Downtime today coincided with a pleasantly overcast day which meant it was ideal for doing claybar work. Anyone that's tried to clean a white car outside will know how annoying it is to do if it's a sunny day, overcast is far better.
The roof was much dirtier than I expected especially since the car had mostly been under a cover. I couldn't do the whole car today, I didn't have time, so I just focused on the top half and the driver's side half and I'll do the rest over the weekend when I have more time.
Top of the doors were also surprisingly dirty.
One great thing about the claybar is that it will, with persistance, get rid of that sort of dirt tidemark you get around badges. Before, during, and after shots. It takes a while, but it does eventually clean off all those stubborn marks.
The bonnet was much the same story as the roof. The bumper I treated to Cillit Bang degreaser and a scrubbing brush which got a lot of the oily dirty off, now I have to go at it with Cif bathroom cream cleaner to get the ingrained dirt out and bring the plastic back to its original colour.
Paint on the roof is reasonable. I know there's a section of repaint at the front from windscreen repairs before I got the car, it could do with some very fine wet and dry and a polish just to blend it out nicely. There was a lot of grinder spray across the roof where it hadn't been repainted and this seemed to be the bulk of the dirt. However, once cleaned back and given a coat of wax, the paint was looking and feeling much nicer. It's more obvious in person than on camera.
At the back I did the driver's side of the tailgate and tried out my chrome pen on the Citroen badge, which worked pretty well. I'll give the badge a second coat with the chrome pen and then I may mask it off and give it a coat of satin varnish just to make it look more like it was when new and take the edge of the chrome shine.
BX was on shopping duty today, which it did without complaint as you'd expect. Filled it up too, and was surprised how small the fuel tank is. I hope the weather is nice this weekend so I can carry on with the deep clean.
