Stutopia

This is getting EXCITING!

In other news, I used my new found polishing skills to detail my driver. Can't decide whether or not to give it a coat of gtechniq yet. I finally found a white van man to come and take away 5 mattresses and 6 fire doors, so I actually have a small place to play polishing indoors - not an actual full car's worth of space but it's better than nowt and I can just pop the panels off to work on them On top of that I went crazy and splashed the cash on a new vacuum to hoover up the new space. It does suck, blow, dry and wet - basically all your major functions, for just £60 - and it will even eat gravel, concrete dust, small amounts of mud, spiders and spider webs for fun. I couldn't resist once they knocked 20% off the RRP - https://www.drapertools.com/product/20515/20L-1250W-230V-Wet-and-Dry-Vacuum-Cleaner-with-Stainless-Steel-Tank It's even got a bloke on the front, so you know it's not a sexist vacuum, unlike those Dyson's you see on TV. Naturally, an OEM vacuum is no use to a real man, so I set about modifying mine. Popped in a reducer from another Draper kit, bringing the 35mm dia. tubing down a bit. So that it now takes a range of portable tools from their smaller vacuums, including the tiny-brush-for-around-switches-and-buttons accessory. And my personal favourite, the narrow-deep-cracks-and-crevices tool. I'm not sure if it's the effects of age or hanging around the detailing section of the forum too much, but I'm starting to get a real kick out of cleaning things

My monklike vow of non-modification suffered from a teeny tiny moment of weakness, involving a Beatrush Master Cylinder Brace. I stumbled on these when I was browsing pretty strut braces, and saw there's one with an incorporated MCB. I decided against the brace itself (the BRZ looks to be relatively well braced already and who wants to add unnecessary weight?), so I just went for the cheapest MCB I could find. Sadly they only sell these in orangey/yellow, which is a colour I'm trying to eliminate from the engine bay. So some primer, a splash of purple rattle can and some clear coat later... et viola. Thanks to mopedmark for telling me to stop fannying about on the internet and try an old fashioned shop for my paint, it's amazing what they can do these days in the real world. Bumping up nicely, against the MC. I'd like to say this relatively simple looking mod was a doddle to pop in, but it was a total PITA. The bolt holes are way up behind the damper, totally inaccessible and a nightmare to get a spanner on. Then there's the nut side, where you're squeezed in up against a delicate looking computer box and constricted to about 12 degrees of spanner movement. After the faffing and swearing, it better bring a bit more to the party and than a nice splash of purple

Ahhhh, I always thought they offered the same!

Errr, isn't it an option on the right hand of the 3 central dials?

Operating on a different level to the mortals!

I run 4s as I'm on 17s on the BRZ, they rock, as capable as the MPSS I had on the Z.

I think the RAYS look superb, perfect on the Z, in a classic way, not in a what mod can I do to my saxo way. On top of weighing nothing and taking abuse. Question: What else out there comes with sexier wheels, in the sub silly money bracket?

Thats the dangers of being radicalised on the internet for you.

Something stinks about this story...

Nice job on those seats. Makes my skin crawl thinking about all the other people juices! Good to see them eliminated

No need to apologise, you're far from the first and I'm certain you won't be the last.

First off, in answer to your question, the whole team deal with ad approval/rejection. The guidelines we use are covered here, each Team Member uses these to make a decision, if you follow these, your ads should never be rejected. The most common, though not exclusive, error is not posting valid pictures. These should show the item and username. An example of failing this particular rule would be something like this: Links to images are fine, though uploaded ones are easier for all. These three links above go to these pages below: I checked the 19 Photos of Donald Trump, Blackpool Gran Shocks Doctors, 10 Signs of Cancer and 25 Most Beautiful Girls' First Names - none showed High Flow Cats or a Cobra Exhaust FORUM TIP - Use the preview button (circled below) to see if your images display correctly, before you post. If you're using links instead of uploaded images. Check the links work. The Team would love to PM every single person who fails to post ads correctly, but we have jobs and there are too many. This video shows an example image upload from 2:18. Guides and tips can be found here: https://www.350z-uk.com/forum/9-forum-help/

Great to see this back up and running, two fingers to dirty photobucket. Speaking of dirty, that splitter could do with a wipe down :-p

It's not GREEN ?

I run one of these cheap Mobius ones, I've been fairly impressed by it. Once you get the power in it's fully fit and forget. The image quality is decent enough at 1080p. http://www.carcamerashop.co.uk/mobius-action-camera-dash-cam-version.html If I was going to spend more than this kind of money, I'd expect at least 1080p at 60fps. The only gripe I have with the Mobius is that it can only do 60fps at 720p. I think the extra frames smooth the playback very nicely. Sample footage here has been compressed by youtube, but still looks ok, even at 8x speed. Link to view at 720p @ 60fps https://youtu.be/q0hnDe97hk8

Thanks for the tip, I assume it's this little guy? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dog-Cat-Pet-2800W-Stepless-Speed-Grooming-Dryer-Fur-Hair-Blower-Heater-Blaster-/172673330898?epid=1679342854&hash=item283421eed2:g:nH0AAOSw42JZHRvt I'd actually already ordered a new vacuum before this write up, which I believe blows too, but I'm a bit worried about it firing out debris at 200mph! If it does I'll try doggy style.

