exterior care
We have a very thorough system for looking after the paintwork and external areas of your car that goes though 8 seperate stages.
Please feel free to examine each of these stages and see for yourself how we acheive such a quality finish on your vehicle.
Step 1: Initial cleaning
Your vehicle is carefully rinsed and treated with a citrus degreaser to remove any surface contaminants. Each product used at this stage is dependent on the area being treated and the amount of grime present.
Different cleaning agents are used on various components. Specific products are used on:
- Engine components - engine specific cleaners only
- Wheels - Wheel specific none-acidic Traffic Film Remover or alloy citrus degreaser
- Arches - Traffic Film Remover - strength dependent on amount of dirt and grime present
- Lower bodywork - Traffic Film Remover or specific citrus degreaser
- Upper bodywork - Citrus degreaser - formula dependent on paintwork
- Convertible roof - Fabric shampoo mix
- Degreasing agents, which are kind to your cars paintwork, are carefully applied to exterior bodywork.
Different treatments are applied to upper and lower bodywork. Alloy wheels are cleansed with different products depending on whether they are; machined, painted, wire wheel, steel etc.
The engine bay is protected and carefully cleaned. Being mindful of all electrical equipment and ensuring there is no water or chemical ingress.
Step 2: Hand cleaning
Your vehicle is first cleansed using Wool mitts. After being rinsed your car is then washed using a wax based car shampoo.
The vehicle is then rinsed again to remove any traces of products. A visual inspection is made to check that all degreasing agents and conditioning shampoo traces are removed.
Step 3: Drying
The car is dried with airline and micro-fibre towel. Water is removed using only fresh micro-fibre towels and, door shuts and bonnet shuts etc, dried with the aid of air guns to reduce the risk of scratching.
Note: Delicate items within the engine bay are protected with plastic film seal. All electronics are sealed, on older vehicles, particular care is taken to protect distributor and carburettor components against any water ingress.
The engine area is then carefully cleansed, dried and hand-polished.
Step 4: Clay Bar
Depending on the desired finish your car is then treated using Paint Rubber ‘Clay Bar'. This putty like substance, when carefully applied, removes fallout, fly squash etc from the paintwork.
Step 5: Rectifying swirl marks
The next stage is to rectify the paintwork, hence removing swirl marks, surface scratches, blemishes and hologramming. This step is crucial to ensure a surface free of imperfections before sealing and then waxing.
Depending on the amount of hazing, swirl marks and spiders webs, this process can take between 4 & 12 hours.
Step 6: Seal the paintwork
Once complete the paint surface is sealed to protect the underlying paintwork. A combination of rotary buffing and hand application is used so the entire bodywork is carefully sealed.
Sealing is important to ensure paintwork is protected and to allow the waxes to adhere properly to the paintwork.
Step 7: Waxing
Finally the bodywork is professionally waxed using waxes that contain high Carnauba wax content. Both PTFE (Teflon) with Carnauba and natural Carnauba waxes are used. PTFE based Carnauba waxes are used on the areas more susceptible to dirt, tar, fly-squash etc.
The aim is to apply at least 2 coats of high quality wax to all bodywork. We give as much protection as we can and the wax is buffed with new cotton microfibre towels to give an outstanding finish.
Step 8: Wheels
Each wheel is finished with "Teflon" and Carnauba Wax.
Wheels are treated with specific polish and wax dependent on finish e.g. alloy, painted, machined, wire etc.
Note: Vehicles going into storage have all external metalwork, including wheels, protected by a PFTE based wax to reduce the risk of corrosion.