ilogikal1

Someone elsewhere has mentioned that the Car Chem Hard Shell beading didn't look particularly good in the previous photos. As I was taking new pics for them I thought I might as well share them here too. So this is Hard Shell A comparison to the Poorboys combination on the panel below; Okay, it doesn't sheet as well as the Poorboys (which was the best sheeter on the bonnet), but I think it beads quite well. I've also been playing with Nanolex Textile & Leather Sealant which was, for the most part, bought for the fabric seats in the Impreza and the SEAT and it's impressed me in those applications but I've also been playing with other uses for it. Such as a pair of cheap trainers, for example; 50/50 - left side treated, right side not. And this one's completely treated. No more wet feet. In keeping with the beading theme, I've also been playing Dr Beasley's Leather Lock so I even have some leather beading; I'm just including this last photo because it doesn't have any beading. Or much relevance to this thread, but mainly the no beads thing.

I've just remembered that With now constituting "later", and I do love a good beading picture, I finally have some for you. So, without further ado, Nanolex Nanowax beading porn;

Good work, Mikey.

Knock/detonation.

As a complete an utter guess here, I suspect the first thought for the headlight washers not working would be the fuse, but tester's aren't permitted to remove parts during the test, so with there being a fusebox hidden beyond the battery cover... Wild stab in the dark maybe, but that'd be my first guess.

I blame people.

Bird lime is very acidic and will etch the paint given enough time, sadly. If it's left a mark, you'll most likely find that it will need polishing out. A decent LSP, kept topped up, should reduce the risk of it making it through to the paint though. Using APC, I'd use it closer to 10-15% myself as 50% will often be enough to weaken your LSP, IMO. Just imagine the state of all those cars with no protection on and the owners leave it months between washes!

For fresh "gifts from above", I tend to just water (the warmer the better if at all possible) through an adjustable trigger spray head so you can adjust from a jet to get most of it off to more of a fine mist to "rinse" the general area. If it's been on the paint for longer though it usually needs to soak for a minute or two first. Failing that, any QD or waterless wash should suffice with a soft microfibre - I know both CG Speed Wipe and Eco Touch Waterless both work okay. Again it's best to soak it for a minute before wiping it away. Depending on which QD you use, you're likely to add a bit of protection if anything, so perfectly wax safe.

Cheers chaps.

What you need is a Roadster. You should just me your current Z, it'll never sell after all, but I'm willing to take it off your hands. I'm just that thoughtful, you see. I also know nothing about bikes, I so I have nothing constructive to add Looks good though.

http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog/pb-luxury-drying-towel-cat5.html Or basically any microfibre that's over 800gsm would do the job.

Good work, it looks well.

You're not the only one. Cheers. He says 535's are slightly out of his budget though (10k). He's also turned his nose up at the 5 series as it "looks too boring" apparently. Just looks like a scaled up version of the 3 series he's looking at, to me though.

Cheers Ricey, I'll get him to look into that.

Couldn't tell you. It sounds like a daft idea the way it's been explained to me, but I'm assuming the those that have signed off on it so far are partial to some more details than have been released so far. Still, it can't be as bad as Bernie's sprinkler idea... can it?!?

Why thank you very much. There's marginal difference, at best, between some of them in the flesh - FK & Hard Shell, for example, are a little more glossy and the flake pop is more prominent and vibrant than the others whilst Poorboys give a slightly darker, deeper, wetter look but the flake is more muted. It's more noticeable in certain light than others but even then there's really not a great deal of difference. The panels with Poorboys Red & Blue layered seems to offer a closer level of gloss the the layered FK's but still maintain the depth and the flake is slightly more muted still - although still very noticeable. Funny you should say that, there should have been two more on the list. I had been working with someone to produce an ilogikal1 custom wax and we had two different formulas lined up but after some considerable faffing about and sorting out issues and whatnot over the course of the last 7/8 months, it finally just fell through altogether and I've been let down in a big way. That's largely why I resorted to panels with Poorboys being layered as my back up plan.

