jediknight83 Posted February 1, 2011 Report Share Posted February 1, 2011 Hello.... only taken me a month of 2011 to get round to starting this For those that don't know, I'm Nathan an I run Cambridge Autogleam: Car Detailing and Paint Correction Specialists. The old 2010 thread can still be seen here, but I thought it would be best to start 2011 with a fresh thread again. A couple of absolute classics to start off this time... I've got lots of bits of video footage as well but thought I'd get the photos up on here asap. This very low milage car was detailed over 2 rather long days. In total 40 hrs work went into refining the paint finish. For those that are interested the process was... Wheels with acid free cleaner PH Neutral pre wash foam, pressure rinsed Shampoo'd with megs shampoo and 2 buckets (one rinse bucket one shampoo) Clayed with Sonus mild clay Machine polished with a range of products from 3M, GlossIt, Meguairs and Menzerna Sealed and protected with Blackfire paint sealant Interior leather cleaned and the treated with gliptone liquid leather Glass polished For those that arent interested in all that..... .. here are a few photos during and after the detailing work. Before After Before After Stuart hard at work polishing Before Before After After After And the finished car late on Thursday night.. Very difficult car to get perfect but highly rewarding once it was complete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted February 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2011 Following on from the Ferrari Testarossa detail I thought this smaller white Speedster would be a slightly shorter job. However with some super tough paint it still took 26 hrs to complete! The process: Wheels with acid free cleaner PH Neutral pre wash foam, pressure rinsed Shampoo'd with megs shampoo and 2 buckets (one rinse bucket one shampoo) Clayed with Sonus mild clay Machine polished with a range of products from 3M, GlossIt, Meguairs and Menzerna Sealed and protected with Blackfire paint sealant Interior leather cleaned and the treated with gliptone liquid leather Glass polished The hood cover was plastic or fibreglass and some marks around the edge where the hood rubs didn't come out 100%. Before After Finished car.. The old protective film to stop the hood mechanism rubbing on the paint had gone yellow so this was replaced. So invisible now you can hardly see it! Thanks for looking again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted February 1, 2011 Report Share Posted February 1, 2011 blooming amazing as usual dude, loving both of those cars - especially the Speedster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted February 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 Video of the Ferrari Testarossa job now available on youtube. Enjoy... dont forget to change it to 720HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rottenbend Posted February 3, 2011 Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 Lovely job there Nathan . Those look like my mate Danny's cars? I'm due to have a spin in the Speedster. My 993 may need some tlc this year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted February 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 Lovely job there Nathan . Those look like my mate Danny's cars? I'm due to have a spin in the Speedster.My 993 may need some tlc this year... Never met the customer in person, these were arranged through a 3rd party but I've heard he is over the moon with the results and I think we are due to do more cars for him. Happy to make your 993 look just as good... Watch this space as we MAY be making more of a permanent appearance in Herts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted February 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 Video of the Porsche Speedster job now available on youtube. Enjoy... dont forget to change it to 720HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted February 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Evening... not many photos of this one as we were working flat out. Detail was carried out at Thorney Motorsport in Milton Keynes where we should be doing a lot more work in the coming months. Paint was in a really bad way. Car lines on the street in London and was covered in all kinds of fall out. Took about 2 hours to clay it clean before polishing could commence.. Before After And with everything finished... Paint protected with Blackfire paint sealant. Lots more to come in the next few weeks Thanks for looking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted February 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Evening.. After a couple of days detailing in Tunbridge Wells... (more on that detail once I've sorted the photos and video) I stopped to detail this Z4M on the way back home. No process pictures but lots of shiny finished pics Process for those interested was: -Wheels cleaned with acid free cleaner and tar and glue remover, agitated with multiple brushes, rolled forwards and re washed to get the bit of wheel behind the brakes. -Arches cleaned with tar and glue remover and wiped and rinsed -Car pre foamed with Meguairs hyper wash, roof scrubbed with a short bristled brush and then pressure