Hi all,
I read this forum now for quite a while, but it was time that post a thread from my own.
Detailing in Belgium is not very known, people use their car to drive from A to B without taking care of it.
Most cars here are scattered with road grime, scratches, dents and bruses.
Only a few are "possesed" with the detailing virus (like me, :up )
I'm a professional window cleaner in my daytime, and work as a waiter in a disco-club in the weekends.
The very few time that is left, I do occaisonally cars from friends and neighbours, but this on a "give what you think it's worth" base. Not that I work for free (the average detailing brings in 125 $ for a few hours of work).
Mostly they are surprised with the result :
Wow, did you actually gave my car a respray ?
Ooh, you changed the interior...
Hey, those nasty swirl marks are gone...
Nice job on the parking dents...
And so on...
But today I bit the bullet and detailed my own car.
A few months ago I ordered a Master collection from Swissol, together with some extra products to complete...
There are not so many (good! ) products available in Belgium so a Master collection was an easy solution to get all the stuff in one time...
This was my way of working :
1. Wash the car, starting with the wheels and wheelwells with weal cleaner (Swissol) and some citrus based degreaser (MC2 named here), the car itself was washed with Swissol shampoo using a washing cloth and an insect sponge (nasty bugs here !!!)
2. Claying the car with a paint rubber and some soapy solution, that took about 3 (three !!) hours because I wanted to remove all the black dots and spots, bug marks, overspray on the side and so on...
3. Removing all parking dents and spots with specialized tools (not for the beginner !)
4. treatment with a cleaner fluid to remove light scratches and swirls marks..., apllied with a special apllicator and starting with "medium", then "normal" stuff.
5. Inspecting the whole car from top to bottom
Now we are about 6 hours from the start, pretty tough ...
6. Cover all the plastic stuff in dressing, an almond smelling liquid called "plastic" (obviously) to feed and protect plastics (front spoiler lip, sidewalls and so on...)
7.Applying Samurai Carnuba Wax with a special applicator, very sparingly and evenly spread on the whole paintwork.
8. Buffing the whole car, stand back and andmire the faboulous gloss and deep shine.
There are still some stone-chips and a light scratch on the left-side door, nothing to worrie when you keep in mind that I ride this car daily.
I also do track-days with this car, drive extremely hard and beating the hell out of it.
My personal favourite is the Nurburgring, it's like a Mekka for car-nuts like me....
I attached some pics of the result...
http://www.autopia.org/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=15510&thumb=1
I do like some comment on this (positive-negative), but before somebody will say :
Swissol is expensive but extremely good.
When I'm on Holiday later this year -Florida, Disneyland and so on...- I will buy stuff that you guys recommend...
Cheers,
Wally
I read this forum now for quite a while, but it was time that post a thread from my own.
Detailing in Belgium is not very known, people use their car to drive from A to B without taking care of it.
Most cars here are scattered with road grime, scratches, dents and bruses.
Only a few are "possesed" with the detailing virus (like me, :up )
I'm a professional window cleaner in my daytime, and work as a waiter in a disco-club in the weekends.
The very few time that is left, I do occaisonally cars from friends and neighbours, but this on a "give what you think it's worth" base. Not that I work for free (the average detailing brings in 125 $ for a few hours of work).
Mostly they are surprised with the result :
Wow, did you actually gave my car a respray ?
Ooh, you changed the interior...
Hey, those nasty swirl marks are gone...
Nice job on the parking dents...
And so on...
But today I bit the bullet and detailed my own car.
A few months ago I ordered a Master collection from Swissol, together with some extra products to complete...
There are not so many (good! ) products available in Belgium so a Master collection was an easy solution to get all the stuff in one time...
This was my way of working :
1. Wash the car, starting with the wheels and wheelwells with weal cleaner (Swissol) and some citrus based degreaser (MC2 named here), the car itself was washed with Swissol shampoo using a washing cloth and an insect sponge (nasty bugs here !!!)
2. Claying the car with a paint rubber and some soapy solution, that took about 3 (three !!) hours because I wanted to remove all the black dots and spots, bug marks, overspray on the side and so on...
3. Removing all parking dents and spots with specialized tools (not for the beginner !)
4. treatment with a cleaner fluid to remove light scratches and swirls marks..., apllied with a special apllicator and starting with "medium", then "normal" stuff.
5. Inspecting the whole car from top to bottom
Now we are about 6 hours from the start, pretty tough ...
6. Cover all the plastic stuff in dressing, an almond smelling liquid called "plastic" (obviously) to feed and protect plastics (front spoiler lip, sidewalls and so on...)
7.Applying Samurai Carnuba Wax with a special applicator, very sparingly and evenly spread on the whole paintwork.
8. Buffing the whole car, stand back and andmire the faboulous gloss and deep shine.
There are still some stone-chips and a light scratch on the left-side door, nothing to worrie when you keep in mind that I ride this car daily.
I also do track-days with this car, drive extremely hard and beating the hell out of it.
My personal favourite is the Nurburgring, it's like a Mekka for car-nuts like me....
I attached some pics of the result...
http://www.autopia.org/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=15510&thumb=1
I do like some comment on this (positive-negative), but before somebody will say :
Swissol is expensive but extremely good.
When I'm on Holiday later this year -Florida, Disneyland and so on...- I will buy stuff that you guys recommend...
Cheers,
Wally