Detailing & Polishing your VZ
I've noticed after some searching that there is not a lot of information about detailing in this forum. I'm not having a dig or anything but up here in NQ we seem to have a lot of beautiful cars that aren't really cared for properly. Don't know what it is like elsewhere, but I thought I'd post up some info on how I keep my machine. It's an SV6 in Black (Phantom Black I think is the correct name)
Also note I'm not trying to plug any products or anything, this is just what I have found to work well on the VZ after months of researching & experimentation.
Products I use most commonly;
Swissvax Pneu OR Meguiars Hot Shine Tyre Spray (2nd pref.)
Johnson & Johnsons Baby Shampoo
Meguiars Lambswool wash mitt (the more expensive one of the two Megs has)
Autoglym Interior Shampoo
Aerospace 303 Protectant
3M Perfect-It III Detailing Clay
Autoglym Fast Glass
HAND POLISING / WAXING
Autoglym Paint Renovator
Autoglym Deep Crystal Polish
Swissvax Cleaner Fluid
Swissvax Saphir Wax or Meguiars Cleaner Wax
MACHINE POLISHING / WAXING
Pinnacle XMT Fine/Ultra Fine Polishes
Aquawax
This is about all you need to keep your ride in pristine condition. Most products can be purchased at your local Supercheap / Autobarn etc. But the Swissvax and Pinnacle brands can be purchased online.
Ill get around to writing a full article about the procedure for each product when I can, and if someone has anything to add about what works good on Leather in the VZ, please do (I have burgundy cloth in my VZ).
Below are some comparison photos taken off my bonnet taken in the early days of correcting the marks in my paint. Note the reflections around the sun.
Before
After
kzh
thats a clean-looking surface u've got there mate....its hard to keep the black surface shiny though...i have a black sv6 myself and it really sucks when it rains...
In the manual Holden say that polishing is not necessary but I just use a standard Polish the green type once a year and I find it satisfactory, my car is Silver but if you do it more often I can't see that it would hurt your paint.
Your absolutely right Ronaldw - paint "shouldn't" ever need to be polished. But most of us use a crappy sponge and poor quality chamois' etc on our cars. Everytime you wash you are actually making microscopic scratches in the paint. On a silver car it won't show so badly (go put your car in the sun and have a look at the reflections around the sun) the darker the car gets the harder it is to hide these marks.
The best thing you can do is keep your car washed properly using a quality wash mitt and a gentle shampoo such as baby shampoo. Many of the commercial wash solutions such as Armorall have heavy detergents in them that strip the wax/nutrients from your paint. Keep the wax up to your car as much as you can, even though it's time consuming you'll end up making it easier to maintain in the long run.
kzh_lim - I know how you feel! the best and quickest defence against the rain is a product called Duragloss Aquawax. It's a spray carnauba wax sealant and I apply it almost every time I wash. It takes about 5 minutes for the whole car, and dosen't leave white residues on trims etc. Watch the rain try and stick to your paint after an application of this stuff - water and dust simply rolls off!
Duragloss Aquawax can be brought from Waxit for $16.95 for 650ml(here)
A quality microfibre cloth is the Detailing Ultra Soft Towel - Grey. also available for $12.95 at Waxit (here)
Autoglym products can also be brought at your Holden dealership from the spare parts / merchandise department although they are probably a tad more expensive there.
Got Evo?
so what product did you use to get rid of those squirrel scratches?
Removing the swirl marks was a combination of products, the previous owner had not taken good care of the car as it was a company car, so I had my work cut out for me when I bought it.
The entire procedure is as follows -
Wash the car,
Clay (3M Clay, as listed previously) the car to remove imperfections.
2nd wash, rinse & chamois dry
clean door jambs, bonnet and boot sills and fuel filler recess.
Machine polish - Pinnacle XMT Fine Cut over entire car
Machine polish - Pinnacle XMT Ultra Fine Cut over entire car to restore shine
Wash car to remove polish compound and chamois dry
Apply Swissvax cleaner fluid to prepare surface for waxing
Apply Swissvax Saphir Wax & Buff off
Apply Duragloss Aquawax as final sealant
This whole process takes the best part of a day, but once the car has been prepared correctly it takes minimal care to keep it in this condition. Washing with a good mitt and clean water and waxing every few weeks is sufficient.
Also, if you are considering a machine polish, DON'T get those polish/buff machines from supercheap/autobarn etc. They are not up to the task, and will do more harm than good. Invest in (or borrow) a decent Random Orbital Sander such as a GMC RO150 from Bunnings for about $140 and fit it out with a good pad. Lambswool pads will make more marks so avoid these- they are used for panel beating type jobs or heavy paint correction and are not suitable for correcting light swirls in paint. Buy a quality Foam pad such as a light/medium cut Meguairs pad. I use CCS pads from Waxit, although these are quite expensive if you are on a budget. XMT Products are intended for use with a machineso if you want to hand polish, use the meguiars foam applicator pads with Autoglym Deep Crystal Polish, and work the product in lines, not circles one panel at a time.
