Wash, Polish and Wax

[Brian1612]

So with the weather starting to get better I thought I would go full out and polish the car before apply any sealers to it.

Started with a power wash to remove some of the crap around the sills then tried out the AF citrus power pre cleaner on the lower sides/front/rear of the car along with the wheels as my auto glym wheel cleaner hadn't arrived yet. Have to say great advice from Bert as he advised me to try this stuff out and it worked brilliantly. Left it on the paint and gave the wheels a little brushing before rinsing off and it took just about all the grime off the lower sections of my car and the wheels were spotless! Followed by a snow foam, left for 10 mins and rinsed to leave the car practically spotless!

First two photos show the snow foam on then rinsed after the AF pre wash and snow foam, shows just how clean it left the car. I then applied a T-cut polish my dad had laying around the garage as I haven't decided on a polish yet and it's only done everything 6 months or so. Any advice is welcome on a good polish!

Applied the Armour All Shield Wax then tried out the bottle of cheap Auto Finish mirror gloss sealant I picked up from Morrisons. Was a strange product to use as it was like water, but I used it in a spray bottle as advised by other people who have used it and wiped over the car on top of the Armour all. Not sure about the protection it offers although it mentions it being a nano sealer and upto 12 months protection, shall see about that but it did leave a very good shine on the car, was very pleased with the finished results!

Finished it off with my armour all wheel sealer to the alloys, Meguiars tyre gel which left a lovely finish, buffed the exhaust with Gtechniq metal polish and applied my armour all glass sealer, tried 3 coats on the wind screen this time to see if it improves its beading qualities. Here are some photos of the finished car!

[Brian1612]

Few more:

[Salvos_white_abarth]

Looks class mate.
Good products used too but can i offer advice?
Dont bother with t cut as its got a very heavy cut .its to be used for heavily oxidised cars. Your better off using autoglym super resin polish as its got a very very fine cut causing no damage to your paint.very good product.

[Brian1612]

Thanks Salvos!
I actually have the super resin polish on my list of products to try along with zaino and collinite! Only reason I used the t-cut polish is it was all I had, will say it took a lot of the black spots I missed off in the buffing stage, was quite happy with that but wont the stuff again, likely try the SRP 

Also just drove in the rain and can confirm after a better application of the armour all glass sealer with 3 coats on the front it works brilliant now, 40+ mph and you don't need the wipers, water just runs off. Completely changed my opinion of the product now although may still look into another rain repellant once this runs out!

[atlgibson]

Looks great that Brian Good Job!

[Tonyspurs]

Nice job Brian!    on a side note am I the only one who thinks that once you have given the car a good detailing it actually drives better! It's like a dog who's just had a bath and is so excited at being clean runs around the garden at 100mph barking and wagging its tail .....the wife thinks I'm off me nut but I swear it's true!

[Brian1612]

Haha not sure about that Tony... will say its a kick in the stones that in the horrible weather of Scotland one overtake of a lorry on the M8 gives all your hard work a slap across the face lol. Hoping a quick powerwash on fri will leave my car shining again!