About Polished Bliss
21 February 2006, 03:12 PM
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About Polished Bliss
We are a family business operating out of the heart of Aberdeenshire in north-east Scotland. We have been into cars for many years, and enjoy attending club meets and track days. We currently run two cars - a heavily modified Seat Leon and a standard Citroen C2. Both are daily drivers that cover over 300 miles every week, but nevertheless we like to look after them. After purchasing a bodykit for the Leon last year, we decided to find out more about car care, in order to protect our investment. A good friend of our's pointed us in the direction of several US-based car care websites, and we were amazed by what we found - a vast selection of high quality products at very reasonable prices, along with excellent advice about how to get the best results from them. Within weeks we were hooked.
What then amazed us even more was that we were unable to find any similar websites based in the UK. We did find several selling a good range of the same products, but none offering the same level of high quality car care advice. Unsurprisingly, an idea was born, and the rest as they say is history. We have spent the last six months researching car care and detailing more cars than we care to remember. We have purchased and tested a large number of products in order to present you with what we believe is the finest selection of car care products available in the UK. We have also spent many hours trying out different detailing techniques and even more reading up on the views of professional detailers from around the world, in order to present you with a range of comprehensive guides outlining the best techniques for using our products. It is our experience that enables us to guarantee that our products and advice will enable you to achieve amazing car care results. Our aim is to enable you to experience the feeling of satisfaction and joy that can only be described as polished bliss.
Whilst we have strived to make the product descriptions and how to guides on our site as comprehensive as possible, we realise that car care is a broad subject and that we won't have covered everything in as much detail as some would like. Therefore, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch - we are here to help.
Rich and Angela
What then amazed us even more was that we were unable to find any similar websites based in the UK. We did find several selling a good range of the same products, but none offering the same level of high quality car care advice. Unsurprisingly, an idea was born, and the rest as they say is history. We have spent the last six months researching car care and detailing more cars than we care to remember. We have purchased and tested a large number of products in order to present you with what we believe is the finest selection of car care products available in the UK. We have also spent many hours trying out different detailing techniques and even more reading up on the views of professional detailers from around the world, in order to present you with a range of comprehensive guides outlining the best techniques for using our products. It is our experience that enables us to guarantee that our products and advice will enable you to achieve amazing car care results. Our aim is to enable you to experience the feeling of satisfaction and joy that can only be described as polished bliss.
Whilst we have strived to make the product descriptions and how to guides on our site as comprehensive as possible, we realise that car care is a broad subject and that we won't have covered everything in as much detail as some would like. Therefore, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch - we are here to help.
Rich and Angela
21 February 2006, 04:31 PM
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It's called a trader willing to put his hand in his pocket and support keeping this website alive.... while adding content at the same time and giving you guys a specific forum to discuss all things bufty! 
Welcome aboard Rich!
Regards,
Shaun.
Welcome aboard Rich!
Regards,
Shaun.
21 February 2006, 04:49 PM
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Thanks Shaun. One of the things we pride ourselves on is the free advice we offer. So, while we would love for you all to buy from us, and enable us to grow and bring even more new and exciting products to the UK, we are quite happy for folk to browse our site and learn from our guides, even if they don't buy. Car care is our passion as much as our business, it isn't all about the money. We get a great deal of satisfaction from simply helping folk out.
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21 February 2006, 04:53 PM
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Funnily enough, we do have a special offer on this month! Spend over £75 and get a free 32 oz bottle of Quikshine. Also, whenever anyone spends over £100 they get goodies to the tune of 10% of the order value thrown in free.
21 February 2006, 06:03 PM
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Originally Posted by JohnS
If you want a real challenge and some amazing before/after shots for your website, then I'm more than happy to let you loose on my car for a day (MY02 STi in WR Blue). I'm also very local (Kintore).
John
John
Thats very generous of you
.Good luck Polished Bliss
21 February 2006, 07:12 PM
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Originally Posted by JohnS
If you want a real challenge and some amazing before/after shots for your website, then I'm more than happy to let you loose on my car for a day (MY02 STi in WR Blue). I'm also very local (Kintore).
John
John
http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=494229
21 February 2006, 11:36 PM
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Grab a cuppa and have a read of the guide about polishing on my site - all the info you need to get started is in it...
