Rancidpunx

Well with the 2k you will save on the Turbo you can get yourself some Brembos anyway.

Thanks mate, I look forward to working with you again soon.

Its going in a museum when they are done showing it off. Doubt it will see any action, more of a PR exercise.

Naviwax will need to be reapplied every 3 months. It wont last 6, 4 if your lucky. Easy to use though and 4 times a year is hardly going to be a killer. Genuine paste waxes break down generally in the first 3 months, all depends on what its designed for. Show car waxes are meant to look brilliant on the weekend whilst the car is on show but once its back in the garage it does not matter that it does not last long. Some $300+ tubs of wax can last longer but be prepared to get your wallet out. Liquid sealants (liquid "waxes" are not really a wax at all, and never beleive an advertised 100% carnuaba lol. Your not getting a a solid block of wax) last a lot longer as they are a sythetic formular and durability can be increased. Sealants should be lasting 6months with correct care and you can get over a year if your lucky. Sealants dont look as good as a wax. They still produce a wet look with lots of gloss but a wax will add depth and warmth to the paint, that deep glossy lustre. Glazes are a liquid product with fillers and oils to give a fake look. So the swirls can be filled a fair bit and the oils add a glossiness that is supposed to replicate a freshly polished surface. They have a place I suppose but be prepared to reapply sealants and waxes more often as the oils restrict how well they can bond with the paint. You can put a sealant on the paint and a wax on top, but you cant put a sealant on top of a wax as it wont bond.

Mines a little late it appears as well. Get some microfibre cloths and keep them clean. Terry towels should only be used on dirty items like under the bonnet. The tar remover makes the tar run as the solvents breaks the bonds of the tar down and should just wipe away. If that hasnt happened your wife has been scratching at it and rubbing at tar that's not broken down fully. I have not used the Megs stuff but call Waxit and ask for some Tar X. As for scratches with clay, I will guarantee you are picking up scratches. In the shade these tiny micro scratches are not noticable but they are there especially when picking up tar with the clay. If you were to flawlessly polish your bonnet and then clay it and take it out into the sun you will see them. This is how panel shops and poor detailers get away with doing crap jobs. They hand back the keys with the car in the shade where small marring is not noticable and it may look great but its out in the sun where it matters.

That sucks mate, I feel for you. Did the ute pick up any extra kilometres?

My vote goes to the Safari Club http://www.safariclub.com.au/menu.asp Bit of a drive though. Tamworth lol but its awesome.

Karl go see Warren at Lee Bros in albion I did mine myself

Love your work John. 9s next time.

I had an annoying squeek and it was beause the tail gate moves slightly up and down and the latches rub. Took the tail gate completely off and put it straight back on and that fixed it.

that's a good option although get the Naviwax now and start using it straight away. You will get some protection on the paint and it does have a small filling quality so will take the edge off of the swirls. Set aside 3-4hrs and wash the car thoroughly and then use the decontamination process mentioned above. Rinse the car down and dry it. The surface is going to be in good shape to apply the wax. That alone should be good for 2-3 months for you. Thanks as always John. Im itching to see your car in action again.

For Contaminates get a tar remover, Iron X for ferrous material and then clay to get rid of everything else. Abrasive polish is the only way to remove swirls. I use Menzerna and Carpro mostly. Application by machine is the best and fastest solution but unless your confident its best to stick with your hand. Very hard and slow work and the results wont be as good. You can hide swirls with a filler type polish or glaze. Autoglym Super resin polish is a good example, looks ok but wont last long. Once the surface is polished you removed everything that's on the paint so its as clean as possible for your wax application. As for wax see the link above.

Just to clarify the swirls have not been removed but rather hidden under the product. Unfortunately they will be waiting to greet you again in a week or 2 once the polish wears off. Once your car is detailed by a pro you wont need this type of product either. As its a glaze type polish its supposed to make the surface glossy artificially as aposed to a genuine gloss on naked paint. The problem with glazes is that they are oily and your waxes wont adher to the surface as well as they would if applied straight to paint. If your happy to rewax a lot that's not a problem but if you want some durability from your applications you will be out of luck. Im also talking about genuine paste type waxes (solid wax in a tub), liquid bottle "Wax" (although you will find next to no wax content in the bottle) will bearly adher at all. Once detailed just get a high quality paste wax and apply it once every 2-3 months or a sealant and apply it every 5-6months. I made a reply in a thread a while ago that explains some products and their differences as well as alternatives to the off the shelf Megs and Mothers stuff. Same price but far better quality in terms of protection and durability. http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/80346-best-polish-or-wax-for-vixen-red/ Feel free to ask any questions about car care as its what I do.

Good looking car Trent and the colour is great. But your still a loser. Enjoy.

good work John, hopefully see some results for all the hard work.

