ARCHIVES

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.

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.

So far, I’ve blogged on washing, decontamination and polishing, so this article is, with just a hint of predictability, going to focus on paint protection and last stage products (or LSPs for short).

When deciding which LSP to select, due to the chiefly subjective nature of the subject, I think it’s best to consider which properties in a finish are of highest importance. Some products will maximise flake pop, others reflectivity, some the depth of shine and colour richness (also known as jetting). Obviously factors such as durability are objective and will play a more easily quantifiable part in the process. If you know what you’re looking for in a finish, it makes product selection much easier – remembering that, at the moment, there is no truly perfect LSP.

In the third installment of my blog, I’ll look at my training regarding polishing and offer my thoughts on this massive topic. This could be lengthy…

The initial points that Rich and I discussed were basic, but possibly much overlooked: what exactly is car paint and, crucially, how much paint depth do cars typically have? I was aware that total depth is usually pretty thin, but only when you have a laboratory reference shim in your hand do you realise that 100 microns is not a lot. For reference, a typical sheet of paper is around 70 microns thick.

Paint defects generally comprise any damage that has broken the top layer of paint (usually termed the clearcoat) and damage such as stone chips and swirl marks are probably the most common. For the purposes of this blog, I’ll refer to any abrasive product as a polish and any non-abrasive product as a glaze in the following discussion.

This month we were originally planning to post John’s thoughts about the polishing process but, given the time of year, we thought it more appropriate to address the issue of winter preparation, and in particular why and how you should protect your car if you decide to run it all year round. Indeed, with the nights already drawing in and the brutality of last winter still fresh in our minds, now is the time to get busy before the temperature drops and the gritting lorries make an appearance (assuming your local council hasn’t completely run out of money)…

Why is winter so brutal on our cars?

In a nutshell, road salt. Ever since the 1930s, road salt has been used extensively during the winter months in the UK to lower the freezing point of moisture on road surfaces, thus helping to prevent lethal ice from forming and causing existing snow and ice to melt. Indeed, given the instant mobility demands of modern day drivers and the fact that relatively few people would ever consider fitting winter tyres, road salt remains a cost effective option for managing road safety. However, road salt is far less welcome from the point of view of motoring enthusiasts and the wider environment in terms of the long-term damage it causes to cars and man-made structures; salt deposits tend to harbour moisture and vastly accelerate metal corrosion processes.