Autumnal clean-up....

[expatscot]

Well, with amount of miles and daily punishment, errr I mean use, that my Puma gets I would be fighting a losing battle if I was incredibly into detailing.. That said, I did feel the need to use this decent Saturday weather to give it a bit of a clean up.

Nothing major... no claying, and buffing machines.... just a quick wash, dry with soft cloth and chamois, then a bit of carnauba. It doesn't compare to some of the really shiny examples in 'these 'ere parts', and silver is a shit colour for looking shiny - but thought I would share anyway...

All in all, not too bad for about 2 and half hours work.... did work up a bit of a sweat though.

Alas, it is not all good news.... the summer has gone, winter almost upon us and I didn't manage to attend to the rust on the corner of the door sills, and the offside rear arch. If time and weather permit... would still like to get this 'done' (even a temporary touch-up), before winter sets in.

Here's hoping to another couple of dry weekends then.... k:

 

[Dal]

Looking very nice there mate k:

At least having a layer of carnauba on it will help protect it against some of the winter elements.

 

[chris3boro]

Good stuff!

Silver is a bit of a funny colour, it stays clean looking for quite a while I found (especially compared to black!) but if I spent a full day detailing it then the results are no more impressive than after a quick wash, so wasn't the most rewarding car to spend time on if that makes sense.

 

[expatscot]

Silver is a bit of a funny colour, it stays clean looking for quite a while I found (especially compared to black!) but if I spent a full day detailing it then the results are no more impressive than after a quick wash, so wasn't the most rewarding car to spend time on if that makes sense.

Makes perfect sense....

It is true silver can be the perfect lazy mans (or womans) colour as it does handle the dirt well*, but the flipside of that is the fact that is doesn't take a shine well. An older car of mine was a Vectra (B) - V6.. in Rio Verde, which was a deep bottle/racing green colour and that polished up very satisfyingly.

Still its as much (more?) about protecting the paint and bodywork as it is about looks, so still worth doing.


*{With the exception of alloys and brake dust - I end up with two tone wheels, the front ones are invariably a very deep matt black, and the rear the usual silver colour!}

 

[Dal]

The only way I've found to make silver shine properly is to give it a good claying to get all the crap off the lacquer. Then polish it with a mild cutting compound to remove some of the swirls and flatness as well as to get the speckle in the metallic silver paintwork sparkling, and then to use a sealant on it and not wax as the wax dulls the shine.

 

[Mark1]

Looks good, Expatscot

 

[haGGard]

Looks like a good clean for just a bucket and water! :grin: I gave mine a wash today too, also tested out a car polisher i bought recently. First time i've ever polished a car before but it came out pretty good i think. Does make the black paint shine though! I can see it getting addictive though! When its all fresh and clean you dont want to get it dirty.

 

[expatscot]

Looks like a good clean for just a bucket and water! :grin: I gave mine a wash today too, also tested out a car polisher i bought recently. First time I've ever polished a car before but it came out pretty good i think. Does make the black paint shine though! I can see it getting addictive though! When its all fresh and clean you don't want to get it dirty.

Well wasn't just the water - did dry it and wax it afterwards..... but only hand/elbow power.

And it did look good when freshly finished..... and when I went out this morning after the overnight rain it was very satisfying to see all the individual beads of water on the waxed paintwork.

However, I always prefer driving to cleaning and so this evening it had a very good, sustained blast around some back roads to begin work on building up a fresh coating of deceased insect life...

 

[puma2]

its great to have a good clean and tlc, good pics, i allways love the 1st rain after a clean to see how good the rain bead, got any pics of this,
enjoy