The Great Test! #1

Hey guys! 1st of all, thank you very much for being avid readers to my Personal Detailing blog.

Now, there are still a number of potential clients who doubt my ability in detailing the paintwork of one's car. Or complaining that my prices are a bit steep. Steep? How can you compare my work, and the product used with your regular car wash guys who only use cheapo polish, and never canvassed the polished car with a really good wax as a protective and sacrifical barrier? And do your regular car wash guy can remove all holograms, reduce at least 40% of swirls ( not hiding them yah! But reduce 'em! ) on your car, while in the same time, not adding more scratches and swirls? Those car wash bays charge RM 80.00 to wash your car ( with the kind of soap solutions that may surprise you. Note : some of them use the same soap solution you use to wash your clothes! Haha! ), dry with Good Morning towels ( while I use Meguiar's MF chamois! ), and vacuum your interior, then proceed to polish your car with most probably, the cheapo RM 20.00 - 35.00 polish compounds with old t - shirts and again, Good Morning towels!

Yes, I can never compare my work with professional detailers locally here, who actually do it for a living. Well, come on. Those guys got big detailing bays, a hell lots of staffs too. Well, I do it for a living too, but it's more like a pastime hobby to me, as I do it alone, and I thoroughly enjoy to see, the fruits of my labour, and to have the owner / customer, to say words like : Wow! You did such a great job! As usual, my car will gleam, shine and yet, have much lesser swirls compared to other cars around my block!

So, in this case, I have decided to use my car as The Great Test, or, as a testament to my abilities to detail the paintwork of a car. My car have not been detailed, or better yet, washed for over 2 months now. My car went into the workshop twice, so you can imagine those filthy oil marks around the car's exterior. And do not forget, bird poo marks may have already embedded itself deeply into the paintwork too.

My digicam is with my girl, so as soon ( should be today or tomorrow ) I'll get it back and proceed to snap a few detailed pictures of the car in it's current extremely filthy state. Then, I will proceed to wash with Meguiar's NXT car wash solution, dry, clay with Meguiar's mild clay, rinse, machine polish with Meguair's Professional range of Cleaner + Polish ( that will thoroughly clean the paintwork, remove all holograms, reduce the appearance of swirls and scratches up to 50 - 60% off, and reintroduce important oils into the paintwork to make it shine better, deeper, and wetter. All in one process! ), and finally, put a couple of coats of NXT Paste Wax. This process may take up to 7 hours, plus breaks in between, this is because I want to ensure that I do a damn good job!

Then, after all is done, I will snap pics of the car, as proof of before and after. I seriously hope that The Great test will be proof that I do great work, at great prices! And yes, hopefully more customers too... :)

New Additions : Blue Honda Jazz VTEC and Red Old Skool Merc wagon

Recent additions, my uncle's red ( I think original colour! ) and my pal's blue Jazz VTEC. Both only done by hand, but check the results!

Customer NO. 2 : Black Honda Civic FD

Today one of my regular customers came for a full detail job. Normal process, as usual. Pictures say a million words, enjoy!

Result after working in Meguiar's Professional range of Cleaner + Polish! My hands was shaking a little bit though. Nice, clean wet finish, with little to no swirls.

The same process, as above. Picture is from the right hand side front fender area. Again, clear reflection, deep, wet and clear!

The reflection fron the rear bonnet, after buffing off the Meguiar's NXT Paste Wax. Again, clean, clear reflection.

The reflection shot from the roof. Beautiful!

The result. Shame it wasn't daytime, or not, I would have been able to take better pictures!

Mobile Detailing Service!

I am now happy to inform all my blog readers, that I now offer mobile detailing, that is, at your home! Sadly, there are some constraints :

- You can either wash your vehicle prior to my arrival, as I can prep the bodywork before the complete detail service is done.
- I can only do exterior detailing.
- I can wash your car for you, but I need a water pipe and a loooooooong hose.
- If you want me to come and detail your car during the daytime, please make sure that there are enough shade to cover the whole car, as it is not a good idea to polish and wax a car right smack under the burning sun, and it might rain too!
- If you want me to come and detail your car during the night, please make sure that there is sufficent lighting to cover the whole car.
- I need at least, a booking of 3 days ahead.
- Prices vary on location and size of car.