rinsed down (low pressure for the hood) -Car shampoo'd with Meguairs Shampoo and rinsed -Hood protected with Autoglym fabric roof protector -Paint Clayed with Sonus mild clay -Paint sprayed with tar and glue remover and wiped to remove any tar spots -Glass cleaned with Meguairs glass cleaner and then protected with RainX -Paint hand cleansed with Blackfire gloss enhancing polish -Paint sealed with Blackfire paint sealant -Wheels sealed with Blackfire metal sealant -Exhaust tips polished and sealed with Blackfire metal sealant -Tyres dressed with Blackfire tyre gel -Interior vacuumed and dusted, leather conditioned, glass cleaned i think thats it... About 6 hours work in total. Thanks for looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted February 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 (edited) Good afternoon... Firstly dont forget to add us on facebook Second of all a bit of blurb on the WC50 MINI's 50th birthday celebrations continue with another special edition model. This time it's the MINI WC50 which marks the 50th Anniversary of the Cooper Car Company winning the Formula One constructors championship. The two guys behind the wheels were legends Jack Brabham and Stirling Moss who took first and third spot in the overall championship.The WC50 will be very limited in numbers; only 250 units are to be produced from the Oxford plant, with 100 reserved for UK customers (This has now been raised to 500 cars to include the US market. Officially MINI does not plan to export the car anywhere else outside of Europe so markets like the US and Australia are probably not going to get it. Mechanically the car is identical to the John Cooper Works model. But there are changes and they are significant. The main ones are the aero kit and some interior appointments. The exterior has bi-xenon lights with black interior reflectors, fog lamps, bonnet stripes, a carbon fiber bonnet scoop, carbon fiber mirror caps and a rear diffuser. It is fitted with 17-inch Cross-Spoke Challenge alloy wheels in a Jet Black colour. The interior comes with a 6-CD Harman Kardon sound system with USB, Bluetooth phone connectivity, heated front seats, an interior lights package, sat nav, rear park distance control, a leather handbrake gaiter and a multi-function steering wheel. To cost £30k + The fun part is that these are 'hand painted and finished' in Connaught Green. For most people the sound of a hand painted car is a good 'higher class' thing... but as most detailers will know it just means more polishing for us The Connaught Green is non metallic and actually pretty soft and on this car.. very thin! 80-90um so I didn't chase every single deep mark which was frustrating. On arrival at 8am Usual wash process: Acid free wheels Megs Hyper wash foam Megs Shampoo wash Clayed with Souns mild blue. Quite a lot of contamination for such a new car Polishing was done with Menz IP3.02 in some areas, Menz 203S in others and then refined with Menz 106FA on a DA polisher. Before After Before After The vinyl stripe was polished as well which brought out lots of dirt as you can see (sort of) in this 50/50 shot. Top half polished and cleaner / bottom half un touched and actually quite dirty. Polishing took ages for such a small car. I was applying Blackfire paint sealant to each panel as I went round and buffing off after 5-10 minutes. When the whole car was complete it was then given a coat of Vintage wax. This was left to cure for a while while the wheels were sealed and tyres were dressed, plastics dressed and glass cleaned. And the finished shots... Thanks for looking. Edited February 22, 2011 by jediknight83 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted February 23, 2011 Report Share Posted February 23, 2011 Superb! (as always) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maersk Posted February 24, 2011 Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 Nathan, what do you use as a tyre dressing? Does it have any lasting power? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted March 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 Nathan, what do you use as a tyre dressing? Does it have any lasting power? Thanks Actually use Autoglym Vinyl & Rubber Care. Lasts a long time in dry weather. Never really found anything that lasts in the rain. This doesnt fling off the tyres though like some gel based products I've tested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted March 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 This was a job from the end of last week. Dont forget to follow us on or . I'm trying to use it more regularly to post little updates of what we are up to We have also teamed up with Shinearama who can provide almost all of the cleaning products we use in our details. Anyway.. Freezing cold outside when I started so I didn't mess about with wash photos this time but was the usual process. Wheels with Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner & Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover Agitated with 1 brush for the wheel face and an EZ Detail Brush for the insides Engine bay cleaned with Meguairs All Purpose Cleaner and rinsed. Pre foam with Meguairs Hyper Wash then rinsed after 5 minutes. If you cant fit a foam bottle to your pressure washer then this Foam Gun is very good and works on mains pressure. 