120 D-tail

Matt

While round at the in-laws putting the final touches to the SMART I did last week, I was asked to do the father-in-laws 120 D. Now, this is 30 months and 50,000 miles of build up. It gets the occasional clean at the local migrant hand car wash.

So, first up, the wheels.

Soaked in bilberry, and scrubbed with a few different brushes.

Whole car snow-foamed with Auto-rae chem snow foam, and Chemical Guys Maxii Suds 2

This was rinsed off, and then washed by hand.

Now for a claying. The paint was really rough to the touch. I used Meguiars clay with Chemical Guys quick detailer as lubricant

The front wing

The whole car

The whole car was then re-washed by hand, and dried off

I set about polishing the car with Poorboys SSR2 and a mild cut Sonus Orange pad.

This really brought the flake out in the paint

You can just about make the swirls on these roof shots

All gone

Some of the rest of the car after being polished

Once the car was polished, the nice clean paint was given a going over with Chemical Guys EZ-Creme Glaze

This went on really easily, and was easy to buff off.

After this, a coat of Poor Boys Nattys Blue was applied.

I'd just finished buffing this off, and it began to rain! So a sandwich later, here are some beading shots 😃

Some overall shots of the finished car

dodger

very good work there matt, you are getting good at this detailing stuff.

I hope you didn't use that clay bar to do the whole car without turning over the clay bar and then folding it over to get a fresh clay surface.

Daniel

lookin good matt any chance of cleaning myn maybe lol ???????????????

vocky

you made quite a difference to the car Matt, looks much better 🙂

Sjdickso

That does look great.
Good work.

Much more depth to the colour, great beading shots.

Matt

dodger said:
I hope you didn't use that clay bar to do the whole car without turning over the clay bar and then folding it over to get a fresh clay surface.

No mate, the other side was the same, just didn't take two different pictures.

dodger

I love using the clay bar, it really shows how much containiation (sp) there still is on the paintwork even though it's been washed thoughly.

Matt

I know mate, first time I used it on the Vectra I was amazed. The car looked really clean, but the clay bar still pulled loads of crap off.

Daniel

are clay bars dear ????? i never used 1

Matt

Danny Boy said:
are clay bars dear ????? i never used 1

No mate, the Meguiars kit from Halfords is about £16, and that includes 2 clay bars, quick detail lube, some wax, and a macrofibre cloth.

Daniel

so what do ya do just wash the car then dry off ,then just rub the clay bay over ??? then maybe polish and wax ???

Sjdickso

Danny Boy said:
so what do ya do just wash the car then dry off ,then just rub the clay bay over ??? then maybe polish and wax ???

In brief yes thats about right but you also use quick detailer as lube. Making sure that the clay is nice and soft somtimes you have to drop ity in warm water to soften it. Also if it picks up a stone or grit just chuck it.

TBH i wouldnt really clay unless i was going to machine polish after as i have found that clay can induce marring into the paint.

JohnnyN

Bloody top job there Matt. I had to get the clay bar out on mine tonight. There were some orange spots on the rear N/S door. They almost look like rust spots but they're not. Rubbed off quite easily with the clay. I then used Megs Stage 2, NXT Tech Wax and then Poorboys EX-P to finish. I ended up doing the whole N/S. Bloody OCD does my head in!!

rofl..