Experimenting with Dodo Juice!

melbourne720 · 23 Jun 2008 at 21:15

Instead of the usual polishing routine, I thought I'd treat the motor to some Dodo juice

and some other goodies

First the standard rinse, wash, rinse.

First departure to the usual was using a Sonus de Wonder towl to dry the car:-

Expensive (£16.95 for 2) but they are (a) very good and (b) massive! 1 towl did an entire BMW 3 series without needing to be rung out.

Next I tried some detailing clay. I used Sonus SFX Ultra-Fine Detailing Clay Sampler

Had a go, certainly was starting to shift some some of the bonded on dirt.

Next I used the Dodo juice!

As the car is black, I opted for Purple Haze

£32.50. This stuff is for dark colours only, and is a soft wax. It was easy to apply, but I think I applied too much as it took ages to remove. I also went through 3 polishing clothes. The end result:-

2 hours well spent.

Sonea Fifer · 23 Jun 2008 at 21:20

Looking very nice there - how long will it stay that shiney though?

Sparky · 23 Jun 2008 at 21:24

Looks awesome.

Soft spot for Black BMW's so slightly biased but still very very nice finish.

melbourne720 · 23 Jun 2008 at 21:25

Sonea Fifer said:
Looking very nice there - how long will it stay that shiney though?

Until it rains, and then I get cool beading

Duke · 23 Jun 2008 at 21:26

Stunning

wonder_lander · 23 Jun 2008 at 21:30

Not so sure tbh, maybe if I saw you use it on my car I'd get an idea of how good it is

Looks well nice, good reflextion there......what's the durability like?

TaKeN · 23 Jun 2008 at 21:30

Nice

I must buy some proper cleaning stuff for my car..

at the moment its.. farm power washer with traffic film remover.. then power wash again with water.. then wash and wax with a sponge.. ( I do remove any dirt first )

still comes up nice and shiny though

Herminator · 23 Jun 2008 at 21:32

that looks like just the stuff I need, a good little shopping list

What cloths do you use for applying/removing the wax?

Defcon5 · 23 Jun 2008 at 21:32

I need that in my life

Matt82 · 23 Jun 2008 at 21:40

do you always park under the tree etc?

melbourne720 · 23 Jun 2008 at 22:59

Duke said:
Stunning

ta

wonder_lander said:
Not so sure tbh, maybe if I saw you use it on my car I'd get an idea of how good it is

Looks well nice, good reflextion there......what's the durability like?

The guy with the silver seat neon next door car in front asked if I got bored with waxing my car, and wanted to wax a silver car... lol

I'll let you know what the durabilty is like over time, and report back. I'm hoping it'll protect the paint for the future, and only have to reapply every few months or something.

TaKeN said:
Nice

I must buy some proper cleaning stuff for my car..

at the moment its.. farm power washer with traffic film remover.. then power wash again with water.. then wash and wax with a sponge.. ( I do remove any dirt first )

still comes up nice and shiny though

Shiny is what matters.

melbourne720 · 23 Jun 2008 at 23:15

Matt82 said:
do you always park under the tree etc?

Not always, and it is far from ideal. Parking at the moment is a bit mental on our street, and my preferred spot of outside my house was taken. I had to park close to the house as I was going back and forth with my ever expanding collection of details products!

Defcon5 said:
I need that in my life

First 'wax' I have applied, normally I just wash, dry and polish. It is quite different to polish, I was expecting more of an instant effect, whereas in reality you get more from the wax if you buff it hard 'ahem'.

Herminator said:
that looks like just the stuff I need, a good little shopping list

What cloths do you use for applying/removing the wax?

I started using a standard polishing mit (Wilko's), then that got saturated with wax. After that I went through a few pieces of that standard cheap stocking cloth. Next time, it's microfibre all the way!

[TW]Fox · 23 Jun 2008 at 23:20

I currently fail when drying my car using a microfibre.

Please explain the Sonus thing and whether its worth 17 quid.

AmDaMan · 23 Jun 2008 at 23:37

yes i'd like to know too, the leather I use is hard work.

If that cloth is as good as you say i'll definitely be buying one!

That stone chip on the bonnet is dying to be filled in

audiolab · 24 Jun 2008 at 00:54

Can't speak for the Sonus ones but I have another brand with a similar waffle wave pattern. I also failed at drying with microfibre until I bought a waffle weave towel. The microfibre cloths I had were like an ordinary towel only made from microfibre and they were useless for drying. However these waffle weave ones have an enormous capacity to hold water and I can get round the whole car without wringing it out.

I bought a single 38"x28" towel for £10 (can't link as they are a competitor), after using it for a few months I think it is worth a tenner but some may disagree.

loltim · 24 Jun 2008 at 01:03

Tail-pipes could do with a polish.

melbourne720 · 24 Jun 2008 at 08:04

[TW]Fox;11951745 said:
I currently fail when drying my car using a microfibre.

Please explain the Sonus thing and whether its worth 17 quid.

Well the idea is that these microfibres suck the water away from the surface of the car (probably using some variation of the capillary effect, although that is speculation on my part) and lock the water away inside the towel.

I used one towel on the car, just by laying the towel flat on the wet surface and dragging it by the ends. You can tell how much water is locked away by how heavy the towel is afterwards. One application per surface is all I needed.

Yes they are expensive, but I'm hoping these (2 in a pack) will last a while. They certainly made the processes of drying the car very quick, compared to a standard chamois leather dry.

melbourne720 · 24 Jun 2008 at 08:08

AmDaMan said:
yes i'd like to know too, the leather I use is hard work.

If that cloth is as good as you say i'll definitely be buying one!

That stone chip on the bonnet is dying to be filled in

I'd recommend getting one between 2, then less then a tenner each. If you look after one then you might not need the other (although it is a nice to have).

I'll look into getting the stone chip filled in, then perhaps the other less obvious scrapes too!

audiolab said:
Can't speak for the Sonus ones but I have another brand with a similar waffle wave pattern. I also failed at drying with microfibre until I bought a waffle weave towel. The microfibre cloths I had were like an ordinary towel only made from microfibre and they were useless for drying. However these waffle weave ones have an enormous capacity to hold water and I can get round the whole car without wringing it out.

I bought a single 38"x28" towel for £10 (can't link as they are a competitor), after using it for a few months I think it is worth a tenner but some may disagree.

Sonus is like that too.

Tim said:
Tail-pipes could do with a polish.

What's best for the chrome?

Sparky · 24 Jun 2008 at 08:32

I always use autosol for chrome

Toker · 24 Jun 2008 at 09:14

sonus is also my drying towel of choice, it's ace.

that's the thing about soft wax, it's easy to apply too much resulting in a mare getting it off, one way to avoid this is to use an applicator pad rather than hand. I'm a hard wax fan myself, it's a bit harder to apply/remove but more durable and easier to apply in thin layers.

normally i'd just recommend a fine polish, such as blackfire wet diamond show polish, but your exhaust tips do look fairly tarnished so I'd use autosol followed by a fine polish.

for applying wax use a foam applicator pad, such as a german applicator pad and for removing use microfibre cloths for buffing off polish and plush microfibre towels for buffing off wax