Detailing Tips & Tricks....

[Scooter79]

For cleaning leather I use hot soapy water (diswashing liquid is fine) and a chux cloth. Dry it off with a towel but then you need to make sure you use a leather conditioner. Without it your leather will start to crack in no time. Especially during summer when the car is in the sun. If you clean and condition just once a month your leather should last a life time. My choice is Meguiars leather conditioner in the black bottle. Not the foam in the can. There are other cleaners and condtioners out there but for an 'off the shelf product' it works great. Also you don't want your leather to shine. Shiny leather looks nasty and you'll probably slide right off it.

 

[maxpower QLD]

For cleaning leather I use hot soapy water (diswashing liquid is fine) and a chux cloth. Dry it off with a towel but then you need to make sure you use a leather conditioner. Without it your leather will start to crack in no time. Especially during summer when the car is in the sun. If you clean and condition just once a month your leather should last a life time. My choice is Meguiars leather conditioner in the black bottle. Not the foam in the can. There are other cleaners and condtioners out there but for an 'off the shelf product' it works great. Also you don't want your leather to shine. Shiny leather looks nasty and you'll probably slide right off it.

lol cheers 4 the reply mate . :thumbsup:

 

[maxpower QLD]

verry cool n usefull thread good work :thumbsup:

 

[coastvl]

Hi Scooter, mate those black Mercs were the best cars in the world to detail. The paint is rock hard and very tough. Seeing as 90% of mercs are Black :bang: you get used to them after a while.
I work with a few makes now (HONDA,Nissan,KIA and Suzuki) and the Honda has the worst black paint of the lot. Absolute rubbish. The Kia Rio has a better paint (more orange peel though) than the Accord.
I love this smiley! :wax:

 

[jas98]

hey great thread:thumbsup:

I just got a VS commodore...paint color is Rubens red. The paint is in goodish lol it has alot of light scratches (not deep just surface) and a fair bit of swirl marks.....i have polish and wax but i need a product that will help out with these marks....im thinking some product like Maguires scratch X or similar (preferably a product that can be brought form the store not net ) I have done some detailing to a VN that has good paint but that was white and i only used crap polish and cuting compound....come up good considering lol. But with this colour im not sure what i can use.

cheers:thumbsup:

 

[Scooter79]

hey great thread:thumbsup:

I just got a VS commodore...paint color is Rubens red. The paint is in goodish lol it has alot of light scratches (not deep just surface) and a fair bit of swirl marks.....i have polish and wax but i need a product that will help out with these marks....im thinking some product like Maguires scratch X or similar (preferably a product that can be brought form the store not net ) I have done some detailing to a VN that has good paint but that was white and i only used crap polish and cuting compound....come up good considering lol. But with this colour im not sure what i can use.

cheers:thumbsup:

The colour does not dictate what polish and wax you can use. Rubens Mica is a metalic and therefore has a clearcoat finish on top of the colour. So when you polish you are actually polishing the clear paint and all those surface scratches and swirls are actually in the clear. The paint below remains untouched.

Still need to choose your products carefully. There are two ways to remove surface scratches/swirls/imperfections. 1 is to use a product which contains fillers. These fillers do just that; 'fill' the swirls to make them appear they don't exist. 2 is use a product that contains abbrassives and actually removes the swirls. Problem with option 1 is after one or two washes the fillers wash away and the swirls are back.

Meguiars scratch X is more designed for spot fixing. I have seen some entire cars done with Scratch X but give yourself an entire day and expect a sore arm afterwards. It's slow and tedious. Unfortunately I can't think of a single product you can buy off the shelf other than Kitten cut and polish in the round tin. I haven't used it so can't really comment. I prefer to work with a machine but can become costly when you add up the cost of the machine, pads and product. If you're interested in the machine method look at my previous posts is this thread. You could always pay a pro to do it.

On the topic of waxing some say that particular waxes or sealants 'look' better darker colours, some on lighter. Seeing that you have a darker colour like me you want to create some 'depth' to the shine. On light colours you want to enhance reflections. Meguiars #26 Yellow Wax has a good reputation on darker colours and available in all auto shops. Hope this helps.

 

[jas98]

hey thanks for that :thumbsup:

yeh i may just give a section a good polish and wax and see how it comes up....if not i may get a quote from the pros

cheers

 

[DannyboyDS]

Hey guys, anyone know of a remedy for some fine scratches on the windscreen.........
took the Calais down to the local carwash for just a quick spray rinse and noticed all the bug crap on the screen,,,,switched to broom, gave it a quick scrub and then hosed off.
Noticed the next day some fine scratches.........:realangry
Must have been some bloody crap in the bristles! N0T HAPPY JAN!:ranting:

You can get cutiing/polishing for glass, my dad has an old tube of the stuff out in the shed, my windscreen got some scratches on it a while back (wiper arms did it I think), I used this stuff and it came up good, real good.

 

[hingo1983]

I have a few small white paint drops on my black leather steering wheel and cream leather drivers seat. I'm guessing the previous owner was painting their house and didn't take enough care when stepping back into the car. These drops are only small, therefore it doesn't irritate me too much, but it would be nice to get rid of them. I am afraid if I use anything like turpentine, it may remove the pigment in the leather at the same time. What is the best way to remove paint from leather without damaging the pigment?

 

[Static89]

heya guys, gotta question i won a raffle n picked up some auto glym products, i hear there ok (from reading the box) but would like some proper views, anyone used them???