So, spent the afternoon, IN THE RAIN, cleaning the car. Started with the wheels and then proceeded to do the paint in a break in the weather.
Items used:
Wheels
Autosmart Smart Wheels
Autosmart Autowash
1" Sash brush
Halfords Microfibre Glove
Generic Microfibre mitt
Paint
Car-Chem 1900:1 Shampoo (cherry)
Microfibre wash mitt
Sonax BSD
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Started by using my foaming trigger sprayer to spray Smart Wheels all over the wheels, then going at them individually. Smart Wheels is an awesome wheel cleaner, it pulls the dirt right out of the tyres. I can, in the summer, just spray and rinse and the wheels will be 98% clean. I used the sash brush to get stubborn spots of dirt and then used the Microfibre glove soaked in a bucket of Autosmart Autowash to clean the face, spokes and rear of the spokes. They came up a treat, even though they do need a refurb.
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Gregory Berry, on Flickr
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I then, after a break in the weather, moved onto the paint. It was filthy, I feel ashamed. I filled the rinse bucket up with just water, and the wash bucket with a dollop of Car Chem shampoo and agitated it with the hose and then dunked the wash mitt in. I picked up a fancy sprayer for the hose that's meant to be used for spraying fertiliser and other gardening liquids. I filled it up with Autowash (only £10 for 5l so no need to diltute) and then sprayed it over the car. It didn't do much apart from soften the dirt, which is what I wanted anyway. I didn't get the pressure washer out as it was pouring down and water and electricity don't mix...
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I sprayed the car and then did a two bucket wash. No pictures as I wanted to get it done asap before it started raining. It's lovely to see the top half of the paint and windows beading.
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Gregory Berry, on Flickr
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It's coated in Collinite 845, however the beading on the lower half of the car has started to diminish so I used Sonax BSD to bring it back to life. Beads brilliantly, but I miss having Fireball Hydrophobic Snow Foam. It made life so much easier.
I also think a DA session is in order as it doesn't seem to look as shiny as some other Albi Blue's about (might be the light though?)
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In other news, I took the wing mirror covers off and wet sanded them with 1500 wet n dry, 2500 wet n dry and then polished them with the DA using Meguiars Ultimate Compound and then Auto Finesse Refine to bring it that gorgeous shine. It's now been coated in C5 (C1, C4 and C5 are the exact same product, don't know why one is more expensive...), which should mean it beads for years
New front light is on the way for a bargain price (I hope I can swap the motor over...), and I am planning my wheel refurb. I am just going to go with Black, as I want to make it Black&Blue. The door handles need painting, which will be in gloss black, and the bullets also, in gloss black. I also need to repaint the calipers where the pins are as I kept slipping when I tried to hammer them out a few weeks ago. Double sided tape is also on its way from eBay to sort out the rear quarter glass trim, as it's starting to come away. I'll save that till a nice hot day so the tape has the best chance to bond.
The list of things to do is getting smaller, it doesn't feel like it though!
