How do you clean your Elise (i.e. what bits/how detailed)

[TonyHetherington]

So...wanna see wht a weekend's cleaning does for an Elise?!

Well you all saw the 'before' pictures on the first page of this thread. 'twas a little grubby from my scotland trip.

So, as my above posted, Saturday mainly consisted of taking the car apart and the wheels/wheel arches....



Then comes Sunday; with car in bits...





a polish with Halfords professional colour polish (black, obviously) got me to this stage (2 1/2hours later). I have been recommended the colour polish by Miles at Fibreglass services as my car has many 'whispy' scratches and he said this is the best thing for them. He mentioned it would need 2 or 3 coats and this is the 2nd coat in about 3 or 4 weeks and, to be honest, it's frustratingly UNinspiring. It's alot of work and I don't think the shine is THAT great. I don't think I'll use it again (another half empty bottle of some wax type polish thing in my garage, then ). We all need to learn though...!



So, with that initial polish done it's then onto the detailing. The door sills, the hinge areas, the roll over bar, the rear lights (which are surisingly easy to take out) really do make a difference;



Polish the lights themselves also, not just the bits you can see...



So, next on the agenda is trim. To be honest, I have NEVER found a trim detailer I like. In halfords the other day I saw Meguiars Trim Detailer versio of it and chose to give that a go. This picture is right half with detailer on it, left half simply washed. The final finish was 'ok' but, as always, the difficulty is with how rough the plastic is so it makes spreading very difficult. The jurys out on this one...



With the interior, I removed all carpets and seats (bar the back one) as you can see in the picture somewhere above. To the remaining 'cabin' I hoovered, then used Autoglym Interior shampoo everywhere. Then I hoovered again to get all the cloth crap out again . Then I shampoo'd the carpet (and also the carpets then lying in my utility room). Then used Autoglym Leather Cleaner and then Autoglym Leather Care Cream on all the leather - seats, steering wheel centre, door cards, centre console, gearstick.






Taking out the seats made a HUGE difference to how clean I could get the interior you see above.

So, with all that looking sparkly, and the seats, after re-assembly I was WELL chuffed with the interior;



With lots and lots of other tinkering bits (I'm sure Janitor knows what I mean ) I was really happy with the way the car came out. Disappointed, I won't deny, about the finish on the body work but I think next weekend I will give that new Autoglym Ultra Deep Shine Polish a go and cover it with Extra Gloss Protection - I'm STILL searching for THE finish to the body work on my car.

I spent approx 20 man hours this weekened getting the car like this (yes, 'no life' is the expression you're looking for), and the weather was playing silly buggers with me as well (I rolled the car in and out the garage perhaps 20 times!) but it was worth it. By the time these pictures were taken about 7pm last night I had no desire to go looking for somewhere nice to take it so it stayed on my front lawn and my little close, sorry! That, plus I STILL haven't watched the grand prix so NODBODY tell me the result. I've managed to stay away from the result up until now!
Some automotive pornography I am quietly pleased with;

[gooby]

A good detailing with the best materials can cost way more than £450. I will also protect the car. If I did not have the time to do it myself then I would be investing in some good detailing.

Dont forget the Elise is not a car you "justify", it is a emotional car that you buy for the love of the car and driving. I dont think i that in those terms you can say what is a waste of money.

A well detailed car is a thing of real beauty.
www.parcferme.co.uk/

This is where I get my Zymol from. These guys are brilliant, really down to earth and always willing to she me the auto porn they are working on. Please notice there are no prices for detailing!

[TonyHetherington]

cuzza said:

If having a £450 wax done or spending all weekend detailing it makes people happy then fill yer boots - still seems a bit bonkers to me

Cuzza - I must admit, the value of that £450 is exceptional, I think. Even though you see all the stuff I've done to my car above, I would STILL have that treatment done on my car like Mel (Ed's girlfriend) - the guy uses a tub of wax that costs £5k a pop!!! Regardless of my intentions, I don't have the skills or products to get anywhere that finish. I honestly think that is money very very very very well spent. As we have mentioned many times before - each to their own, it's what makes the world go round!

[ehasler]

cuzza said:

No disrespect intended but in my opinion that IS an idiotic (for want of a better word) amount of money to spend on having your car polished. To bring that into context £450 is what I've just paid to renew my insurance for the year or three track days or a set of tyres. If having a £450 wax done or spending all weekend detailing it makes people happy then fill yer boots - still seems a bit bonkers to me

Sorry chap, but you don't know what was involved in the work, and the benefit that it gives to the car. Calling someone an idiot for spending what isn't really a huge amount of money compared to the cost of a new Elise, isn't really on. It's not like the car is going to be a garage queen either - Mel's already booked it on it's first track day at the end of the month, just a week after driving it to the Black Forest in Germany.

Some may say that spending thousands of pounds on a funny little car made out of plastic is idiotic, so really, we're all the same

[Janitor]

Top work Tony - you score high!

I'm sure if you look for some of the 'gloss black finish' type posts on detailing world they'll give you some pointers to a more 'rewarding' product to bring out your cars deepest beauty (I see you've been there mate - the intrigue & suggetsion which surrounded that "Welcome Tony" post was hilarious!) (Oh, another hot tip - resize your piccys to 640 x 480 if you can for threads - everyone gets the picture then!)

