How shiney can you get your A2?

3 days spit and polish

3 days work on and off:

1. Wash with Simoniz High Perfection Shampoo and Wax
2. Clay with Bilt Hamber Auto-clay
3. Wax with Mer Car Polish
4. Vacumn inside
5. Black inside dashboard and outside valances and spoiler with AmorAll Protectant gloss finish
6. Black front bumper, around and between the fog lights with CarPlan Black Trim Wax
7. Clean all glass with Turtle Wax ClearView
8. Apply RainX to front and back screens
9. Shampoo some stains on the seats (some household carpet shampoo)
10. New car mats (Aldi special offer a few weeks ago - about £6)
11. Added a further 2 A2 Club stickers to the front quarter lights (already 2 in rear quarter lights)

Note some of the products used were some years old - current formulas may be different.

Washing and waxing included around the thickness of the door and door openings.

I was quite impressed with the AmorAll Protectant for removing (with a bit of elbow grease) some whitish stains from wax and rain water on the black door cards and other areas.

Not done: tyres (due to be replaced soon), few stone chips, alloys and rear hubs (ran out of time and may get alloys refurbished)
Missed: washing pedals

A2 exterior 2 Oct 11s.jpg A2 interior 2 Oct 11s.jpg
 
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Looks nice Alan. Get a toothbrush and some all purpose cleaner on those pedals! From experience I must say that refurbing the alloys really lifts the car - ( are the nearsides scuffed as the 2 in your picture look OK?) - combine this with a coat of smoothrite on the brake hubs and the car will be looking like it did when you picked it up 7.5 years ago!
 
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Thanks Murdo. Some alloys have some small scuffs mainly on the centre circle and some on the rim - spokes OK. I did clean them with acid some few years ago and touched up with silver paint. Not brilliant but only seen close up.

I day dream sometimes that when the car is 10 years old I will pay say £1,000 to send it to a professional to revitalise the vehicle ready for another 10 years!

I took the car abroad last year and in Denmark met an ex work colleague from many years back. He of course was not familiar with the UK registration lettering so did not know how old the car was. He thought it was much newer. I must say I'm impressed with the paint finish compared to other cars I've had. I suppose some of that is due to paint technology moving on and also part due to the mileage (62k) and driving conditions.
 
This is just a reflection...
...if you look very closely you can see a 2nd reflection
 

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what a sexy car you have in your pic !

Petra

If not a very dirty A2 there Petra you could have got Tony or the kids to clean it before you went to ADI lol, you could tell i wasn't there this year as most people try to clean there's when i'm around not that i've got OCD or anything and i like to see clean cars HONEST lol

Phil
 
oh dont panic phil there were a couple of people polishing cars at the meeting point before going into the show lol
 
If not a very dirty A2 there Petra you could have got Tony or the kids to clean it before you went to ADI lol, you could tell i wasn't there this year as most people try to clean there's when i'm around not that i've got OCD or anything and i like to see clean cars HONEST lol

Phil

I blame the 6 hour journey there Phil! I'm sure it was clean before we left
! HONEST :)
 
Do these count as shiny?

These look absolutely superb!
What did you use to get this sort of result?
I've also got a Dolphin Grey (2005) and would like mine to match this - was thinking of using AutoGlym Super Resin Polish then their HD Wax ....
Thanks
 
I've not polished my car since before the winter weather got so foul and it rained on me whilst I had wet wax on the car, but it's definitely due one soon.

My process will be:
Wash with Turtlewax car shampoo
Clay whilst wet
Autoglym Super Resin Polish
Autoglym Perfectionist Gloss (set for an hour)
Turtlewax Metallic Paint Wax
 
These look absolutely superb!
What did you use to get this sort of result?
I've also got a Dolphin Grey (2005) and would like mine to match this - was thinking of using AutoGlym Super Resin Polish then their HD Wax ....
Thanks

I used zymol titanium, I bought the titanium kit as I wanted a wax that was a bit harder.
The kit came with all you need for a deep clean and wax, to this I have added the clay bar.
The process i used is to wash, clay, wash, cleanse, wax (note wax is put on by hand, you use your hands to melt the wax and rub on the car).
I have now waxed our A2 8 times and still have some wax left.
It not the cheapest but you do get a very good finish if you put the time in, the first time it took a full weekend as it had never been done but now its just a full day for a complete treatment and only a couple of hours for a good wash and dry.

I have not gone as far as machine polishing but if you do it goes in the process after the claying and before the wash. Hope this helps
Lee
 
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