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Full Detail With Some Added Gloss

Introduction

We are all Subaru enthusiasts and like to look after our Scoobies, some more than others. If you want the ultimate shine you’ll most likely need to “Detail” your car. This involves around 22 hours of washing and polishing your pride and joy! The following article gives you an idea of the level of the attention to detail and effort that goes into to professionally ‘detailing’ your car. This article is predominantly based on a write-up from a detailing company (see link at end) with plenty of pictures illustrating the differences between a wash and a ‘detail’.

The Car (Dirty)

The car being detailed is “gazb’s” car, a WRX 05 with 28k on the clock (SIDC member).

Hot Foaming Wash

Onto my first of many foaming procedures this was done with Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner Diluted in my foam lance with the hot washer set at 60oCWRX_Detailing_wrxduring1.JPG

Wheel Wash

Next stage is the wheels for this my list includes:

• Gloss It wheel gel diluted @ 4:1
• Meguiars Super Degreaser @ 4:1
• Ultimate wheel face brush, I have about 12 different sizes of these for different wheels
• EZ Detail Small Wheel Brush
• EZ Detail Large Wheel Brush
• Wheel Arch Brush
• Small inner wheel brush for stubborn marks
• Not show in this picture a Brush for cleaning the sidewalls of tyres

Wheel clean products	Wheel Before	Now we start cleaning...

Engine Bay Wash

Next stop engine bay. Now knowing that Subaru’s are all about the flat-4 and the driving I made sure I got this mega clean.

Before...

Now for this task I used:

• Meguiars Super Degreaser 4:1 (making sure that i only sprayed onto the brush along the edges of the wing due to the nature of the product it can mark paint if not careful)
• Selection of Brushes including the Meguiars Triple action brush

Spraying the engine bay with any chemical or water is unsafe as water ingress into electrical components can cause failure of the parts. However owning one of these i know the weak spots under the engine bay.

So plenty of degreaser sprayed onto the engine components. Trick here is never let it dry or it will stain.

Let it sit and then start washing with brush

Like most Japanese cars, the engine bays take a fair amount of scrubbing and this one was no different so once I had spent 30 mins getting all the small bits done I needed a bigger more efficient tool for the job, bring on the:

• Autosmart Tornador Cleaning Tool & 2.5hp 50Lt Compressor

When I first got into car cleaning and was put up against some serious challenges I found this tool and it made my life so much easier. Basically it sprays cleaning solution or air out of a nozzle in a circular motion and is a very fine mist but as the cleaning solution is coming out of the pipe, the pipe is spinning round in the tube causing a tornado effect in the tube that then soaks all the debris up the tube and it sticks to the inside of the tube. This can then be cleaned by spraying in a bucket of clean warm water. To assist me here i gave a gentle APC foam @ 60oC but don’t try this at home.

Final rinse done with hot water @75oC lower pressure.

After...

Rubber Trim Clean

Now this is a very important stage in the cleaning process as making sure your rubbers are clean as green tree sap and general grime can build up, this car wasn’t too bad but you would be amazed how dirty even the rubber can get. This was done again with Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner @ 6:1 by brush and trigger bottle

Window Rubbers

Misc Crevices e.g. Fuel Cap, Doors, etc.

Fuel Cap		All purpose Cleaner again
You will only be able to go so far with APC, now switch back to Super Degreaser for heavy stains	Now clean making sure the rinse off was done quickly as this will stain the paint

On with the rest and it suddenly dawned on me the tornador, I will just use that instead.

Badge to remove old polish

Door handle, note the end of the tornador tube is like a brush

Door checks done with Super Degreaser and rinsed @ 80oC with very low pressure and with the aid of tornador

	Number plates and mounting brackets removed

Wash Time (again)

Now wash time so remembering that I have foamed the car probably 3/4 times with APC and rinsed i need to hand wash with minimal chance of damaging paint with contact. Now for the washing I usually foam the car up with Meguiars Hyper Wash @ 60oC and then set out my 2BM(2 bucket method). One bucket full off warm water and Meguiars Shampoo Plus and the other bucket filled with plain water. The first for washing and the second one is for rinsing the wash mitt out after each panel. The reason for this is to not contaminate the shampoo with dirty water as I will now demonstrate.

			Washing
Notice the colour of the water in the rinse bucket after half the car washed	Done	Let the water settle and this is what it is like now. I have already pre-foamed and rinsed a total of 5 times minimum

Surface Tar & Contamination Clean

Car was given a rinse again. Next step is to remove as much of the surface tar and contamination using a great Tar and Glue remover. This is sprayed all over the car and left to soak.

Before...