Spoke to somebody in the know last eve, and yes all the Teams have agreed to it, need to be ratified at the next FIA Meeting. I still think its a stupid idea..but that's just my opinion, I remember when there were NO safety cars. I believe the proposed concept is that it's just the re-start taking place is from the grid, so there will still be the procession behind the safety car whilst the marshals clear up whatever caused it but when the safety car goes in, they'll then proceed to the grid, stop in their boxes and wait for the green light. It'll be no different to the cars than the stoppage between precession lap and race start before every single race.

He's coming from the dizzy heights of a VW Polo, so I dare say anything he chooses will be an improvement in terms of drive and performance. I've tried talking him into a Z, but he needs at least one more seat...

Not for me, the Z's not getting replaced just yet. A friend is looking at 2007/8 330D and 335D and has asked for my input. I must confess my knowledge of BMW's consists of "they've never appealed to me" about that's about it, however I know there's some knowledgeable people on here so I thought I'd ask. So, anyone with any experience, views or opinions, any general buying advice or things to look out for? His stated requirements currently consists of "It's gotta be derv mate, for the mpg, tuuuuurbo and tooooorque". He's been looking "seriously" for weeks, at everything from 320d, 325d, and now the 330/335d".

Oh yes, it's like Gizmo the mogwai; it doesn't like sunlight.

And just to finish up (I told you there was a lot!) just some general other stuff. Firstly Nanolex Urban - it's a glass sealant along the lines of those that I've tested previously (as opposed to the more durable coatings). This stuff appears to be expensive, but you should consider that I did a coat on all the glass and a second coat on the windscreen out of the 6ml of samples I had, and I've still got enough to do another coat all round (because I over applied on the windscreen first time). So the method was, after the usual wash & clay, cleaned with G-Techniq G6, then polished with G4. The windscreen got a 70% IPA swab wipe down before the first coat, the rear window got an Eraser wipe down and the side windows weren't wiped down after G4 was buffed. This was intentional to see what, if any, difference in durability (for the windscreen I'll be taking an area that's not swept by the wipers as a measure as per the rest of the glass on the car). I also gave the wiper blades a thorough clean with Eraser and G6. I applied the first coat on the windscreen with a foam pad. As you can see above that was a bad idea. Aside from massively over-applying it also ate the applicator, so I resorted to cotton make up pads for the rest which made getting a thin coat very easy indeed. It was left 10 minutes to cure and then buffed, which as an absolute breeze and required no pressure at all to remove fully. The over-applied first coat took a few more minutes to cure but was no more difficult to remove once it had. Again, the advice with Nanolex products is to leave it to cure for up to 72 hours, so I've done just that. So far, the only water behaviour I've witnessed if from spraying the car with the hose and with all glass sealants they're designed to work with the airflow from a moving car. But even at stand still, the sheeting and beading was very good and looked like this; The wheels were sealed with Dr Beasley's Wheel Seal. It's simply a spray on, spread/buff off. Job jobbed. The first wheel I did, massively over applied but as there's no curing required it did nothing more than to serve as a waste of product really. It's really easy to use but the beading isn't that impressive. It'll be interesting to see just how long this lasts considering it's so easy to apply. The beading looks like this; I also used CarPro Perl for the first time. I was expecting it to be more like FK Top Kote in consistency, but it's actually quite a thick gel. Apparently it can diluted but I used it neat this time. It left a good semi-gloss finish - not as glossy as Megs Endurance, but not a matte finish by any means. This might not be the best photo to show it off, but I just like the pic so I'm posting it anyway. I also forgot about Eco Touch Quick Wax. Very easy to use, it's just spray on/buff off, done. It gives an effortless, streak free finish and look likes this; The shine isn't bad considering it's not been polished; And just for the sake of it, I'll leave you with some random shots. I'm told that apparently this picture is evidence that "when boys grow up, their toys just get bigger". And one last one for now;

