Congratulations to Shaun Townsley of Nottingham for winning our February show n shine. Shaun has done an amazing job bringing the paintwork on this Golf G60 back to life. VAG paint is often difficult to correct, as the clear coats are very hard, but Shaun's selection of products enabled him to cut through the defects with relative ease. He started out by giving the car a quick wash, before moving on to claying the bodywork. This took some considerable time, but he persisted, knowing that good preparation is the key to a great finish. At this point Shaun also decided to wet sand some deeper defects, safe in the knowledge the next polishing step would remove the haze. He then got out his Porter Cable 7424 dual action polisher, fitted a Sonus SFX yellow cutting pad and proceeded to compound the bodywork using Menzerna Intensive Polish. This polishing compound works wonders on tough VAG paint, and often leaves a finish good enough for the last step product. However, being a perfectionist, Shaun then went over the bodywork again, this time with Menzerna Final Polish II using a Sonus SFX white polishing pad, before finally applying two coats of Menzerna FMJ sealant by hand. The results speak for themselves; incredible depth, unbelievable clarity, and a superb shine that lets the metallic flake sing out in the sun. Shaun wins a Poorboy’s T-shirt and a selection of Poorboy’s products worth £20.

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Congratulations also to ScoobyNet member Rob Donohoe of Birmingham for coming a close second. Rob has done a cracking job of removing some pretty nasty paint defects on his Classic Impreza, again using Menzerna Intensive Polish. Once again we can see incredible depth, unbelievable clarity, and a superb shine that lets the fine metallic flake sing out in the sun. Rob wins a Poorboy’s cap and some samples of Clearkote Quikshine.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f293/polishedbliss/polishedbliss/feb06/show-feb11.jpg

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that is some finish on the Impreza especially the rear bumper/boot shot, its like glass. I take it you need a porter cable to help achieve this finish??

Yes, to get this type of finish by hand is damn near impossible (particularly when using polishing compounds). :)

Do you do a starter pack that has everything we need to polish our cars?

eg. clay, polish, pads etc?

No, we don't do a pack, because we believe the best results come from using different product combinations on different colours - a pack wouldn't achieve this. If customers want help putting a bespoke pack together, all they've got to do is post on the forum, send a pm, send an e-mail or phone - then we can put something together based on the colour they have and the look they want, as again, the paint can be made to look very different depending on what products you use. :)

Its all great having all the fancy polish and waxes to hand but the real downer on all this is the machine polisher and transformer.
It's not cheap buying these two

Can anybody enter this competition ?

Depends if you have a car cuz polishing your knob does not count.

:p

I just wondered as I was going to give the car a good spruce up this weekend and always ready for some freebies for my hard work

Rules for the comp are simple... firstly, you have to purchase some products from us and keep a note of the order number. Then, you have to use the products and take photos of the results. Finally, you have to submit at least four photos to the e-mail address given below, along with the original order number and a short summary outlining the products and techniques you used. At the end of every calendar month, we will judge that month's entries and post details of the winner on our site and the forums we sponsor. :)

entries@polishedbliss.co.uk

Its all great having all the fancy polish and waxes to hand but the real downer on all this is the machine polisher and transformer.
It's not cheap buying these two

Agreed, it's a bit of a killer. When I look through my kit and see what I've spent it makes me cringe. :eek:

When I was a student I used to buy spray paint from Jawel Paints http://www.jawel.co.uk/index.html and I remember seeing polishers hanging on there wall but never thought anything of it.

Have you tried other polishers?
http://www.jawel.co.uk/catalog/index.php?cPath=288_330
Seriously, they do look like angle grinders with a mop on the end

Ray, they are rotary polishers, designed for professional use in skilled hands. I hope to learn to use one over the next year or so, as they allow defects to be rectified much more quickly than when using a dual action polisher, such as the Porter Cable. The danger with rotaries is that it is easy to remove too much paint, easy to inflict hologram trails in the paint, and easy to burn the paint. For beginners, dual action is the only safe option, and even then you want a unit with a long throw action, in order to keep things cool and avoid too much friction. This is why the Porter Cable is so much better than normal random orbital sanders for example, as they typically have a short throw. In addition, no other dual action unit that I know of has such a great range of dedicated accessories for detailing - even the choice of counterweight is critical for safe car polishing, and there is a good choice for the Porter Cable. If there was a good alternative I'd say so, but I honestly don't think there is.