It’s fair to say that Auto Finesse has been the brand of 2011; it’s made everyone in the UK detailing community realise that top quality performance and great value for money aren’t mutually exclusive terms. Hot on the heels of excellent new additions to the line in recent months (Finale, Mint Rims and Revive) is an exclusive wax blend that money currently can’t buy – Desire. This funky coloured, fruity flavoured über wax is the result of attempts by the Auto Finesse team to push the existing Spirit formula even further in terms of looks and durability. It may not turn out to be viable to put this amazing blend into production, but fear not, because we’re offering you the chance to get your hands on a limited edition test pot for free. Okay, not for free; we need you to do just one thing for us…

This video shows the results of a Correction Detail performed on a 2005 Porsche 911 (996) GT3 Club Sport in our studio in Kintore. The total work time was 40 hours and the car was finished with Swissvax Crystal Rock. We hadn’t originally planned to share this video, as it was only made to learn new editing methods in readiness for features we plan to produce next year (it was created entirely from still images taken with a Canon 60D DSLR; all of the pans and zooms were created digitally in Adobe Premiere Pro). However, we were so delighted with the end result that we decided to share it!

Following on from Rich’s timely blog about the importance of winter preparation, this next batch of frequently asked questions will focus on other aspects of detailing that become more prominent during the winter months. As always, if you have any additional questions please feel free to fire away below and we’ll do our best to help.

Continuing our series of blogs focusing on frequently asked questions, we’re going to present two e-mail enquiries concerning the wash process; specifically about the role of pre-wash foaming and shampoo choice. We receive a lot of enquiries about these topics, so hopefully what follows will be useful. However, as always, if you have any remaining questions please feel free to fire away below and we’ll do our best to help.

…is that it accelerates metal corrosion processes, which is bad news for cars. Add in the wider environmental damage it causes, particularly to waterways and man-made structures, and it becomes clear that its widespread use as a road de-icer during the winter months is controversial to say the least. Last autumn, we posted an article about road salt and the need for car care enthusiasts to protect their cars against it. Despite the unusually good weather we are currently experiencing, it won’t be long now until the nights draw in, temperatures drop and the gritting lorries make an appearance. With this in mind, we thought it would be useful to revive last year’s article and refresh your memory about the importance of proper winter preparation. So, without further ado…

…IS YOUR CAR READY FOR WINTER?

Continuing our series of blogs focusing on frequently asked questions, we’re going to present two e-mail enquiries about machine polishing issues; specifically machine choice and pad choice. We receive a lot of enquiries about these topics, so hopefully what follows will be useful. However, as always, if you have any remaining questions please feel free to fire away below and we’ll do our best to help.

Without intending to sound too downbeat, it’s fair to say that 2011 is shaping up to be a tough year. And not just in terms of the miserable summer weather; it seems that the continuing global economic problems are now affecting UK households more acutely than before. All of us at Polished Bliss have certainly felt our own purse strings stretched in recent months, and cost cutting has been the order of the day. From a business perspective, we’re certainly very aware of the need to focus on value for money in these testing times, and as a result we’ve been looking at new product lines that offer exactly that. And there is none more relevant than the brand new line up from Auto Finesse…

Continuing our series of blogs focusing on frequently asked questions, we’re going to present two e-mail enquiries that highlight two of the more basic aspects of detailing that are sometimes not fully understood, or overlooked, perhaps due to their apparent simplicity. Hopefully our responses to the questions posed will make perfect sense, but as always, if you have any questions please feel free to fire away below and we’ll do our best to help.

Meguiar’s have done it again. They’ve thought long and hard about a challenging issue facing the detailing community, and then broken the mould with a cutting edge solution. In this case, they’ve developed a brand new dual action polishing system that addresses the issue of serious machine polishing enthusiasts desiring the performance benefits afforded by rotary polishers (greater cutting power, sharper finishing, etc) but without the accompanying risks (excessive paint removal, burning through, hologramming, etc). This new line of products, called the Meguiar’s DA Microfibre Correction System, was released in the USA at the start of the year, but has only just made it to the UK. However, thanks to Meguiar’s UK, we’ve had samples on test since May and this trial period has provided us with a lot of valuable insight into the new products and how to get the best possible results when using them.

This is the first of a new series of blogs we’re going to post looking at questions we’re commonly asked here at PB HQ. This month, we’ve chosen two fairly substantial e-mail enquiries with strongly recurring themes: (i) “I’m new to proper detailing, what should I be doing?”, and; (ii) “I’m just about to take delivery of a new car, how should I detail it?”. Hopefully our responses to the questions posed will make perfect sense, but as always, if you have any questions please feel free to fire away below and we’ll do our best to help.