24hrs, not bad... Dirty b******s.

Yeah, the sun lights are a different gear. The wheel brush isn't a mile away from my current wheel woolly, just less bulky and therefore better for "tight" wheels. Re: S20 black, I've corrected what I initially wrote, it's not an AIO, it's a one step polish. It's still amazing though!

It's been great to be on the team alongside you mate, regularly insightful, never reactionary and always happy to help. I hope your immaculate '70 is going next! Thanks you

Now that’s the coating is cured and it’s safe to do so, I’ve done some beads for the true detailing tragics like me. Due to the unseasonably warm weather these are @ilogikal1 style beads, created in a controlled environment, not the big naturals I prefer These beads are high and tight, just how I like to wear my afro.

That’s the end of my time working on the BRZ in the shop and my photos under the lights. The rest of these are just outdoor glamour stuff for my own enjoyment. So what have I learnt this last few days then? It's hard to do damage to the paint with a DA, soft pads and non-aggressive compounds. It's easy to do damage if you don't mask up properly. Work a small area until you get it just right, then get to it. Playing with the toys in a detailing shop is a quick route to an empty bank balance. I need a new DA, possibly two. A lamp. A blower. It's hard work working the paint by DA, you think it'll be easy after doing it by hand, and it sort of is, but they're heavy and want to get away from you and make a racket and make your arms ache. I eat too much fast food when work is tiring. It's addictive, I want to polish everything now. I think I like this more than my office job. Relax when polishing. Keep control but don't tense up. Let the machine do the work, use the force Luke. Last but not least, obviously, it’s a huge treat for someone like me to get to spend time in a professional detailing environment, asking questions, chatting about products, watching and learning; even more so to get hands on the pro goodies and, most importantly, get some tuition. As with most skilled things, technique trumps tooling every time, so it’s been great to spend time picking things up before I’ve had the chance to pick up too many bad habits and without the need for me to blow the GDP of a small country on bits and bobs. I reckon I might even have a chance at taking out some swirls on some of the family cars now. Thank you to Mick (Chongo over on Detailing World) who dropped in and generously spent time showing me what to do and what not to, as well as what to look for under the lights. However, the big thanks need to go to John at Deadeye Detailing for his time, patience and expertise. It’s been absolutely brilliant to see what you can do to transform the grimmest of paint and to noticeably enhance paint that already looked in decent shape. Thank you. If you’re considering a detail and adding some protection, I’d definitely recommend you check out John’s previous work at http://deadeyedetailing.co.uk and give him a shout for a quote.

