Tuck

Can anyone who is looking to buy these contact car lab directly and not through ebay ðŸ‘ðŸ¼

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First coat on last night, looks like a OAP who has retired to the canary islands and had a fight with a bottle of fake tan.

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If anyones based near Aberdeen I'll happily give them a hand fitting, Long as theres tea and a digestive in it.

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Just a quick update. Car Lab got back to me this morning and said they'll be sending over a new offside unit to replace the one that's faulty

 

Now just need the courier company not to drop it / step on it / use it as a seat etc... on it's way over

Try use some sealant around all the joins, may help if its an on going problem

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Any probs give us a bell and I'll try and talk you through it.

 

07739 755 078 (mods - work number so no issues with it being public)

Cheers bud, I'll give you a bell tomorrow if i run into any problems, see what I did there... RUN into any problems 😉

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How are you applying the new pigment......wipe on or airbrush?

 

Have they sent any sealant in the kit?

 

Wipe down as I don't have anything to airbrush it on with, unless I take a mouthful of the colorant and... Yeah they supplied a sealant too. Any advice on applying the colourant and sealant?

 

It's a tough one mate as for me your need to airbrush it on and/or rattle can the sealant.

 

That said your working with what you've got so I'd advise to go thin with your coats and build it up. Resist the temptation to daub it on.

 

Dry off with a hairdryer to speed up your drying time.

 

Once you have sufficient colour coverage don't be tempted to slat on even more just to be sure.......the thicker your coat the more chance there is of future failure/cracking

 

A bit like with detailing.......less is often more. Or more accurately the minimum required to do the job right.

Perfect bud, how long should I wait between colourant and sealant? Just over night as some videos claim as long as a week!

Your very helpful bud ill message him now

People help me and I help the people!

I was expecting top hats and golf bonnets etc.

 

 

 

 

 

GLWTS btw Parello (free bump).

Now your cat is the image for this thread 😂 I was hoping people would see the top hats and immediately want one. I'm trying to bring top hats back hahaha

How are you applying the new pigment......wipe on or airbrush?

 

Have they sent any sealant in the kit?

Wipe down as I don't have anything to airbrush it on with, unless I take a mouthful of the colorant and... Yeah they supplied a sealant too. Any advice on applying the colourant and sealant?

Blimey is that the colour after just the clean down? Have you got a link to the kit you bought as I'm about to do the same thing?

I was amazed a how much gunk came off! They are a Matt finish now but need sealant as I can tell they'll mark quicker than white paper seats.

They are sending a new unit out to him, free of charge obviously! Dodgey housing maybe Hodaka?

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So I've gone ahead and decided just to dye the seats tan, as its a very close colour to the Alzean and I quite like the old school tan look. I bought a kit and got started.

Removed the seats from the car (4 x 14mm bolt in each corner and electrical cable underneath).

Got a stiff synthetic scrubbing brush, sponged on the prep liquid and scrubbed, occasionally adding more liquid.

Works instantly on the dark creases and you can see all the people goo and sludge coming out. Then a final wipe down to clear off the excess!

I also painted the 'Press' button on the seat belts.

Giving all the plastic parts a wipe down with Qtechniq C4 and I'll move onto the colourant tomorrow.

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Also, PM Clarkmotorsport. They have a set in blue ðŸ‘ðŸ¼

PM Clarkmotorsport. They have one in black.

I'll buy your old one if you find one?

OR

You could cover the hole with a Nismo gear pattern badge or various other badges.

I was expecting top hats and golf bonnets etc.

It depends largely on your preferred trader tbh, even AutoGlym Tar Remover is adequate (although better when decanted onto a spray bottle). With tar remover it's much more cost effective to spot treat (pardon the pun) rather than cover the entire car in it.

 

As you're using a clay mitt though, I wold strongly suggest that you keep the two stages separate as the tar remover will eat your clay mitt if it comes into contact.

So a wash between tar removal and the clay?