TIP - to remove polish/wax residue from your plastic or rubber trim is to simply rub them off with a soft pencil eraser. Works 90% of the time.
Just for interest, below is a comparison on my SV6 taken last week (3 days after washing). It rained just before I left for work, and as you can see less than 20 minutes at 60-80kmh is plenty to get the rain to sheet off with minimal water spots remaining. This is with an application of Aquawax.
Banned
OK, who wants to come to Canberra and do the whole process on my car? Cause i CBF!!! lol
Will pay!
I'd be more than happy to! Something tells me you're probably not willing to pay for me to come all that way though...!
Fortunately "down south" there is a lot more (and better standards) of automotive detailing than we have up here in Townsville. I would find a reputable detailer in your area and have them put in the hard yards for you and then all you have to do is keep it clean. Make sure you specifically tell them what you want - generally they won't correct swirls, holograms, etc. unless you ask or unless they specialise in paint correction. Be prepared to pay anywhere between $100 ~ $400 depending on the level of treatment.
CHDSV6, nice work mateHave I seen you on detail paradise before? My favourite product would have to be Meguiars #80 speed Glaze. Difficult to get in Australia. All the good Meguiars stuff don't get distributed here
Late one night travelling from Sydney to the south coast is was windy as hell. I hit a small branch on the hwy and left a scratch on the front quarter panel. Using the GMC, a white polishing pad and $80 that scratch is now completely gone. No way would that have been fixed by hand polishing. I did the whole car while I was at it. Washed, clayed, #80 and a Megs synthetic sealant and the car becomes a mirror. I'll wash it again this week and put another coat of sealant on and get some photos.
Car theives should be treated just like horse theives and cattle rustlers in the days of the wild west... Hang them!
Don't be stupid. Power isn't measured by the size of your tacho
Hi Scooter, I thought I recognised the name from DP - I'm under chd86 over there...
It's amazing what you can acheive with some good tools and a bit of practise - I've only been detailing my car since about April and I think it's safe to say I'm an addict. I thought I'd like to bring something a bit different to the JC forum as mechanical stuff, etc. isn't really my calling. When I first started looking in to detailing I watched a lot of videos on the net about detailing, but most were demo/promo videos from meguiars and featured a lot of products we can't get here, as you said. Luckily there are plenty of great alternatives!
When I posted this up under "Detailing an Polishing your VZ" I hoped it would become much broader and have information for all models of Commodore. The process I have used on mine is by no means an exact or perfect formula and isn't specific to the VZ, I just haven't got any info on doing other models. If you or anyone else has anything to add for other cars please do, and maybe we can get a fairly complete article going that applies to all Commodores.
There's already the sticky in the general section titled 'detailing tips and tricks' and over 270 posts. We could try get another one happening on this forum but your going to get the same knobs making silly comments like "I polish with a tea towel and some kitten" or "Just take it to the local car wash and scrub with the broom" You're never going to turn those people around and you're better off getting info from a dedicated detailing forum/website and then apply those guidelines to any VB through to the VE. We could spend time sifting through the detailing thread and deleting any crap posts if the moderators would let us because there are some really good posts hidden in there.Originally Posted by CHDSV6
Car theives should be treated just like horse theives and cattle rustlers in the days of the wild west... Hang them!
Don't be stupid. Power isn't measured by the size of your tacho
Thanks Scooter, I hadn't seen the detailing sticky over there. I'll have a good read and see what it's like. I know some people don't give a damn about keeping their car in good condition - but at least there's imformation here and places like DP for those that do.
Good to see some of the DP guys here!!
chd, awesome beading happening... keep it up. My old girl got the p21 treatment a couple of weeks ago, really happy with it.
Scooter, your comments:
"I polish with a tea towel and some kitten" or "Just take it to the local car wash and scrub with the broom"
GOLD!!!
It’s so true, sometimes u just have to give up on some people.
Anywho... great input guys.
Guys i don't mean to hi-jack but a got a question about polishing... At bunnings they sell a GMC 9inch grinder with a polishing pad already on it, do you think its worth buying or should i buy a grinder and pad separately because the pad may be crap quality??
Cheers in advance
CMA,
I'm assuming your talking about an angle grinder? If so, I would definately steer clear... Scooter could probably better answer your question but I stick to a Random Orbital sander by GMC, the ROS150 as mentioned above. You can really do mega damage *if* you aren't expereiced with a rotary style machine/grinder. As for the pad, if it is a good foam one it may be ok - try in an out-of-sight area first. You can always buy better pads for these machines as the ones that come with them are usually a "demo" so you can use it the grinder straight out of the box.