BJC, get yourself some Tar remover solvent and go around and quickly remove the black stuff before claying. You will get less marring from the clay and your clay will last longer. Carpro Tar X is good, or you could get some Trix which will remove iron contamination at the same time.

come on sweet heart, dont be like that

With the Poorboys the swirls didnt go anywhere, they are just under a layer of glaze which gives a nice wet look to hide them. Blackhole does a pretty good job but its something that you need to redo quite often. Naviwax is good stuff. It lasts around 3 months which is excellent for a paste type wax. It produces tight beads when wet and has probably the best protection against water spots I have seen. Easy to use and looks good all for $60. The 50/50 shots were multiple stages. I used 3 different polishes from Menzerna and also Carpro with 4 different pad combinations on Rotary and Random Orbital. I will give you a call about the Ute Karl, cheers.

Throw the supercheap polisher up against the door as its more use as a stop than it is on the paint. Naviwax is a fantastic wax and punches well above its weight. I use heaps of the stuff as well as sell the stuff. Poorboys black hole is a filler glaze so will not remove anything just hide the swirls. You need an abrasive polish such as Menzerna or Megs Ulitmate Compound off of the shelf. Polishing by hand is hard work and realistically wont shift much. Think about a machine spinning at 1000rpm on the a section of a panel for 30secs or so, your arm just cant do that much work. The other problem is that polishes require heat to break the abrasive down so that it can do its job. It can be done but its going to take a long time. Pay the man to do the work but make sure you take it into the sun before you hand over the money. Its easy to make a car look good in the garage but the sun is going to show any whether he has got rid or swirls or just moved them. Unfortunately most panel shops cant polish for sh*t. $300 is cheap for a polish but also check things like your trim is not burnt by the machine. Dont worry about the 3 stages. He should not be removing to much paint. I would expect the finish to be around 140 microns thick and I would expect no more than 5-8 microns to be removed to correct the finish. To do the job correctly the paint needs to be polished with something a little more abrasive to begin with to remove the swirling. However the heavier abrasive will leave trace marks of its own (holograms, those whispy white lines on black cars sitting at dealers) so this is why the car needs to be repolished with something softer to remove this traces leaving the paint flawless. Feel free to ask any questions

Karl that is awesome, nuff said.

that's a quick M3, the corvette held up well just needs some quicker gear changes

Vixen is an awesome colour. Just remember wax and polish are 2 completely different products for 2 different things. Polish is meant to deal with defects in the paint such as swirls or water spots etc. This can be achieved with abrasive polish to remove the defects or with a filler type product which covers the defects up but will wash out fairly quickly. Autoglym SRP (super Resin Polish) is a good example of this. It may look OK but does not last long and your back to where you started in a few weeks. Wax is for protecting the paint. It makes the paint shiny and slick and stops things sticking... in theory. Then there are all in one type products and a few inbetween again. Many of the off the shelf products are miss leading and confuse things even further. Liquid wax products for example are not wax. They are sealants and contain little to no natural wax. If your paint is in good condition with no swirling get a good wax and reapply it every couple of months. Depends really on your budget on what you pick. Forget meguiers and the junk places like super cheap sell, find a specialist retailer for car care. http://www.waxit.com.au are good guys to deal with. Plenty to choose from. I would look at Zaino Z5, wolfgang deep gloss sealant and Pinnacle Souveran or duragloss 601+105combo liquid type products. Z5 has a small amount of fillers to help with any surface defects but looks great. Wolfgang and pinnacle also look great and offer good durabillity, 6months of so maybe more. Duragloss is cheap and can last up to 6 months but not as long as the others. These are all easy to apply with thin easy layers, as cheap as any of the junk from supercheap but offer much better quality. If you want a genuine paste type wax that actually contains natural wax like Carnauba, they are more expensive but look better, but will only last up to 3 months. As the wax is natural it breaks down quicker than the man made polymer chains found in the liquid type sealants. Never believe a wax offering 100% carnauba as its a lie. You are not getting a solid block of ivory tree wax lol. Depending on your budget look at Pinnacle Souveran (sovereign) Paste, looks fantastic as its a show car wax. That means it only last for a month of so. Its only meant to last a week whilst the car is on show. Easy to use wipe on wipe off, smells awesome so its easy to reapply it often. Naviwax Dark wax from Japan is super durable and will out last most waxes. Hugely easy to use wipe on wipe off and looks great for its price, punches well above its weight. It you want to drop a bit more money look at Swissvax Mirage or step up again to Concorso. Both look great, a little harder to use but not hard. For the budget concious have a look at DP MaxWax, made by the same guys as Pinnacle and closely resembles Souveran.

The air is drawn in through the vent between the bonnet and windsreen. The filter behind the glovebox collets leafs as you said, also the reason why a lot of Bseries cars have ticking air cons that increases with fan speed. The filter allows a few leafs through and they get into the fan. Anyways the drain hose is under the car. I have read a few guys mesh the opening, but I'm not sure where under the car.

I believe its the drain hose that they can get into. The pipe behind the dash is plastic. Unfortunately that's all I know as I have never owned a B Series so never really looked too closely. I have read it on a few forums though and I have seen it in a few cars that I work on. Client notice the droppings in the carpet and I clean it only to have more droppings a week later. All had the same aircon pipe chewed behind the dash.