ilogikal1

Yeah, it's alright I suppose.

Anyway, that was a mere distraction to today's task, the wax test. The Z was washed - Car chem snow foam, rinsed, 2BM wash with Glacier Pure, rinsed, re-rinsed with filtered water & photographed whilst getting odd looks from the neighbours (who, it has to be said, should be used to this by now!) - and here are the results. Sheeting all round has dramatically slowed. During the first rinse I was questioning whether any of the waxes had survived to this point. It's fair to say we're approaching the end of this test now. The pictures below are in the order they were taken to give you an idea of the timeline, the first of which was about a minute or so after the two panels had been completely wetted. Over all; Desire; FK; Poorboys; The added-at-a-later-date-and-not-actually-anything-to-do-with-this-test Waxaddict jobbie ; Purple Haze; Blue Velvet; Of these six, Purple Haze was, hands down, the best performer at this point with Waxaddict being the worst (Desire being the slowest of the remaining 5 from the start of the test). Interestingly (well, to me), throughout this test I've noticed the tape line showing only on the Dodo Juice sections. Can you see where it is? Anyway, whilst getting pictures of the bonnet waxes, Nanowax was doing this; I appreciate that it's on a vertical panel compared to the horizontal bonnet and it had a bit longer before the pictures were taken, however, I think it's fair to say that Nanowax wins the sheeting contest. At this point the spray bottle came out for the beading shots. Nanowax; By this point (7/8 minutes, ish) all but the Waxaddict sections of the bonnet were pretty much dry from sheeting. Anyway, on with the beading. Desire; FK; Poorboys; Blue Velvet; and Purple Haze; None of which are particularly good and I'm not even sure which of the 5 on the bonnet wins that round.... That's your lot for now. I suspect the next update may well see anywhere between one and five of these dropping out.

So this is what week old, "dirty" (I use the term loosely here, it has only been a week after all) Prime beads like; If you look closely at some of the beads in this next one, you can see just how dirty the car was*. Also, you can see the difference in beading between two random, completely incomparable products on the light and paint. *I say "was" because I inadvertently washed (parts of) the car today with nothing more than filtered water and a spray bottle. Truly touchless wash and not so much as a shampoo in sight.

Aww, don't ruin it for us!

Technically it never has to arrive on the doorstep.... They have to issue the NIP within 14 days though. As Dave said, I'm sure a summons is longer but I don't know exactly for that.

I appreciate what you're saying and you're right, it is just a guideline. However... Not all* such stories are entirely believable. * Yes, I'm aware that's not what you said.

You know, I know a person who knows someone that has a sister that knows someone who knew someone else that got done for doing 120mph in a 30mph limit who is not allowed to give any details as the police were involved and the person was actually a diplomat carrying secret documents :scare: :scare:

So this week's new toy was; Polished Bliss were (actually still are) selling these and Mohs kits off at a good discount because Gyeon have changed the presentation boxes, so I picked this up at a bargain price about a month ago. I spent the last month dithering about which car to apply it to but the ongoing wax test on the Z made that decision for me, so it's now on the Leon. Anyway, the (slightly used ) contents of the box; You actually get 4 suede applicator cloths, a full bottle of Prime and a user manual along with what's seen here. The bottle of Cure had been topped up with the Waxybox sample I still had before it was used, so that's about equal to amount you'll get. This is what I had left after applying 2 layers of Prime and one of Cure, I'd imagine the Z would use about the same amount so the 30ml kit should be plenty. Anyway, the process was, in addition to the last post, as follows; Snow foam & rinse. APC foam & 2 bucket wash followed by a thorough rinse. Clay'd (with a cloth). Iron decon & rinse. De-tarred & rinse (all as above). The car was then moved into the garage and left to dry over night. The following day I taped up and began polishing. There were only a few minor swirls, one large scratch the length of the rear door and a scuff on the front bumper. The paint is considerably harder than the Z, so I eventually settled on an orange Lake Country Constant Pressure Pad and 3M Scratch & Swirl Remover on the DAS-6. Neither the scratch nor the scuff are 100%, but due to time constraints I settled for the 85% I managed to achieve. Each section was given a wipe down with Eraser to check the correction as I went along. With polishing complete, the full car was given a dust down and a final wipe down with Gyeon Prep before starting on the Prime. The instructions for Prime are quite straight forward; lightly wet an applicator using the pipette, wipe onto the paint, buff off between 30seconds to 3 minutes to remove all smears. Once you get a hang of the timing, it's remarkably easy to use, the main thing is to make sure you remove all the smear before it sets on the paintwork - if you miss any, they ain't coming out without compounding! Good lighting helps a lot with this, so make sure you plan ahead on that front. It's also important to keep a close eye on both applicator cloths and buffing cloths for dried product, otherwise you're going to cause scratches. I had to swap the applicator cloth about three quarters of the way through the first coat, but managed to get the second coat on with a single applicator. I was also using two microfibre cloths to buff - one to buff off the product then a separate one to give a second buff - and ended up using 8 cloths to buff over the two coats. You should allow at least an hour between layers of Prime - I ended up getting distracted by something and it was closer to 3 by time I got round to the second layer. Once the second layer is applied, it's advised to leave the car in a warm, dry place out of direct sunlight for at least 12 hours (however, the longer the better - so it was 42 hours in my case) before applying a coat of Cure. Cure is effectively a QD/sealant designed to reduce/eliminate (or 'cure' if you like) the water spotting issue associated with coating's whilst they fully set (which can take up to 14 days). It's also advised not to wash the car with any shampoo for the first 7 days after application so if you're the type of person who has to wash the car every other day, prepare to be frustrated! So whilst Prime was curing, I applied AF Revive to the plastics to top up the Nanolex Trim Rejuvenator that been on there for several months. Tyres were dressed with Gyeon Tire. The wheels were first polished with Werkstat Prime and sealed with the revised Hubikote Hubirims (which now smells the same a Hubifresh. If you don't know what Hubifresh smells like, it's bloody awesome! ). Glass was first cleaned with AG Glass Polish, then Car Chem Glass Cleaner, followed by an Eraser/Prep wipe down and finally sealed with Car Chem Glass Sealant. So pictures of the finished article then; The lack of sun doesn't help to show off the glossiness of the finish, but these refelctions should give a fair idea; Also including obligatory (filthy) Z content. Beading shots will probably follow in due course because... well, I do love me some beading. But that's your lot for now. There might be a wax update next week.

Then you're probably applying too much. Natty's is one of the easiest waxes to use - try using a damp (not wet) foam applicator to apply and keep spreading until you can barely see it on the panel, once it's cured it should be really easy to buff off. If you're using it in the sun, keep an eye on the shorter curing times to avoid baking on. That said, AG HD is a decent wax and quite easy to use itself. I'm not convinced that it's 3x the wax that Natty's is to justify the 3x price tag at Halfords myself, but it is good.

Simply hand your passenger some bubble wrap and you'll hear nothing but popping.

With water and shampoo... Your wax isn't water soluble, it'll still be there even after it rains once.

So you're offended by them trying not to offend one group of people then? That's how it reads to me; you have no problem with the practice of removing head wear until someone is excused from doing so. It just seems a little petty to me, not least because it makes no difference to you whether someone's wearing a burka or not. If it's a security concern about robberies (like the crash helmet policy), it's the petrol station staff that should be concerned, no? It's like going to someone's house and being asked to take your shoes off before coming in and you being fine with it until you see someone in the house wearing slippers. I see where you're coming from, it's not fair that there are different rules for everyone, but not everyone's the same so why should they be treated as if they are? Burkas are treated differently to crash helmets because, aside from the fact that they cover the face, they are entirely different right down to the reason for having it on in the first place, which takes me back to my original point.

And there's the mentality I just don't understand; you're happy to remove your helmet, so ultimately what difference does it really make what anyone else is or isn't asked to remove? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just don't understand that at all. Incidentally, they are able to ask for burkas to be removed, just as they are able to refuse to serve anybody for any reason they want. Why don't they? Well, you'd have to ask them. I have no doubt that the reality is that some people chose to respect their religious beliefs just as others are afraid of the fallout from doing so.

Ultimately because the proprietor of the business you are frequenting has asked you to do so if you chose to frequent that business. It would seem from SJ350z's post above that not all petrol stations require you to do so (or at least enforce the rule), so you're under no obligation to use those which do. You pays your money... I will concede the other points to you though. I don't necessarily agree with you, but nor can I (competently) argue against them either.