Interested, please e-mail! Mucha thanks!

Customer No. 4 : Dark Green Mercedes Benz CLK

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. This is my customer number 4, driving a dark green Mercedes Benz CLK. Same process as my other clients. Pictures tell the whole story. I couldn't post a few more pictures of the full car, as my hands was shaking due to extreme hunger, and that using the flash will not yield the best picture result. Enjoy!

This picture is a bit blurry. Aiyah...

This picture was taken with a flash, due to my unsteady hand.

Picture taken after complete detail was done on the whole front. Check out the clear reflections!

No obvious swirls! And the reflection of the sparkling effect on the paint, and no flash was used for this picture too!

Again, sharp and clear reflection!

Look at the reflection of the rain, on the front bonnet. Beautiful reflection, paint looks wet. :)

Sadly, it rained as soon as the car was ready. So we waited until the rain subsided, and as he drove off, his car looked a lot sharper, a lot wetter, and reflects so much, although, the sun was hiding behind the clouds. Even the black Honda Civic following behind him didn't have such properties on it's paintwork. Sadly, I couldn't get a good pic of the car driving away...

Refresher Update! Customer No. 2 : Black Honda Civic FD

Last Sunday, the 1st CNY, my number two customer came for a wash + maintenance work. As I was drying the car up, I noticed this loooooooong multitudes of scratch on the car's right hand side, passangger door all the way to the RHD upper fender. It looks like someone was leaning on her car, and swiped his / her sorry arse to and fro this particular area. Here are two pictures depicting the damage done to the paintwork :

Pretty bad!!!

More fun work for me then!

And here are the afters :

Look ma, no more scratches! Hehe!

Customer No. 1 : Full Detail Session No. 2 [ Part Five ]

Words cannot describe how happy I am now to see the final outcome of my work. The car do look a bit "wet", especially at the front fender area. I didn't had the time take a pic in the sun, becasue by the time I was done, the sun was not blastin' 100% like in the afternoon ( the afternoon was so hot, I finished up 5 cans of 100 Plus! ), and the owner left as soon as he arrived. He left me his JDM EF VTEC road rocket ( it is a rocket! I've driven the car at full chat, and boy, was it fast! ) for a wash ( alas, no full detail for his 2nd car, well, not yet! ).

Work done ( Day One ) :

- Wash ( with MG's pH - balanced washing solution )

- Dry ( with MG's MF Super Suede and MG's Water Magnet )

- Clay ( with MG's Smooth Surface clay kit )

- Wash again.

- Dried again.

- Reduce the apperance of glaring scratches ( with MG's Scratch X and MG's UW MF )

- Remove bird droppings and tar ( with MG's Bug & Tar Remover and MG's UW MF )

- Applied tyre dressing ( with MG's grapey - smelling tyre dresser with a MG foam applicator pad )

- Applied wax on rims ( with MG's NXT Paste Wax, via a MG foam applicator pad )

- Buffed wax on rims ( with MG's UW MF )

Time spent : three hours.

Work done ( Day Two ) :

- cleaned up the car ( with MG's Quick Detailer, assisted with MG's MF applicator pad and wiped off with MG's SS MF )

- taped the whole car ( with Scotch's Painter's Tape )

- polished the whole car ( via machine, Bosch GEX - 270AE assisted with MG's polishing pad and MG #80 )

- buffed off all remaining cleaner / polish ( with MG's SS MF )

- applied wax ( MG's NXT Paste Wax, via MG's foam applicator pad )

- buffed off wax ( with MG's UW MF )

- applied 2nd layer of wax, and finally

- buffed off wax.

Time spent : about 4 hours 30 minutes.

Total time spent : about 7 hours 30 minutes.