*** Car Wash / Valet / Detailing Thread ***

kona786 said:
Bird poo strikes again. With the weather it burnt-in in record time.
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Feel your pain, my wife’s car has a few dodgy spots from when bird poo etched the paint and one spot where it ate through the clear coat then the paint.

To be honest this is how I got into detailing, after learning the hard way what bird poo will do to a car without any protection. I now remove any bird poo as quickly as possible. I swear my neighbours think I am mad cleaning our cars as regularly as I do. In hindsight a air riffle way have been cheaper.:cry:

Does your car have any protection on it?
 
Recently moved in to a place with a drive and inspired by posts on here bought a snow foam cannon, polish etc.

The two washes were really good but the car wasn't driven much and just sat on the drive getting covered in dust. I'm going on a trip later today and wanted the car looking clean. Waited until yesterday afternoon around 6PM and with it being a coating of dust didn't seem worth the effort to get the pressure washer out and give it a full treatment.

I rinsed the car down with a hose, added some shampoo to a bucket and applied using a wash mitt. I realised it was still too warm as one side of the car was drying while I was washing the other side. Towards the end of drying with microfibre towels I noticed the paint had chipped away in several places.

I only bought the one bucket with no grit guard as I wasn't planning on a bucket wash. Maybe the chips in the 2nd and 3rd photos could be something on the mitt, but I'm sure these appeared during drying. It could be the towels picked up something.

There is a similar chip to the one in the 1st photo right on the centre of the bonnet, what could have caused this.

What I'd like to know is what I did wrong. Was it too warm to wash the car making the paint too soft. The surface hasn't been decontaminated yet (ever) and I can feel the roughness when drying.

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You wouldn't get chips from something on the mitt, you'll get scratches and marring if you're dragging grit/dirt across the maint with a mitt.

The first one looks like a car door has hit your panel, crease lines in the panel tend to take the brunt of these as the fold sticks out the furthest. The others are likely stone chips.

You can repair yourself, you'll need to rough up the scratch (and soften the edges of the scratch) and the area around it with some wet 2000 grit sand paper. Dab in some paint from a paint chip repair pen (matching your colour) - two approaches here, some like mixing in the clear coat with the paint and doing it 'all in one'. The other approach is to not fill the chip to the very level of the chip, and to apply the clear coat on top.

After either of those methods, you then use 2000 to 3000 wet paper to knock the repair level with the rest of the paint, then compound and polish the area to bring back the shine.

youtu.be

Deep Scratch Removal Without Spraying

A step by step tutorial of a very effective method to remove DEEP paintwork scratches that CANNOT be removed by sanding and or/polishing alone!Using solvent ...
youtu.be youtu.be
 
inflames said:
Feel your pain, my wife’s car has a few dodgy spots from when bird poo etched the paint and one spot where it ate through the clear coat then the paint.

To be honest this is how I got into detailing, after learning the hard way what bird poo will do to a car without any protection. I now remove any bird poo as quickly as possible. I swear my neighbours think I am mad cleaning our cars as regularly as I do. In hindsight a air riffle way have been cheaper.:cry:

Does your car have any protection on it?
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Pain indeed. Just Sonax BSD.

I'm okay with it as its a daily, and everyday is a lottery of what damage it'll attain next.
 
kona786 said:
Bird poo strikes again. With the weather it burnt-in in record time.
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A bird absolutely demolished my car yesterday. Don't know what bird it was but pretty much covered half of my bonnet and down the side too. By the time I got home it was already cooked into the paint. Used the Maguire's no water wash and wax to get it off. Seemed to do a good job!
 
ShiWarrior said:
@Mekrel
Hi mate, what battery is in your greenworks and does it last long enough ?

Anyone else got a greenworks 40V cordless washer ?
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I have three batteries, but only really tend to use two for a proper clean which requires a lot of rinsing. Two are the 4ah official batteries, another a third party 5ah battery off eBay that definitely doesn't last as long as the official battery despite claiming a higher capacity.

The proper clean has a lot of use of the PW because there's rinsing the wheels after pre-wash, rinsing them and arches after the contact wash, applying snow foam via lance, rinsing, contact wash on bodywork, rinse. Might the occasional additional rinse if using chemical decontamination products.

I don't think I've ever used more than the two batteries, I have three because the 3rd party one was initially temperamental and Greenworks had a black Friday sale on their direct to consumer website.
 
Mekrel said:
I have three batteries, but only really tend to use two for a proper clean which requires a lot of rinsing. Two are the 4ah official batteries, another a third party 5ah battery off eBay that definitely doesn't last as long as the official battery despite claiming a higher capacity.

The proper clean has a lot of use of the PW because there's rinsing the wheels after pre-wash, rinsing them and arches after the contact wash, applying snow foam via lance, rinsing, contact wash on bodywork, rinse. Might the occasional additional rinse if using chemical decontamination products.

I don't think I've ever used more than the two batteries, I have three because the 3rd party one was initially temperamental and Greenworks had a black Friday sale on their direct to consumer website.
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Thanks
Good information

I saw a video from Australia, he stripped a genuine and an ebay battery and the results were shocking, I'd never buy a 3rd party battery as they are poorly made , don't fit properly, poor welds etc and only lasted about 3 charge cycles but on par with running time
 
kona786 said:
Pain indeed. Just Sonax BSD.

I'm okay with it as its a daily, and everyday is a lottery of what damage it'll attain next.
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If the poop has etched into the clearcoat then applying heat is the way to resolve it. There is lots of talk of acid in the poop etching the paint, this isn't really the case. What is happening is the clearcoat is heating unevenly due to the stuck on present from the feathered friend. Waxes can help a bit but mainly from the point of view that the poop is floating on the wax. It isn't guaranteed to stop clearcoat marks by any means.

Get the area nice and hot and in most cases you'll be able to resolve it. I just used my wife's hairdryer on max a couple of inches away from the area and just kept it moving around. After a good few minutes the etching almost flashes over as the clearcoat re-levels itself.

The only mark on my car I haven't been able to remove is the one I really went to town on with polish before I read about the heat method.
 
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Probably of zero interest to anyone but the boss of one of the UK`s leading detailing product businesses bought from me an old used detailing product made by a rival detailing business lol.

My only guess is that it was being used as a sample for chemical analysis or performance testing etc. I dont really know but it was so odd to have that happen.
 
So I had a bit of a nightmare with Fusso coat, I obviously let it cure too long before buffing as the car had really horrific holograms when it was sunny. Thankfully some fine finishing polish made light work of it and I just went with a spray on product for now, won't last as long but trying to apply any sort of coating or wax in this weather outside is a pain.








 
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