How to polish your car safely by hand or machine
How to polish your car safely by hand or machine
21 February 2006, 11:42 PM
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My cuppa will be cold b4 I finish reading it. 
I had a QUICK read whilst I was at work today but stopped after 5 mins as I reckon I've become polish pro from reading all that
I'll have another read tomorrow at work
I had a QUICK read whilst I was at work today but stopped after 5 mins as I reckon I've become polish pro from reading all that
I'll have another read tomorrow at work
21 February 2006, 11:58 PM
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Lol, some of the guides are long, but I wanted to be comprehensive! Always happy to chat on here or on the phone if needs be - I know some folks hate reading reams and reams of text. Really can't go wrong with a dual action polisher like the PC - safe for novices, and produces a finish very hard to match working by hand.
22 February 2006, 08:52 AM
#21
My car did get a quick polish a few weeks ago, so isn't that bad, but it does have quite a few stone chips and suffers from being driven on dirty roads to/from work every day. There's also lots of swirl marks in the paint which need more time than I have available to remove using the products I've got in my garage, and my wheels have a build up of brake dust on them that will need some good products to clear. I used to use P21S wheel cleaner, as it was fantastic. Just spray on, leave for 30 minutes, agitate and rinse off.
Will see about getting some photos hosted online for you to have a laugh at!
John
Will see about getting some photos hosted online for you to have a laugh at!
John
+ 
= Polisher
22 February 2006, 01:00 PM
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Welcome to SNet. I will be taking a closer look at your web site when my stock of Meguiars runs out
Seriously I thought about getting one of those Porter Cable random orbit polishers a while back. Problem is you can't get them in the UK, the only way to buy one is to import from the States. You then need a transformer as the one from the U.S. is 110 Volts. All that hassle put me off!
Have you thought about importing them and selling in the U.K. with a transformer, with a small mark up for yourselves obviously!
Seriously I thought about getting one of those Porter Cable random orbit polishers a while back. Problem is you can't get them in the UK, the only way to buy one is to import from the States. You then need a transformer as the one from the U.S. is 110 Volts. All that hassle put me off!
Have you thought about importing them and selling in the U.K. with a transformer, with a small mark up for yourselves obviously!
22 February 2006, 01:08 PM
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Oh yes, but unforunately we can't do it as the PC7424 is not CE certified yet. A few companies are doing it but if trading standards get wind of it they'll be in it up to their necks. In the meantime, it's pretty hassle free if you buy from the company I use - www.autopia-carcare.com. They often have special offers on, and delivery is quick. Transformers can now be bought in B&Q, so not difficult there either. In fact the hardest bit is wiring the plug, and even that's easy! In my opinion they are well worth the money, even if you only use it a few times a year - they are great when you get back to your car at Tesco's and some burk has put a nice scratch in the door - saves a trip to the bodyshop.
22 February 2006, 01:10 PM
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See what I mean? You go to Tesco's, park away from the busy area of the car park, and pray someone doesn't kindly do the following to your car...
Ouch. This was a deep one, right through to the primer, and you could easily catch your nail in it. Respray job right? Not necessarily. Whilst it is true you cannot completely get rid of such a deep scratch by machine polishing, you can make it a lot better. Let's see what we can do with it. First thing is to break out the spot pad and prime it with a shot of detailing lube. This prevents dry buffing until the polish covers the pad. Spot pads are ideal for scratch removal as they spin faster, creating more heat and working the polish harder.
I'm using Poorboy's SSR2.5 on this one, which is a moderately aggressive polish. All we need to do is apply a cross on the pad and we're ready to go.
The first thing we need to do is spead the polish over the scratch by pressing the pad against the panel with the power off.
Then we turn the PC on at a low speed (number 2 on the dial) and run it for a couple of minutes to finish priming the pad. Then we can increase the speed to 5-6 on the dial and move backwards and forwards slowly over the scratch applying moderate pressure. With SSR2.5, you need to keep buffing until the polish residue goes clear, which normally takes 3-4 minutes.
Now we use a microfibre work towel to remove the residue, which is quite stiff. However, the short nap of the work towel cuts through it easily.
