Ok this may be long so im sorry ha!
Ive been detailing my own vehicles to a decent level for some years. You have two options really, you can pay someone £100-£150+ to do it for you which tbh you would get excellent results. Ooorrr you can do it yourself and use the £150 for products you can use time and time again?
Now if you’re doing it yourself there are a few things you are going to need.
2 x Buckets (Halfords ones are fine)
1 x Wash mitt, they range from about £8 all the way to £25+ it needs to be wool or at least micro fibre!
[size=2]http://www.cleanyourcar.co....ars-microfibre-wash-mitt/prod_305.html[/size]
This would be fine
1 x Shampoo - Although i think you already have this and what you have is an excellent product.
1 x Clay bar, this is used to lift bonded contaminants from the paintwork and is essential for a perfect finish.
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/detai...ltra-fine-detailing-clay-sampler/prod_83.html
something like this will be ok.
1 x Drying Towel – now this believe it or not is where most imperfections are inflicted onto the paint so it’s very important to get a good product
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/micro...-huge-39-fluffy-39-drying-towel/prod_634.html
something like this is an excellent towel.
1 x Polish - This is where things get more complicated! There is hundreds of polish all of which have different properties. Now i assume any polishing you wish to do will be by hand rather than a machine?? Keeping this in mind i would use the following polishes.
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/sealants/autoglym-ultra-deep-shine/prod_754.html
This is an excellent polish for hand although this is a non abrasive polish and won’t actually remove scratches this simply "fills" them for a period of time. For actually "correcting" the paint a machine polish is the only route really.
1 x Wax - Again as with the polish there are many many different options and these are only my personal preferences
now this wax although expensive should last a long long time and is excellent
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/wax/dodo-juice/dodo-juice-blue-velvet/prod_404.html
Several Clothes and pads will be required, say 2 for applying and removing polish and 2 for applying and removing wax.
These foam pads are excellent for applying products
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/zaino/zaino-6-tri-foam-oval-applicator/prod_462.html
so two of these
and two of these for buffing the polish and wax off
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/micro...ic-fur-microfibre-buffing-cloth/prod_948.html
Process
Rinse
First is to rinse the vehicle down either just with some soapy water or with a jet wash, the idea or pre rinsing the vehicle is to loosen up any dirt so it can be safely washed of
Washing
Take one of the buckets and fill with warm soapy water, fill the second with just clean warm water.
Take the wash mitt and start with the first soapy bucket and clean 1 panel. Once this one panel has been cleaned rinse the mitt in the non soapy fresh water.
Then do this for ever panel on the car. This should mean that once all the car is done you have your first soapy bucket which still has clean water in an a second bucket with dirty water in. by doing this you are never take any contaminants from one panel to the next.
Clay Bar
While the vehicle is still soapy this is a good time to clay the vehicle. I will cover claying in a little more detail
Using detailing clay to clay your car's paint will,
1: Claying safely removes Above Surface Bonded Contaminants
2: Claying paint enable your choice of wax or paint sealant to better bond or adhere to the paint.
3: Claying paint restores a silky, smooth, clean surface.
4: Claying paint makes polishing easier, more effective and safer.
Let’s take a little deeper look at these benefits...
1: Claying safely removes Above Surface Bonded Contaminants
Over time, if your car is parked outside for any length of time during each day then any dirt or air-borne contaminants that land on the paint will tend to bond to the paint if they are not removed in a timely manner. Once they bond to the paint some of them won't come off just from normal washing. This is where detailing clay comes into the picture.
Detailing clay uses special abrasives that have the ability to basically sand-off any contaminants sitting on top of the surface without installing scratches into your car's paint at the same time. In the old days, people would use coarse rubbing compounds to remove above surface bonded contaminants and while these types of products would work they would also,
• Instil scratches into the paint
• Remove perfectly good paint
That's two negative things you don't want to do your car's precious clear layer of paint.
2: Claying paint enables your choice of wax or paint sealant to better bond or adhere to the paint.
Claying paint restores a clean surface so a coating of wax or paint sealant can maximize the bond between the paint and the protection ingredients. This helps to insure the wax or paint sealant coating will last a long time and thus protect a long time, and this is something all people want out of their choice of car wax or paint sealant.
3: Claying paint restores a silky, smooth, clean surface
I think we can all agree that a great looking paint job is a glossy looking paint job and gloss comes from a smooth surface.
When air-borne contaminants build-up on your car's finish they create an irregular surface or texture that feels rough or bumpy to the touch. This un-even, bumpy surface due to above surface bonded contaminants reduces gloss. Claying your car's paint will remove the contaminants, this restores a smooth surface and this in return restores a high gloss finish
4: Claying paint makes polishing easier, more effective and safer
In the context of this section, when we say polishing, we mean abrading the paint to remove below surface defects and/or refine the existing finish to a higher level.
• By removing any above surface bonded contaminants first, you enable your polish and pad to immediately go to work on the paint with nothing on the surface in the way.
• You make the polishing action smoother as your polish and pad will move over the surface easier with less potential for hopping or grabbing.
• You reduce the potential for accidental marring of the paint during the buffing process since there are not contaminants that can come loose and become trapped between the pad and the paint.
Now using the clay bar and the lubricant that is supplied with it you gently go over each panel with the bar, remembering to re mould the bar once dirty.
Once the vehicle has been clayed then it needs to be rinsed down again ensuring all soap is removed.
Drying
This is self explanatory really, using the drying towel ensure that the top panels facing the sun are done first to prevent any drying spots.
Polishing
Now there any many ways of doing this but I will assume this is going to be done by hand.
Taking an applicator pad, apply 2 small pea size blobs of polish and using a circular motion begin to work the selected panel. Once the polish begins to “haze” then stop. Continue to do this over the entire vehicle until every panel has been done.
Once you have done the last panel move back to the first with a buffing cloth and begin to remove the hazed polish.
Waxing
This is really the exact same process as polishing except most waxes require that once they have been applied they are left to “cure” for 20-30 mins before being buffed off.
Remember with wax however that less is more and waxing a vehicle on a very hot day is not a good idea, as once the wax has been applied the hot sun stops the wax curing and becomes a nightmare to remove.
If you want to know about machine polishing I can help you with this as well!
If you do this then you get this
Was i not buffing hard enough? Did i not put enough layers on?