and do the 911 but he is now booked up until the end of June. Obviously doing something right. I had a look at Detailing World on Dave's recommendation and Reflectology seem to feature quite a bit: http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/t ... logy.co.uk

PeterCrespin · Post by **PeterCrespin** » Fri May 24, 2013 6:25 pm

Heuer wrote:My wife was so impressed with her Elan and my E-Type she has asked Russell to come back and do the 911

Careful David - I have had the pleasure of shaking your wife's hand more than once and visiting your very classy home. You might want to check the batteries in your hearing aid because she may have said 'I'd like Russell to give me a rub down in the Porch'

Jus' sayin' ...

Post by **Heuer** » Fri May 24, 2013 8:21 pm

Pete

Durango2k · Post by **Durango2k** » Fri May 24, 2013 8:33 pm

Well,

Polish = from Poland ???

Carsten

Mark Gordon · Post by **Mark Gordon** » Fri May 24, 2013 10:22 pm

Shouldn't that be "Miss Break Special"? Although I wouldn't mind taking a break with any of them.

Dave K · Post by **Dave K** » Mon May 27, 2013 9:58 pm

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a Powerline 1200W variable speed polisher, it comes with about 10 foam pads, a wool mop, around 6 micro fibre polishing cloths, a special car washing sponge, a wool hand polishing mit and window cleaning rubber scraper.
The Cost was ?66 from Amazon. It also has a slow start feature so when you put the abrasive on the car you can start off slowly and build up speed which is very helpful because otherwise you end up with not only you being covered in abrasive but everything within range of it as well about 3 metres diameter.

So after 3 weeks of unsuccessfully trying to bleed my new brake system I thought I'd have a day off and attack the car with the polisher.
I joined detailing world to get some tips and then ignored them and had a go :D
First I washed the car and then went over it with a clay bar kit.
I was told to avoid using the wool pad as it was too course with the abrasive but the Meguiars bottle says use a wool pad, besides I had already ruined the foam pad catching it on the aerial stub and it disintegrated!

This is how I went about doing the job and it's not a guide since it would be like the blind leading the blind so please if you know what your on about give me advice, if you haven't done it before don't ask me technical questions because I don't know the answer.

As David pointed out a above the pro's use a paint depth gauge, I haven't got one but I do know that my car has about 20 litres probably more of top class PPG lacquer on it. I supplied the painter with the base coat and lacquer and watched while they did the job so I know I have quite a deep layer of lacquer on the car.

I first masked off the chrome and glass making sure all rubber was covered, the abrasive is supposed to hard to get off rubber and I didn't want to risk scratching the chrome, looking at the detailers website this is what they do anyway. It isn't like your painting the car so it doesn't have to be perfect. I also covered the hood but did make sure this was covered well.

I was advised to use Meguiars 105 ultra cut and then 205 high polish so I started off with the 105. I dripped the 105 around the bonnet on one side only in various places, set the machine to it's slowest speed to move the abrasive around evenly then increased the speed to around 1800 rpm. I moved from front to rear then back and forth until there was no sign of any abrasive on the bonnet. I stood back and you could see the difference straight away, however you could also see scuffs here and there which looked like fine wet and dry had been dragged across the bonnet in places-horror!

At this moment I started to sweat a bit since I wasn't sure if I could get the scuffs off, I put some 105 on a cloth and rubbed and they came off no problem. I then used the wool hand mit to polish away for a while to a really deep shine ready for the 205 less abrasive polish.
I only did the bonnet today and I have found it's best to do it outside in daylight as even though I have 8 florescent 5' tubes in my garage it still isn't enough to fully highlight the paint.

I chose the bonnet because it has some bubbles on it where the paint has lifted so has be repainted later this year, if the bonnet was in perfect condition I think it would be best to practice on something first, maybe your wife's car or next door neighbours :D You need to get a feel for the polisher and see the damage it can do if your not careful. I was warned about staying in one place too long and burning the paint or lacquer.
Overall for my first go I'm very pleased, you can really see the sparkle of the OSB metallic coming through and this is only the first pass with a heavy cut paste.

So my conclusion after my first go with it is if I achieve such a good finish the first time of using the polisher what would a pro be able to do and David knows the answer to that.

I'll report back on the final finish in a few days.

Dave

Post by **Heuer** » Tue May 28, 2013 11:36 am

Difficult to capture the depth of finish Russell has achieved (I am waiting for his pictures) but just look at the reflections:

Something for you to aspire to Dave!

PeterCrespin · Post by **PeterCrespin** » Tue May 28, 2013 3:18 pm

I knew I remembered a Porch :-)

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