Detailing tips.

[TinSnips]

Thanks Kuzman. Toey (post #4) would be every bit as nuts about the topic as me, if not moreso! He does incredible work.

 

[Dannyp]

Thanks a lot everyone! Awesome feedback and a lot of good ideas. Gonna get a jump on it this weekend and throw up a photo anyone ever heard of a short detailing course you can do? I heard of one at CIT but dunno how trustworthy it could be. Oh and i've been looking through toeys and tinsnips pages since i joined the forum and very impressed with the skills

 

[TinSnips]

CCP run them in Five Dock, if you don't mind the drive to Sydney.

 

[Brenno]

So on the topic of detailing..

What's the trick to engine bays?

Obviously the can of degreaser and high pressure hose not so great..

 

[TinSnips]

So on the topic of detailing..

What's the trick to engine bays?

Obviously the can of degreaser and high pressure hose not so great..

Nothing fundamentally wrong with that with modern motors. If it's not feral, a gentler mix of APC and a soft brush to get in all the crooks and nannies will be all that's needed to clean it. By all means high pressure it - keep the lance a bit of a distance from the surface though - the pressure will do the work, you don't need masses of water flooding through the bay. On a VE, I'll cover the alternator - that's about it. Plug up an OTR if the filter is exposed. Bag an exposed pod. If there's no turtle shell cover on the motor, like I said, just keep the lance a bit of a distance away so you don't force water into the coil packs.

When you're done, towel or blow any big amounts of water, spray in some plastic dressing and idle the car for 5 min.

 

[Brenno]

Here I was thinking there'd be some fancy way to do it.. Was mainly worried about coils and plug leads being fairly exposed.. But yeah I wouldn't put the pressure hose too close at all..

 

[TinSnips]

You won't have any dramas so long as you don't force the water in there - Audi coils are apparently a bit notorious, so I bag those to be safe (kind of like being extra careful with the paint in Mini bays and door shuts) but you won't have any problems with a VE if you maintain a little common sense and don't wail on it with the lance. You'll find you're moving a lot less water around the bay with a karcher or gerni than with a garden hose as the pressure will do the bulk of the work, not relying on flooding the chemicals out.

 

[toey@carfx]

Well I was going to find where you live to suggest where to do a course at. Ccp does hit the road with their into to detailing which covers washing, drying, claying, machine polishing with random orbital polisher and protecting the paint. Well worth the small fee ($40 for memory).

I would suggest skipping detail world as my opinion is its very sponsor driven and lots of egos there. There is some great info and amazing work done but alot of crap to look through too. Best bet is detail paradise as its a Australian forum, very welcoming there.

Everything else is pretty much covered.

Btw tinny you will shed a tear over what's going to happen to the limo this weekend, there will be qd n tyre shine, then some smoke, strapped down for a tune n power run, some big rooster tails and lots of opposite lock......... Can only mean its kandos weekend car will not look like it just copped a 10 hour detail

 

[Shiny Alex]

I would suggest skipping detail world as my opinion is its very sponsor driven and lots of egos there. There is some great info and amazing work done but alot of crap to look through too. Best bet is detail paradise as its a Australian forum, very welcoming there.

No worse than here
and you get any answers quickly, not knocking DP but it's a bit slow.

Plus everyone in Blighty loves Aussie cars :thumb;

 

[RiCeY]

Nothing fundamentally wrong with that with modern motors. If it's not feral, a gentler mix of APC and a soft brush to get in all the crooks and nannies will be all that's needed to clean it. By all means high pressure it - keep the lance a bit of a distance from the surface though - the pressure will do the work, you don't need masses of water flooding through the bay. On a VE, I'll cover the alternator - that's about it. Plug up an OTR if the filter is exposed. Bag an exposed pod. If there's no turtle shell cover on the motor, like I said, just keep the lance a bit of a distance away so you don't force water into the coil packs.

When you're done, towel or blow any big amounts of water, spray in some plastic dressing and idle the car for 5 min.

Also bag alarm sirens, I learnt that many years ago the hard way...