Simple Tips for keeping your car looking great.

I began Final Touching paintwork on cars in 1993 so that has given me plenty of time to notice a few things about cars and their owners that perhaps I can pass on.

Tyre Dressing provides an instant image lift. Nice shiny black tyres can make all the difference to the look of a car and I’m pretty sure that is why service departments make a point of dressing our tyres. Let’s face it you can’t see your oil change but your car looks like it’s been serviced because it has shiny tyres. It’s instant and it’s effective.

Interior detailing is something you want to keep up on. A simple vacuum and a wipe down every few weeks sounds simple but you might be amazed at how few people do it, particularly busy people with children. We’ve come across all sorts of rotten and mouldy things in car interiors that destroy carpets and smell really bad, once that smell gets into your car it is very difficult to remove.

Wax, Wax, Wax... Wax provides a sacrificial layer that enhances and protects your paint; acting as a sunscreen in summer and a waterproofing layer in winter. A healthy layer of wax will help prevent dust and grit from scratching and dulling your paintwork. No matter what car you drive, it will benefit from regular waxing.


Presenting a car nicely doesn’t need to be difficult or an expensive exercise. There are plenty of ways to present a car that has been around the block a few times without it costing too much, A good Cut & Polish will remove most scratches and restore a great shine; stonechips and scratches can be effectively repaired for surprisingly little and scuffed bumper corners or shopping trolley dents can often be repaired without the need of major bodyshop repairs. It is well worth spending a little here and there along the way to keep your car looking great to avoid the shock of how much a poor finish can devalue your car later on.

Well presented cars are easier to sell and they demand higher prices. We call it the ‘Magpie effect’ because people like shiny things but there’s more to it than that. A tidy well presented vehicle without scratches and dents that has a clean tidy interior shows that there has been pride in the ownership. The owner has looked after it and we naturally assume that they have been careful about maintenance as well. First impressions really count when it comes to anything to do with cars.

Full re-sprays almost always make people think ‘Accident’ I hate to say it because it is no reflection on the many very good car painters out there but unfortunately its true. There’s something not quite right about looking at a car with 80,000Km on the clock and the whole front end is perfect. Next minute you find yourself under the hood looking for bent bits and things that don’t line up properly. There’s honesty in an all original car that is presented nicely.

“You missed a spot” If I had a dollar for every time someone jokingly told me I’ve missed a spot over the years... It never gets old so we work hard to ensure we get things right. A poorly detailed car is almost worse than a car in its raw un-kept state and people assume just from looking at it that the owner doesn’t really know what they’re up to.

Looking after your vehicle and its appearance doesn’t need to be difficult and the team at Final Touch are always happy to help out with any questions you might have. If we can’t help out ourselves we’ll happily point you in the right direction for great products or results.

Car of the Month.



Ford Focus Rs in Ultimate Green

Well... I was going to tell a story about my Ken Block experience in this car and how this little car is ridiculously fast and how it corners and handles like a dream. I was going to mention that it hits the rev limiter so quickly that .... But it wouldn’t quite have been a true story and it would have made us seem irresponsible so I’ll just say that when I look at this car I imagine driving like Ken Block, hitting the rev limiter and winding through twisting corners. How does that sound?
The Lady who owns this is a Ford Fanatic and she’s very fussy about how her wee baby looks. Finished in ‘Ultimate Green’this little beast wasn’t the easiest colour to repair stonechips on but with time and effort we managed to get a great result and with a good polish and our premium protective paint coating applied its ready to rally.  She's also enhanced the look with Lamin-X tinted headlight and taillight protective films so that the enevitable flying gravel won't cause any damage.

Car Care Tip of the month

Wax provides a sacrificial layer between your paint surface and the elements, so it should be a vital part of your car care process. Regular waxing of your car will help ensure a longer lasting and better looking paint finish and doesn’t need to be a backbreaking task. Modern waxes are designed to wipe on and off easily while still providing excellent protection and there are 3 key things to remember to ensure that they do just that:
1) Remember to apply a thin coat and spread it evenly. There is no benefit from piling on a thick coat that will take longer to dry and add no extra protection once wiped. A second coat a few days later will provide extra protection if that is you are looking for.

2) Keep the wax off areas that you don’t want to wax. Some people like to wax headlights, wheels etc... but avoiding black trim or plastics prevents that ugly white staining that is so difficult to clean later.