2 bucket shampoo with Meguairs Shampoo Plus and a Meguairs MF Wash Mit Rinsed and dried Clayed with Sonus Ultra Fine Detailing Clay with Meguairs Last Touch as lube Stubborn tar removed with Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover At this point I'd say a car was technically 'clean'.. but its still not shiny.. Polishing was done with Menzerna 3.02 (a medium cut polish) on a Meguairs polishing pad and then refined with Menzerna 106FA (a fine cut finishing polish) on a 3m finishing pad. Before After Before After Before After Before After Before After The paint was then protected with Blackfire paint sealant. Glass was treated with RainX. Wheels were protected with Blackfire metal sealant as were the exhaust tips (after they were polished) Interior was vacuumed, leather conditioned with Zaino Z-10 and glass cleaned with Meguairs Glass Cleaner (even the very difficult to reach the bottom back window!). Tyres and arches dressed with Autoglym Vinyl & Rubber Care. Actually love this on tyres. Spray onto a foam pad and wipe on and then wipe till its soaked in. Lasts ages, looks great and doesn't fling off when you drive it. Some finished pictures.. Thanks for looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted March 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2011 Afternoon. Been a busy couple of weeks so only just getting a few of these pictures and write ups online. As always.. if you use facebook or twitter why not add us and share our work too.. or After being treated to a full frontal Ventureshield protection from AMI (Another excellent installation I might add!), the un protected panels needed a bit of TLC to finish the car off. Usual wash process took place outside: Wheels with Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner & Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover Agitated with 1 brush for the wheel face and an EZ Detail Brush for the insides Engine bay cleaned with Meguairs All Purpose Cleaner and rinsed. Pre foam with Meguairs Hyper Wash then rinsed after 5 minutes. If you cant fit a foam bottle to your pressure washer then this Foam Gun is very good and works on mains pressure. 2 bucket shampoo with Meguairs Shampoo Plus and a Meguairs MF Wash Mit Rinsed and dried Clayed with Sonus Ultra Fine Detailing Clay with Meguairs Last Touch as lube Stubborn tar removed with Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover Polishing was done with Menzerna 3.02 (a medium cut polish) on a Meguairs polishing pad and then refined with Menzerna 106FA (a fine cut finishing polish) on a 3m finishing pad Before After Before After After Rear lights Before Rear lights After Before After The paint was then protected with Blackfire paint sealant. Glass was treated with RainX. Wheels were protected with Blackfire metal sealant as were the exhaust tips (after they were polished) Interior was vacuumed, leather conditioned with Zaino Z-10 and glass cleaned with Meguairs Glass Cleaner And some finished shots... Thanks for looking.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted March 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2011 ....ok ok its a replica but still very pretty :thumb: This was carried out at Welcome to Nine Excellence for whom we now carry out all their detailing support. First up the wheels were removed and the arches were cleaned and then the painted parts were protected with Blackfire. The wheels were cleaned, old wheel weight stickers removed and then wiped down with IPA before being protected with Gtechniq C5 wheel sealant. Front Before After (back in the garage and all protected) Rear Before After (back in the garage and all protected) Back in time and back outside... The car during the pre wash with Megs Hyperwash.. And back indoors during a bit of polishing. The paint was in pretty good condition so just a Gloss Enhancement on this. One hit with Menzerna 203S Wheels all cleaned and protected with the Gtechniq C5. The paint was protected with Blackfire Paint Sealant, Glass protected with RainX. Some finished photos.. Thanks for looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted March 26, 2011 Report Share Posted March 26, 2011 Replica it may be, but that's one lovely looking car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tipex Posted March 26, 2011 Report Share Posted March 26, 2011 Couple of questions if you don't mind, what did you use on tail lights of the Lambo? is it a special product to polish the scratches out of the plastic lense? When you say you've 'protected' the Glass with rain-x, how does it protect the glass? I've used Rain-X before, and personally I don't like it, it's ok in monsoon conditions, but in the drisle we mostly get in the UK it just seems to make vision worse and smear, I've tried Aquapel too, and other similar products but found them to be the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted March 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2011 Couple of questions if you don't mind, what did you use on tail lights of the Lambo? is it a special product to polish the scratches out of the plastic lense?When you say you've 'protected' the Glass