Envy Valeting

^Thanks, and yes it does in that you cant polish them as hard as you can a metal panel as they heat up differently and you have to be extra careful

A Corvette Z06 booked in with us to clean up for sale.

Upon inspection it was decided to mainly do a protection detail but also correction on the large upper surfaces to make it look as good as possible prior to being put up for sale.

I worked on the car on and off for 2 days. The wheels were removed and cleaned and this took approx 4hrs as they needed a damn good clean.

Here they are being attacked by de-ironizer!

The detail procedure followed my normal regime ie door shuts etc sprayed with APC. Snow foamed with Bubbly Jubbly SSF and allowed to dwell then rinsed off and door shuts etc blasted out.

Brought indoors for a de-tarring and clay barring experience.

Correction was needed because....

I used the Wolfs Jeweller polish again and the megs yellow polishing pad as I needed a little more cut with good results.

This was carried out on all upper surfaces, then the rest of the car had Dodo Juice Lime prime via DA with the same megs yellow pad.

Wax of choice was Meguiars Ultimate Paste wax, allowed to cure then buffed off. Tyres dressed, glass cleaned with an Alcohol based solution, tail pipes buffed etc etc. No interior work done on this job.

Please enjoy the afters....

Thanks for looking

Tim

Thanks to Martin for doing this again and good to see some new, old and familiar faces too.

A day of admin today then hitting the M6 tomorrow

^Tell me about it mate! Could barely keep my eyes open that trip, rather a late arrival and couldnt even have a drink when I did as more driving to do !

The van is loaded , well possibly over loaded!

Just need clothes sorted and I'm good to roll tomorrow. Fingers crossed for a mini heatwave

^ I think George has a 4" tool (poor bugger ) which I use in cars etc, also great for the stairs and seat cushions after the kids have eaten lol

I have 3 x Buff Daddy for sale and 1 x Meguiars G220 in my shop.

Both are great machines and both do a top job, its just down to how much you want to spend.

The Meguiars is built to be the best, sod the cost and the Dodo Buff Daddy is built to a price and is similar to the DAS-6/Kertrel etc but branded Dodo and with a nice storage bag.

Use one around the home Paul but not often for customers.

Did you get the small attachment for it too?

I met an AG rep today who suggested using a sponge to apply SRP and then he showed me this small, rough looking "traditional" type sponge.

Personally I use something like the Meguiars applicators, yellow and washable. I love them for lots of jobs.

An enhancement detail from Envy Valeting on this beautiful car

This car looked great from a distance but once washed and in sunlight all was not well!

Pre these pics the car was snow foamed, door shuts etc doused with G101, wheels cleaned with Wolfs De-ironiser, washed with the TBM and dried off.

Claying, de-tarring, and general decontamination then occured.

Given the buffer trails and holograms I decided to check out the Wolfs Chemicals "Jeweller" or WP-1N and settled on a black Meguiars buffing pad to try to lick the paint back into shape.

I apologise for the dull indoor pics on this car, but I had arrived at the onset of the Monsoon season

Also quite large to photograph in my working area as well!

Pretty nice polish to use I found, took a little while to work but really liked the crisp end result. The car was a thing of beauty to work on, and she was getting a lot of admiring passers by.

The next day she was de-dusted. Wax was SW Best of Show.

The tyres were dressed, glass cleaned, tyres dressing and a full interior detail inc Dr Leather wipes. No wood to wax on this one.

Enjoy the ( sadly indoor) after pics:

Many thanks for looking and please keep up to day by following us on Twitter.

Tim

Hi Guys,

 

I am looking to give my car a professional clean

 

Has someone on here has found or used a good valeting and or detailing company in the Hertfordshire area?

 

Thanks H

Welcome!

Where abouts in Herts are you as its a big county!

If its the Tring/Berkhamsted end I'd be interested but further north I'd have to decline

Best wishes

Tim

Good work there:)

Shows the dedication. I once took 10 hrs to do a 3 series boot lid alone..

^Yup as above, I recommend the Furniture Clinic kit.

^BMW's have very hard paint generally but personally I'd not recommend a rotary polisher to anyone unless they'd had a lot of practise on test panels.

Generally speaking the rotary polisher is capable of a LOT of work in the right hands, and a LOT of damage in the wrong hands

I use a rotary a lot but mainly because I need to generate heat in panels to achieve the correction I'm after, but with the advent of the Meguiars MF system its possible to achieve a good level of correction without the heat and by DA polisher.