Variable speed and the orbital motion are the main ingredients in a worthwhile machine - being a grinder I can't imagine it is variable speed. I've actually never heard of one being used for auto polishing but I'm only relatively new to the game.
Thanks for your quick reply mate. To be honest with you i haven't done much polishing myself, well i have but only by hand. As im getting a SV6 soon i just wanna make it look the best it can and hand polishing you can only do it so well
This is the orbital buffer you recommended CHDSV6
GMC — Global Machinery Company
An auto orbital buffer
GMC — Global Machinery Company
An angle grinder with polishing pad
GMC — Global Machinery Company
A grinder for polishing? Absolutely not!
Firstly you'll burn through your paint in seconds. While they look very similar (a proper rotary polisher is usually slightly smaller) a grinders minimum speed is usually around 1500rpm. A proper rotary polisher has a minimum speed of around 600 - 800rpm. The best automotive polisher would be either the Makita 9227CB or Hitachi SAY18V. Dewalt make good ones too but they're heavy. Festool and Metabo are top of the line but they're around the $600 - $700 range.
Secondly a rotary should only be used in experienced hands. Even some so called 'professionals' that do it every day still can't do it properly and they get holograms and marring. A rotary only really needs to be used for really bad paint anyway. Thing like deep scratches, removing wetsanding marks and heavy oxidisation. For day to day private use a good ROS will suit you perfectly and they are fool proof if you apply some basic common sense. If you want to learn to use a rotary buy an old panel or two from a wreckers and practice in the garage before touching a car with one.
This is what I personally use. Excellent machine. With the right pads you can get some awesome results. Here my bro-in-laws Suzuki Sierra with oxidised black paint and an after reflection shot. The whole vehicle was done with Meguiars #80 Speed Glaze and sealed with a Meguiars polymer sealant.
BEFORE
AFTER
All done with the GMC ROS150M
These are pretty pointless. I have one that I bought from Supercheap a few years ago and the only use I have for it now is buffing off wax after it has cured. It works well for that but not much else.
As I said above, No way! Too big and too powerful and not for the inexperienced.
Once you get into machine detailing it's easy to become an addict and you'll never go back to hand polishing. With all your pads and product it can get expensive. Get yourself as many Microfibre towels as you can afford and your set.
Car theives should be treated just like horse theives and cattle rustlers in the days of the wild west... Hang them!
Don't be stupid. Power isn't measured by the size of your tacho
Thanks Scooter, you definately summed it up better than I could! On a side note, I got my SV6 back from our local Holden dealership here in Townsville yesterday - power steering rack failed at 33K km. Anyways after specifically asking them to not touch the paint or wash the car as they sometimes do, I got it back with greasy hamdprints on my bonnet and mags, a new scratch on my rear bumper and grubby marks all over drivers side interior. Needless to say I was less than happy! There's no point in kicking up a fuss because they don't understand... and their solution is usually to wipe down with a workshop cloth anyways. Watch out if you're going to get your dealer to do work on your car (if they are anything like ours up here)
Sometimes I wonder why I spend hours making my pride & joy stand out when no one else gives a f*&%!!
i use that GMC ROS150 very happy with it
CHDSV6, I hape that steering rack was a warranty job. How does a rack fail at 33 thou? My first VS had nearly 400,000k's when I sold it and everything was original and ran perfectly except it needed a new diff. Best car I could have asked for. My second VS bought now with only 150,000k's has given me a few more dramas.
On the note about dealers thats quite true. Be very wary. But then you get guys like DETAILA in the DP forum that does work for dealers and you couldn't ask for a better detailer. I'd love to take my detailing full time but I can't afford to take a huge cut in pay which is what would happen
Car theives should be treated just like horse theives and cattle rustlers in the days of the wild west... Hang them!
Don't be stupid. Power isn't measured by the size of your tacho
What'd you pay and where from??
Yeah it's very disappointing when cars this new have problems. My '93 VP had 260K on it and only just started leaking from the P/S boots when I sold it before getting the VZ. It was a warranty job luckily on the VZ. The service office went quiet when I asked "so can I expect it will happen again at 60K?"
My diff clunks/shunts too (I don't flog it either)...
I've said it before, but our standards here in Townsville are very low in terms of detailing. Mind you, we dont see many exotics or anything that would create a good market for high-end detailing either... We have a handfull of porsches getting around, and i've seen one of each of a Maseratti, Bently Continental and an Aston getting around too...
I don't know what kind of detailer our Holden dealer uses, but I work near a strip of new caryards and often see the sponge and hose treatment on new cars (BMW and Mitsubishi in particular) which brings a tear to my eye. I wish we had someone like DTAILA to set a better example!
Mate I got mine from Bunnings for $139What'd you pay and where from??
Cheers champ
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