Below are pictures of the car when I arrived to start the work:

Washing and Cleaning Preparation

The first task was to spray a Citrus De-greaser around the lower sills, arches and alloys.

This was followed with a rinse:

The first task for me is to start to clean, and prepare the car for the Detailing work. As always, I begin by washing the wheels. I washed the wheels first to ensure that any splashes or dirt which may spray onto the bodywork and paintwork can be cleaned away afterwards. First I rinsed the wheels and wheel arches using a pressure washer. Next I used Pinnacle Wheel Gel to clean the wheels, before spraying the wheels and wheels arches with snowfoam in order to ensure they rinse to a streak free finish.

With the wheels clean, I now started the process of cleaning the paintwork and upper sections of the vehicle. The next task is to pre-soak the upper section with snowfoam.

The aim of this is to loosen any surface dirt and dust, before using the pressure washer to rinse the vehicle.

This first stage of the upper vehicle wash can in some cases clean the car to almost 98% without any contact. I then applied a second snowfoam layer to the car, and with a lambs wool washmitt and the Pinnacle Bucket with grit guard and dolly I worked my way from top to bottom, around the car gently cleaning the upper car panels. All areas likely to carry the greatest amount of dirt and contamination will be cleaned last. This way the car will have the cleanest water, and least likelihood of any surface contamination becoming trapped and/or in contact with the paintwork again.

Once the vehicle has been thoroughly cleaned, I then used the pressure washer to rinse the snow foam away. The next part of the cleaning and preparation stage is the Clay Bar.

The clay bar was used along with Quick Detailer to remove all surface contamination on this paintwork. Once all of the paintwork had been cleaned and prepared for the following stages I applied a further snowfoam layer to ensure all quick detailer has been cleared from the paint.

Following a very thorough rinsing, I used a Cobra Guzzler Drying towel to pat, and drag the water from the car.

The next two tasks of the detail are the final two of the washing and preparation, Firstly I applied a specialised automotive low tack masking tape to all plastics, rubbers and any areas which require protection from the machine polishing stage.

Once fully protected I then used a Digital Paint Depth gauge to check the paintwork on the vehicle, and records all readings on a Hand written Detail Report which will be presented with at the end of the Detail to the owner.

Paint correction

The first task for me is to establish the level of abrasion required to correct the paintwork to a safe and acceptable level. I always work with safety as the main directive. I will ‘test’ my way starting with the least abrasive combination of machine foam pad and polish to find the pairing which will provide maximum paint correction coupled to minimum paint level removal. On this particular Detail I chose to use a Wolfgang Polishing Pad, and 3m Final Finish polish. This polish was applied to the paintwork at 1100rpm and worked to correct the paintwork.

Some blemishes:

More swirls:

Protection preparation

Having corrected the paintwork I now start to prepare the paintwork for protection products. By fully preparing the paintwork prior to the application of a wax I ensure the results are maintained for longer, and provides better results.
On this Detail I applied Swissvax Cleaner Fluid:

Protection and Dressings
I am able to offer a wide variety of Waxes to my customers. On this occasion the customer choose to have Swissvax Divine applied to their vehicle. This was applied by hand of course.