3) Ensure that it is properly dry before wiping, this will ensure a nice streak free finish and it will be a lot easier to wipe back. If you swipe your finger across your wax and it wipes off the paint cleanly then it is dry enough to remove.

Follow Final Touch on Facebook
Like us at www.facebook.com/FinalTouchCarCare to see what our team is doing and to take advantage of some facebook only special deals and competitions. We’d love to hear about your passion for cars and car care.

Speedshow.
Final Touch will be at Speedshow, 21-22 July at ASB Showgrounds again this year. We’ve been offered some incredible cars already to be detailed on the stand over the weekend but it’s not too late to put your car in the running. If you have a special car that would be ideal for display at Speedshow and would be happy to show it off for a weekend please don’t hesitate to let us know about it. Just quietly – If you’ve got a McLaren F1 that you’d like to offer us we’d be falling over with excitement and we’d get it looking awesome for you.

Car Care Special Deal
Meguiar's Ultimate Paste Wax – This is my personal favourite wax of all time and we know car enthusiasts love it too. It leaves gives a silky smooth finish with incredible shine, it is very durable and it repels water like you wouldn’t believe, everything you look for in a wax. Supplied with its own applicator pad and microfiber towel for your convenience I believe this is the best Wax on the market in NZ today and we have it available for $65.00 Inc GST at http://www.finaltouch.co.nz/

Recommended Services
We'd like to recommend some other companies that do great work: Nick and his team at WheelFixit do an excellent job of repairing and re-colouring alloy wheels. From minor kerb damage to more serious repairs these guys are experts. 021 624662 or www.wheelfixit.co.nz



Meguiar's Ultimate Wash & Wax Anywhere Test.

When your 9 year old cheekily writes "Clean Me Please" in the dirt on the back of the family wagon you know it's time to clean things up.

What better than to use the opportunity to test the NEW Meguiar's Ultimate Wash & Wax Anywhere car wash that I've had sitting for a week or so just begging for me to have a play and see how it goes.

Mike from Meguiars USA demonstrates it's use in the video below and he explains the product and how best to use it better than I can so I'll let you watch him for a few minutes and then I'll get on with my experience.

Unfortunately the test subject is a silver Ford Territory and because of it's colour it doesn't show the dirt as well in photo's as we'd like but it was actually pretty dirty without being so grimy that it would need to be given a thorough 2 bucket wash.  I thought it really was an ideal candidate for this sort of car care product.

 

I equipped myself with a couple of new microfibre towels to get a good idea of just how much cleaning was actually going on and in particular how much dirt residue was left behind during the buffing/drying wipe over with the second towel and I set to work.



With a fairly generous spray across sections of the front end, particulary at the front of the bonnet and on the bumper where there were quite a few bug splatters and other various 'more dirty' bits I quickly realised that the product makes quick work of the grime and that it does seem to loosen and emulsify the dirt in such a way that it softens it and allows it to absorb into the microfibre rather than get pushed along by the leading edge of the wipe cloth. This is something I'd been worried about because the last thing we need with a product like this is to create scratches that we have to remove later because we're pushing grimy particles around the paintwork..

As you can see after wiping the front end of the car ther's a lot of dirt absorbed into the cloth already.  At this point, different parts of the cloth were still quite clean and dry so I was able to work with just the one towel initially.  Wiping with one 1/4 then turning over and inside out to buff/dry.

A couple of 1/2 and 1/2 shots show the difference that it makes and the nice fresh waxed look that it leaves.

I was making what I felt was quite good time around the vehicle; Normally I'd have started at the top (least dirty area) and worked my way down the windows etc... before going around the vehicle  but this time I was so eager to see some results that"d jumped right into the front. 

I was quite impressed on the plastics,  the product seemed to penetrate deep enough to do quite a good job of cleaning the textured areas that often trap dust residues, particulary if you are used to using a detailer spray for quick wipe overs and the dry result seemed to leave a (slightly) enriched darker look to the plastics as well.   I don't want to exaggerate the look on the plastics but I did think that this would be an area where I would have been able to clearly see if it was going to let me down as a proper cleaner.

As you can see by the time I got around to the back of the car my cloth was starting to get pretty dirty, the inside folds weren't to bad though and the cloth was actually quite wet by now so I was finding that I was needing to spray less product on the panel but still getting a nice clean with plenty of lubricity during the wiping process.

