ilogikal1

Continuing to make a dent in these: Today is focusing on VP Snow Foam. Now those that know me well enough will know that Car Chem Snow Foam is my benchmark, with the link between VP and CC I'm expecting big things. First things first, let's address the big grey thing in the indoor enclosed space. It looks like CC Snow Foam - it's the same watery consistency and it's red(ish - although it does look more orangy in the pictures). When you open the bottle, it smells like CC Snow Foam. Oh, and VP don't sell it anymore. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that this is Car Chem's Snow Foam. Except that Car Chem don't appear to sell it anymore either*. Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure this is exactly the same stuff with a different label on. I'm still going to test it anyway. *I may or may not test the new offerings to see how they match up to my favourite that was the old version. I'm making no promises though. Deciding against decanting the foam from one bottle into another, I instead just screwed the foam lance onto the VP bottle. There was a minor issue with this theory... the thread was not quite compatible. So I ended up decanting half the bottle anyway. Now the way I have my lance set up, I use neat solution in the bottle and adjust the solution to mix to obtain the desired PIR. In this case I'm not washing the car, I'm just testing the foam on a car that's barely moved anywhere in months. Aside from a film of dust grime, the car wasn't especially dirty. I opted for ~6% PIR for anyone interested. Standard process - fire at the car, wait 3-5 minutes (closer to 3 given I'm working in direct sunshine and I was keeping an eye on drying out, particularly on the front end and far side), followed by a thorough rinse (complete with pause for passing neighbours on the left hand side, hence why the video ends before the rear is rinsed properly): As you can see, it's a thinner foam but still has good working time, which is exactly how snow foam should be - yes, shaving foam consistency looks better (at least until you find it hanging around on the drive for 18 years afterwards as you become legally responsible for it's education and wellfare until it's old enough to look after itself and move out... or something) but because it doesn't slide off the panel, it's not removing any of the dirt. Having used it, it's very similar to (old) Car Chem Snow Foam. There are no noticable differences in any way, shape or form. All of which makes this review somewhat irrelevant; it's the same as Car Chem Snow Foam which I've been recommending for years as the joint best snow foam available... except it appears it's no longer available as you can't get from VP or Car Chem any more. Unless "Pre-Soak Snowfoam" is the same thing rebranded and purple (and even if it's not exactly the same stuff, I'm pretty confident it's still a decent product though).

