Ultimate Yaris Polishing Guide

[alfiejts]

Having an Audi myself, I've picked up a lot of advice from the Audi-Sport forum and there are some really good guides on that forum for cleaning and polishing your car....

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=33236

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=116

Having taken the plunge and spent over £100 on cleaning & polishing products last week, I thought I'd share the results of my labours.

I bought the Werkstat Acrylic kit from "polished bliss", as that seems to be a good offering for both my own silver Audi and my wife's Decuma Grey Yaris SR.

Spent Friday evening and the whole weekend in the shade of my garage whilst the rest of the country baked in the sun!

First, I can't believe the colour change to my A3.

It'd previously been clayed and had two good coats of Collinite 476S wax. That had given it a slightly darker shade and the light did fall off differently angles panels quite nicely, but stripping all that off and applying the Werkstat Acrylic kit has returned the car to its naturally light shade.

Picture doesn't really do it justice...

But the real difference is to my wife's dark grey metallic Yaris.

That's only a few months old, but the two coats of Collinite wax created a slight sheen on the paint that didn't allow you to see the detail in the paint at shallow angles of reflection - but I think you'll see here that the difference is amazing..

Firstly, this shows the mess in the garage, but the reflection in the roof has to be seen to be believed....

Now before and after images of the front wing, where you can see the clarity that the Acrylic kit gives through to the paint flake...

Before:

And after:

So what did I do?

1) Wash with Pollack detergent to get rid of all the previous wax

2) Meguirs clay bar cleanse to remove all surface contaminants.

3) Hand polish using Menzerna 85RE compound. (Not sure if this really did any good, but wanted to try and make sure I'd removed all the previous wax)

4) Hand-applied coat of Werrkstat Acrylic Prime

5) Applied 3 coats of Jett Trigger, each half an hour apart

6) Final coat of Werkstat Gloss to ensure all residues removed and to apply final finish.

(oh and in between the Jett Trigger coats, I clayed the wheels, applied one coat of Prime and two coats of Collinite 476S wax to protect them and cleaned the exhaust tailpipe's with Meguires metal polish....)

After doing that to two cars all day Saturday and Sunday, I slept soundly last night! :-)

Here's a piccie of the finished car....

[z-tune-z2]

Your cars really do look stunning after that! I wish I had the money and effort to splash out on those products and get my car shining like that! First I'll have to see Chips Away about sorting some nasty touch ups and scratches that the previous owner left for me :P

Any chance of reposting the images in higher resolution? They look amazing!

[Vitz_man]

I feel the need for a weekend spent lovingly cleaning my car and getting rid of all those little scratches, a bit anal maybe, but end results look to be well worth it! ^^^

:D

[reece]

It's going to rain...!

[alfiejts]

Ah the great British weather forecast gag....

How do you tell if its going to rain in England?

Look out of the window... If its not raining already - its going to rain!

:-)

[alfiejts]

Finally found a web site to upload the images to that I could link to from the forum...

Here you go, bigger pictures as requested.

[reece]

Great job

A bit of tyre dressing will set it off nicely

[Red Yaris 54]

Great job

A bit of tyre dressing will set it off nicely

It looks like it has had some tyre dressing already, (looking at the first photo)

[alfiejts]

yep - car slik tyre dressing, as per Auto Express awards......

The full side photo was taken a week later, after a few hundred miles on the road, so its actually a bit dusty and the tyre dressing has rubbed off around the edge due to enthusiastic cornering....

I used to use all Auto Express recommended products - until they recommended one of those silicone blades for wiping off surplus water after washing, as that't the worst thing you can do to a car - any tiny spec of grit on the car or blade will cause significant scratching....

[reece]

I used to use all Auto Express recommended products - until they recommended one of those silicone blades for wiping off surplus water after washing, as that't the worst thing you can do to a car - any tiny spec of grit on the car or blade will cause significant scratching....

Good for windows only