It's worth noting that the instructions clearly state that it is not for use on Matte or Satin Finishes but I succummed to temptation and used it on the matte Black stripes anyway and there seemed to be no problem.  It certainly didn't damage them and it cleaned them nicely but I wouldn't recommend taking my experience and using it as the basis for cleaning down your factory Matte finished BMW M3 or anything like that with the product just in case.

Getting to the end of the clean and the cloth's are both quite dirty, I was actually surprised at how long I felt I was able to use the primary cloth before it got to a point that it felt too dirty to use and I actually managed to get the inital pass over most of the car with it while the 2nd towel was mostly used for buffing and drying the panels.  You can see from the photo that most of the dirt actually does get absorbed and that there's not a lot left on the panel to be picked up by the 2nd towel which I think really says somethng about the way that Meguiar's has developed the product.

I don't think it used a rediculous ammount of product either, the bottle says that it should do 3-4 cars, I was quite generous with the amount I sprayed on the car - partly because the guys at work say I'm scottish and I wanted to prove them wrong but also to try and guage the best ammount to use without wasting it.  The Territory is quite a big vehicle and I'm sure I could easily get 4 cleans such as this out of a bottle.  Smaller cars would be looking at more like 5-6 cleans from a bottle I reckon.

The end result was very good, I'd have to say that I feel it provided good really clean, probably better than I'd expected as it was quite effective around bugs and things that are always quite stubborn and that it did so in a great timeframe.  When you add in the fact that the car is left dry and with a finish that actually does have some of that 'fresh waxed' feel to it it's an added bonus particularly if you consider that this wash (including stopping to shoot a few photo's) took about 50 minutes from start to finish and that's including cleaning inside door jambs + dressing tyres and mudflaps.  Thats not too bad considering that to wash, dry, quick wax and then dress rubbers would normally take me an hour and a 1/2 or so to do to the same finish.

At about $37 dollars for a trigger bottle, I'd say that Meguiars Ultimate Wash & Wax Anywhere is a great product, it achieves a great result with a minimum of fuss or mess and I believe it would be an ideal product for someone with limited time or limited access to regular washing facilities and perhaps it's the perfect product for use when you've just rocked up to your club event but it rained enroute and you'd love to be able to give it a quick wash again before people see the dirt. Assuming that there's 4 washes to a bottle you get a much better result for your $9 that you ever will through a car wash.

Meguiars Ultimate Wash & Wax Anywhere has only just arrived in NZ, it's so new that it's only just starting to hit the shelves so if you would like to get your hands on some please let me know by flicking us an email to team@finaltouch.co.nz and we'll get some on it's way to you.  We'll get it up in the online store at http://www.finaltouch.co.nz/ ASAP for you as well.



Detailing tips for retaining your cars value.

Searching the internet as car nuts do, I came across this little article on one of the better car detailing websites (Autopia.org). It's written with Americans in mind but if one was to substitute Las Vegas for Roto-Vegas it could apply just as easily to Kiwi's.


By: Sarah G

Depressed about the down economy and even more your car’s depreciating value every day?
Yes each car has it’s own reasons for depreciating. Let’s briefly discuss, what is depreciation? When you buy a new car and drive off of the dealer’s lot your car loses it’s value which is more than what a car loses throughout the year which is anywhere from 15 percent to 20% of its value.
With the exception of vintage, rare, and collectible cars, it is important to mention what factors that affect car depreciation. The model, brand, condition of the car including scratches, dents, dings, maintenance, production quantity, mileage, and many other factors are what can impact a car’s value. The more something is used, looks worn, or old it’s bound to have a lower value and is less desirable.
Take two cars- same model, same year. Car A has a lot of scratches, water spots, swirl marks, carpet stains, leather marks. Car B, on the other hand, looks like a brand new car, newly detailed, clean carpets, no water spots, scratches, velvety soft leather. Car B definitely looks better and would be worth more.

