Currently in BiH Weather is fiercely hot 35°C most days and pretty humid. So hot we're cooking outdoors almost every day - just as well I'm a big BBQ fan. Anyhow on to the polishing news. At least the garage is dark and cool - low 20s so I have spent more than a little time bringing the car up to a higher gloss level. This car was treated by the selling dealership exactly two years ago with an unknown to me ceramic treatment. When I bought it a year ago it looked pretty good, but I knew I would have to spend some time on it to get it to what I consider acceptable. A while back I used a selection of products on various panels to see what gave best results. So this time I've given all the paintwork the same treatment. After a really thorough wash / shampoo with my favourite Autoglym Polar Blast and Polar Wash - I did a thorough, slow, hand polishing with Autoglym Ultra Deep Shine, which gave an excellent result on the Portimao Blue metallic. Next I went over the lot with CarPlan No.1 SuperGloss, which is a very simple wipe on / wipe off process. Autoglym say that Ultra Deep Shine needs no further top coating, but I found over the last six months that the panels that had the extra coating kept their shine and resisted traffic film better. Not content with that I left the car for a day - to let the surface coating harden off- and also for my arms to recover. Fortunately I am pretty much near balanced ambidextrous and use (read tire out) both sets of arm muscles equally. So after a 24 hour rest I set to again, with another CarPlan product that I had experimented with previously - namely their No.1 Super Ceramic. I applied this badly in the Springtime in that I tried to do too large an area and found that the product dried too quick for me and it was a chore buffing it up. Not so this time - I worked on a much smaller area at a time - about the size of an LP record - if folks can remember what they were - and it was a breeze - very lightly applied and lightly buffed so as not to disturb the previous coating layer beneath. In the Spring I tried many combinations and different products - so many I had to make notes as to what was applied where. I reckon that this round of polishing and protecting should see the car through to next Spring, but I'll be reviewing the situation in November and perhaps I'll need to recoat the areas that get the harshest of the insects and road crud. Three thousand miles of insects from nine countries was not a major problem to get rid of - good old Autoglym Insect Remover made short work of clearing them from the front panel and the door mirrors without removing all the protective layers beneath. We don't usually do this journey in August, but the trip wasn't too bad - the usual Summer holidaymakers with caravans, boats and camper vans that populate the German, Austrian, and Croatian motorways, heading for the Adriatic meant that high-speeds were not easy to maintain. I still managed to return a fuel consumption figure of 3.9l/100km which is just a tad over 60mpg - pretty good for an overloaded 3litre diesel.
There is going to come a time when the arthritis in my hands and hip stops me doing this kind of thing too. But I think I could persuade one of my strapping young grandsons to do it - under my supervision.
Looking awesome Bob! Long may you be able to continue doing that, very satisfying indeed. What do you use to get the insect residue off with? I usually managed to get it all off with AutoFinesse Citrus Power (a wax safe degreaser) but I found the French insects to be strangely resistant to that. I then tried claying and struggled again. Not sure if it's the way they've been baked on or the black paint which is highlighting much more than usual.
I don't know if French insects are more resilient than other European brands, but I have great success with Autoglym Insect Remover.
Thanks Bob - I'll give that a go. See if the French insects are indeed a hardier breed than elsewhere!