The Tar and Glue remover working

Car then rinsed again and taken inside for drying. This done with my black baron vehicle dryer and various super plush drying towels. The drying machine is great for drying out wheel’s, rubbers, badges and panels. You know when you have spent ages on your car polishing etc and you take it for a drive and you get those nasty water runs from under your mirrors etc. This stops that and also reduces the brakes from rusting.

Now the next stage was to Clay the car and I am afraid that battery had run out. I used Meg’s mild clay with water and once done car taken back outside again to be rinsed down and dried. The reason we use clay is due to surface contamination embedding itself on the surface. If the contamination is bad I will opt for more aggressive clay that will in turn mark the surface slightly but the machine polishing would remove that.

Next was the job of taking paint depth readings. This is a stage that i do to get a feel for how deep the paint is and also how much i have to play with. I can do it by eye usually but this is a must just to make sure.

This is the deepest reading	The minimum reading	Demonstration to show how thick paint is on a car. I first put my depth gauge on the paint at the corner of the blue tape and take a reading.
Reading	Now i will place a sheet of A4 paper in-between the gauge and the paint so whatever the thickness of the paper will be on top of 111um reading before, Now this reading includes primer, base colour and lacque	Now the reading. The paint is just thicker in total than the A4 paper

Paint Defect Repair

Now some defects in the paint that we will correct.

Now some defects...

For correction today I decided to take the Gloss It correction products. These products are slightly different from others as the way they work requires a different procedure, so Gloss It evolution cut. My tool choice is Festool Shinex Rotary using a 3m backing plate and a selection of Gloss It pads.

Gloss It products	Defect before...	During...	Gloss Enhancing Detail spray
Defects before	After	Before	After
Scratch on the back bumper - before	Machined but not enough to mask the mark so wet sand route I think	Wet sand	After wet sand
Before	After

Driver’s door before, the customer had already tried to take some tar marks off with some polish and a cloth.

Before...

After the first pass

Done to a level where I can refine the rest on my final pass

Now one thing about detailing is that you will not always get all marks completely out as you may risk striking through the clear coat or even making the paint colour look different from the whole car so this is the defect left

Defect left behind	Defect before	After	Before
Before	After	After	After
Before	The exhaust needed some treatment

Lights Polished

The great thing about machine polishing is the way the lights polish up,

Before		After
Headlights Before	Before	After
After	Before	After

Car washed again and then dried to make sure all the compound was removed as it did get pretty bad at points. To this stage there was 12 hours work,

Refining

Now no pictures of refining but I used again my festool rotary machine and my Gloss It backing plate due to the softer foam and a mixture of the Gloss It Green Pad and the Gloss It Blue pad. Then a nice final wipe down with a super plush towel and some Gloss It Gloss Enhancer detailing spray.

Now the finishing touches were to apply LSP (Last Stage Product) so the choice had to be:

Finishing Touches

First base coat to the sealant Gloss It Finish applied with Meguiars G220 DA with a Gloss It Finishing Red pad @ speed 4 Then topped with, Gloss It Con-corso applied with again the G220 with a different Gloss It Red pad @ speed 3 This is a Show Car finish with not the greatest durability but is ideal as a maintenance product for my customers as it always brings bling to the party. What you have to understand about LSP products are they all give a slightly different look. Carnauba Wax makes the car look wet but will dull down the flake slightly and the lines of the car will not be as defined. Sealants depending on make will give flake pop and will give major gloss look like this Gloss It product or sharp defined lines like Jeff Werkstatt. There are lots of others but there is better looks than others. I like durability but i love the Ultimate Shine look. I am currently testing all of the G-Techniq Nano based stuff and this stuff has crazy water beading and durability and i mean crazy and it will withstand a lot. I am just about to coat Ice-Dog’s wheels with this stuff before they get fitted and i have no doubt that it will last for months and months.

Tyre Dressing, Gloss It Signature Tyre Dressing & Gloss It cortex applicator sponge. X 3 Coats	Detailing Spray,Gloss It Gloss Enhancer and Poorboys Deluxe mega towel	Wheels done with Optiseal and Meguiars even coat applicator	Inner arches and mud flaps with Gloss It TRV and Gloss It applicator
Glass - Brilliant Glass cleaner and Glass Cloths and G-Techniq C2 liquid crystal

Under the bonnet done with, 303 Aerospace protectnt on black rubber hoses and plastics

G-Techniq C2 liquid crystal on the underside of bonnet and the inner arches.

The Finished Product (Very Clean)

Well after 22 hours and a lot of hard work here she is.

Information Source - SIDC forum thread, Ultimate Shine: My05 Wrx Full Detail With Some Added Gloss
Ultimate Shine Web Site, Ultimate Shine