Last weekend sees the start of the car show season for me with a double show weekend. Starting on the Saturday was the Fast & Loud show held at the West Suffolk College. Sunday was the Stonham Barns Spring break.
Saturday was looking to be a good day with a chance of rain. As I was itching to get to a show I thought I would risk it, when I left it was overcast, but importantly still not raining. I left early to be there before nine and I arrived some fifteen minutes later. No sooner had I pulled into the car park it started to spit with rain. Baring in mind I had just had a Day in the Bay at Meguiar’s I was not happy. The show was to be for four hours ten till two so my car wouldn’t be exposed to the rain. I meet with my car club Bury Retro Car Club and parked next to their allocated spaces which just happened to be under a tree. Reluctantly I parked up.
Shortly after parking a huge Chrysler 300 pulled in next to me. Now I thought my car was long, but just look at the extra length on this land barge! That is a seriously big car and it sounded amazing too.
This car show was catering for the younger cars and mainly Japanese car scene with wheel cambers that looked like the suspension was collapsing and exhausts the size of my wheelie bin (garbage can for my American readers) that I put out each week. There was a period of around fifteen minutes where they started the cars up and revved them hard to see who could make the most noise, with over run back fires added for the final touch of aggravation on progressively worsening rain cloud.
The funny part was that the Chrysler 300 was louder on tick over than the cars trying to be loud. Not that I was laughing, much. However, I can appreciate the time and effort they had put into their cars, although it’s not my scene at all. The rain started to hammer down now and I was getting rather angry and wet to say the least, my car had been looking the cleanest it had ever been, now it was the dirtiest within same time it took the loud scene to finish their little audio scores to be settled.
Leaves and tree sap were now trying to eat their way through my multiple layers of wax, this was now starting to give me the hump. I started a little walk around to look at the other cars before I decided to leave early from the show. The fast fords was fairly well represented and well-behaved I might add, and they were at the other end of he car park.
You don’t often get to see the Ford Capri now days, but here we had three line up together. These UK Mustangs, did look pretty cool and I think they were my favourites for the day.
On the way back to my car I spotted some visitors which the kids seemed to love;
Just as I was thinking of leaving the big Chrysler was leaving too, but he decided to leave his mark, literally.
Pretty spectacular leaving statement I must say. 👍😉
The rain also did me a bit of a favour as I have just reviewed a couple of products and the water would help me test the resilience of these newly applied products.
After arriving back home I pulled straight into the garage and put my dehumidifier on dry while I started to dry and clean the car again ready for the next days antics. It took me two hours in total, which included the wheels.
First car show was a wash out, surely it had to her better?
Continuing on from my last post where I had visited Meguiar’s for their ‘Day In The Bay’ series. I have now been given access to all the pictures that Meguiar’s took on the day, but more importantly the video of the whole process is now also on YouTube, all eighteen minutes of it. Here are some great photo’s of the car from the day, and after avoiding being in any photos for seven years of my blogging, there is even a couple of pics of me in there, (I’m the one with the shaved head and a plain navy t-shirt). I have selected some of my favourites photos from the day, most of which are obviously the ones where I’m not in them. Rather than repeat myself with a write up again, this post is basically pictures, I hope that’s OK.
The link for the video of my car in the bay, is now on Meguiar’s YouTube channel hereor watch it below.
The Washing & Drying
Into the Bay
Then it was time watch and learn how to machine polish the paint properly. There was some tiny swirls that needed a little correction first with some compound, before we got to the waxing stage.
Then I got to have a go with the machines.
Waxing
Buffing
The Final Results
With the outside completed we moved to the inside cleaning and protecting the seats.
Outside for the finished photo shoot.
Perhaps my favourite photo of the day!
I hope you like the pictures and more to the point the video, as much as I enjoyed the day. It’s funny though, I still can’t believe that I am going to show them. So, if you are going to leave comments, be gentle with this fifty something, grey haired old bloke! 😉
Remember: This is not a sponsored post by Meguiar’s nor an advert for them. I did by some products while I was there and will be reviewing them soon. Check out my ‘Car Detailing Reviews’ menu for the latest updates.
The car show season is nearly underway for this year, and I’m looking forward to a few shows this year. But, as the calendar dates pan out, there are a few shows on the same day which is rather annoying to say the least. So I will have to be selective with which ones I attend instead of going to them all.
A big day for me had arrived early on Friday morning, I had taken the day of work and just for once the Friday alarm woke me up and I was in a good mood. The day trip was a visit to go and see the guys at Meguiar’s for a ‘Day In The Bay’. I had been emailing Dale much earlier in the year and we arranged a date for me to attend on the 29th March. Before we start, and you make any assumptions, this is not a sponsored post by Meguiar’s. This is a genuine member of the public’s personal opinion. It’s no secret that I am a fan of Meguiar’s products. I have used other brands to try them out, but I always seem to come back to Meguiar’s.
The journey up to Davenport was little over one hundred miles away, my sat nav told me that it would take a little over two hours to get there. I set of at seven in order to get there for ten as arranged. The extra time contingency was for road works on the A14, it was just as well as I got held up in them, but at least I was moving, all be it slowly. The funny thing that I saw was a sign that said, “a lot of work is out of sight”, it probably is, they were hard at work making tea, sitting on their backsides reading the paper, or posting on Facebook instead of building the roads to minimise the carnage to the motorist. (rant over).
I arrived at a quarter to ten and parked up. The whole place was buzzing as there was deliveries being made and the forecourt had lots of products on pallets awaiting their delivery and stock allocation.
I buzzed into the main offices where I asked to see Dale, he in turn was then called. Within a few seconds Dale greeted me, then if summoned by some divine intervention the local mobile coffee guy arrived and Dale asked if he could get me a tea, coffee or cold drink.
