Bigpower

This is a thorough write up. If you just want to see the shiny pictures, they're at the bottom

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be shown the difference between valeting a car and detailing a car. Gary of Refined Reflections is one of our first advertisers on BigPower and I felt a responsibility to you guys to try the service, call it quality control Garys first comment was that the difference between cleaning a car and detailing a car is time and quality. Valeting is all about time, valeting is all about quality.......the only constraint was my wallet.........oh crap! We discussed the options, looked at the time available and also gave consideration to the amount of paint on the car......

The day arrived and Gary arrived at 8.30 am and merrily started unloading the van with boxes and boxes of cleaning gear. Gary explained that the first procedure was to check the paint thickness of the car so he knew how much he could take off Still a bit surprised Gary grabbed his one grand micrometer and started beeping all over the car.......'Ooh........aahhh.......yesss......ooooh.' repeat... I know how micrometers work, I ran a metal finishing business for four years, but the relevance in cleaning a car seemed........excessive. The reason for this attention to detail is simple. It protects Gary against the likelihood of problems when he's working on 100k Bentleys. He can produce a document showing paint thicknesses all over the car and then do a before and after for his clients. Clever sod!

After micrometering the car ( my new word) Gary started on the scabby brake dust mullered wheels, good luck.



Spraying the wheels liberally with an alkaline solution and scrubbing like a mad dervish using three different brushes to agitate the most stubborn of the baked on dirt. This was followed by a very thorough pressure wash job.

The car was then treated to a degrease using natural orange zest as a solution and this was applied to the entire lower third of the car. The smell was amazing. Arches, wheels, bumpers, sills all treated to a heavy dose of vitamin C.

The car was then rinsed again using the jetwash.



The next stage was great. Snow Foam is a really thick heavy sudding soap used to remove loose dirt and particles sitting on the paint.



This was rinsed again and then another coat of snow foam was put on, this time the soap suds were washed over the panels using the finest sheepskin mitts, ensuring all metal work was completely massaged with the solution. More rinsing and then dried by hand using waffle weave microfibre clothes. The time was now 12 noon. 3 and a half hours and we had only just finished 'shampooing' the car!

The next stage is one I've read and heard about but never seen.....clay bar and detailing spray. Essentially this removes all of the contaminants on the paint, tree sap, overspray, tar etc and leaves the metal work glass smooth. Sounds like cobblers, but if you've never tried it you will be stunned. (Bloody hard work graft though)





With the wetjobs finished the wheels and tyres were returned to. A special high temperature wax was applied to the wheels and a tyre cleaning compound were added, the theory being that the longer they had to go 'off', the better.

Next was the masking in in preperation for the machine polishing. This in itself took about 20 minutes, the amount of time spent is staggering, and I thought I knew how to clean a car.



Gary uses a choice of polishes subject to the amount of cutting he needs to do, this is governed by paint thickness, level of swirls or other defects and your wallet. So in my case that was varied, numerous and empty. The actual process is pretty straight forward though and this is when I shot off to do some lunch. (Truth be told, Tan did it)


We had a natter about world politics and the fiscal economy of middle England and then proceeded to talk about more pressing issues of women and beer. How the time flew:) It was now 3pm and we needed to nourish the paint using some kind of glaze, probably hideously expensive as it was made by Zymol and smelled of chocolate. Effectively everything we had done so far had taken stuff off of or out of the paint. Six and a half hours later, we were putting something back on/in. One of the things I noticed with the Zymol stuff was how easy it was to use. Obviously Gary guided me on the initial applications but it was a doddle. If you can use Meguairs, you can use this. At 4.10pm we had the car cleansed and were ready for the big daddy of the applications, the Zymol Concourse wax. The pot that Gary passed me was the same size as a bottle of hair wax, around 8oz, and costs upwards of

Many thanks Stu, I think some how you just about managed to sum everything up with a couple of exception

Mainly I got your hands dirty and you face when you realised what a couple of things did was worth a million pictures (unfortunately I didn't have the camera at those points:( )

I also did some double checking, Stu and I chatted about the thickness of a human hair and compared to the amount of clear coat I removed while machine buffing the car, well a human hair has an average thickness of 100 microns (according to google) and the average thickness across the bonnet which was buffed the most was reduced by 3.8 microns so not a lot removed but the change was noticeable.

