Dodo Juice Lime Prime

Fresh from the Dodo!

Costs S$37 for 250ml, not exactly cheap.

So on with the test, the boot after being washed.







The condition of the panel,





A small blob of product,













To check he cleaning ability of Lime Prime, I polished the panel again by hand with Autoglym Super Resin Polish. If dirt shows up, then the Lime Prime didn't fully clean the paint.





No dirt shown, looking good for Lime Prime so far.

So I proceeded with cleansing the whole boot panel with Lime Prime.



And the results, it did not leave it's own marring and created a smooth finish.





I'm loving this product now!

Then I used it on the bonnet and cleansed one half. It was quite difficult because the paint was very dirty and it kept grabbing the foam applicator pad, despite that, it is still quite workable. After finishing half of the bonnet with Lime Prime, I noticed it was streaking quite heavily, so I may have used too much.

But if I didn't then there is not enough to clean the paint.

On the other half of the bonnet, I used Autoglym Super Resin Polish and it was easier. When buffed off it didn't streak. The finish does not feel as smooth as Lime Prime though.

I applied Meguiar's #16 Professional Paste Wax on both sides.

Fast forward 2 weeks with many days of heavy rain in between, the car is washed and the water behaviour kind of surprised me.









The side with AG SRP+M16 sheeted of water faster than LP + M16, which was flat the whole time.

Firstly, I bought Lime Prime with the reason that wax will last better when it bonds directly to the paint, which is what Lime Prime does, cleans and glazes, but does not leave it's own protection, so M16 woul bond directly to the paint.

Autoglym Super Resin Polish however, leaves it's own protection and may interfere with the wax bonding to the paint.

But from the pictures, AG SRP + M16 seems to be the better side.

My personal opinion is, Lime Prime is great for cleaned and prepped surfaces, it will glaze and leave a fantastic finish, and cleaning off any polishing oils that might still be on the paint after a machine polishing process.

For very dirty paint, Lime Prime may not be that suitable as it will be more difficult to work with and more amount of product is needed.

Lime Prime has not won me over, the search continues for a paint cleaner worked by hand.
For now Autoglym Super Resin Polish remains as my favourite, it is easier to work with, and provides an ideal base for wax. Just don't get it on black trims!

Thanks for looking!

Anyone who has used Lime Prime please feel free to comment, I would like to know what I did wrong.

Read more!

Bodyshop nightmare

This car belongs to a friend of mine, and came to seek my assistance for some scratches on his Bonnet. He says it has been resprayed 3 times due to bubbling and runs. HE said the bodyshop polished it, but the scratches also cannot come out.

So I asked him to bring it to me to see what can be done.

Here it is after wiping the bonnet down with Meguiar's Last Touch spray detailer.









Initially I thought this would be a piece of cake, just give it a couple of passes of Meguiar's #83 Dual-Action Cleaner/Polish and I'll be done in no time.

But nooo.... the paint was hard and the defects didn't come off easy at all, I limit myself to 4 passes of Meguiar's #85 Diamond Cut Compound 2.0 with a wool pad. Mostly did 3 passes, and yet quite alot of defects remained there and didn't really satisfy me as it wasn't perfect.

The scratches also seem to follow a certain direction, my friend suspects it is sanding marks and I think so too as it had bubbles before this and he sent the car back to the bodyshop to rectify the problem. Unfortunately, they didn't manage to remove their sanding marks?

(just an assumption)

So after the compounding step, I finished off with Menzerna 106FF and a W-9006 finishing pad. Sealed with Meguiar #21 Synthetic Sealant followed by FK1 Pink Wax.

Here is the owner buffing off the wax.


And the afters, about 70% of the scratches were removed.








And an unknown defect.



p.s The cost for respraying the bonnet was RM150 Read more!

Honda Odyssey metallic red

This MPV belongs to my uncle and was polished with M80 via ROB about a year back, it was the first car that doesn’t belong to me that I ever detailed. I've learned abit more about detailing since then. So it’s back again for me to do a proper job on it. It is a daily driver so there are a few scuffs here and there.

The car arrived looking dirty, the wheel wells were also dirty.











Firstly, the wheel wells, wheel and tire were washed. Meguiar’s Super Degreaser(4:1) is sprayed through a foaming sprayer head, agitated and then pressure washed. This was done a few times to properly get a decently clean wheel well. Tires received the same treatment



The face of the wheel is cleaned with Meguiar’s All Purpose Cleaner (4:1) agitated with a cut-off paint brush.





After the wheels were done, the car is pre-soaked with 2 ounces of Meguiar’s Hyper Wash mixed with water, left for a while and pressure washed off. In the process I accidentally placed my hand in front of the nozzle while it was on, resulting in a shallow cut on my index finger. You can see two straight lines in the bottom right picture.



The car is then clayed with Perma Glass No.2 Clay using diluted Meguiar’s Shampoo Plus as lube.

The clay after half of the hood



The clay after the lower panel of the door



The lower panels of the car had a fair amount of tar and wasn’t completely removed by the clay. So the affected areas were sprayed with Ambersil’s Tar Spot Remover, left for a few minutes and wiped off with a dry cloth.



The whole car is re-washed and dryed with Meguiar’s Last Touch and Meguiar’s Water Magnet. A test spot was done on the driver’s side front door.



The first step used was Meguiar’s #82 Swirl Free Polish + W-8006 Polishing Pad at 600rpms. This was followed by M82/White Detailogy pad/ROB Speed 5 to remove any potential holograms or buffer marks. Left side is unpolished and right side is polished and then wiped down with Isopropyl Alcohol(1:1) to remove any oils/fillers.



And the whole panel polished



Before:



After :



Before:



After :



Fender before :



Fender after :




Hood before:




Hood after:



The hood also had an unknown substance bonded to it, it was whitish in colour and wasn’t removed with the tar remover, so that area was wet-sanded with 1500 grit paper.





This is followed by two passes of Meguiar’s #83 Dual-Action Cleaner/Polish to remove the sanding marks and followed by M82 Swirl Free Polish.



The front lip above the radiator grill had the same problem, same process was done.



There was a spot with deep scratches on the hood, after the first pass of M83 DACP,



Second pass,



Third pass,



I stopped at this stage as I didn’t want to buff too much near the edge of the panel and left the defect as that.

There was a spot on the rear bumper where it was scraped. The damaged couldn’t be repaired as it has scraped all the way through the plastic. Around the scrape however were some light scuff marks.

I taped up the scrape and polished around that area using M83 DACP/ Orange detailogy pad/ROB speed 5. Took about 4 passes to remove the scuffs.



After :



Intricate areas were polished using Optimum’s Poli-Seal by hand.



The car is then rinsed with the pressure washer to remove any polishing dust. Dried and applied FK1’s Pink Wax by hand.






While the wax was left to dry, I cleaned the interior by shampooing the mats, and scrubbed all plastic, leather and vinyl with Meguiar’s All Purpose Cleaner(10:1) and a Meguiar’s Triple Duty Brush.

Leather seats were very dirty.



Scrubbing…



A dirty pail of water after cleaning the whole interior.



Interior afters:










Seats were conditioned with Meguiar’s Leather Cleaner/Conditioner.



Glass cleaned with Meguiar’s Glass Cleaner Concentrate(10:1)



And finally tires dressed with Meguiar’s Hot Shine. Plastic and rubber dressed with Meguiar’s #40 Vinyl/Rubber Cleaner & Conditioner.





And out of the house to take some pictures! =D















As always, many thanks for looking! Feel free to ask if there are any questions, or criticize if there are any doubts, most welcomed. Thank you =) Read more!