with rain-x, how does it protect the glass? I've used Rain-X before, and personally I don't like it, it's ok in monsoon conditions, but in the drisle we mostly get in the UK it just seems to make vision worse and smear, I've tried Aquapel too, and other similar products but found them to be the same. Tail lights are just polished with a light cut menzerna polish (203s). Same as used on the paint. Ive used RainX on my cars and van for years and find even when using the wipers it clears the water much easier and when applied properly it doesn't really smear. You do give a light mist effect following the wipers but it disappears after less than a second after the wiper has passed and I feel its a small disadvantage compared to the benefits it gives. its also makes the glass easier to clean and I've found bug splatter comes off easier. Im now also using Gtechniq products and G1 glass sealant is also excellent and lasts longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted March 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2011 Decided to group these 3 together as they were all for the same customer and all had the same treatment. Gtechniq is a relatively new, long life sealant with its roots in the marine market but they found it also works very well and looks great on cars too Like all long life sealants, they are not a magic bomb proof coating. The car still requires a careful, regular wash regime if you want to keep it looking its best. But we have seen independent tests showing how, if left with bird mess and other dirt and contamination on the car for several weeks at a time, Gtechniq still protects your paint, glass and none painted plastic trim better than other long life sealants. When applied to well prepared paint, it doesn't look too bad either All 3 of these cars now live outdoors and will be checked at 2 month intervals and results posted up here to show how the Gtechniq system protects for longer. First up was the Seat Leon. Usual wash process but then the paint was cleansed with Gtechniq P1 via a DA polisher and a 3m Polishing pad. As well as perfectly preparing the paint for the C1 sealant, the P1 polish enhances the paint and removes light swirl marks. This vital step is often missed when dealers apply their long life sealants. C1 was applied to the paint. C1 is a rather expensive product (£75 for 50ml) and can only be applied by a Gtechniq detailer due to its fast curing time and how, if left un buffed it sets hard and requires machine polishing to remove again. C4 was applied to the unpainted plastics. Although C4 has excellent restorative properties... it also protects new plastics to stop them fading in the first place Image showing how it restores faded trim. C5 was applied to the outer faces of the wheels. G1 was applied to the front screen (3 coats) and 1 coat to the side glass. The 3 coats on the front glass should last up to 30,000 miles. Due to a very hectic day there were no photos of the process I'm afraid. Here are the finished photos though. The the Porsche 996 GT3 had the same treatment. The wheels were actually removed and cleaned but after a discussion with the customer we did not apply C5 to the inner barrels at this time as they required a refurb. A few finished photos. Finally the Mini Cooper D needed a bit of paint correction before we could apply the Gtechniq coating. Nasty fallout on the bonnet needed some claying / heavy cut polishing to remove. Before washing.. Paint correction was a mixture of 3m fast cut plus and menzerna 3.02 and then refined with Gtechniq P1. Before After 50/50 shot And some finished shots after the Gtechniq treatment. Thanks for looking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted March 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 Not sure I can really call this a 'Correction Detail' as such as 90% of the car is covered with Ventureshield PPF from AMI. Just the bootlid, rear end and lights needed some machine polishing... Bootlid before Bootlid after Rear lights before Rear lights after Before After As there wasn't much polishing to do the rest of the time was spent cleansing the film before treating it with 2 layers of Blackfire sealant. Wheels where cleaned and also protected with Blackfire metal sealant. Short and sweet but enjoy the photos. Great car... Massive Arches! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted April 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2011 Hello all. Another quick plug for and This is Stuart using Nathans profile for the purposes of this write up so we can use the 'cambridgeautogleam' logo on the pictures. On with the write up then, this was carried out at 9excellence for whom we now carry out and detailing work. this was one of the owners friends cars soley in for a full correction, spread over 2 days by myself. Upon arrival first impressions of the car were quite good, I thought this might be an easy day, until the sun came out and highlighted just how bad the paint work was, despite having lots of recent paintwork. usual process, wheels were cleaned with acid free, and various brushes, the whole car was snow foamed using ph neutral citrus, and megs shampoo 2bm etc pics: wash process: now some pics showing the general condition