I've been a long standing fan of the JDM Type-R models including the CW EP3 Civic, the DC2 and FD2 Civic. The DC5 though has to be my favourite, so I really enjoyed this one…
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RussZS, on Flickr
The wheels were dealt with first...
Before:
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
Nothing too bad on these, just light soiling from road grime and brake dust.
The wheels were pressure rinsed first with a Kranzle K7, to remove as much of the dirt build up as possible, before making physical contact with the wheels:
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RussZS, on Flickr
AutoSmart Smart Wheels mixed 10:1 with water, was liberally applied to the wheels:
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RussZS, on Flickr
and worked with various brushes:
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RussZS, on Flickr
The tyres and arches were treated with Bilt Hamber Surfex HD mixed 10:1 water and worked with various brushes:
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RussZS, on Flickr
and rinsed:
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RussZS, on Flickr
Next up I decided to test CarPro's new IronX Snow Soap, which promises to act as a snow foam to clean the paintwork and also to replace IronX as a fallout remover - so potentially a great time saver when pushed for time on a single day detail such as this one!
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RussZS, on Flickr
As per instructions this was used neat as a foam:
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RussZS, on Flickr
So 500ml (£10!!) was poured into my foam lance then applied to the car via Kranzle K7:
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RussZS, on Flickr
The foam itself was decent enough in terms of thickness and cling time. The foam was left for 10-15 mins to works its 'magic'…
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RussZS, on Flickr
It looked promising with a decent amount of 'purple' (indicative view that the product is working) run off on the paintwork:
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RussZS, on Flickr
The car was then rinsed clean, but the cleaning power of Snow Soap wasn't as good as the better snow foams out there.
From here I felt that I still needed to wash the car using a mitt and shampoo, so CarPro Mitt, BriteMax CleanMax and Zaino bucket system were used:
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RussZS, on Flickr
The more intricate areas needed further agitation after the foaming so I used Surfex:
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
(the darker areas are where paint has worn off, not dirt)
The car was then rinsed again.
At this stage, despite some reaction from Snow Soap, i decided to use IronX on a few areas to see if anything else could be removed, as I was surprised at how little we saw from the Snow Soap…
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
I'm not really sure of the purpose of Snow Soap - IronX worked wonders as ever and reacted in a way that suggested that the Snow Soap in fact did very little. At £10 per use, its extremely expensive and not something I'd use again on the basis of this test. TRIX also disappointed me recently when compared to IronX and Tardis, which seemed to not only react more quickly, but also more effectively.
Tardis was used next to remove the tar deposits present on the car, safely:
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RussZS, on Flickr
The DC5 was then re-foamed with a deliberately watery mixture to lure any trapped IronX out of shuts and panel gaps:
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RussZS, on Flickr
As the final part of the decontamination process, the Teg was moved inside and clayed using Auto Finesse's Clay and Glide:
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RussZS, on Flickr
Then the car was dried using Chemical Guys Wooly Mammoth Drying Towel:
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RussZS, on Flickr
Ahead of machine polishing, all of the paintwork was assessed under various lights to look for particular defects and signs of repair work or resprays and also the paint thickness was assessed to look for high/low spots.
The car read an average of 125 microns:
DSC07703 by
RussZS, on Flickr
After assessing a few combinations, it seemed that the paint was surprisingly hard (and a little thin) so we opted for Meguiars M101 on a 3M Polishing Pad via Festool Rotary, which did a great job of clearing up the severely oxidised paint! It finished down extremely well too, but the paint was still refined using a new finishing polish we have on test, via DA.
Some correction shots:
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RussZS, on Flickr
Some deeper defects remain (light scratch evident in the pic above) but this car was booked in for our Light Correction service which takes a single day, multiple polishing sets would be required to remove any deeper defects, which would take 2 days and our Full Correction service.
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
This pic shows the very obvious difference in colour we were achieving from our polishing processes:
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RussZS, on Flickr
(right side has been polished)
and under lighting:
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RussZS, on Flickr
The areas are the badges had particularly bad build up of dirt, which even Surfex couldn't remove, so cotton wool buds and Meguiars 205 were used to sort this:
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
We finished up with Tough Prep and Power Seal (both via DA)
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RussZS, on Flickr
Satin was used on the tyres:
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RussZS, on Flickr
Before:
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RussZS, on Flickr
After:
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RussZS, on Flickr
Very, very nice to use and a great finish!! AF have really nailed the tyre dressing with this one!!
and finally, some afters:
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
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RussZS, on Flickr
I really enjoyed this one!!
Thanks for reading…
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RussZS, on Flickr
Russ.
