North West Detailing Meet - 14/05/11

[Debo]

Hello all,

Yesterday saw the first detailing meet I had organised and had opened to PSC. If you missed it, don't worry, following the feedback I have received it looks like I will be organising a few more.

The purpose of the event was to show our current and potential customers the "art" of detailing, what's involved, and allow some hands on experience with various detailing tools and products. It was also to raise awareness of the wide variation of products used within our trade.

I had managed to get hold of a donor car, in the shape of a mk1 Punto 55





I started by performing a 2 bucket wash, and explaining the benefits of using this method to clean a car. Most of the guys here were already familiar with it, but still picked up a few tips...



As expected, after the rinse, the bodywork was holding water, a sign of no protection:




Next up was the claying session - I explained the reasoning behind why we clay, and also explained and demonstrated how to correctly split a clay bar, how to hold and use it.. for this we used Meguiars Smooth.







This is how we were looking at the end of the session - not bad at all!!




Then we snow foamed it to remove left over clay residue, before drying it ..








Once the car was dried, we wheeled it into the unit and taped up the bonnet for some theory behind which products to use in various scenarios and why, and we also did a demonstration of how to use the main two types of machine, followed by some hands on trials from the participants.. we started with an examination of the damage:



Spreading the product with a DA..





Slight improvement at first. The aim was for participants to get a feel for the machines, and how to operate them correctly.



More machine work..







After we were happy with the DA, we switched up to the Rotary polisher and a wool pad for more cut!



You can see the difference in colour between the machined bonnet and untouched wing!!



We went around the whole bonnet again with the rotary, in order to increase the level of correction to the same standard across it. From there, we applied some new Dodo Juice Supernatural 'Hybrid', which is neither a wax nor a sealant



And application of Zaino Z8 Grand Finale was then applied:



After that had been buffed off we set about restoring the bumper plastic.. first up was the Dionysus Trim Glitz



This result created shock and awe



The rest of the bumper was then restored. The centre section was Car Pro PERL, and the left hand side was Wolf Chemicals Nano Dressing.




We then took it outside to perform a water test to check the beading..




And the last shot of the day shows all of the participants stood by their own handywork




You should try and get yourself down to the next one. I'll post up a thread when I'm next arranging another open morning. Hope you enjoyed reading about our day


Cheers,
Matt.

[Mawbster]

pencil in some corbeau seat cleaning matt ? :-)

[sicskate]

I hope you charged for the day.

How long did you spend on the car compared to how long it would usually take alone?

[Debo]

I hope you charged for the day.

How long did you spend on the car compared to how long it would usually take alone?

No, I didn't charge, it was just an open morning I ran and opened up to the forum - I advertised it as a Fiat/Abarth meet, but also opened it up to existing customers via my facebook business page. The purpose of the day was to show people what's behind the magic. The most used phrase of the day was "it's a lot harder than it looks", especially when the rotary came out!

We didn't complete the car, merely focused on the bonnet, so I can't answer your other question Ben.


Dan, forward me some pics via PM mate and we'll talk then