Great work mate - keep it up! ...and drive! ...and smile ...and polish ...and love it!

[S Works]

Tony, as we have basically the same paint colour on our cars I highly recommend you try the Meguiars Gold Class Wax as the final finisher. My car GLEAMS after just one thin coat. After several, if I had the time and inclination, it would be amazing.

For this year's Hop Farm Pageant I'll be blinging it up with some serious detailing using the Meguiars. Really works well on my car, better than 'glym so it seems.

For a £12 investment it's well worth a pop IMHO.

>> Edited by S Works on Monday 3rd April 10:33

[TonyHetherington]

S Works said:

Autoglym Gold Class Wax as the final finisher. My car GLEAMS after just one thin coat.

I assume you mean the MEGUIARS gold class wax? If so, I have some of that and to be honest I also found that 'uninspiring'. It was good, I won't deny. Actually having said that I hadn't polished it before using it.

Ok what I may do then is give it a polish with the Autoglym Ultra Deep Shine polish...



and then wax it with the Meguiars Gold Class Wax...



Thanks!!


PS: Janitor, yeah I saw that post, did make me chuckle. I wanted a nice quiet entrance and was going to have a browse but mentioned to Karen I was joining. Foolish mistake that was . Re the pictures I've grown lazy on PH because it resizes it for you - best get resizing I guess!!! Thanks for your comments

[S Works]

Yes, I do mean Meg's Brain only working at 50% this morning apparently. I use their applicator pad to apply the wax and their polishing cloth to buff. Really gives a superb finish.

[gooby]

Tony that is brilliant. What a great job!

I have tried the Gold Class stuff and I was really unimpressed.
www.pistonheads.com/reviews/reviews.asp?c=52&id=387&r=1228

I used to use the Autoglym polishes and I found that the gloss finish stuff stayed on the car well but the shine was not great and the deep shine stuff looked fantastic but wasshed off in a couple of weeks.

We all know what I am going to say but there is nothing that can even get close to Zymol. From the joy of putting it on tho the incredible shine that lasts and lasts and lasts.

Different league.

The best stuff for the black trims on the 'liz is Zymol Vinyl treatment. Superb finish and very little effort, lasts for years!

[S Works]

Odd how some of us find things good and others not so good. Wierd. I think the thing with Meg's Gold is to only use a small amount, you really don't need to slap it on thick. And the value of a good removal & buffing cloth can't be underestimated IMHO. As soon as I got one instead of using bits of ripped up shirt (albeit very good quality cotton!) was distinct.

[gooby]

S Works said:

Odd how some of us find things good and others not so good. Wierd. I think the thing with Meg's Gold is to only use a small amount, you really don't need to slap it on thick. And the value of a good removal & buffing cloth can't be underestimated IMHO. As soon as I got one instead of using bits of ripped up shirt (albeit very good quality cotton!) was distinct.

Different styles work well with different products. If works for you and your car looks as good as Tonys, then why change!

untill you try zymol!

[Nick J]

I have polished my Elise over the weekend and its come up a dream, but the inside never gets as much attention as the outside.

Do most people remove the seats to clean the inside? I was thinking of doing this to clean the inside properly, is there a special way of doing this or is it just a case of undoing the bolts that hold them down? Also can anyone recomend a good leather cleaner?

Nick

[TonyHetherington]

Thanks Gooby Tell you what though I am intent on finding the right polish combination for myself this year. I think Janitor and the car detailing forum will help me out there!

Nick - it's the first time I've taken my seats out and to be honest it was fairly easy but you do need the right tools - big extension bars and knuckle head bits to be able to get into the seats at an angle, otherwise it's a bit fiddly (but do-able). I found it SO good to take the seats out - you can see above the look of the carpets etc. etc....all the bits you can never get down to.

Regarding the leather I think Autoglym leather cleaner (a spray) followed by Autoglym leather care cream, both available in Halfords, is an excellent combination and is what I used above. I really recommend it.

Thanks all for your comments - I'm off in a little while for a couple of days but will be back to bug you all soon

T

[Nick J]

Thanks Tony, I will definately get it done.

Nick

[GTRene]

Great post Tony and lovely pics that can tell the story too...car looks clean to me you guys must be crazy doing all this, looks like some kind of unknown virus some say its the Lotus virus...hm, must be it then? and I gues some are more subject for this then others...will there ever be a cure for this?
GTRene

[AlexT]

Tony treat yourself and buy this www.pinnaclewax.com/souveran.html

Trust me. I have had 2 black cars and tried just about everything on the market...from Meguiars (3 step, Gold Class, NXT Gen) to Autoglym (super resin polish & the sealant) to 3M and PS21. This wax is simply the best top coat.

It dramatically deepens the colour and after 2 coats separated by 24hrs, the gloss is incredible. It glides on like butter and is removed so so so easily with a microfibre towel saving you a lot of time. I like to use it on top of Klasse All In One, which does a great job of preparing the surface.

I could write paragraphs on all the stuff I tried, but there ain't no need because the souveran is it.