Mk 3 Detail

[Jarred]

G'day all.

Thanks to the public holidays over easter, I finally had the time to give my mk 3 the love that it needed oh so badly! Paint work was pretty rough and there were a fair few scratches in the paint work and just generally filthy!

I was mega keen to get it polished and waxed, so it'd be gleeming again, and I could be proud of it!

The plan was: wash, clay, wash, polish, wax. Then interior and glass. I knew the polishing wasn't really going to remove many major marks or involve any great paint correction work, but I just wanted to give the paint some shine!

Detailers start cringing... now

Anyways. I'm not detailing nut, so I don't have a bunch of fancy products; but I used Mothers clay bar, Autoglym: Super resin polish, Shampoo, Paint Renovator and Glass polish. Mequires Interior spray. And a bit of truck wash (CT18 ) on the wheels.

The bodyshampoo was really low sudsing, which had me a bit confused to start with, but judging by the amount of crap that was coming off my 'wash mitt' it was doing a pretty good job!

I wasn't entirely happy with the clay bar, but having never used another brand, I've got nothing to compare too. However, I've got to get a new one now (I think this ones well shagged) so I reckon I'll try something else. It still did it's job, removed a HEAP of crap, and well, I figure some clay is better than no clay!

The Super Resin Polish was good. I found it gave a nice deep shine, with minimal effort. However I think it had minimal corrective qualities. (The car needs machine polishing to be perfect anyways) Still, it gave a nice gloss and instantly made the car look a truck load better!

The Glass Polish was pretty good. I think the best one I've used (only used a couple cleaners really) However I think my technique lacked a bit, as I still had some streak marks etc. Overall, glass looks much better now!

Wax was just ICE ( by turtle I think) Which definatly isn't the flashes wax going round, but I've used it many times before, with good results & reasonably long lasting protection. Also nearly ran out of that too, so I'll be looking for something a bit fancier next time round.

And some pics: they aren't the best, but better than nothing.

Early (foggy) morning. Pre wash:



crap close up:





post wash:



(Terrible shot!) but this is the clay after the top 1/4 of one fender. As you can imagine, the car was so filthy!



Post clay wash, shammy and into the garage for polishing (the sun finally decided to come out)





Post polish:

[Jarred]

and Post wax and glass:









Might go grab some better pics today, since the sun's out! yay.

Took about 7 hours all up. And that was rushing there interior & glass a bit. And probably could have spent a little bit more time on the polishing.

[Rob_R]

Jarrod, I think you've done a great job on her!! Would be good to see your pics when the suns out. Reading your write up has inspired me to get stuck into the wifes car for a bit of fun. Funny because I swore I'd never look at hers again a couple of years ago when she kept running it through auto car washes at my annoyance. Just ducked out to the garage and looked at her paintwork. Christ it's stuffed.
Anyway great job!!!!

[Jarred]

Thanks Rob!

it's a pretty satisfying feeling having such a clean car, thats' for sure!

Went and took some more pics. Sun is really bouncing off the metallic. Still not 100% happy with the glass. Still a bit smudgy and smeary. Also though I had some RainX to chuck on the screen, but can't find it. There are still some small scratches on the car (photo) in a couple spots, but it's not as if the paint work is immac anyways, so it's ok. There are no swirl marks and very minimal hazing which I'm very happy about.















Some of the scratches:


Happy me:


Some obligitory beading action:

[jasn78]

Jarred looks good mate, I did the same thing over the weekend. As for SRP I think you will find its more of a glaze i.e filler then actual corrective polish you would need something like poorboys srp or something similiar on a machine to get rid of the scratches but to be honest it still looks bloody nice

[Ben J]

Nice I use to use super resin polish every couple months and it does do a decent job at hiding the swirls and all, keeps it looking nice and shiny I never thought to use wax over it though, as the super resin polish itself is a sealant and does a nice job at beading and all anyway.

Still eventually i got sick of the swirls coming back after a week or 2 (well actually they were still pretty obvious in bright sunlight straight after the SRP anyway) so finally got around to machining them out and some real wax.

Anyway, looks good

[Rob_R]

Hey Jarrod looks pretty damn good in the sunlight. Yeh it's very satisfying when it turns out well.

[Jarred]

Thanks guys.

I'm happy with the Super Resin Polish. I bought it with the intent of it returning the shine & some depth to the paint, and it defiantly did that. Wouldn't mind getting a fine compound polish and getting rid of some scratches & light hazing, however; money, time, effort etc. Maybe one day I'll spring for a profession machine polish! (that would be most ideal)

I'll be needing a new clay bar for next time, and wax is also running low, so I reckon I might 'step it up' a notch and get some 'better' products. Ie start shopping at CCP rather than autobarn. lol

Also, I'm after something to do the exterior rubbers with? Ie window rubbers, and roof seals. Suggestions?

[Ben J]

aerospace 303 does pretty nice on those

[manol]

Looks awesome man. Amazing what some TLC can do.