And after that brief intermission. Act three. And now for the bit some of you might have been waiting for... The method here was a tape line across the bonnet, to split the three sections into 6, I applied one coat of each wax and buffed as soon as it passed the swipe test. I then moved the tape down exactly the width of the tape and applying a second coat of each about 20-21 hours after the first coat, this meant that i) there wasn't any unprotected paint on bonnet and ii) each section has a tape width's amount of wax that is only one coat, so I can see if applying two coats actually make any difference at all. That looked something like this; They were all applied with their own, identical applicator and all buffed with separate cloths to avoid cross contamination. And that now looks like this; I seem to have misplaced the Poorboys specific shot, but you can see it in the others anyway so nuts to it. And the beading looks like this; Surprisingly, Poorboys Blue sheets by far the best. I was expecting FK to be the sheeter, but that cam in second followed by AF Desire, then the Dodo Juices (Blue Velvet slightly better than Purple Haze) and finally Desirable. Beading wise... well, make your own minds up on that one. This is #17 version 1; and #17 version 2; AF Desire; FK2685; AW Desirable; What the Poorboys didn't just sheet off complete with stone chips. Dodo Juice Blue Velvet; And Dodo Juice Purple Haze; So there you have it. Durability will be reported on as time goes on. Update at three weeks on post #95.

...right about now. So the selected waxes from the other thread then. As you might know Waxybox tweaked their latest development wax following feedback of it being too soft and selected members got a sample of the new version. My member was selected... or something. Anyway, I got a version 2 too, so I'm pitting them against each other. I have version 1 on the passenger side, it's over the top of AF Rejuvinate on the roof and over DJ SN Glaze on the pillar trim. It's very soft at room temperature, although if you stick it in the fridge for a bit it firms up nicely. It had been in the fridge, but was left out to warm up again before use. It was very oily, very easy to load the applicator and very easy to spread. Now Waxybox suggests durability is determined by how long it's left to cure between 1 to 12 minutes before buffing - the longer it cures, the longer it lasts. I intend to test to this too, so a small patch was buffed at one minute, another at 6 minutes and the rest at 12 minutes. Buffing one minute was easy but the finish was still very oily. At 6 minutes, it wasn't easy and the finish was still very oily. At 12 minutes it was a bit of a sod to buff and the finish was still very oily. I did noticed the 1 & 6 minute areas re-buffed when doing the rest of it, so I gave it all a second buffing about 20 minutes later to remove some, but not all, of the oily finish. On the driver's side is version 2. Same process, Rejuvinate & the-world's-longest-name-for-a-glaze used in the same way, staggered buffing in same areas just on the opposite side. Now version 2 is much harder at room temperate. It's almost too hard for my liking - somewhere between the two would have been ideal for me - but it was much easier to get a thin, even layer despite being slightly harder to load the applicator. Again, buffing became increasingly difficult the longer it was left but the finish was left considerably less oily. I still gave it a second buffing 20 minutes after the first. Anyway, they look like this; Notice the difference between the glazed & not glazed areas anyone? And the beading looks like this; I really can't see much difference between the two, either wet or dry, but version 2 was much easier to apply. Both were a bit of a pig to remove though. Part three to follow shortly. Because it's too many pictures apparently.

