Dan, with a little help

Dan’s tasty red Zetec S again, with a little Shiny help, of course…

Mart’s Volvo Challenge

Mart got his grubby mitts on a Kestrel DAS-6 polisher recently, and managed to convince the lovely Janet’s parents to let him loose on their workhorse of a 4-year-old Volvo S60 to get it nice and presentable before a wedding… Bearing in mind that the car was mainly used to shuttle a posse of grandchildren and a huge caravan around, and that it was usually washed by said grandchildren… yikes! On with the pics… click on a thumbnail for a large view:

Snack time...

Console grubbiness...

Plastic & rubbery bits

First off with the interior… the carpets and all the nooks and crannies got a good vacuum, before going over all the carpet with Autoglym Interior Shampoo and a damp cloth. That was left to work for a bit before wiping over with another damp cloth, letting it dry in the sun, then vacuuming again to lift the pile and take up and bit of fluff and dust that were released. That was far easier than expected and brought the carpet up nicely!

Next onto the interior surfaces. Being a bit lazy, I went for Poorboy’s Natural Look Dressing – a water based cleaner and dressing suitable for plastic, rubber, vinyl and leather, so I could do everything else in one go! I find the Eurow Shag Weave microfibre towels fantastic for interior cleaning, as the long pile gets into all the grooves and plastic texture. I just sprayed the Natural Look onto each area (or the cloth) and wiped over vigorously. It gave a fantastic result on the dash top, door panels, door surrounds, console, leather seats, pedals, everything, and left the car smelling fantastic! How easy is that? Just a final wipe over to give a nice matt finish.

Nice and clean now

Door panel after

Shiny console

Now onto the outside (after a downpour and a sandwich)…

Worse than it looks

Scratchy & blobby

Brake dust galore

Started off with a pre-treatment - Insta Finish Bug Away sprayed over most of the frontal areas and allowed to work away, and the wheels were sprayed generously with ValetPro Bilberry Safe Wheel Cleaner. Then out with the Karcher and the Foam Lance! ValetPro PH Neutral Snow Foam mixed 3:1 with water, and the mixture adjusted on the lance to give a nice clingy foam. The foam was applied all over and allowed to dwell for a good 5 minutes (time for a drink!). The wheels were agitated with the Autoglym Wheel Brush to get around all the crevices, and bucket of hot Insta Finish Yellow Wash & Wax (lovely stuff) and a lambswool mitt later, the car was looking much better already. Hosed down and dried, it was time to clay, with Dodo Juice Gentle Grey and some clay lube (an Insta Finish sample in this case). The entire car was done to remove tar, sap and other unidentified bits from the paint, and it felt smooth as new afterwards.

Time to tape up and polish! The Kestrel was used with a yellow Lake Country polishing/cutting pad and some Insta Finish Buff & Shine, worked over a small area at a high speed (4-5) before dropping back (2-3) to finish off. Nice result on the swirls and light scratches – not perfect but I’m impressed for a first attempt! No pics of this bit sadly (apart from one Janet took of the back of my head…). Finally the car was topped off with Collinite 915 paste wax with some Meguiar’s Quik Detailer to tidy up. The wheels and tyres were dressed with Poorboy’s Wheel Sealant and Bold & Bright Tyre Dressing, and finally the glass was buffed up with Einszett Glass Polish and Meguiar’s NXT Glass Cleaner.

Sparkling!

Much less scratchy

Reflection

Bang!

Ready for wedding?

Collinite beading

Meet the team

Dave’s BMW after serious TLC

Dave’s words & pictures, says it all!

After leaving her for a few months, she became to look as though TLC was in need, so first off a good wash down with the Kew, then out with the ValetPro snowfoam… good dwelling at least twice.

Foamed

Then rinsed off, and dried using Raceglaze Onepass. On close inspection paint felt a little gritty. Good going over with Zymol Lehm clay.

Claying

Once clayed out came the Meg’s G220, using a Menzerna pad, with Menzerna FF106 to restore the gloss, also applied Wolfgang sealant, then topped up with Spritz followed by Pinnacle Souveran… then using a 6″ micro bonnet the whole car was buffed … to reveal a warm glow and mirror finish.

Not quite a free ad!

Wheels cleaned and coated with Rimwax, tyres dressed using Zymol.

Who said silver isnt a colour?

Deeply dishy

A stunning result!