Nezil

I bought my first S2000 a couple of weeks ago. Its an 03/03 car in Nurburgring Blue, low milage etc.

I'm really happy with it, except for one thing.... It just wasn't shiny enough for my liking!

Last weekend I tried using metallic T-cut over the whole car, followed by a couple of coats of AG Super Resin. Overall it was better, but still not what I'd expected, and not what I wanted!

After reading about what Mikey K's been doing to his new '06 car, I thought I'd give some of it a go and see what improvements I could make.

First think I did was buy the Meguiars Quick Clay, a bottle of NXT, and some microfibre cloths from Tesco - 99p each!

I started with the hard top - Its in the shed, therefore dry (anyone else annoyed with the weather!!!). First the clay bar...

Oh My God - Amazing!

If you've never used one of these, buy one tomorrow and use it tomorrow night.... Then thank me for being such a good influence!

I followed this with the NXT polish / wax and I'm well impressed.

Just one thing....

Mikey K used the following:

1. I didn't think using fairly liquid was a good idea, am I wrong about this?

2. Clay bar; Great, did I alreay mention that?

3. Vanilla Moose; Is it really worth the effort to get it from America?

4. Poorboys EX-P; I've heard good things, so I'll take it that this is good?

5. A couple of coats of NXT; Doesn't NXT clean off everything you used before it? So is it really necessary to do two coats, or anything before it (Vanilla and EX-P)?

6. How often is each part needed?

7. Should I be using an electric polisher, or is it better to polish by hand?

8. Finally, what does everyone use to wash their cars once they've done all of this treatment?

Thanks guys, I'll post some picks after I get it all done!

Shiskine

If you're about to clay your car, then you want to remove any residual wax or polish, so this is one time you should use a strong detergent like fairy liquid. Thereafter, you're right in that you should only use a car shampoo ...

If you haven't already, take a look at Rahul's enormous Waxing and Polishing thread as well as following the link in his sig to his own website devoted to the subject.

Or you could just use Zaino as I did ...



(Gratuitous pic post ... )

robs_silver_s2k

1. I didn't think using fairly liquid was a good idea, am I wrong about this?

As stated above use only to strip everything off and must be followed by some protection/ wax

2. Clay bar; Great, did I alreay mention that?

glad you liked it makes a huge difference

3. Vanilla Moose; Is it really worth the effort to get it from America?

Yes and you can get it from www.seriousperformance.co.uk (uk based)

4. Poorboys EX-P; I've heard good things, so I'll take it that this is good?

Yep see (3)

5. A couple of coats of NXT; Doesn't NXT clean off everything you used before it? So is it really necessary to do two coats, or anything before it (Vanilla and EX-P)?

Not sure about NXT if it is a cleaner then vanilla and EX-P will be removed. Don't think you need all three but its late and I am not up on the NXT range - just checked the Megs catalogue and it looks like a cleaner wax so def. no need for all three products and nxt will remove all before it

6. How often is each part needed?

6 monthly for ex-p if you use a seperate wax like P21S (available from (3)) then this will have to applied every 4 - 6 weeks depending use/storage/weather

7. Should I be using an electric polisher, or is it better to polish by hand?

If you have swirl marks (mirco scratches in the clear coat) then you need a machine to remove properly a hand polish is unlikely to remove them.

8. Finally, what does everyone use to wash their cars once they've done all of this treatment?

I am using Megs Gold Class shampoo or Zaino Z7 shampoo. The Gold Class is good.

Thanks guys, I'll post some picks after I get it all done!

Post some pics soon.

Xd

If you have fine swirl marks (web like marks when the sun catches the paintwork) you can remove them with any super swirl removal by hand. It is long winded though so is best to do it a panel at a time over several weeks. Once you have an optically smooth surface, it will continue to look good even after each wash. On topt a good wax and careful washing will maintain this shine for months as the base is good.

A machine is much faster for buffing but needs practice and is an extra cost.

The alternative is as Skiskine mentioned which fills the swirl marks rather than removing them. Much easier to get a good shine but you just need to keep this polish topped up to continue.

aldfort

You can do a reasonable job on swirls if they are not too deep with AG ultra deep shine. Put a coat of a pure wax on top of this for a deep shine. (don't bother with AG extra gloss - it won't take on top of AG Ultra deep shine)

AquilaEagle

Did you read this?

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=226093

Shiskine

Er ... that would be the same thread I directed him to in the second post ...

Neil.H

If you wanted shine you bought the wrong colour.

mzm70

Nezil,
Just as an aside, I'm intending to pick some stuff up from www.seriousperformance.co.uk this weekend. (This website doesn't accept credit cards and it's not too far from home) and I work in Basingstoke, PM me if you want me to get you something while I'm there.
Mick

Nezil

Thanks Mick,

I just spoke to Alex at Serious Performance and he's sending some stuff out for me tomorrow. Ideally I'd like to do some work on it over the weekend.

Just so you all know I'm going for Vanilla Moose, Followed by Poorboys EX-P, followed by P21S Wax.

I hope it looks good!

I do realise that light metalic colours don't have the depth of darker colours, but they can still shine - I'm going to make sure of it.

Thanks for the advice guys!