Make yourself a coffee and get comfy because this could take a while, there's a lot to get through. So I've done a "big" detail and gone back to wax(es) for the summer. Usual process of snow foam using Car Chem Snow Foam this time, 2 bucket wash with Hubikote HubiWash (the "limited edition" Krypton Green if that makes any difference to anyone), dried & decontaminated using Gyeon Q2M Iron and Auto Finesse Iron Out. It was then de-tarred with Tar-X. Clayed as per the above post and rinsed off again. The car was then rolled into the garage where it was inspected and polished - the front bumper was the only panel not polished and that's because it's got "issues". It has claustrophobia, it sh*ts itself every time it gets too close to another object... No, actually it has a patch of lacquer peel and nearly as many stone chips as it has paint and I really couldn't be bothered to spend days picking polish out of them and I'm hoping to throw some paint at it in the not to distant future. For the rest of the car I settles on a combination of Menz 85RE (or SF4000 depending on which of their numbering systems you use) on a green Chemical Guys Hex Logic pad for the large areas and an orange Lake Country Constant Pressure Spot Pad for the smaller areas (I was trialling the Hex Logic pads and only had the larger sizes so resorted to an old favourite for the smaller sections). Whilst doing that, I decided it was as good a time as any to remove the windscreen wiper arms because they looked like this; And so on. So off they came for a through sanding and painting. And just to demonstrate the level of OCD I've gone to this time, whilst the paint was drying on those, I cleaned and dressed the plastic washer jets and rubber lines with FK108AS "Top Kote Tire Dressing" (sic)... most of which you never see, so they looked like this after; The wiper arms looked a lot better after too. They're not perfect, but they are all one colour again, so that's good enough for now. Whilst the wiper arms were off the car and out of the way, I took the opportunity to thoroughly clean and dress the scuttle panel. That was treated to a thorough APC scrub until no more dirt came out and then when dry was treated to Nanolex Trim Rejuvinator. And when it was all back together, that looked like this; And whilst I was under the bonnet removing them, I decided I might as well tart the engine bay up a bit too, but I didn't got the extent of GMBallistic and paint the plenum in situ, I just cleaned it all up a bit and dressed the rubbers & plastics with FK Top Kote. And that ended up looking like this; Back to the paintwork then. Because 85RE is a very oily/lubricated polish (therefore perfect for the Nissan soft paint, by the way) after polishing I gave the whole car a wipe down using CarPro Eraser to remove those oils. Selected panels/areas were then treated to Auto Finesse Rejuvinate as a pre-wax cleanser. These areas consisted of the rear quarter panels, roof, A & C pillars, front wings and half of the front bumper. The boot hatch, bonnet, rear bumper, skirts, wing mirrors and other half of the bumper were left with completely bare paint, partially because the products intended for those areas but on the bonnet I wanted a level playing field for all 6 waxes involved with nothing interfering with them at all. AF Rejuvinate review - This is a pre-wax cleanser. It's very easy to use with a good work time, easy on/easy off even where over applied or left to cure for an excessively long period of time. It cleans well and leaves a great finish. It also claims to have a bit of corrective abilities, but this is very, very mild (considering I polished the car with a finishing polish, this at best had about half the cut of the polish). I do like this. I also had some Dodo Juice Supernatural Carnauba Glaze to try, so that was applied to the rear quarter panels, pillars and arears of the front wings. This was largely applied in such sporadic areas purely to see if it made any difference to the finish or durability of what was on top. Dodo Juice Supernatural Carnauba Glaze review - It's supposed to contain "mild cleaning agents" but I didn't notice any cleaning ability to be honest. Some areas it was applied by spraying onto the paint directly then spread in with an applicator, other were sprayed onto the applicator and then spread onto the paint however I started by tipping the open bottle onto the applicator. Using a spray head worked better, it uses up too much product with the pouring action really. Once it's spread onto the paint, it seems to be absorbed into the paint for the most part. Despite every effort to, I simply wasn't able to over apply it without just pouring the full sample onto the paintwork, so it's very forgiving to work with and you can be as hamfisted as you like with it. It's also very easy to spread and buffs off very easily. The downside is that I'm not actually convinced it does anything at all. I've asked a couple of people to see if they can tell which patches were treated on the front wings. Neither of them could. However, you can make your own minds up based on the photos below, if you can see any difference on the panel, I'd be interested to hear it. So, onto the LSP's then. A general overview of what's where and then there's more details with the pictures; Nanolex Nanowax is on both doors. Auto Finesse Tripple is on the passenger wing mirror. Britemax AIO Max is on the driver's wing mirror. Car Chem Hardshell is on the boot hatch. FK1000P topped with FK2685 (pink wax) on the rear bumper. Britemax Metal Twins topped with FK1000P on the exhaust. FK1000P on the underside of the rear bumper, front headlights