The wonders of clay bars, T-cut and 3 stage Megs stuff

[Willie]

Night and day
Well done for giving it a bash, its well worth it, as you can see
Have you warned your wife/GF that your will be washing your car every other day now

 

[dasmith83]

i wash it every week anyway....altho this is a bit silly at the moment lol...oh well, will look much better for it! Just don't look forward to doing the rest my arm aches!

 

[Stan 24v]

Looks good mate, Megs is god stuff.

 

[caveo]

So , the clay bar gets rid of all shite on the car THEN you polish it ..yes?

 

[dasmith83]

yes m8

 

[Willie]

So , the clay bar gets rid of all shite on the car THEN you polish it ..yes?

Clay gets rid of all the bonded contaminants ie bird shite, tree sap, tar
But only after you jet wash and hand wash very throughly to get rid of all the grit and dirt as this will scratch your car big time
Claying should not be attempted half heartedly, you can do some serious damage to your car if you don't follow the correct procedures

 

[Dodge85]

Gave this a good go today, but not had much of a result

Clay bar worked great, and the bits i did look very nice and shiny, but no change to the color at all.

was i maybe to careful with the T-cut? i didn't use the original stuff but the yellow colored one, which i think is slightly less abrasive?

Will try a few more panels when its not quite so cold!

 

[Willie]

Try concentrating on a very small spot to see how long, how much pressure and what technique works best to get rid of the oxidation
But keep trying, its not easy but well worth it
What are you using to apply the T cut?

 

[dasmith83]

Gave this a good go today, but not had much of a result

Clay bar worked great, and the bits i did look very nice and shiny, but no change to the color at all.

was i maybe to careful with the T-cut? i didn't use the original stuff but the yellow colored one, which i think is slightly less abrasive?

Will try a few more panels when its not quite so cold!

I guess you may have been a bit light handed with the t-cut...i couldn't find any of the yellow stuff...so i used the original t-cut...you have to apply a fair amount of pressure and quite a few wipes...however i have come accross 1 patch which didn't change colour at all...strange

managed to do another door check out the 0's and X's board lol (it helps me see where i've done)

 

[Willie]

Great idea the X's and O's

 

[Dodge85]

I'll give it another go tomorrow if its a bit warmer i think, and ill be a bit more aggressive!

did notice on the bonnet the color was very slightly different (still barely noticeable) on the edge of the raised bit. expect i was putting more pressure on a smaller area when i was doing that..

 

[Dodge85]

well, had another good go at this today, even went out an bought some proper t-cut (on the colored stuff bottles it even says to use original for bad cases). Spent ages on one spot...

no change whatso ever

Guess i just need to accept my car is faded, and i can't do nought about it. re-call someone else on here coming to the same conclusion and having to go for a full-respray.

Still at least its spotless and shining now, even if faded.

 

[ADAM_84]

Could it be down to the age of the car? My yellow cupra is really faded and it didn't help me having an accident in it and the bodyshop spraying the car the original colour at the front and doing a crap job blending it. Will definitely be having ago at this as seeing the difference in colour really annoys me.

 

[Willie]

Right, we're going to get your car sorted if its the last thing I do.

What you will need;

- Application sponge, can get from Halfords 3 for £5 approx
- T cut
- 1 clean and dry car
- Alot for time, effort and elbow grease

With 1 clean and dry car, pick a panel, lets say the bonnet. In your mind divide it up into 12 sections. Pick one section. Slightly dampen the application sponge, apply a 50 pence piece sized blob of T cut to one of the edges of the sponge, spred this over a 1ft x 1ft area you are going to tackle by rubbing in circular motion, apply same amount of T cut to the sponge again, with small overlapping circles for 5 minutes constantly go over this area. After 5 mins clean off this area with a damp cloth/sponge then with a clean and dry cloth, cleaning off the remaining marks. Inspect this area, if it still needs done a bit more attack it again but this time adjust the amount of T cut on your sponge so there isn't too much but enough. If your finding it very difficult to get any oxidation to budge try smaller circles with more pressure but do start of being quite gentle as you don't want to remove too much clear coat. If circles are not working for you try straight lines but be very careful as you can remove alot of clear coat this way if not careful.
Repeat these steps until car is finished
Hope this helps

 

[Dodge85]

haha, i appreicate your dedication!

ill give it one more go next weekend, i was using a damp halfords cotton cloth type thing, used about the amount of t-cut you said, and worked on a 15cm square ish area. went at it for a good few mins, no change what so ever!

i would guess its faded under the clear coat, so the only way im gunna restore it is to respray, or t-cut untill i have no clear coat left!

 

[Willie]

Na.. the fading will be the clear coat, I'm sure of it
The cloth would have been your down fall, the weave would have swallowed up the T cut and not allowing it to get incontact with the bodywork
If you don't want to get a application sponge a bath sponge cut up would do
Let us know how you get on

 

[NickP]

Personally I think you'll see much quicker results using a PC and something like Megs #80 or Carlack on a polishing Pad.

I wouldn't use T Cut, I'd use something with diminishing abrasives as to avoid paint marring something like Megs #80 or #83, Meranza or Sonus products are all really good quality polishes.

Add a layer of quality wax such as Zymol Destiny after sealing with something like Jeffs Acrylic/Carnuba Jett and you'll be on the way to a really nice finish

 

[Willie]

Nick I would have advised the same, or for extra quick results a rotary
The thing is the guys are very new to this and with the products that they have I have been trying to help them get the results that they desire
I too have a PC with menzerna products, this I would advise to everyone due to the class of the products
But
At £100 for the PC, £25 for the transformer and £80 for the menzerna range its a bit beyond most peoples thoughts of car cleaning stuff

 

[Leigh15]

Clay bar and polish will NOT strip the wax off!!

I beg to differ - my Poorboys Professional polish is specically designed to strip all the old wax off as is clearly stated on the label

 

[Willie]

I beg to differ - my Poorboys Professional polish is specically designed to strip all the old wax off as is clearly stated on the label

So Leigh, if you were going to strip all the wax off of a car your first port of call would be to get out the Poorboys polish would it?
Thats fair enough and each to their own.
When stripping wax off of my car I want something quick and easy that is why I use a solution of tar and glue or the like. This has been recommended to me by one of the best (in my mind) professional detailers in Britian. This is what they use and so do I. This works well for them and myself. There are quite literally hundreds of ways of stripping wax, some suit some and some suit others.
Leigh, if you had taken the time to continue to read through my whole post you would have seen that I backed up this statement with a counter claim.
The fact that some polished will remove wax I have admitted to and don't doubt.
What I was trying to advise was the easiest and quickest way for someone who is starting off in car cleaning to get the best results. I'm sorry that you took this as a personal dig, it was not ment this way. If I had a problem with you I would tell you not try and have a sly dig, not my bag man
Hope you take this in the context it was ment and we don't have to start getting personal