Detailers - Need your advice

[Lumeycom]

Picked a new car up the other day for work purposes and am pretty pleased with it in general. Its done 90k but is almost stonechip free and only has a few scratches around the drivers door handle that I can get out no problem (think it was a womans car with silly nails ) - thankfully it seems the car has never, or rarely seen a powered car wash so my work is pretty easy generally

But...

The bootlid / rear bumper is a problem paintwise.

I've tried taking a picture of it to no avail so I'll do my best to describe the problem.

If you run your hand over the paint its very rough, almost like there is grit stuck into the top layer. The only time i've felt something like this is on an old car i cut the front off where the sparks settled on the roof, rusted a little and stuck to the paint.

I've got an orbital polisher and have attacked the front with some menzerna/sonus and got it pretty much spot on. Started the roof also... but I really dont know what to do with the boot/bumper

I'm guessing that if i get the orbital on it its going to pull whatever it is stuck into the paint onto the pad and scratch like buggery. Would a good claying get it? if so could someone offer advice as clay is something i've not ventured into.

Anyway, thanks in advance!

 

[Janesy B]

Probably want to do a full on assault with a clay bar and detailing spray to clean the paint.

 

[Lumeycom]

any suggestions on what clay and spay to use? seems to be a myriad out there

 

[Leeum]

Souns green is a good, mild clay - I've used that with good results. Can get a single bar (will be called a refill bar or something) from cleanyourcar.co.uk for £8.

Don't bother buying quick detailer/ spray lube imo as you'll easily use a full bottle doing half a car - use a spray bottle filled with car shampoo and water. Keep the panel wet at all times and use only light pressure with the clay.

 

[Lumeycom]

Found it, thanks

I'm assuming that the clay will pull these 'particles' off the surface of the paint - is there a risk that I may cause scratches?

 

[Django x2]

What car is it?

Also, its just grime from the exhaust. Cars with age get assulated on the rear bumper, boot lid. In fact, the 530d even with a particulate filter seems to attract poop right above the exhaust which I have to clay maybe every 10k miles or so.

If it's strong paint you'll be fine. If its anything French, you'll die at the amount of marring caused. My GFs Clio was in a terrible state after using Megs clay. But run it on the BMW and you'd never even know.

Also, clay bars just sheer the contaminants off, they don't remove them compeltely. Get a nice paint cleaner like Dodo Lime Prime to make sure its nice and sound

 

[Leeum]

Paint should feel as smooth as glass afterwards. It won't cause scratches as long as you're careful and spray plenty shampoo and water onto the section of surface you're working on - without lube you will feel the clay start to snag and drag along the paint, thus causing marring which will appear as little white 'ghosts' later on. These will polish out with enough effort though. Shouldn't really have any problems with Sonus green though.

The way I do it is wash the car (don't bother drying at this stage). Place the clay into some warm water to soften it up then split it into three, use one piece for the top of the car, one for the middle panels/ windows, one for the lower panels etc. Roll the piece of clay into a ball then flatten it with both palms. Choose a small area of a panel, spray plenty shampoo/ water on and run the clay over until you can't feel any sort of resistance, i.e it glides over with no effort at all. Don't apply masses of force, just let it glide over the paint. Once the face of the clay gets dirty, fold it over and turn it 'inside out' until you have a clean face again, flatten it (like before) then continue. When you can't find a clean face, then discard the clay.

If you drop the clay on the floor at any point, bin it! Then wash the car again and dry off as normal. After claying, you will have removed any wax etc. from the paint, so it's always best to apply some sort of protection if you have time.

I'm not professing to be any sort of expert, but that's the way I've always done it and I've not had any problems.

 

[Lumeycom]

Car is an astra H cdti, and is black so looks really crap at the back especially seeing that the front has come up so well.

Will try the clay thing tommorow if the rain stays off, a mate has some of that sonus green that I've arranged to steal. Going to try it first on the towing eye cover as I can get that replaced easy enough if it causes problems

 

[Leeum]

It's not as bad as it sounds mate. Just use common sense - spray plenty of shampoo and water on the panel/ clay and you can't go wrong.

Sonus green is dead mild, the white megs stuff you get in the kit with the quick detailing spray lube is dead aggresive in comparison.

 

[Django x2]

Yep, I was going to say, I reckon it's a diesel. Its just crappy particles that clog up the rear bumer and boot. A quick clay is all thats needed.

The GM paint is fairly strong too as I did mrk1@1s MK4 Astra