and skirts. Waxybox #17 version 1 over AF Rejuvinate is on the passenger side of the roof and it also tops DJ SN Glaze from the A pillar to the panel gap for the boot. Waxybox #17 version 2, as above but on the driver's side. Eco Touch Quick Wax is on the door shuts and front bumper - half the bumper with AF Rejuvinate under it, half on bare paint. Auto Finesse Desire, Anglewax Desirable, Dodo Juice Blue Velvet, Dodo Juice Purple Haze, Poorboys Natty's Blue, and FK2685 on the bonnet. Dodo Juice Hard Candy topped with Dodo Juice Purple Haze on the front passenger wing. Poorboyrs Natty's Red topped with Poorboys Natty's Blue on the front driver's wing. Poorboys Natty's Blue topped with Poorboys Natty's Red on the driver's rear quarter. Poorboys EX-P topped with Natty's Blue topped with Natty's Red on the passenger's rear quarter. Wheels were sealed with Dr Beasley's Wheel Seal. Tyres dressed with CarPro Perl. Rubber seals cleaned with APC and treated with Einzett Gummi Pfledge. Plastic trim on the wing mirrors dressed with Auto Finesse Revive. Plastic trim under the windscreen dressed with Nanolex Trim Rejuvinator. Interior plastics dressed with Mad Cow Mango Sauce. Leather seats cleaned with Dr Leather Wipes and passenger seat then sealed with Dr Beasley's Leather Lock, just because... well, I'm intrigued frankly. Glass sealed with Nanolex Urban. And I think that's everything. Maybe. Pictures then. Starting with AF Tripple applied to bare paint, I wanted to see what sort of duribility this offered as an AIO. I know from previous experience that it fills well and is a pretty good glaze (I'd actually consider it a competitor for PB Black Hole... and I really do like my PB Black Hole!), so it'll be interesting to see how well it lasts as an LSP too. It's easy to apply, easy to buff even if you over apply. That looks like this; And beads like this; Not bad at the time honoured flake pop either; Britemax AIO Max applied to bare paint. Similar theory to Tripple, except I've not used this before but to test the durability. As it's my first time using this and having such a small working area I didn't really get a chance to over apply it so I need to have more a play with this to form a better opinion, but it was easy on/easy off this time and it looks like this; And beads like this; and "pops" like this; You can also see AF Revive beading on the plastic there, but here's another one of that; And on the doors we have another AIO, this time in the shape of Nanolex Nanowax, applied to bare paint. Now this claims to be a polish/wax rather than the other two which are more glaze/waxes. Nanowax contains abrasives but no fillers or chemical cleaners and lays down a nanotechnology based wax coating. I didn't test it's corrective abilities this time but will be doing so at some point. I did use it in two different ways though, on the driver's side I used it as more of a polish (by hand, but worked for a good length of time) and on the passenger's side I used it as wax (slap it on & spread, not working it at all). It's very easy to work as a polish with it being well lubricated it doesn't dry out or dust at all whilst working. Using it as a wax doesn't seem to have caused any marring with unbroken down abrassives though. It's very easy to buff off once cured, even where over applied although overapplication leads to a little bit of dusting upon removal. It does "require" 2 hours after buffing to cure properly and it's adivsed to allow 72 hours out of the elements for maximum durability. I've gone down this route with the car being left in the garage for the full 72 hours. And that looks like this; Although I appear to have mislaid the beading pictures for Nanowax, so I'll get some more later. In the mean time, have this dry picture instead. ETA, wet Nanowax can be seen in post #89. Next up is Car Chem Hard Shell. Allow me to admit I'm a big Car Chem fan at the moment, everything of theirs that I've tried has worked exactly as it should so I had high hopes for this. Notice use of the past tense... I didn't get on well with this. It was applied to bare paint on the boot hatch. At first I held a foam applicator over the open top of the bottle and turned it over to load the applicator. I should point out, I had forgotten what the instructions had told by this point so I figured I could just work it out for myself. That didn't go well. This method meant that it was massively over applied. It doesn't have a long working time and it cures almost instantly which is where it caused me problems. Over application of this is a bitch to remove, I ended up having to repply a tiny amount of product (the amount I should have used in the first place!) and buff it off immediately. Even then I had to do it no more than 6 inches at a time. After removing the one swipe I'd managed to **** up so badly I re-read the instructions, which basically said to spray sparingly onto the applicator. I did this and still managed to over apply it so I switched to a microfibre cloth, lightly sprayed onto the cloth, spread it onto the paintwork, turned the cloth a buffed immediately. That worked well for the most part. The downside to this that you really don't have time to check where (or even if) you've actually applied it, you just sort of have to trust that it's there... which is probably why you're instructed to give it two coats (half an hour appart FWIW). All I can say is that for all the effort of applying it, it best last a while! Having said that, now I've got some experience with it, reapplying probably won't be quite so much hard work next time. Hopefully. Anyway, that looks like this; And beads like this; To be continued...