Tart up car.

Nevakonaza

Nevakonaza

Nevakonaza

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My old man has a 2003 VW Golf GTI in a dark grayish colour..Lovely car but its looking a bit tired and lost its shine,And water doesnt run off it anymore..
i know it needs a good professional detailing but theyre expensive..like £250+ and they need the car for 2 days minimum which isnt no good as he relies on it daily like most people.

So..What steps can we do ourselves to bring back its shine?,Obviously it wont be as good as a proper detail but anything than leave it as it is.

Been looking at these detailing stuff you can get from well known car parts suppliers,Looking at reviews they're pretty good but who knows if these reviews are just written by the manufacturers.

  • Sonax Xtreme Brilliant Shine Detailer 750ml (basically spray on)

Or would it be better to go for a Paste wax in the tin?

  • Meguiars Gold Class Paste Wax

What steps would you recommend?..what to clean the car with first before doing this sort of Wax/Detail spray?

We have a pressure washer so we can give it a good clean before.

appreciate the help.
 
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Some decent Autoglym bits should do you fine.

Shampoo, then resin to coat the bodywork, the wheel cleaner (this made my wheels go from dark grey and caked with brake dust to shiny silver in a single go), use a wheel sealer and protector, then whatever other parts are needing a scrub up. Glass, interior, plastic trim areas, all have the available stuff and these will last a good while, and they all work as they're meant to. :)
 
Probably getting on a bit now and paintwork covered in crap. Really need to clean the paintwork up first to get a better finish. Which means something like a wash, iron x, rinse, clay mitt(much much easier than clay bar), wash, then start the polishing/waxing.
 
chroniclard said:
Probably getting on a bit now and paintwork covered in crap. Really need to clean the paintwork up first to get a better finish. Which means something like a wash, iron x, rinse, clay mitt(much much easier than clay bar), wash, then start the polishing/waxing.
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As above really, and I'm sure we all have our favorite products.

I like Bilt Hamber, Auto wash as a shampoo on a grimy car, a tiny amount does the trick.

CarPro-UK now do a combined Tar and iron fallout remover that works well called Trix

Back to Bilt Hamber for the clay bars, they are second to none and come in Soft, medium and regular. Big advantage is they don't need clay lube only water.

I'm old school re polish and fall back on Autoglym SRP every time, and extra gloss protection to make for that bit of extra shine.

For longevity/beading you really can't beat BSD at the money, its become my goto quick detailer.
 
Sonax Xtreme Brilliant Shine Detailer 750ml is just a detailer and water repellent spray for a quick reshine to well maintained paintwork.

Sonax 1837503 X-treme Polish + Wax 3 Hybrid NPT 250 ml would be better for dull paintwork. I love SONAX products and the fact it doesn't have a modern sissy name and poncy fragrance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpiHL8O5k08
 
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AshD93 said:
Just find a detailer who can do it in a day. It's not a big car.

Then just maintain it yourself.
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This. I was quoted £120 to do my octavia which is a large golf for all intents and purposes. That was a clean, dry, clay, 2 stage polish and wax. Done at my workplace in less than a day.
£250 and 2 days is someone having a laugh
 
Tbh, I think you'll find any generic T-Cut and wax / polish afterwards (circa £20) will transform its appearance!

Of course, a professional detail will look better and if you can afford it, do this.

A trip to Halfrauds and some elbow grease though will work wonders though, especially on a 12year old car that's probably not seen a good cut & wax in 10years!
 
Bensons said:
Are those buffer wheels any good?
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Personally I think it's best to start by hand. You get a much better feel for the paintwork and what you're doing to it with various products.

Normal rotaries can easily do damage to the paintwork if you don't know what you're doing. A dual-action (DA) is safer in this regard, but more expensive!
 
Get yerself to Halfords...

CLay Mitt

£12.99

Quick Detailer

£8.99

And grab a AG Bodywork giftset

£20

Theyre pretty much always ion the 3 for 2, the gift sets were only £10 in mine (so I bought 9 of them lol) The SRP and Gloss enhancer are well worth it as they're about £12 a bottle anyway.

I have heard very good things about that sonax BSD mind, but that's probably a wait for delivery jobby tbh, I cant seem to find any sonax stuff locally.
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
Get yerself to Halfords...

CLay Mitt

£12.99

Quick Detailer

£8.99

And grab a AG Bodywork giftset

£20

Theyre pretty much always ion the 3 for 2, the gift sets were only £10 in mine (so I bought 9 of them lol) The SRP and Gloss enhancer are well worth it as they're about £12 a bottle anyway.

I have heard very good things about that sonax BSD mind, but that's probably a wait for delivery jobby tbh, I cant seem to find any sonax stuff locally.
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That AG Bodywork giftset looks perfect,So how do i go about this?

Wash car normaly?..
1)clay with that mitt
2)then wash it again with the AG Shampoo/Conditioner
3)then use the Super resiln polish
4)xtra gloss protector after and thats it?

What sort of cloth would you recommend? Mitt?

Sorry i have no clue about this sort of stuff,Just want to make it look better cheap. :p
 
If you're buying from Halfords alone.

Two Buckets
Megs Lambs Wool Mitt
Megs Gold Class Shampoo
G3 Clay Mitt
G3 Waffle Applicator or Megs Microfibre Applicator
AG Super Resin Polish
AG Wax will do if you can buy online Collinite 476S lasts long


Wash car using 2 bucket method with the shampoo, make a new bucket of shampoo and clay the car, with another new bucket wash the car again with 2 bucket method, apply SRP and then wax.

Can't talk much for wheels as I use fall out remover and then just shampoo
 
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euro car parts do the sonax stuff.

you will need a quick detail spray if you are going to use the clay mit(i hate the mits btw prefer traditional clay). autoglym rapid detail spray is amazing and smells so good.

right now you just want to give it a good clean wax it and keep it that way.

the super resin polish is full of fillers which in your situation is a good thing rather than taking a machine to the paint with a compound to get rid of any swirls the polish will fill them in instead and make the paint look shiny again.

chemical guys stuff is good but i find this guy annoying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqW1nzgyMNA
 
opstrat said:
euro car parts do the sonax stuff.

you will need a quick detail spray if you are going to use the clay mit(i hate the mits btw prefer traditional clay). autoglym rapid detail spray is amazing and smells so good.

right now you just want to give it a good clean wax it and keep it that way.

the super resin polish is full of fillers which in your situation is a good thing rather than taking a machine to the paint with a compound to get rid of any swirls the polish will fill them in instead and make the paint look shiny again.

chemical guys stuff is good but i find this guy annoying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqW1nzgyMNA
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Shampoo on the mitt works better ;)
 
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