of the paint, swirls and holograms galore: To the polishing, the roof and bonnet were tackled first, these corrected very easily due to fresh paint with one hit of menzerna ip 3.02 which finished down nicely leaving no buffer trails. Bonnet before: After: the boot however was much more typically German, and rock hard! this required 2 hits with 3M FCP, followed by menz ip and then refined with final finish, before: After: Rear bumper before: After: the o/s had received a fresh coat of paint, so was fairly easy to correct, pics just to show how good the bodyshops standards are after: sanding marks before: After: the n/s was all orional paint, so much harder but came up well after 2 hits with menz ip on a megs polishing pad, rear qtr before: After: Before: 50:50 After: Bodyshop overspray left on the rear window: Engine bay detailed: interior was thoroughly hoovered, all surfaces cleaned with a diluted 10:1 megs APC and leather cleaned using gliptone gentle cleaner and gliptone leather conditioner on all surfaces: Paint was sealed with Blackfire AFPP, Wheels with Blackfire Metal Sealant. and some finished pictures for your viewing pleasure Total time spent: 18 hours Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mort Posted April 2, 2011 Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 Superb - thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediknight83 Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Evening. Been rather busy recently so rather than do lots of write ups I'll pick this one out and for those that want to see what we have been up to you can view the photos of the other cars we have worked on in our portfolio on our website. Click the thumbnails. Well after owning this lovely white car for a relatively short time... ... the owner had the chance to swap into this brand new and mechanically identical Frozen Black M3... Uber shiny white to matt black. I guess you couldn't get further apart The car was brand new only having been driven from the dealers home so was just covered in a very light layer of dust. Wheels cleaned in the usual manner with acid free cleaner and super degreaser. Then as it was a matt car (the finish is actually more satin than matt but anyway..) it was out with the Swissvax Opaque products.. As the car was only very lightly dusty it was pre washed with just clean water and then shampoo'd with the Opaque shampoo. The arches were then dressed earlier than usual as any slight product overspray would need to be cleaned of with the cleaner fluid as part of the next stage. Back indoors the Opaque cleaner was sprayed on... ...spread and any greasy marks or bug splatter carefully rubbed with 1 MF cloth... ...and then before the cleaner fluid dries naturally its wiped with another clean dry MF cloth till any residue has vanished. The wax was then applied with a foam pad and left to stand for 2-3 minutes per section Seen here applied to half the bonnet.. The wax wipes on and buffs of easily. I found it best to remove with 2 MF cloths. 1st one to remove the worst of the residue and then a 2nd cleaner one to give a final 'smearless' wipe (as obviously it doesn't get clogged up with so much of the product... which is more greasy than regular waxes I felt) You can see the subtle change to the depth of the paint here... Wax applied.. ..and removed but you can still see where it was applied.. ..and from the side.. still easy to see the difference after waxing.. The rest of the paintwork was waxed panel at a time and left for 2-3 mins before buffing. The carbon roof was waxed with Zymol Vintage as this had a regular high gloss finish. I've been using a newer product on the last few cars for plastics and rubbers. Phil from Shinearama kindly sent me some Carpro PERL. There are various dilution suggestions but I decided to just use it neat for the tyres and external plastics and the engine. Very simple to use.. just spray onto a foam pad and wipe on. I found I didn't need that much product to effectively cover a decent sized area (I had a 50ml sample and so far its done 3 cars plastics and tyres and I still have about 1/4 left) The finish is lovely and not that shiny to look at and not at all greasy to touch. I've seen good reviews for the durability and from the feel of it on the tyres I'm hoping there will be no product sling either. Big thumbs up from me and will definitely be ordering more of this product. Applied to the engine bay.. Applying to the tyre (you can sort of see the 50/50) You can also see it applied to the plastics and tyres of this GT3... Back to the M3... the interior was then vacuumed and leather treated with Zaino Z10. Glass treated with RainX, wheels and exhaust with Blackfire metal sealant. The car was given a final wipe with the Opaque quick finish and rolled outside for a few final photos... Thanks for looking. Dont forget to add us on facebook or twitter if you enjoy our work Nathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Awesome job although I don't like the frozen black - the frozen grey however I love. I'm hunting for a Silverstone II M3 at the moment - how does that colour shape up to a full detail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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