DFB5.0
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It's funny how a wax, sealant or coating "tells you" when it's about done. The Collinite 845 I applied just under 12 months ago, and maintained with several spray sealants, has given its best by now. I have been putting this job off until I had the time to do it properly. It's also been on two long road trips in the last two weeks, so with those out of the way, it was time to get it back into shape, or DFB Spec. Although, having said that, this is not a car I am invested in, so it won't quite be full-DFB spec. I say that, and then usually get carried away, so let's see how that pans out. 
A large part of this job will be the decontamination process, exaggerated by the generous peppering of bug splatter picked up over the last two weeks............
I started with cleaning the wheels as usual, Brake Buster from the foam cannon, using Undressed for the tyres.
With the wheels taken care of, it was onto those bugs. In this case, I pre-soaked them with Koch Chemie Insect Remover followed by foaming the entire car down with soap to dwell for several minutes.
Usually, by the time I have rinsed out my wheel cleaning tools and bucket, it's time to rinse the soap off. This process removed the bulk of the bugs and road film prior to re-foaming the car and starting the contact wash. Today, the soap of choice was Obsessed Garage Decontamination Soap.
Obsessed Garage Decontamination Soap (detailingshed.com.au)
Pressure Washer Decontamination Soap | Obsessed Garage
I love this soap! It has plenty of bite for jobs like this. As you will see later, it doesn't completely remove the remaining protection, but it certainly gives it a scare. The following steps help complete that stripping process. The first of which is the iron-decon step.
In the sprayer today is Gyeon Iron. I bought a 4-liter bottle of this several months ago for jobs like this where larger quantities of the product are used. Gyeon Iron was the cheapest of all the larger size iron removers including Carpro IronX, P&S Iron Buster and Meguiar's Clay Spray among others. Today I found out why this is cheaper, Gyeon don't lace this product with a scent to cover up at least some of the stench. This is a raw, unscented iron remover that would be the worst smelling iron remover I have used so far.
Once the iron remover was rinsed away, I clayed the car with a Waxit Clay Mitt and Meguiar's Final Inspection. This is a BIG car, so I used a whole 500ml of Final Inspection. I also really love using this clay mitt, can certainly recommend and it's also very reasonably priced. Once the whole car was clayed, including the glass, I foamed the car with Carpro Reset and rinsed to remove any remaining chemical residue.
Get Waxit Clay Mitt Online | Waxit – Waxit Car Care
In a technical sense, the following step should have been done after the wheels but................I forgot.
Did it need doing? Probably not, at least it will be clean for the service department. I am of course talking about the engine bay, which I rinsed with the pressure washer, sprayed with Green Star APC, agitated with brushes and then rinsed clean. I then followed up with a generous spray down with Meguiar's Hyper Dressing diluted to 3:1 for a satin finish. The bonnet is then closed and that's how I leave it!
After a blow down with the Big Boi, which took longer than usual due to the diminished water beading, I then further dried the car with a wipe down using Carpro Eraser and TRC Gauntlet drying towel.
Now, I had considered not bothering to polish the car, in fact I never have with this car. This is my fathers car, and to be frank, he wouldn't notice the difference anyway. But............I went ahead with the polishing step, mainly because I had the time and wanted to see how Carpro Essence works.
So, it was out with the masking tape in preparation. Compared to my Ranger with it's plethora of unpainted black plastic, this Ranger is much simpler to mask up. On a Wildtrack, the mirror caps, door handles, grill and fender vents are painted in a grey accent colour compared to the raw black plastic on mine, so these don't really need to be masked up. The flipside is that they need polishing, give a little, take a little.
All that preparation work makes the polishing step easier and safer, it feels good to reach that moment.
For the most part, the car wash polished with Carpro Essense, a primer polish in the same mold as the Gyeon Primer I used last week. One could say they are the same product considering the two brands are made in the same factory, but they are definitely different products, more on that in a moment. You will also notice I have Sonax Perfect Finish on the cart, which was used on a couple of locations in need of additional cutting ability.
I have actually used Carpro Essense briefly before to repair some strange ghosting on a bonnet, so I kinda knew what it was like to work with.
Compared to Gyeon Primer, Essence is much nicer to work with and does not create dusting. It also offers more corrective ability depending on your pad choice and working time, while also offering some filling ability. Essence can actually be used as a stand-alone product, polishing and protecting in one step, as in an "all-in-one". However, it's main role is to lay a foundation for ceramic coatings, including ceramic-based spray sealants like Reload. Silver naturally hides most dirt and defects, but I'm very impressed with how Essence enhanced the look of the paint on this car without going to the trouble of multi-step correction or more heavy one-step compounds.
Important to note that there are two versions of Essence, the original described here and the non-abrasive Esscence Plus that is designed for maintaining a ceramic coating.
https://www.waxit.com.au/products/carpro-essence-250ml?variant=12268442052
https://www.waxit.com.au/products/carpro-essence-plus?variant=39623944962137
This car with its big, wide panels meant using the larger polisher was more efficient. Last week it was the opposite, the smaller 3-inch machine getting more use. The front bumper on the other hand is so complex that I did this in full with the Nano in D/A mode. The front bumper is always last for me, mainly because I hate doing them so much. Pad choice was the Shine Mate blue and the Rupes yellow on the Nano.
With the paint knocked out, it was onto a quick pass over the glass with P&S Clarity Creme. Like last week, I teamed this with a blue Lake Country HDO pad on the LHR75. This polisher is a beast on glass and feels so natural to use.
After giving the car a light wipe over with an Eraser-soaked towel to remove any polish splatter and tape residue, this is where I decided to leave it for today.