On a related topic, I've finally made a start on using this: Specifically for this update: Ceramic Suds. Now, I must begin with a caveat or twelve. Firstly, the equipment I have to hand is... sub-optimal. Specifically the lack of basic equipment. Like buckets. Fortunately I was throwing it at my sister's family wagon, so safe wash technique has always been less important than the shiny shiny. So I made do with what I had; a pressure washer and a snow foam lance. Ceramic Suds is an SiO2 based "concentrate luxury car shampoo", that "leave a protective hydrophobic layer of liquid glass", and some other stuff about cleaning well and all that good stuff you should expect from any reasonable shampoo. Think Gyeon Bathe+, but green with a scent of... "iced lemon" apparently. If "Iced" mean "faint" then I can smell it. It's got a lemon tone to it in concentrate form, but it's not a strong scent. To be honest, it wasn't until I noticed the scent listed on the webstite as "iced lemon" that I even placed it as lemon, it's such a mild scent. It's a very watery consistency, as such is very easy to decant, and Car Chem state a dilution ratio of 200 to 1 (200:1). However their description actually means 1:200 (1 in 200) because they state "Add 50ML of Ceramic Suds to a 10L bucket and top up with warm [water]" (the bottle finishes the sentence, whilst the website doesn't). Now this is a very minor and pendantic point - the difference is litterally 10,000ml of water + 50ml of shampoo (10,050 solution @ 200:1) versus 9,050ml water + 50ml shampoo (10 litres of solution @ 1:200). Pendantry aside, second caveat: Dilution ratios were ignored entirely. Preamble done, I pre-washed with Car Chem's snow foam first then rinsed the car. It wasn't especially dirty to start off with but there was a traffic film left over avter the foam which required a contact wash. Now, as I mentioned, no buckets - I know, who the hell doesn't have even a single bucket, right?! Well, turns out, that would be my sister. We're very different people... So I improvised with the foam lance (and rinsing the wash mitt with a separate water source). Obviously I did my maths and measured out exactly the right amount of shampoo that Ineeded.... Okay, I just poured some Ceramic Suds into the foam bottle, then poured a bit more in for good measure. Then I topped up with warm water leaving me with 1litre of solution. I did measure it afterwards - the bottle was filled to approximately 20cm high, I now have approximately 18cm of shampoo left. I'm pretty sure that means I've used 10%, i.e. 100ml: So, approximately 9:1. Or 1:10 solution in the foam bottle. Which was then fired at the car @ approximately 10% PIR. So rather than hitting the panel at 200:1/1:200, I had it more or less hitting the panel at... somewhere in the region of 999:1 (or 1:1000). Maybe. Anyway, the theory was simple enough; fire the solution at the car, hope it foams a bit, spread it around the panel with a (cheap) microfibre mitt, rinse with the pressure washer, repeat for the next panel. The reality was; fire it at the panel, realise it doesn't foam much at all. Admire the (literally) instant beading that it adds. Realise I still need to actully wash the car and get on with it. So my approach was not ideal and didn't really give the shampoo a fair shot at all. I will be treating my sister and her household to two new buckets (when I can pick some up rather than paying more for delivery than I'm prepared to pay for the buckets!) and I'll give it a fairer shot with an updated write up. In the meantime, I do have some initial observations. Firstly, as I mentioned, it doesn't seem to be a particularly foamy shampoo - again, I circle back to the Bathe+ comparison - it foams up under running water (when filling the bottle) but it's not what you'd call sudsy by any means. If suds are important to you; a) you've got the wrong priorities, b) this is not the shampoo for you. Caveat number three: remembering that I was using it at 5x the dilution ratio. I didn't find it particularly slick on the surface. It wasn't grabby by any means, but there was a touch more resistance across the panel with the shampoo than with clean water. The sensation wasn't enough to worry me that I was causing damage, but it was noticable and worth noting. At the very least, it's an odd sensation for a shampoo. That said (and repeat caveat 3), it did clean very well and managed to lift all except the most stubborn of tar spots lower down on the sills. And a final repeat of caveat 3; the protection it adds was immediately evident and every bit as impressive as my personal favourite, Bathe+. The car has precisely zero protection on it - my sister is the type to expect my brother-in-law to wash the car, he being the type of person who would washing up liquid for shampoo (albeit not due to the dilusion that it's "stripping" previous LSP's - also; no, it absolutely does not, the surfectants in washing up liquid are designed to affect water behaviour that some people, mistakenly, believe demonstrates a weakened LSP. It does compromise LSP in the same way this and shampoo does, just with the opposite effect. Anyway, moving on.). Using Ceramic Suds through a foam lance created a number of problems for me - notwithstanding the dilution ratios, it instantly adds a layer of protection that very effectively beads and somewhat effectively sheets water. So you spray it at the panel, put the foam lance down and... find a reasonably dry panel. Fortunately I have a short gun, so I resorted to spray the panel with one hand, immediately wipe over with the other. Took some practice, but I think I nailed the technique in the end. I did have to pause to rinse the panels every so often, largely because I was working in the sun which has finally decided to make an appearance this week. Where I wasn't able to rinse/wipe properly (namely, the middle fo the roof - it's a Grand Scenic. With roof rails. And I was in too much of a rush (read: too lazy) to get steps, so the middle section of the roof didn't get a contact wash) it resulted in minor smearing (similar to Bathe+ and even WetCoat when not rinsed throughly enough before drying). When I say minor, it was enough to bother me, but neither my sister nor brother-in-law even noticed it. I would strongly advise using buckets. I used the whole 100ml of shampoo doing the car, which I could have done with just 50ml in a bucket and would have got more of the shampoo on more of the car at the same time. P*ss Poor technique aside, I'm generally quite impressed with Ceramic Suds, and I'm pretty certain with comparative use it might even give Bathe+ a run for it's money. Of course, I will test this one day and post the results. You may have noticed the lack of pictures again with this one. I know, I'm being sh*t, but that's the reason I'm delaying reviews of the VP Snow Foam and Dirt Magic. I'm aiming to get pictures for these in use on the Z tomorrow. Or to put it another way; quit your moaning, I'm working on it! When I have buckets, I will review this review of Ceramic Suds and I might even get pictures for the the re-review. Maybe.

