HELP! Leaf prints on bonnet + Questions re. detail cost.

[NorthernSky]

Hey all,

To my intense shame, I have returned from a few days away to discover a load of Autumnal crap on my coupe. I've removed it and washed the car (it was only out in the open for a few days, honest!) and some leaf prints have formed which I cannot remove with a sponge on the bonnet, mainly.

I'm not a detailing pro, so am asking you lot for advice - am tempted to get the whole car detailed to keep it looking good as it hibernates for the salty, cold, wet winter we are about to have.

What should I be asking the detailers to do, to eliminate these leaf outlines from the paint. Is claying the way to do this? Or a machine polish? And could anyone estimate what a full car detail may cost if I took it to a pro for a day?

Thanks in advance, newb questions I know.

Tom

[BeeEmm]

Hi Tom. First of all, ditch the sponge. It will only make the paintwork worse. Secondly listen to what the detailer tells you. It seems that you would need at least a stage 1 detail (1 pass with machine polisher) or maybe a stage 2. Not just because of the leaves but your paintwork is bound to be tired if you have not regularly maintained it. As I final step I would certainly recommend a ceramic coating, which will protect better than wax. The cost window is huge depending on what preparation and finish you choose, anywhere between £200 and £1200. If you want to do it yourself there is guidance on this forum and elsewhere on the net. Claying the car will be one of the stages.
Although I don't go into too much detail about how to do it, this might help you.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=105290

[philbo909]

As above, ditch the sponge and get yourself a mitt similar to this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kent-Car-Care- ... ref=plSrch

[NorthernSky]

Thanks you two. BeeEmm - I've been giving the body a regular pressure wash, have used a sponge less and less, but seems the consensus is to abandon that altogether!

I'll read up on that link. Cheers. T

[RickRob]

Professional detailing, whilst producing great results, is really expensive. I cannot get my head around how £1,200 can be justified on almost any Zed 4.

Getting rid of leaf marks is not tricky, but the fact that they are there in the first place suggests the need for some proper cleaning.

Every few months I do:
Clay mitt
Poorboys Scratch Remover #2
Poorboys Black Hole
Poorboys Natty Wax

You're looking at a few hours of elbow grease, but even if the results are not perfect it will take you to a better place!

Good luck.

[Angelus666]

You’re washing your car with a sponge, so I’ll be realistic and say pop down to Halfords and get some t cut or similar and work it into the area with a clean dish cloth and you should be ok.

Invest an hour of your time on YouTube watching the beginners guide by Larry from Ammo NYC and you’ll realise there’s a different way to cleaning your car.

[NorthernSky]

You’re washing your car with a sponge, so I’ll be realistic and say pop down to Halfords and get some t cut or similar and work it into the area with a clean dish cloth and you should be ok.

Invest an hour of your time on YouTube watching the beginners guide by Larry from Ammo NYC and you’ll realise there’s a different way to cleaning your car.

Reading the advice you're all giving me, I think it's high time I picked up a few of these products and read up/watched a few of those guides! As I say, the leaves on the car was a one-off! However... never again. I'll leaf behind the bucket and sponge for good too.

[RustyZ4]

One thing you can try in the short run to remove them is use meguiars ultimate compound, brilliant at removing surface scratches and marks, not expensive and available everywhere

[tomscott]

Have a look at AmmoNYC on youtube its really not hard, the difficult bit is diagnosing and using the correct steps.

Its a great idea to get clued up and you will probably enjoy it.

Get some snow foam. This lifts contaminants off the paint then you can spray them away using a hose rather than rubbing the dirt and abrasives into the paint as you wash. Sponges are pretty bad, stones abrasives get stuck in the sponge and you basically rub that all over the body work... Microfibres pick up dirt but release when you rinse in water.

Buy a microfibre mitt and two buckets, shampoo in one, water in another, go over the body in small sections and after a pass of a panel drop the mitt into the water bucket which will remove the contaminants the mitt has pulled off the body then do the same process over the whole body.