Having been driven home and back, Day 2 began with a snow foam and two bucket wash. I must say that the BH Autofoam is even more impressive when fired out a heavy duty pressure washer, instead of the nice runny foam I get at home from my Karcher, this produces a heavy, dense shaving cream that holds its shape for quite a while before dripping away. Left to its own devices, out of the sun, I’m sure it would cling for 20 minutes! Just because I can, I fired up the Dezyna Dog Gizmo again. This is definitely my favourite pro-tool. Sadly John isn’t as impressed as me, pointing out that it moves the water around too much, instead of blasting it off the car. Whatever. I love chasing the water away with it. Up on the ramp I found this unpleasant surprise, no idea what has done it, but it must be me as it’s fresh and crud free – needs touching up pronto before rust takes hold Being up in the air meant a rare opportunity for wheels off cleaning. I really dislike cleaning wheels at the best of time, particularly fiddly ones with narrow spokes, this means I don’t do it as much as I should. They got hit with Bilberry to start with, concentrated spray on and as shampoo in the wheel bucket. Hmmm, I’ve not really fallen for this product. It looks like it should be a fallout remover, with its deep reddish purple, but it isn’t. I’m not convinced by it as a wheel shampoo either, I can't see me dropping Envy Evolution or AMMO Plum for the time being. Next up was Red 7 fallout remover. It seems to do the trick, in that it smells like the inside of Mr Creosote’s jockstrap and turns contaminants to a purple streak, again I haven’t fallen in love, CarChem Revolt won’t be being dislodged from my shelf just yet. This is the Red 7 after brush agitation, but not much falling out, as I had washed them at the weekend, including a Revolt stage. This next item, I did fall in love with. My current AMMO woollies were superb on the RAYS, but are just too damn thick to go through the BRZ wheel spokes, but this little beauty gets into even the tightest of apertures – EZ Detail Wheel Brush – I’ll be having one, no doubt. The wheels got a fairly familiar (to me) coating of Gtechniq C5 and as you’d expect from this range, they look glossy, repel water and should last 3-6 months. This is the first time I’ve bothered to coat wheels, rather than wax, so I’m hopeful it’s up to the job, because (did I mention it?) I really hate cleaning and protecting wheels. Like. A LOT. With the car up in the air for wing and door inspection under the lights, it became clear that they had seen a bit more action than the bonnet, roof and boot. Accordingly, Scholl S20 Black was broken out. Apparently this reduces down from a cutting compound to a finishing one, just through the work time on the panel. All thanks to the miracle of diminishing abrasives. As with any product which claims to do multiple jobs, it all sounds a bit too good to be true to me. But, I must say that on a yellow pad, it shifted the majority of my scratches and left a stunning finish, so that just shows what I know. Polished Bliss goes so far as to use the phrase, “Holy Grail of polishes”. Looking at these pics, I can see why they’re so effusive. These first few pics don’t appear to show much, but it’s much harder to photograph corrected paint than I expected, particularly maintaining focus. @Ricey put a great post on Faceballz the other day, showing how the wider shots with big reflections can hide defects, rather than reveal them, so I’ve included these lamp shots to try and showcase the finish. Slightly wider shot. Up in the air is truly the way to work on the side of your car. Instead of tending to rush a job to save either my back or knees, all of a sudden you can take your time and get eyeball to eyeball with the paint. Now, I have to tell the truth here. I’d like to say that the wings and doors were expertly corrected by my fair hand, but John did the work here and I studied and took pictures. Remember the monster defect from Day 1? Well this is what was left of it after a few passes with S20 Black by a professional. Visible under the lights, but you'd need a keen eye to find it outdoors This is the final shot of the naked paint, pre-coating. Not a bad finish to aim for! Another great pro tool, the Scangrip Sunmatch inspection lamp is so much better than the LED torch I use to try and find swirls. The light is super sharp and is a must for finding defects. Naturally I quickly decided I needed one in my life, until I found out later in the day that they’re the best part of two hundred sheets. I learnt quickly in my time in the workshop, and it’s well worth remembering if you go to a professional detailer for a quote, EVERYTHING in detailing is expensive. I daren’t even look at the price of the floorstanding lights. On to the final stage, this is where it gets interesting (well for me anyway, perhaps for you, if you’re still reading!). I’m a natural sceptic, accordingly any kind of superduper sealant/coating/wax/spray/magic dust which claims to be an all in one glossifier, anti-stone chip, anti-etching, super strong but flexible mega product that lasts for 100 years always seems a bit far-fetched. However, the boss advised me that the Ceramic Pro range was so good that not only did he literally wet his pants when he first saw it, but he became a fully paid up fan boy. I was further swayed when another pro detailer dropped in during the week and told me similar tales of being a converted sceptic who was won over by the product upon use. This was enough to convince me that having a chance to have it on the BRZ was not an opportunity to be passed up – especially as it’s about £219 for 50ml So here it is. Much like myself, it’s not very tall but the magic juice inside makes the difference. It’s a bit unforgiving to the untrained, so I was placed on long pile buffing duty for this, away from the business end, which was applied by a trained professional. It needs to be worked relatively quickly but isn’t a huge departure from the Gyeon and Gtechniq sealants I’ve applied in the past. In a nutshell, don’t use too much, spread evenly and precisely, wipe away promptly with one towel, look for high spots and buff again with another towel (my job). After only a few minutes it leaves a very pleasing level of clarity and gloss. Once complete, the coating needs a minimum of 8 hrs out of the elements, so she spent the night in the workshop. I returned this morning to pick her up and have a feel of her, ooooh and indeed errrr. Well, what can I say? The slickness is phenomenal. You know what paint feels like when it’s been clayed to perfection, and it’s glossy and glass like? Well it’s beyond that. It’s super, super slippy. It’s so super slippy I’m sure that as well as feeling immense, the car actually goes faster. Slipping through air which struggles to grip the newly slippy panels. I’m going to keep an eye on my MPG, as I’m convinced the reduced drag will mean an extra 5mpg I may be a little over excited, possibly the drag coeffiecient hasn't been affected that much, but I must admit that having been a bit of ceramic coating sceptic, I’ve certainly been won round on the look and feel front. In terms of its ability to repel dirt (mainly bird s**t around here) and traffic grime, only my first wash after some motorway miles and standing in the elements will tell. The same can be said of longevity, I’ll be keeping a close eye on her for the next 6 months at least. The marketing describes it as “permanent” but I’ve not drank so much of the koolaid that I’m willing to buy into that just yet.