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I like the smell of Dodo Juice Tarmalade, but It's the only tar remover I've used, so I can't say if it's good or not versus other products. It's more of a topical product than a "wipe down the whole car with it" so it comes out during claying when I see a tar spot. Also it's made of fruits and superfoods and hippies and stuff, not nasty chemicals. So it's a win for the polar bears.

 

Did I mention it smells nice too

So how does it smell?

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That's helped me no end buddy, cleared a lot of that up for me.

 

Will the Iron-X not remove the tar? Or just brake down the iron

 

Cheers

 

Nope, Iron X won't touch the tar at all. To be honest it won't even touch that much iron in my experience...

 

You'll need something else for the tar - Autosmart Tardis is by far the best sticky stuff romover I've used but due to their new policy of not permitting resellers outside of their own fanchised reps it can be both difficult and expensive to get hold of these days (do NOT buy it from eBay, you have no idea what you're actually getting from there and some people will pass off anything as Autosmart products on eBay!). Pretty much any tar remover is better than nothing.

Cheers bud, Any recommendations apart from the Tardis?

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I has arrived to add a millionty more steps to your process.

 

So about paint prep, so far I've been led to believe;

•Wash (G3 body prep)

•Iron X

•Wash

•Dry

•Clay

•Wash

•Dry

•IPA (50/50 water)

 

Anything else?

 

Then compound, polish, glaze... Does this require a sealant too?

 

As has been said, no need to (or point in) dry(ing) before claying. I'd also replace all the subsequent washes (after the initial one, obviously) with just a thorough rinse.

 

There's no point in using IPA before polishing either, so move that step to after polishing. You'll use the IPA to remove anything left behind by the compounds to give you a true indication of the correction acheived. Also, polish and compound are that same thing, so that's yet another step you don't need to worry about and use of a glaze would depend entirely on your chosen Last Stage Product (LSP) - if waxing, glaze is optional, if using a sealant it's likely to be detrimental, if using a coating then it's a big no-no. Also worth noting about polishing, you need to make sure you're working the polish for long enough - when the polish turns clear and you can't really see it on the paint anymore, that's about long enough - but the best way of checking the actual correction acheived is by wiping the area with diluted IPA and checking it in direct sunlight... but you don't want to polish outside (too high a chance of contaminant ruining everything for you!) so decent lighting is a useful indicator whilst you're going round the car - it's usually worth rolling it back outside once you've done the car if the sun is out to double check the finish.

 

And yes, you will need to seal afterwards, whether that be a wax, sealant or coating depends on a billionty other things but largely comes down to what you're trying to acheive - looks durability, cost, ease of application, speed of application, something new, something old, something blue... no wait, that's something else.

 

With regards to the actual polishing, as previously stated, always start with the least aggressive combination and step up only if you need to. Whilst the paint on Z's is butter soft (Stu, try polishing a BMW, you'll really appreciate how [comparatively] easy the Z is to polish ), the polish will still need to be worked properly to be effective, this will likely take a 4-5 passes and a good couple of minutes per section. Polished Bliss give great advice by the way.

 

My full process would be;

Wash.

Rinse.

Iron X.

Rinse.

De-tar.

Rinse.

Clay.

Rinse.

 

Optional paint clenser.

Polish (compound).

IPA wipedown.

 

What follows after this will be determined by the LSP.

 

 

I think that's covered everything.

That's helped me no end buddy, cleared a lot of that up for me.

Will the Iron-X not remove the tar? Or just brake down the iron

Cheers

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Make sure they still have the re fix tape on the back if buying 2nd hand These can be purchased new on Ebay .

 

I'm not selling the badge, the lad can have it as it'll just end up in the bin!

 

 

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Thanks Tuck, very happy to take it off your hands if it's just going spare? Sending you a PM.

Okay pal

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And if course I'll update with some pictures once its done, if theres a clear day

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Hahaha, well I'm looking forward to the advice!

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For me, there's not much in drying before you clay, may as well clay with the clean soapy water for lube. And if you're doing an IPA wipe down, I personally wouldn't bother with another wash after clay, just rinse it off.

 

But that's just me, I know there are purer, more dedicated types out there.

Saved me about an hour ahahah, cheers pal!

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