New car Astra SRi detail

[shaunwistow]

Well as most of you know my new company car arrived. As it was driven from the dealership in Norwich it arrived with 175 miles on the clock. Within a few days I started the prep work for the forthcoming detail.


First up was to foam the car & give it a wash with Farecla G3 Body Prep shampoo. Then it was dried off with the awesome Big Yellow drying towel.





Next up was the wheels which were sprayed with Bilt Hamber Auto Wheels.





Wheels pressure washed & then the bodywork was sprayed with Bilt Hamber Korrosol, which IMO is as good as Iron-X, in fact i'd say it's better as you get more for your money.


I was quite shocked at the amount of fallout on the car, bearing in mind it's brand new.








Car then pressure washed down & washed again with Farecla G3. I didn't De-Tar the car as when inspected there wasn't any Tar to be seen


Then the car was clayed using Bilt Hamber regular clay. I used the G3 shampoo which was left in my wash bucket as the lube. The car was quite clean & this was the clay after the whole car had been done.





Car washed again, yes you guessed it, with Farecla G3. This left the car squeaky clean ready for the next stage which was to be done within a few days. The above took 3 hours in total.


A few days later the car was taken to Shane at High Definition Detail as he kindly let me use his unit in exchange for a few beer tokens.


Car at this stage was relatively clean, so just pressure washed the dust off & then washed with Farecla G3 yet again. Dried with the Big Yellow & the nooks & crannies were blasted out by my mate Steve with a pet dryer. Car then taken inside.


I then dressed the tyres with Adams VRT & the wheels were then covered up to save any potential splatter from polishing.





Whilst I was doing the wheels, Steve polished the car using a Flex VRG, Lake Country Hydrotech Pad using SiRamik Prime. This is a very mild polish, its a perfect product to use as it acts as a base for the forthcoming coating which was to be applied.





Once the polishing was complete Steve applied the SiRamik SC15 coating.





The coating is quite oily, care is needed not to let it dry out, so the bonnet was split into 3. Once the area is covered the product was buffed off & whilst Steve was doing the next area I carried out a secondary buffing to make sure all of the product has been removed. This took about 90 minutes to do the whole car. A 2nd coat was applied which took about an hour.


Some pics after the coating was applied.









The coating cures within a few hours, but it takes a week for it to fully harden. A sacrificial layer of SiRamik Mist was applied over the coating which would allow the coating to cure without the coating being compromised by any rain which might fall within the 1st 7 days.


The coating has been on a test car for nearly 18 months and is showing the same protection as it was when 1st applied.


Car then taken outside, disappointedly the sun went into hiding.








The above took a further 9 hours in addition to the 3 hours spent detoxing the car.


The following morning I came out to this as it had rained overnight.





Many thanks to Shane for the unit & to Steve for all his work.

[WhelanUK]

Great right up and lovely looking car. The colour is stunning.

[Rusty2009]

Great write up that colour looks grey in some of the pics and a very very pale blue in others.

[shaunwistow]

Great write up that colour looks grey in some of the pics and a very very pale blue in others.

Thanks, the colour changes with the light, grey, light blue & pearl when the sun hits it.

[Jj0063]

Lovely.

Is that Flip Chip or Seashell?

Seashell is my favourite colour!

[shaunwistow]

Lovely.

Is that Flip Chip or Seashell?

Seashell is my favourite colour!

Thanks & its Seashell

[dutton84]

Very nice. I'm well into detailing now. Did mine at the weekend. Probably not to the standard of yours though. Ha.

I want to do mine again! Gutted I've got to wait a few months for the wax to wear off.


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[shaunwistow]

Very nice. I'm well into detailing now. Did mine at the weekend. Probably not to the standard of yours though. Ha.

I want to do mine again! Gutted I've got to wait a few months for the wax to wear off.


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Cheers, you don't have to wait, just remove your wax. You can use Autobrite Wax Off, clay the car & wash with Farecla G3 detox shampoo, all of which will remove it.

[tucpal]

very good wright up and a very well done job top marks

[dutton84]

Cool. Cheers for the info.


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[shaunwistow]

very good wright up and a very well done job top marks

Cheers 

[DE5IRED]

Adore the colour looks great


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[shaunwistow]

Adore the colour looks great


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Cheers

[shaunwistow]

Gave the car a clean today, came up rather nice I think

[tucpal]

a good detail lasts very well

[shaunwistow]

a good detail lasts very well

Cheers

[SI SRI]

Fantastic buddy. loving the colour.

[shaunwistow]

Fantastic buddy. loving the colour.

Cheers

[shaunwistow]

Decided to wax over the SiRamik coating to see if I could add any gloss. Wow I'm extremely happy with the results.

I've used many waxes but I have to say this is one of the easiest I've tried. I applied it to the whole car & then went back & buffed it off. It came off so easy. Some waxes you have to do a panel or 2 at a time, not this one.







Very impressive gloss levels IMO

[dutton84]

That looks nice. Need to do mine again


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How much is that stuff?


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[Rusty2009]

very nice

[shaunwistow]

That looks nice. Need to do mine again


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How much is that stuff?


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Cheers, you can get samples for £7.00 for a 30ml tin, or the 200ml glass jar is about £45.00

[tucpal]

that really does look good stuff i will give that a look at

[Tonto]

Looks awesome that mate, I'm praying weather is nice tomorrow to do mine. Needs done badly, think I need to invest in some decent wax!! Do people hand polish their cars or use a machine? Also how difficult is it?


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[dutton84]

Shaunwistow have you used this wax before? If so what do you reckon to it? I think it's good but it's the only wax I've ever used




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[shaunwistow]

Shaunwistow have you used this wax before? If so what do you reckon to it? I think it's good but it's the only wax I've ever used




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Yes I have used it, it is ok, but better ones out there IMO. Loads to choose from, if you are happy with G3 then just stick with it. I'm a bit of a wax ***** so I tend to try quite a few.

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Looks awesome that mate, I'm praying weather is nice tomorrow to do mine. Needs done badly, think I need to invest in some decent wax!! Do people hand polish their cars or use a machine? Also how difficult is it?


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Best results are achieved with a machine polisher. You will never get the same results by hand & by god its hard work polishing by hand.

It's not difficult, just take your time & apply some common sense. Best results are achieved with a proper detox of the paint first ie wash, de-tar, de-iron, clay before polishing.

[Tonto]

Thanks Shaun, I don't have a machine so no polishing for me haha. Will get some decent wax and have a go though. Been using halfords own stuff :/


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[shaunwistow]

Thanks Shaun, I don't have a machine so no polishing for me haha. Will get some decent wax and have a go though. Been using halfords own stuff :/


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No probs, you can polish by hand but its bloody hard work. If you have very slight swirls/marring the something like Gtechniq P1 is good by hand, especially if you want to end up with arms like Popeye, lol.

[Tonto]

Haha no bother, I'll just stick to wash and wax at the moment. Did see a bloke in Gateshead offering mobile detailing so may take him up on that after the winter!


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