Now now boys, still very funny though

I've got the Silverline - highly recommended. I believe a number of other models out there are essentially the same, simply rebranded. Got mine from Toolstation so I could collect it in person: http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Power%2 ... 309/p84532

 

I picked up a polishing pad and a finishing pad while I was at it, although I'll probably switch to Meguiars versions sooner rather than later (nothing wrong with the Toolstation ones though). With them, I'm using Meguiars Ultimate Polish or Meguiars Ultimate Compound (interchangeable really - the Compound is for restoring brilliance to clouded paint, whereas the Polish is more specifically for swirls and scratches... I'd imagine they're broadly the same thing, with the Polish simply being more aggressive) on the polishing pad followed by Meguiars Carnauba Wax on the finishing pad.

 

As with the pads, the polish/wax I'm currently using are simply because I haven't bothered ordering better stuff online yet. Previous research seemed to point at Menzerna polishes followed by Meguiars #26 liquid wax.

 

Hope that's of some help!

The polisher you have linked to is a rotary polisher

Just to mention (late to the thread again as working all weekend...) that I can supply the lances but I also have a deal on eBay for a foam lance and 10L of snow foam for £65.

My eBay username is envy-valeting or if you search for snow foam lance and 10L ssf you'll find it

I had a Nilfisk machine a few years back and it lasted me so much longer than my previous Karchers, but now I have 2 Kranzles!

Best wishes

Tim

Thanks for the kind words guys. The stuff does honk (and this is the V3 non smelly version supposedly!) but it is very effective. Longer its left the better.

I gave Connor a sniff of the original version, and a sniff of the competitors product and he thought there was a lorry pumping out a septic tank somewhere!!!

Bonsoir, just back from home a loooooong days work

OK marks look pretty straight forward to me. Should come out with a polishing pad relatively easily IMHO.

If the rest of the car is lightly swirled too, I'd recommend getting hold of a bottle of Meguiars 205 and just going steady with it.

Best wishes

Tim

We really enjoyed today, great looking Zeds And even nicer People. See some of you next weekend, And thank's Tim for the Marker pens

Was great to meet you Dave, I think you'd be a good laff on a night out I really hope I didnt upset you, but I hope we're ok as it wasn't my intention Good luck with the "investigations" eek

Now, where can I get a set from as father Christmas stopped giving me them a loooooong time ago!

I'll look out the washing in the snow pic

 

I will be looking forward to seeing it Tim

Ta da!

Will delete if the subject doesnt like it

Great meet, thanks guys and nice to put faces to new names etc.

Thanks also to Zug for the lift

I'll look out the washing in the snow pic

My kitchen stinks from pouring out chemicals!

sorry - meant the machine for under £100

the consumables are what they are

Thats easy enough then

Consumables, well you'll ideally need a polishing pad and a buffing pad and er...some polish

I tend to favour the Meguiars pads https://www.envyvaleting.com/products.asp?page=4&cat=20 (the yellow and the black one) as they last a long time, good foam structure and stand repeated washing.

Personally I dont like the pads in the link below as they are very close to the size of the backing plate and makes it easier to catch the backing pad on the car. The Meguiars ones are recessed so this cant happen.

There you go Buff Daddy £94.95 free postage and free pads x 3. You'll need to check the specs and details first, click on the linky.

 

http://www.carnaubawaxshop.co.uk/detail ... ee-pad-kit

Polish wise, a huge range to choose from but on a Zed soft and gentle is the way to go.

Meguiars Swirl X, Meguiars Ultimate compound are safe bets. If you need more "action" Meguiars 205 is good too.

You will get a good improvement in the paint just by using a pad and a pre-wax cleanser as although generally the product in itself is non-abrasive the action of the pad makes a BIG difference.

Anyhow I must go and get ready for the PS meet and will check back later

riiiiiight.....

 

so, seems my initial fears about doing this myself are well founded...

 

my need for a pro seems even more urgent. seems envy are too far away from me, so i will have to look at a local alternative if there are no personal recommendations.

 

i'll report back on my findings... which will be based on all my experience on the subject

I'm often up in SW London and have family not too far away so I'd be happy to come and do some work for you. Whereabouts are you? Feel free to PM me!

Tim@Envy regularly visits the Walton on Thames type area, might be worth giving him a shout anyway.