I'm not going to lie, it's my favourite new toy for some time. Aside from replacing a broken trigger with a better quality alternative, I can't see any reason to extend the short trigger. Somewhere to store the nozzles would be nice though - I know you can get the attachment which stores them, but I object to even extending the gun by that much. I might look into cobbling something together to store them with the pressure washer instead (or rather, hope that someone else does so I don't have to. ).

I promised updates. I have updates. And by updates, I mean reviews. First and foremost, if you have a pressure washer and don't have one of these: ...you're missing out. Now if I remember right back in pre-apocolypse, I hadn't managed to switch my foam lance over to the quick release fitting shown in the picture. Well I've now done a thing, so to provide a proper review of this; it's a massive improvement. It's much easier to use properly than the 18 foot lance that comes as standard with pressure washers for reasons literally no one can explain*. With the three nozzles (15, 25 & 40 degree fan pattern) it's a lot more versative, easier to handle (f'nar) - especially single handedly (ooer). The swivel inlet is a worthwhile investment too - no more kinky hose (that's what she said) when moving about. *Someone probably could explain but I'm not accepting any excuses so if you can explain, please don't, plzkthx. In case anyone is wondering, I now have one foam lance set up for this and one with the fitting for the standard lance on still. Now me being me I can't not compare one thing to another, and I can confirm there is no noticable difference in performance between the two guns; the only operational difference is that the one on the standard fitting is in a fixed position, so if you rotate the gun then the lance rotates with it. On the short gun, the quick fitting basically means it spins - so if you rotate the gun, the weight of the foam bottle essentially self levels it. Not a huge problem as you're quite likely to be using the standard gun two handed (because it's a million feet long) to stabalise it, so you can just use your other hand to rotate the bottle independently of the gun anyway. That also becomes a handy feature for the nozzles too - they too rotate in the gun and therefore you can adjust not only the angle but also the pattern of the spray very easily without having to hold the gun at uncomfortable angles. Word of warning though, the nozzles only rotate when the trigger is not depressed. When you're firing water through it, the pressure makes it difficult (at best) to rotate it in the gun. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but mine if from Direct Hoses (clicky) - they do Nilfisk & Karcher versions for most people, a Macallister version in case the person who bought one of those is on here, as well as a Kranzle version for the posh rich boys and girls (servants). I'm being lazy with my reviews these days - you're getting no new pictures with this one. I'm not even trying. Or sorry. I have more but the pubs are open again so you lot are second favourite again so you'll have to wait.

My initial thoughts are; latest hype product, with a very strong caveat that I've not actually used or tested any personally (yet). And for the price of graphene products, I'm in no rush to either . I am, however, currently judging based almost entirely on the brands which have released graphene coatings to date.... There's very few large, respected brands that have adopted graphene into their line ups (that's not to say they're not developing products, I know a couple that absolutely are). From what I've seen from people I actually know and, more importantly, trust; TL/DR: Current graphene coatings don't do anything new that (good) ceramic coatings don't already do. Some just does certain things a bit differently. However, it's early days for graphene and there is potential in the science behind it. Pros - Graphene is apparently a slicker finish. Meh - Application: it's not easier or more difficult to apply than ceramics - rather just different, you can't treat them the same way - so it comes down to user preference on application. In terms of looks, it's pretty indistinguishable. Chemical resistance: nothing in it. Ceramics tend to "clog up" quicker than graphene - whilst there's little-to-no difference in terms of self-cleaning ability, ceramics do need a proper clean to retain it's water behaviour whilst graphene doesn't... but graphene are infinitely more prone to water etching than ceramics are to water spotting. Basically when you see water spotting on graphene it'll need to be polished out (taking the coating with it) whilst water spotting on ceramics can be chemically removed without affecting the coating. (i.e. ceramics will lose it's hydrophobic ability over time if left, whilst graphene won't - but ceramics can be revived with the right shampoo whilst graphene can't). Cons - Durability: the above point notwithstanding (i.e. ceramics do need a bit of care, albeit not topping up), ceramics win hands down. Graphene coatings aren't terrible, but the existing offerings aren't as durable as a good ceramic coating when both are properly applied. Also graphene tends to fall off a cliff whilst ceramics will deteriorate over a period of time until failure.

Yep, both are tried and tested, as is FK1000P, FWIW. FK1000P does a pretty good job, but still needs regular top ups. Coatings will last longer (~10months from C5 & ~8-9months from Rim in my experiences on exhausts). Still requires regular cleaning to keep on top on - especially inside - but a coating means it's a matter of a weekly-or-so wipe down really. If you've already got some lying around, throw it at the exhaust. You'll be glad you did.