Now we need to reapply the protection to the panel, which in this case is usually protected by Menzerna Full Molecular Jacket. Wipe on with a foam pad, wipe off with a buffing towel.
Stand back and inspect. Not bad - if you look really carefully you can still just about see where it is. But to be honest, unless you knew it was there you'd never normally see it. Happy days.
Ouch. This was a deep one, right through to the primer, and you could easily catch your nail in it. Respray job right? Not necessarily. Whilst it is true you cannot completely get rid of such a deep scratch by machine polishing, you can make it a lot better. Let's see what we can do with it. First thing is to break out the spot pad and prime it with a shot of detailing lube. This prevents dry buffing until the polish covers the pad. Spot pads are ideal for scratch removal as they spin faster, creating more heat and working the polish harder.
I'm using Poorboy's SSR2.5 on this one, which is a moderately aggressive polish. All we need to do is apply a cross on the pad and we're ready to go.
The first thing we need to do is spead the polish over the scratch by pressing the pad against the panel with the power off.
Then we turn the PC on at a low speed (number 2 on the dial) and run it for a couple of minutes to finish priming the pad. Then we can increase the speed to 5-6 on the dial and move backwards and forwards slowly over the scratch applying moderate pressure. With SSR2.5, you need to keep buffing until the polish residue goes clear, which normally takes 3-4 minutes.
Now we use a microfibre work towel to remove the residue, which is quite stiff. However, the short nap of the work towel cuts through it easily.
Now we need to reapply the protection to the panel, which in this case is usually protected by Menzerna Full Molecular Jacket. Wipe on with a foam pad, wipe off with a buffing towel.
Stand back and inspect. Not bad - if you look really carefully you can still just about see where it is. But to be honest, unless you knew it was there you'd never normally see it. Happy days.
22 February 2006, 02:21 PM
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What an excellent forum for those of us who take a pride in "keeping up appearances" 
I thought I was a bit pedantic when it came to cleaning, but you sir outshine (pun intended ) me in every way 
Mine is usually like this................
But sometimes gets like this..................
I thought I was a bit pedantic when it came to cleaning, but you sir outshine (pun intended ) me in every way Mine is usually like this................
But sometimes gets like this..................
22 February 2006, 04:02 PM
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That top pic was taken after a plain old wash - no polishing, no waxing. I use Meguiars products - either Gold Class or NXT wash, then every few washes I give it a quick going over with the NXT spray polish and every few months I give it a good going over with the good stuff (can't remember the name off the top of my head!).
Got a few stonechips and a fair amount of "gravel rash" on the front end now tho so I will have to attend to that in the near future. What product would you suggest using for this?
Got a few stonechips and a fair amount of "gravel rash" on the front end now tho so I will have to attend to that in the near future. What product would you suggest using for this?
22 February 2006, 04:58 PM
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Not much can be done about stone chips, other than a respray (or touch up job if you know what you are doing - you'll need to wet sand and machine polish, but it's not that easy to do a good job). Scratches can be removed by machine polishing using a spot pad and a compounding polish, but to do this by hand is nigh on impossible.
23 February 2006, 09:06 AM
#30
Can you read the number plate ?
If you look at the ground, you can see all the dirt on the driveway that's already been washed off by the rain!
Very clean wheels!
I don't mind washing & polishing the car, but it's finding decent products that do a good job (ie remove swirl marks), are easy and quick to use by hand (ie doesn't take the whole day to do one panel!), and are good value for money that's my issue. I've tried lots of products over the years, but will admit to using the whole bottle/jar before trying the next one
If you think you have products that can tackle the above (it's not looking quite as bad as that at the moment!), then I'll have to get in touch!
John
If you look at the ground, you can see all the dirt on the driveway that's already been washed off by the rain!
Very clean wheels!
I don't mind washing & polishing the car, but it's finding decent products that do a good job (ie remove swirl marks), are easy and quick to use by hand (ie doesn't take the whole day to do one panel!), and are good value for money that's my issue. I've tried lots of products over the years, but will admit to using the whole bottle/jar before trying the next one
If you think you have products that can tackle the above (it's not looking quite as bad as that at the moment!), then I'll have to get in touch!
John