With the refreshments out the way Patrick arrived as he was going to do the video and camera work for the day. This was also going to be an instructional video to go on their YouTube channel shortly. (I will place the links at the end of the post). Like all good trainers I was asked what I wanted from the day what could they do for me. No scripted you must do this, you must do that scenario. My response was that I wanted to know how to use their products correctly and for tips and tricks with my paintwork and wheels. We had a look around the car and I pointed out some ‘pig tail’ marks that were on the hood from a previous mop a long time ago. There was some minor swirls that I wanted to address as well. Dale looked at the paint work intently, listened to what I was saying and recommended their Mirror Bright range for the colour of my car, and particular paint.
Next was the worst nightmare for a classic car owner, water. Again I was asked if that was going to be OK before they started. As it was a beautiful day, sun was out and it was warm I agreed, the mandatory two bucket wash method was given the go ahead. The jet wash came out and the buckets were being filled.
For the next stage I was going to be very much hands on with the training and I didn’t get much chance to pick my phone up for some photo’s. Although I know Patrick was taking plenty as we went along.
We rinsed the car over with the jet wash to wet it over and remove the worst of the road grime.
The wheels were sprayed with the Mirror Bright wheel cleaner. The mix is left on for a minute or so to see if it changes to purple. Once the product has done its job rinse of with a gentle jet wash.
Tip:Use the jet wash at a forty five degree angle to the paintwork. The reasoning being that you are not blasting water directly into and stone chips.
Tip: Fill the wash bucket with warm water and the rinse bucket with cold. This way you can feel which bucket is wash or rinse when they both have foam on the top.
Using a soft wash mitt like the lambs wool mitt to gently wash over the paint with the product allowing the shampoo to do the work.
The car was dried with the new Meguiar’s supreme drying towel. After we had dried the car I was directed into the Detailing Bay, or as Dale described it; ‘the tunnel of doom’. When I asked why, he switched the high intensity lights on, then I realised why. I could see things I hadn’t noticed before in the paintwork. Every minute imperfection was holding a sign up saying look at me.
The main issue was to address the pigtails in the paint I mentioned earlier to Dale. Patrick was filming Dale explaining the process of what he was going to do. He showed me how to use the Dual Action (DA) MT320 correctly. I was shown how to prep the rotary pad, how to prime the pad before using it, and how much product to use. A common mistake by not priming the pad prior to the application of the products. The hood was sectioned into four smaller workable areas. Dale did one side and I did the other with him giving me guidance. Patrick was getting some close up action shots as we were going along.
With the hood corrected and cleaned it was now looking smooth and flat. Again I was asked my preference for wax type, so I said it has to be the hand applied hard wax rather than the liquid form. Dale then started on the application of the Mirror Bright hard wax paste, I wasn’t sure about the results I would get as I was expecting results like the Ultimate wax for my preferred results that I liked. My expectations were surpassed, Dale was right, this wax suited my car.
Tip: Pinch the top of the applicator pad and place flat onto the wax, twist half a turn and that will be enough for a complete panel.
Tip: A small overlapping circle with fingertip pressure is all you need.
It soon became pretty clear that I was using the wax quantities all wrong in the past, using way to much product.
Once the wax had cured it was a simple wipe of a microfibre was all it took to bring the shine out. The wax came straight off. No buffing, no elbow grease required. Just like dusting a car over in fact.
Tip: check the wax has cured by wiping it with your finger. If it leaves a clean mark behind then it’s ready to come off. If it has a greasy smear behind it, leave it little longer and check again.
Tip: With the car freshly waxed, use a light misting of quick detailer. This will stick to any left over wax that hasn’t been removed leaving a pristine slick paint job.
With the car buffed over I stood in amazement as the car looked as good as it did the day it was painted and still wet.
I drove the car outside and the sun made the car transformed yet again in natural sunlight.
As the Meguiar’s warehouse were still taking out and receiving orders, I had to move the car out of the road after the main pictures were taken, the lorry driver even jumped down from his cab and joined in for a chat too. As Patrick was using the professional camera, I let him do his thing and I kept out the way.
With the photo shoot completed I asked Dale and Patrick for a picture of them with the car. Dale in black and Patrick with the stripped top.
I would like to say to Meguiar’s, especially Dale & Patrick who looked after me;
Thank You So Much!
I had the best day ever cleaning a car, and nothing was to much trouble for these guys. They answered my endless barrage of questions, they also showed me the answers too. In fact everybody I spoke to there was amazing.
There was only one thing left to do, purchase some goods. I didn’t have to at all and they never tried to sell me anything. However I needed a bag that could hold the largest of Meguiar’s bottles, so I grabbed their brand new to the market Extra Large Kit bag, which is huge. The other products are what I used on the day, but I hadn’t got in my arsenal of detailing products. The Ceramic Wax I am very intrigued about and wanted to try.
However, once I got the car home I had to give it a gentle clean before I covered it up in the garage.
Patrick is going to be uploading a video of the day to the Meguiar’s YouTube channel:
Check out the ‘Detailing 101’ where they show you how to use the products, it’s very useful.
The products I used for the day were all Mirror Bright except for the Meguiar’s Compound stage of the hood treatment. Again, I am gaining nothing from showing you what I used, but if you want some amazing results try these. I will be doing some reviews of the products a little later on of course. But, I can say one thing, they will get scores.
Patrick has said that they will be sending me the high resolution photos of the day, which I am so looking forward to getting hold of. I will then do a follow up post of some proper photos taken on the day.
Later that evening on social media platforms I spotted these posts:
Yes that is me with the polisher!
Be sure to follow ‘Mequiarsuk’ on Instagram to see their latest posts or follow ‘dale_mast’ himself who really does know what he is talking about.
