maestegman

Cheers mate. www.lastminute.com has got a cracking deal on a hotel in Chester so I'll probably book this for the Saturday night.

Thanks. Which Chester services is it (M/J?)? Has the route/POA on the 17th been agreed?

This is REALLY useful H5. I'll do some before and after shots and try to post them "after the event". Thanks everyone.

Thanks all. Just ordered everything from "Clean Your Car". £132 (inc. VAT and Delivery). Yippee. Friday morning will be like Christmas. Can't wait for Sunday. Sad - I know. I'll share the photos (if anyone's interested).

Thanks Stew - much appreciated. I'll take some photos as I'm going.

I appreciate your confidence H5. My previous attempts have normally led to less than exemplary results. Lots of enthusiasm here though.

All the gear and absolutely no idea Can't wait. I'll be asking for a professional detailer on Monday to rectify the mistakes I made no doubt.

Done. Wash and Gloss it is. Have I missed anything obvious out (save clay)? Have I got enough cloths in there? Really looking forward to having lots of fun in the garage on Sunday.

I should add that I have a new wheel brush in the garage and the foam applicators are included with the SSR.

Many thanks again for the advice. I haven't clayed before so I've taken advice and I'll leave that until after I've chatted to a few more experienced Zeders on the North Wales meet. OK. Here's my revised list: Poorboys Natural Look Dressing £8.65 Huge 38" x 28" Microfibre Drying Towel £8.65 Meguiars Lambswool Wash Mitt £7.78 Dodo Juice - Rainforest Rub £25.65 Sonus Der Wunder Polishing Towel, Pkg/2 £6.04 Poorboys Wheel Sealant £11.26 1-inch round Wheel and Detail brush £2.57 Ultra Plush Microfibre Cloths Pkg/3 16" x 16" £9.52 Chemical Guys - Bodywash and Wax £5.74 Poorboys SSR 2.5 Super Swirl Remover £11.26 Valet Pro - Bilberry Wheel Cleaner (1 litre) £7.78 Meguiars Foaming Sprayer £3.43 Total (inc. VAT but plus delivery) = £124.95

BTW, I've been using the 2BM for a while now and I'm happy with my Tesco cheapies. I intend using my old mit for the wheels (still in decent nick as only 2 months/4 washes old). Hmm . . . Let's have another look.

Excellent advice (as always) guys. Give me a minute to revise my shopping list and I'll repost. I'm just loving my little baby and want to lavish some attention to her before I get back to work on Monday.

First of all, many thanks for all the fab advice I've receiving since joining. You guys/gals are ace! OK. After ploughing through this site (and others), I've come up with the following shopping list (VAT added in TOTAL) to smarten up my 54 gunmetal grey GT Zed with orange leather interior: Poorboys Natural Look Dressing £8.65 Huge 38" x 28" Microfibre Drying Towel £8.65 Meguiars Lambswool Wash Mitt £7.78 Dodo Juice - Rainforest Rub £25.65 Dodo Juice - Born to be mild shampoo 250ml £7.78 Clearkote Vanilla Moose Wax Hand Glaze £11.26 Sonus Der Wunder Polishing Towel, Pkg/2 £6.04 Chemical Guys - Extreme Top-Coat £10.39 Poorboys Wheel Sealant £11.26 1-inch round Wheel and Detail brush £2.57 Ultra Plush Microfibre Cloths Pkg/3 16" x 16" £9.52 Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Kit £19.96 TOTAL = £148.95 (inc. VAT) plus delivery The prices quoted are from Clean Your Car (although I'd be more than happy to purchase elsewhere if cheaper) Before I press the "Checkout Confirm" button, I'd welcome your take on my list. Especially if you think there are better/more cost effective alternatives for my car. I don't particularly want to spend much more than £150. I'd like to order ASAP as I've managed to sort out some double garage space on the weekend. I'd also like to add that I'm trying my best to reconcile this cost against the fact that I could get 5 decent wash/interior/wax valets from a local firm for the same money. What do you think?

Really glad you got out of that one OK. madmarky's post did make me smile though

Some really good discussion here guys. Thank you. The reason I started this thread was that the situation on UCR resonated with me (albeit on a much smaller scale). I wrestled with many of the issues contained in this thread before I bought my Zed. In reality, the main thing that settled it for me was cabin size. However, I'd be lying if I didn't factor in the additional cost of a sizeable loan if I had purchased a Porsche (Boxster) or a Mercedes (SLK). Value is such a difficult thing to quantify. I love Porsches. But I am sooo happy with my Zed.

Beautiful car Chris. I think the White looks really good and the previous owner's obviously taken care of it. Nice one! I bet your insurance premium's a real giggle being 23! I'm a newbie too and this site is amazing.

Fellas - you are legends! This is exactly what I'm after - and no need to get the window tinted either - excellent.

I'm sure this has been answered before although I can't appear to find it via SEARCH. I'm looking for something to make the contents of the boot less visible. I'm thinking along the lines of a plastic partition and some rear window tinting (unless otherwise recommended). Apologies, again, if this has been answered (probably many times before). If so, a link would be great.

Yep Trev - the Cayman was a fab drive and a stunning bit of kit. I cheapest decent one I could find was £24k though and I didn't think it was worth £15k more than my Zed (which, IMHO, is also very pretty).

CaptainSensible - snap! Same issue exactly here. I wonder if the Porsche audio system plays CDs without sounding like Norman Collier though.

Haha. I must admit that Used Car Roadshow is one of my guilty pleasures. Zoe Hardman is more my type than Jason Dawe however.

You're right Chris. The Cayman cabin was lovely - well appointed and very solid. Decent headroom too! Personally, I thought the Zed was a much better driver's car than the Boxster however. This might have had something to do with the fact that I couldn't actually move in the Boxster however I suppose the thing that got me thinking (and posting) was the differential in price and, whether or not it represented actual "value".

Agreed Ekona. I'm simply too big for the Boxster and I would have needed to have taken out a loan to go for a newish Porsche. The 996 I test-drove was astonishing however. I suppose it goes back to Sarnie's point - can value be defined objectively?

This is very true Sarnie. I have always dreamed of owning a Porsche (in fact, I got very close to buying a Cayman before deciding to go for the Zed). (Most) Porsches are indeed things of beauty. Cabin size was actually the deciding factor on my case (I'm 6'5"). However, I really enjoy telling people I drive a small Nissan

Just watched Used Car Roadshow (hurrah for Sky+) where a fella swapped his newish 350z plus £20k for a 3 year old Porsche 911 (993). Now, the Porker is a very fine car and, one day, I'd love to own one. I've test driven a couple (993 and 996) and they were fab. However, since owing my Zed, I simply cannot see any other car on the market offering such value for money in the way of looks and performance. In fact, in the two weeks I've owned my car, the only thing I don't like is my skipping Bose! What do other members think? Is the premium purely a "badge-thang"? PS Thanks to this site, I've now become addicted to car detailing websites and the wife thinks I'm now officially the world's saddest web surfer - I have, however, added words like "dodo juice", "detailing clay" and "snow foam" to my vocabulary!