Wow!

Thanks for the extremely prompt reply, very helpful!

I'm just curious if it's hard to find these products?

I may go have a look around today for them.

I bought some 'Polyglaze Diamond Finish Glaze' and two 'Polishing Towels' yesterday, and now I'm not sure if they are any good. I'm assuming not.

Thanks again.

You will find prepsol at bunnings or other hardware or paint supply store
Besides that, des can show you where to go for clay bars and polishes

Polyglaze would probably contain fillers and just hide rather than remove, scratches, swirl marks and oxidation

Get in contact with rusty at detailers obsession or william at KDS (kleen dry shine for some killer polishes)

G'day, just wondering of any detailers in Melbourne you reccomend aside from Final inspection? I'm looking at a $300 tops job? All im really after is a good paint treatment and a good polish to get rid of the stuff i cant get out and to help hide some scratches and swirl marks

Cheers

Sorry mate. No luck. I know there are alot around but have never seen their work to clearly say whether they are good or not.

here's a tip for those with the clearcoat paints.
Don't put kero in the wash water like the old guys used to do decades ago. That's fine for single stage paints but the kero will eat through your clearcoat or dry and dull your finish.

My dad has always said to put a touch of metho in a bucket of water and soak the chamois in it, wring it out then wipe the water off. He says it helps avoid streaking. I'm a bit iffy on it. Is this an ok thing to do or can it wreck the paint over time? Oh and can you recommend any detailers in sydney, preferably in the st george or sutherland shire areas? Cheers.

EDIT: oh and one quick question. Whats the best way to get swirl remover off of mudflaps? I managed to get a little bit on one and the damn stuff wont come off, its driving me crazy!

Doesn't sound like a good idea. You may even dry out the chamois over time as well.
Unfortunately I can't give any suggestions for sydney detailers. None I know and have not seen any in action

exholden
I was not trying to steal anyone's thunder, just letting people know some cheaper alternatives as these products can be expensive, anyway I hope this makes you happy.

Last edited by Fordboy-1984 on Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes there are some that are. Don't need to polish every couple of months though. Sealers take care of that for a year or so.

I never fell for the zaino or zymol marketing. Zaino's probably better but I ain't paying that much.

Nice phrase with the srawberries by the way.

Last edited by Fordboy-1984 on Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

hey fordboy 84,

not to piss on your strawberries, but the Mitsubishi dealership is just that, a dealership. Don't hijack Aurora 98's niche' in this website because his advise is brilliant.

So stop preaching and start reading!

PS anyone who uses REPCO cut n polish needs all the help they can get.

Thankyou exholden
I must add some new tips on this site too
Maybe ask the members what they would like to read about and learn next

I do though accept other peoples opinions as we can learn from each others experience
Someone's tried a product or technique that I may not know of.

Cut and polishes are not my personal favourites
My preference are products that do one of six things

Level, compound, polish, ultra fine polish, glaze or chemically prep paint for sealing


Cut and polish or cut and glow products usually contain fillers, can be very deep cutting and generally used with a wool pad or hard foam pad and leave holograms and or spider web marks

Washing and drying a dark car as we know is what causes the swirl marks and scratches which ruin the shine of a highly polished paint finish

To cut this down to the most absolute minimal amount, do the following

be very gentle with wash mitts and only move the mitt in a slow, back and forth motion (horizontal)
Wash the lower section of the car last and with a separate mitt.

When at commercial car washes and a real dirty or muddy car, don't do a high pressure water rinse. Instead use the soap. Some places have warm to hot high pressure soap available. And as I've mentioned before, have the water coming out of the nozzle in horizontal pattern and go from the front to the back, sliding the water along the car. Do not stand four feet away from the car and blast the water at the car. This causes impact scratches sometimes or at the very least wavey like marring and can really effect wax or sealant durability

You also save water by sliding the water or soap along the car. This means you may get away with just a one dollar soaping and same high pressure rinse.
Dry the car with microfibre only and blot dry the panels that are the most visible
Bonnet, front bumper, guards and the boot/bumper
For the rest, slowly slide a drying towel from left to the right (fold the towel once or twice) from top to bottom.
Spray any quick detailer or spray sealant onto the wet car and begin blotting it dry.

if you are going to drive the car home with it wet, choose carefully which rinse you use
I've tried spot free and high pressure and found the high pressure to not bead up as much as the spot free which means no water stains (this is on my 94 hilux not the XR)

i thaught you were gona say you were driving the xr home wet and i was thinking 'has he gone mad or what' but then i read it properly. lol

Ever wondered why a polish that someone says is killer does SFA on your car or only half as good.

Here's my reasons why

The humidity and temperature on the day it was painted, temp of the bake oven, how much prep was done, brand and paint system, colour and a few other factors

Panel shops I've spoken to recently have confirmed this.

Acrylic laquer paint finishes sometimes need different levelers, compounds, polishes and glazes than 2K baked enamel, flat acrylics, urethane's etc

Ford have used PPG 2K paints for many years and now of course the AU II to BF have improved paint finishes over the older cars. The newer paint is not sprayed on, but are painted by jets (this is what I was told) and have far less orange peel (good)

So I've used PPG 2K final glaze as the third step on all neglected falcons I've worked on.
The stuff is no longer made but works wonders, especially on ED to EF cobalt blue falcons and even series 1 AU falcons

Not sure about BA-BF but in the E series cars, all red colours had lead in them and no clearcoat.
single stage paints seem to be more porous and respond better to polishes and you can get a richer finish because they really absorb the product

Ultra gloss superpolish from germany has always amazed me on SS and clearcoated red cars but doesn't do much on clearcoated blue's and blacks

From my experience, acrylic laquer painted cars (in most cases) do not have as much wetness and oil and it's harder to get the same result or even similar one as a 2K

Certain paints are harder than others. Subaru now have 2K paints and are really wet and oily looking and very soft. This means easier to repair and enhance the paint and polishes work better with them. seem more responsive than our cars.

Another thing that works well are coloured polishes. yesterday while working on my friends repainted EF XR6 wagon, I got out a bottle of soft 99 colour evolution finishing polish
This is a japanese brand and it not only improved the look but added some more colour to the paint and highlighted the metal flake
So his cobalt blue XR will look awesome at the FPV open day.

Watch certain brands of these colour polishes as one I've used before is too aggressive and puts minor swirls back into the paint.

Also if you give your new car a polish and sealant within a month or two of getting it, it will improve it a little but if you do not do that and let it get weather beaten and the sun soak into it for two years, when it gets machine buffed (hopefully by a good operator), the paint will look heaps better than when it was new.
There is something about letting paint get hit by the sun alot and oxidise a fair bit that changes it's characteristics and what it likes

Not sure if the paint softens and becomes more porous or goes harder but it bloody works.