Once you have cleaned the car dry it with a mircofibre towel and dry will show all the issues with the clear coat. You might think that cleaning the car has got rid of everything... but there is loads of dirt deep. Buy a clay bar and use water or a product like quick wax/quick detailer to go over the whole body this will remove all the tar, bugs, sap, difficult to remove contaminants. It will also get the body work back to the clear coat by removing all the wax and other products.

This will leave the clear coat and you can look around the car to see what areas need work, scratched, dull paint marks etc

Clear coat is amazing, essentially dull paint is due to light refraction on the clear coat which means it is not smooth and if you imagine looking at the clear coat from a side profile would look like this



When you have small scratches and abrasions the paint looks dull. Essentially what you are trying to do is smooth out the clear coat which will then make the car shine. Over time the clear coat dulls with scratches and contaminants but its not the end of the world you can use abrasives that will smooth that area then you polish to remove small scratches and restore the shine and then protect with sealant and wax.

Products like Maguires ultimate compound work wonders to restore dull clear coat, you can use it by hand with decent results to remove scratches or contaminants like the leaf marks. Once you have used ultimate compound you then polish the car to create the deep shine this is hard work and much easier with a machine but you can do it by hand just takes time.

One you have polished you need to clean the car again to remove all the residue, or you can use quick wax but better off washing it. Next thing to do is seal the paint, this essentially add a layer to the paint to protect the work you have done. Contaminants will stick to the sealant rather than the clear coat and is far easier to remove. There are two types of waxs: man made sealant and natural carnuba wax. Natural waxes last between a month and 3 months depending on how often you wash the car. Sealants can last 12 months and you top up with natural wax.

With the effort so far I would add a sealant first which will add a longer lasting protection then use a natural wax like a Carnauba.

Thats it really. Snowfoam, wash, dry, claybar, address issues, polish, seal and then wax.

Next you come to clean the car it will be a breeze contaminants come off so easily in comparison. Most car shampoos have a wax built in which will top up the wax layer a tiny bit. To keep on top everytime you wash use quick wax all over the car, this will add a littel extra protection because when you wash the car it removes a little of the carnuba. The carnuba like said will last 1-3 months so its worth topping it up. If you wash your car every week then add a layer of carnuba once a month.

This is a ritual for me once or twice a year. I like to get the car ready for the winter months as this is hard on the car and maybe again ready for the summer. Tbh if you do it properly it can easily last a year. It can take 2-3 days of work by hand to do the above with a machine you can easily do it in a day.

Many people use an abrasive like T-Cut which is pretty old school by todays measure. It was designed for deep scratches and can make a right mess of the paint as they have a higher abrasive contents. Polishing out those scratches is almost impossible without a dual action polisher so I would leave that product well alone. I like the maguires stuff because its available in a lot of places, isnt crazy expensive, its easy to use compared to more advanced product and it works well. Its not the best but you can spend a fortune and really get similar results.

Also if you ever use an abrasive to remove scratches or blemishes, sap or tar remover etc it does the same as the clay - removes all the sealant and wax. These areas then have no protection so its always a good idea to go over those areas again with wax to protect.

Once you get comfortable a Dual action polisher is a good investment. Its very difficult to do damage to the paint with the DAs and its so much faster to polish and wax the car. Obviously its a learning curve to use the DA but its not just the pros that can use this stuff nowadays.

Hope that helps.

[Jaw]

To add to the above - the main reason T-Cut is outdated and not the best is because the harsh abraisives don't diminish and get finer as you polish. Imagine sanding away at a but of metal where the sandpaper doesn't get finer as you get to the end. Rather than end up with a smooth finish you basically just keep grinding away with the same ferocity.

you might find that a claybar alone removes the tree sap if it's relatively recent and you don't have the time to do a full detail. You'll be amazed just how much surface contaminant is lifted away with a pass or two