As mentioned, I was not going for perfection with the paint, I just wanted to enhance and prime the surface for coating. The combination of the mild corrective ability with its filling qualities, I'm really happy with how Essence performed here.
Tomorrow, Ceramic Coating the paint, applying a glass sealant before cleaning the interior and touching up several other little areas. And yes, I am having fun!
A large part of this job will be the decontamination process, exaggerated by the generous peppering of bug splatter picked up over the last two weeks............
I started with cleaning the wheels as usual, Brake Buster from the foam cannon, using Undressed for the tyres.
With the wheels taken care of, it was onto those bugs. In this case, I pre-soaked them with Koch Chemie Insect Remover followed by foaming the entire car down with soap to dwell for several minutes.
Usually, by the time I have rinsed out my wheel cleaning tools and bucket, it's time to rinse the soap off. This process removed the bulk of the bugs and road film prior to re-foaming the car and starting the contact wash. Today, the soap of choice was Obsessed Garage Decontamination Soap.
Obsessed Garage Decontamination Soap (detailingshed.com.au)
Pressure Washer Decontamination Soap | Obsessed Garage
I love this soap! It has plenty of bite for jobs like this. As you will see later, it doesn't completely remove the remaining protection, but it certainly gives it a scare. The following steps help complete that stripping process. The first of which is the iron-decon step.
In the sprayer today is Gyeon Iron. I bought a 4-liter bottle of this several months ago for jobs like this where larger quantities of the product are used. Gyeon Iron was the cheapest of all the larger size iron removers including Carpro IronX, P&S Iron Buster and Meguiar's Clay Spray among others. Today I found out why this is cheaper, Gyeon don't lace this product with a scent to cover up at least some of the stench. This is a raw, unscented iron remover that would be the worst smelling iron remover I have used so far.
Once the iron remover was rinsed away, I clayed the car with a Waxit Clay Mitt and Meguiar's Final Inspection. This is a BIG car, so I used a whole 500ml of Final Inspection. I also really love using this clay mitt, can certainly recommend and it's also very reasonably priced. Once the whole car was clayed, including the glass, I foamed the car with Carpro Reset and rinsed to remove any remaining chemical residue.
Get Waxit Clay Mitt Online | Waxit – Waxit Car Care
In a technical sense, the following step should have been done after the wheels but................I forgot.
Did it need doing? Probably not, at least it will be clean for the service department. I am of course talking about the engine bay, which I rinsed with the pressure washer, sprayed with Green Star APC, agitated with brushes and then rinsed clean. I then followed up with a generous spray down with Meguiar's Hyper Dressing diluted to 3:1 for a satin finish. The bonnet is then closed and that's how I leave it!
After a blow down with the Big Boi, which took longer than usual due to the diminished water beading, I then further dried the car with a wipe down using Carpro Eraser and TRC Gauntlet drying towel.
Now, I had considered not bothering to polish the car, in fact I never have with this car. This is my fathers car, and to be frank, he wouldn't notice the difference anyway. But............I went ahead with the polishing step, mainly because I had the time and wanted to see how Carpro Essence works.
So, it was out with the masking tape in preparation. Compared to my Ranger with it's plethora of unpainted black plastic, this Ranger is much simpler to mask up. On a Wildtrack, the mirror caps, door handles, grill and fender vents are painted in a grey accent colour compared to the raw black plastic on mine, so these don't really need to be masked up. The flipside is that they need polishing, give a little, take a little.
All that preparation work makes the polishing step easier and safer, it feels good to reach that moment.
For the most part, the car wash polished with Carpro Essense, a primer polish in the same mold as the Gyeon Primer I used last week. One could say they are the same product considering the two brands are made in the same factory, but they are definitely different products, more on that in a moment. You will also notice I have Sonax Perfect Finish on the cart, which was used on a couple of locations in need of additional cutting ability.
I have actually used Carpro Essense briefly before to repair some strange ghosting on a bonnet, so I kinda knew what it was like to work with.
Compared to Gyeon Primer, Essence is much nicer to work with and does not create dusting. It also offers more corrective ability depending on your pad choice and working time, while also offering some filling ability. Essence can actually be used as a stand-alone product, polishing and protecting in one step, as in an "all-in-one". However, it's main role is to lay a foundation for ceramic coatings, including ceramic-based spray sealants like Reload. Silver naturally hides most dirt and defects, but I'm very impressed with how Essence enhanced the look of the paint on this car without going to the trouble of multi-step correction or more heavy one-step compounds.
Important to note that there are two versions of Essence, the original described here and the non-abrasive Esscence Plus that is designed for maintaining a ceramic coating.
https://www.waxit.com.au/products/carpro-essence-250ml?variant=12268442052
https://www.waxit.com.au/products/carpro-essence-plus?variant=39623944962137
This car with its big, wide panels meant using the larger polisher was more efficient. Last week it was the opposite, the smaller 3-inch machine getting more use. The front bumper on the other hand is so complex that I did this in full with the Nano in D/A mode. The front bumper is always last for me, mainly because I hate doing them so much. Pad choice was the Shine Mate blue and the Rupes yellow on the Nano.
With the paint knocked out, it was onto a quick pass over the glass with P&S Clarity Creme. Like last week, I teamed this with a blue Lake Country HDO pad on the LHR75. This polisher is a beast on glass and feels so natural to use.
After giving the car a light wipe over with an Eraser-soaked towel to remove any polish splatter and tape residue, this is where I decided to leave it for today.
As mentioned, I was not going for perfection with the paint, I just wanted to enhance and prime the surface for coating. The combination of the mild corrective ability with its filling qualities, I'm really happy with how Essence performed here.
Tomorrow, Ceramic Coating the paint, applying a glass sealant before cleaning the interior and touching up several other little areas. And yes, I am having fun!
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