BX Club Forum

i'm going to be comeing to stratford anyway, going to bring the mark 1 estate hopefully.

roody262 wrote:citroenboi, can i ask what sort of materials you used to turn your BX into the shiney beast it is now? I've never used T-cut before and not exactly sure of the best way to go about it, do you wash the car before or after? Any more information would be more than helpful, Thanks.

I'm pretty sure one or two others are heavily qualified to answer that but whilst we wait for them I'll tell you how I do it:

You'd need to wash the car first and let it dry. Then follow the destructions on the T-Cut bottle which, iIrc, suggest using a damp (not wringing wet) cloth to put T-Cut on to.
Do NOT pour it direct on to the bodywork and do NOT do the whole car in one go, just do a bit of a panel at a time and then wipe off.

Personally I prefer Meguiares which is more expensive but brings fantastic results. Clean the car, get a clay bar and use that then use the three stages of Meg's.

Also if the car is tidy or newish anyway then make sure you use the 'two bucket' method of washing it. That's where you have the normal bucket with car shampoo and water and a bucket of clean water too. Everytime you have used the shampoo/water wash the sponge out in the clean water before dipping back into the soapy water.

If your doing it by hand the above instructions are pretty much it. IF you can get acces to a machine polisher (mop attachement to a grinder etc) and some proper G3 cutting compound it will save you time and effort, but again make sure the cars clean but keep the paintwork wet when you use the mop.

The trick is once you have t-cutted the paint etc is make sure you keep it regularly polished too keep its shine and seal the paint.

Roverman wrote:If your doing it by hand the above instructions are pretty much it. IF you can get acces to a machine polisher (mop attachement to a grinder etc)

Under NO circumstances fit a mop to a grinder to use as a machine polisher, the speed at which a grinder rotates is greatly in excess of a polisher, you will burn holes in your paint!

Ooops my bad then, I know the one we have at work has quite a few speed settings and can get up to quite a pace!

Aye, IIRC a proper polisher operates in the 600 to 1700 rpm range, with a variable control. An angle grinder however usually as a single speed of 11000 rpm. I'm sure the paint would look lovely and shiny in the heartbeat before you disappear through to bare metal...

or in the case of a plastic bonnet, go straight through to the engine!

You've got to be careful with mop's, slow speed and light touch is best.

They can leave fairly horrid circular marks if you're not careful.

Here's my efforts from yesterday. Unfortunately my camera is a bit old now and doesn't do justice to the shine on the paintwork of my car.
Washed it (two bucket method), used a clay bar then paint cleaner, polish and wax...







I got a (econd hand) interior valeting machine fairly recently which is fantastic so gave the seats a quick (and I mean quick) going over too..

Pimp my astra Very shiny though, Billy,im impressed, looks good in black and I like them rims, nost sure about the stripes though but each to their own!

That's got to be one of the shiniest cars around Chester, Billy!
Mucho kudos!!!

White dials too!
Nice, I do believe thats the first photo's of the beast to appear on the internets is it not?

So, WTF does one do with a clay bar exactley??

Cheers gents.

The clay bar removes unseen dirt and particles from the paintwork. I expected it to be a load of rubbish if truth be known but once you wash your car then run the clay bar over it you will not believe the amount of crud it pulls off, especially if you haven't thoroughly cleaned your car in a while.

Problem is I don't want to drive the car now as it'll get dirty again (especially after last night's rain) so I came to work in the love bus today instead!

Nice looker that, Billy.

Nice looking Astra - like the wheels - bit surprised the sport version doesn't have electric mirrors

Doc, imagine plastacine but a bit firmer. It looks just like an old fashioned thin bar of soap (when in the pkt), but is moldable with your hand. All you do is get it to the shape you want & then just rub it over the paintwork after spraying the necessary area with some detailing spray 1st. As billy's said, you wouldnt believe how much crap comes off the paintwork even after a damn good wash. Once done, just re-apply wax, buff up as normal & the paintwork will look like new, its quite remarkable stuff. Maguires do a clay bar kit which comes with the detailing spray & cloths along with a couple of clay bars.