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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.

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.

Lately, we’ve been receiving a very healthy amount of monthly show and shine entries, and more questions than ever before have been asked about how we judge the competition and pick the winners. These questions have ranged from the pre-emptive “What do I need to do to win?” to the cheeky “I didn’t win last month: why not?”, and have raised some interesting points. As a result, we’ve decided to spill the beans and tell you exactly what you need to do to win. This should save you a bit of time and misdirected effort in future.

To kick things off, let’s recap the rules… “The rules for entering our monthly show and shine competition are simple. Firstly, buy some products from us and keep a note of the order number. Then use the products and take decent quality photos of the results. Finally submit at least eight photos to our usual e-mail address, along with the original order number and a written summary of what you did. At the end of each month we will judge that month’s entries and the winner will be featured here and will receive £150 worth of products from the store. Good luck!”.

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.