A coating is your best bet, tbh. Pretty much any wheel coating will do so do your rims first then throw the remainder at the exhaust. GTechniq C5 or Gyeon Rim would be my choices.

That depends entirely on if you like "celebrities" or just complete randomers to form your opinions for you.

I think you’ll find, Daniel, that this is the ONLY way to figure stuff out; fire up YouTube and wait for someone to tell you what your opinion is. Preferably with pretty (moving) pictures, because words are hard.

After literally (a) year's worth of delay, I have news.... Updates! ...like winter, are coming. Or at least may be coming. Soon. Ish. Maybe within the month. Possibly. Not actually promising that. When they do happen, there should be a few of them though. So there's that. That's it. That's all I've got right now. I'm not even sorry.

It's a shame Nissan never did anything to address the collapsing suspension, given all this evidence and all.

Whoever’s painted that last time hasn’t done the right prep. Take it to a decent paint shop and get the whole boot lid done properly.

Take your pick: https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/005r/ Stick your reg in and double check, but pretty sure any of those will do you - personal choice would be a toss up between the Bosch or the Varta though. Failing that; https://www.tayna.co.uk/tools/battery-wizard

Few, or even just one, is the point. That people "will get off" ipso facto means it's not a guaranteed ban.

Nick Freeman has made an entire career out of proving this to be pure myth.

Theres no such thing as an instant ban. Its a direct to court hearing where there’s a potential ban, retake your test and fine, but it’s at the court’s discretion; likely, perhaps, but not guaranteed.

VXR8. * £20K - 25K; check * 4 Doors; check * 4 Seats; check * Decent Boot; check * Same speed / power as a Zed minimum - shouldn't be too hard in this day and age!; check * Nice modern day cabin; nevermind.

Ignoring the massive can of worms that expelling those clubs would open for a moment (let's not pretend for a second that lawsuits wouldn't be filed). Kicking them out would cause an interesting dilemma for the PL - do they remove the points gained from those teams who were expelled? Or award the points dropped, plus 3 points for all games not yet played? It would be the footballing equivalent of all of those ridiculous stewards enquiries after the race to determine final classification. The clubs can't be expelled midseason and the PL just allow the points to stand as they are. I'm far too lazy to see how that would affect the table, could change things a fair bit though though (...well, less so City's results actually ).

I’m actually not sure who of the “big six” was worse in the whole thing; the four who wanted to run it or City/Chelsea who “didn’t want to be left out”.

IIRC Samsung (if not wider Android) changed the bluetooth protocols around the S6/7 (ish) and it's not compatible with the module. I seem to recall someone reached out to Nissan and Samsung, neither were at all interested in fixing it, so the only fix is an older Samsung, an iPhone or a new head unit/handsfree device. Or ditch all your friends so that no one calls you - at least no one you're interested in talking to.

Prettier switch panel. Nice mod. Also, the centre positioned steering wheel is an interesting touch with the offset seats.... (or it could just be the camera angle ).

The entire thing looks a bit peculiar from every angle...

Of course I have. It's pretty easy stuff to use, just have decent lighting if you're working on silver wheels so you can see where you've applied. Other than that, make sure the wheels are clean and dry first, apply in a cross hatch pattern (work systematically, it helps to ensure coverage), take your time to spread it properly and buff out any smudges. When you're finished, make sure you haven't lost (and do reuse) the seal for the bottle and anything left over* will last a lot longer than it should for another time. Wash everything else thoroughly to prevent crystallisation of product and you're good to go. Once cured, it should last the best part of a year or so. *If you take your time, you'll probably have some left over, but not enough to do another full set of wheels - it can be used on a number of surfaces though (pretty much anything painted or metal actually). IIRC the instructions suggest to dispose of cloths when you're done with them - I've found if you soak them immediately after use (have a bucket of water or something nearby and dump spent cloths in there when finished) you can reuse them, but just be aware that they could have crystallised product in them before you use them on paintwork. The applicators in particular are useful for all sorts!

It's Scholl S20 black.

If you're doing it by hand, I'd still recommend S20 over G3 as it finishes down better. Also you'll probably want a hand polishing pad that'll help with the cutting (and save your arms to some degree) - either a medium cut or a light cut depending on how bad it is. If you can catch your nail on it though I'd skip straight to the machine polishing.