Hardly a "get out clause". More "the reason for wearing the burka in the first place" and, more importantly, "the difference between wearing a burka and a crash helmet"; the purpose of wearing a crash helmet is removed when not riding the bike, the purpose of wearing a burka is not removed when entering a petrol station. You don't have to agree with it, but then you don't have to buy petrol from places that do agree with it either. Assuming it's a like-for-like swap, i.e. an established practice of an established and recognised religion then; no of course not. But only because of the pre-existing decency laws in this country. There are no laws broken in wearing a burka, even in a petrol station, so it's an irrelevant comparison.

On the topic of... I applied the last of bottle of WetCoat to the Leon mentioned somewhere in this thread before at least 4 weeks ago (it may have been 5, I struggle to count to such big numbers...) to top up the protection on it with the intention of applying some winter protection when I had the car for longer. Well, I've now got the car for another week so today I made a start on on it's pre-winter detail, which starts with a wash and removal of the current protection... ... at least that was the plan. I'm sure you can guess where this is going. WetCoat was still going strong. Even before the wash. And this was the first wash since it was applied, so the car was... actually surprisingly clean, but dirtier than 4 (or 5) weeks prior. Anyway, the car was snow foamed (Car Chem for what it's worth), rinsed, re-foamed with neat APC, washed (with the Swissvax stuff from the last Waxybox - I'm not impressed with that to be honest but that's another topic) and then rinsed again. WetCoat wasn't adversely affected at all. I then clayed with the cloth mentioned elsewhere in this thread using Car Chem shampoo. Twice. WetCoat is still standing at this point. So I took the opportunity to double check using traditional clay too (on a small area). WetCoat won that fight too. If anything, it was actually beading better after the clay. Iron removers. Yes, plural. Four of them. WetCoat was affected but definitely still going. Tardis, not to remove tar but to see if it'll remove WetCoat. It didn't. Weakened it slightly again, but didn't remove it. Polishing starts tomorrow, which should definitely remove it, but it's good to know just how stubborn a month-old, spray on/rinse off sealant can be!

For me it comes down to the simple fact that burkas are worn due to religious reasons, biker's helmets are warn for safety reasons when riding a bike - ergo when not riding a bike, there's no real reason to keep it on. It may be discrimination if it were limited to bikers removing their helmets or just burkas being exempt, but in reality it's anything obscuring the face with the exception of anything worn for (legitimate) religious reasons. It reminds me of the helmets & turbans argument years ago (and yes, I am now thinking of that Only Fools episode too...).

It's not as expensive as Azure.

At least you've solved the mystery of who vandalised your car; "Oh look, it's that c**t who's going round town telling everyone that, that ridiculous colour is the same as mine...".

That's effectively what they're doing. If you don't declare your alloys the insurance company will pay out to the third party and then will chase you to recoup any costs they've incurred in the event of a claim. This is what they're doing here, pay out to the third party, chase the policy holder for the costs having breached the terms of the agreement by allowing someone else permission to ride the insured bike. Regardless of why he didn't, he should have cancelled the insurance when he sold the bike - or at the very least informed the insurance company that the bike was sold and placed the policy on hold temporarily until he changed it to a new vehicle. As Ekona said;

At least it wasn't on the Z.

It's likely to have been the solvents in that then. Red Mist is more of a spray sealant than your typical QD and it doesn't play well traditional clay bars either. Born Slippy or Basics of Bling should be okay with clay mitts (or bars) though.

The QD would probably be the better option, the shampoo just makes an adequate alternative but I'd expect the QD to be more lubricated. As you've got it already I'd probably use the QD myself. And yep, straight lines is best. Not heard of this before, which Dodo Juice QD did you use? There's three (that I can think of, there's probably a Supernatural one I'm forgetting too though ); Red Mist, Red Mist Tropical and Basics of Bling.

The AG QD will be fine. You can also use your usual car shampoo mix - I appreciate this doesn't really help you now as you've bought the QD, but worth remembering when you run out as it saves you buying more. Also remember to break the clay mitt in on the glass before doing the paintwork for the first time too.

I trust you offered them both your condolences?