Here are a few pics I managed to take, and I'm sorry most of the completed one are blurry due to me getting a little chilly and wet, plus I guess not turning the flash on didn't help while the light faded.







You really should have seen Stu's face when he first pulled the trigger, like a kid in a sweet shop




Top clay bar after doing just the boot lid, bottom one after Stu cleaned the nearside wing


After machine buffing, but nothing added


After the wax was buffed (sorry again for blurry pics they really don't do the car justice)









Many thanks again Stu for the job and I'm glad you were happy, oh and next time don't drive watching the beads race along the bonnet or drive using the reflection of the road ahead, even if it was fun :lol:

Incredible - effort !!! .... another great write up - Gary we will be having words soon - It's my birthday on monday, did I mention that ..

Also, I noticed how 'Alien' holding a hose looked to you Stuart ....

Wow, what an amazing write up.

Top job there, probably the first time Stuarts car has EVER been clean !!!!! :P

Myself and Ben are users of the Megs clay, my car was covered in overspray on the boot near the spoiler, was recommended it by a mates brother (yeah its true, I got it before Murano3....a cleaning product...yeah I know !!!). Thought yeah yeah it cant be that great, but bought it as it was fairly cheap.

Started doing the boot and was 100% shocked at how smooth the surface was afterwards and how the rubbish left on was removed. Showed my dad also who was astonished. So recommend it.

Good service though Gary, the difference really is incredible. Although you must have powerful hands, holding a machine polisher for about 15 mins kills mine lol

Be interested to know about the zymol wax, the Meguiars is great after being done, but not as resilient in the rain as the old Autoglym (excuse the swearing) is.

Group buy on zymol ?!!?

Good job Gary and Stu, with a write up like that I am sure you will get plenty of takers.

unbelievable work, think when finances are good i need to have a word with Gary, I have what looks like brake fluid spray all around mine

I have used a clay bar, before I had, I thought it was a waste of time and effort, but the results are amazing.

Nice clean car, only problem, you wont want to drive it now

Great write up Stu Just goes to show how much effort and patience is required to get a car to tip top condition. Gary done a superb job.

The only thing that puzzles me is how come you know the size of 'hair wax' products :? :lol:


Cheers Dave

great work there gary and stu - looked great still by the time i saw it at the meet and certainly the cleanest, and shiniest that i have ever seen stu's car.

me next when we get back from the ring

Dave-GTO wrote: The only thing that puzzles me is how come you know the size of 'hair wax' products :? :lol: Cheers Dave

I have a good memory Dave :lol:

I must confess to having had my car Zymol'd and its a very good wax. I got a small tub of it too to keep topping it up! 8)

Firstly many thanks everyone for your kind words. Just a thought a couple have asked me how often this sort of detail is needed on a car, well its easy any detail to remove swirls etc would only normally be done once every 12 - 18 months as long as a good wash/dry technique is used.

murano3 wrote:Gary we will be having words soon - It's my birthday on monday, did I mention that ..

Firstly happy birthday for Monday mines while some are at the ring :P sorry I didn't get to talk at the meet, send me a PM when you have time and we'll hook up for a chat.

RX7 wrote:Although you must have powerful hands, holding a machine polisher for about 15 mins kills mine lol

Be interested to know about the zymol wax, the Meguiars is great after being done, but not as resilient in the rain as the old Autoglym (excuse the swearing) is.

You get used to the buffer, I only used it for about 2-3 hours on Stu's, when I did the blue Impreza on my site, I spent 7 straight hours machining that, though arms did feel dead at the end

Megs wax is very good value, although as you say it doesn't last very long. Autoglym again is good value and slightly longer life, though I think this down to the silicon content.

As for Zymol, personally I do feel that its about as good as it gets, however the cost is a big issue for many (Concours on Stu's is only