Here’s what you can do to retain the value of your car.
1. Keep a routine maintenance schedule of your car. Most cars come with a schedule where the oil needs to be changed, tires need to be rotated, and the transmission needs servicing. If you have excessive wear and carry on driving without any maintenance you might blow your transmission or break your engine, which are costly to fix.
2. Regularly clean the inside of your car. Keep your carpets clean from any scuffmarks, dirt from extreme weather conditions, or other spills using a carpet spot remover. Maintain leather and vinyl by cleaning it and using a leather and vinyl protectant, it is important to pay attention to this in locations that have higher heat. As upholstery is like a sponge, absorbing anything that comes near it, you must pay extra attention to keep it clean and free of any odor and spills. Try not to smoke in your car as this will cause for a much lower resale value since it is a tough smell to get rid of. But if you do consider using an odor eliminator and improve the scent with an air freshener. Also, avoid eating and drinking in your car to avoid spilling on to the surfaces which may very likely cause stains; in addition, it’s not safe to do anything when driving, other than driving,
3. Wax and detail the outside of your car. Most all cars get scratched and attract foreign particles through regular use, it’s inevitable. Every time you open your doors and your fingernails come in contact with the paint, put a grocery bag on top of the trunk to find your keys, lean onto your car, and driving on the road through dust, dirt or other road fallout your car’s paint job will scratch and absorb any small particles especially during warmer weather, since the paint softens, the dirt sticks, and when the temperature gets cooler it will re-harden with these particles.
All cars can rust if you do not wax, detail, and wash your car regularly. How can a car rust, you ask? Living near the ocean causes a lot of salt to be immersed in the air, which will eat away the exterior paint, causing corrosion and chipping. Each time a car breaks, the break pads cause metal shavings that fall on to the road, and when you drive through the road and the weather is hot it will stick and harden with the paint later. As time goes on this is why some people wonder, “Why is my white car are yellow?” This is due to the metal particles from the road have rusted on the paint’s surface. Therefore, remember to wash and wax your car regularly to protect the appearance of your car, remove scratches, and swirl marks. Always remember to use a car sealant to protect the paint to prolong your efforts, otherwise your efforts will go to waste.
4. Protect your car in an enclosed area or away from the sun. This will prevent your car’s paint and interior panels from fading, which significantly diminishes the look and value of the car.
5. Add even more value to your car by adding accessories and features. While it costs more to install navigation, a DVD player, high-end stereo system, rims, or custom paint job it will ultimately increase the resale value of your vehicle as your car will be unique and have a cutting edge in the market.
6. Minimize excessive and unnecessary use of your car. A car with lower mileage will have less wear and tear; therefore, drive it as little as possible, if the weekend calls for a spontaneous trip to Las Vegas, consider renting a car. Why? Less miles equals higher value.

Maintaining the value of your car is not easy, it takes time, but you will reap the benefits in the long time. Just a simple wash, wax and detailing can maintain your car’s value. And remember our other tips to enhance a car’s value.

To link to the original article http://www.autopia.org/forum/content/122-detailing-tips-retain-your-car-s-value.html

Mothers Wax Attack Polisher Test.

Recently I had an opportunity to get my hands on the 'Mothers Wax Attack' orbital polisher. I'd seen it in action a few times at car shows and was really quite keen to see just how useful it might be or whether it was, as I'd heard many indicate just a fancy (and possibly gimmicky) wax applicator.

The Mothers Wax Attack Kit

I was hoping to be objective and I really wanted to approach a test with an open mind. The Wax Attack was never designed to be a tool that is used everyday in a detailing situation or to be used as a serious paint correction tool so I didn't want my experiences with more commercially orientated tools to let me prejudge it.

I must be honest; the thought of using 'Mothers' products of any description felt a bit naughty, almost like an extramarital affair, considering the long term monogamous love of Meguiar's products that I've had. I reconciled it with myself with the realization that it's a product developed by the Kiwi Mothers team and it doesn't actually have a Mothers sticker on it Haha! so no cheating after all. (not that there's anything wrong with Mothers waxes and polishes of course it's just that well... )

I was also hoping to be able to determine whether it was a machine that I could recommend to my customers when they quiz me about ongoing Car Care. Many of my customers are real enthusiasts and once their cars have been given a Final Touch treatment they are keen to spend the odd weekend polishing, detailing and generally enjoying their vehicles to keep them in top condition.

The Wax Attack is designed for a home enthusiast, it's priced accordingly and it comes supplied ex Mothers in a kit format with some polishes and some nice soft pads that are very clearly designed for wax application only - so it's marketed as a wax applicator with things like speed, comfort, even application, ease of use etc... as selling points. All great aspects when it comes to applying/removing wax but the people I'd be recommending it to (if it ever came to that) would be wanting to do more than just wax their car with it. They'd want to know if they could polish out minor wash marring, micro scratches etc... so it was time to put it to the test...

First an appropriate vehicle had to be selected. We found a 3 year old Ford Territory with dark bronze coloured metallic paint that was just about to go back on a lease return. it had been well looked after but it had it's fair share of carwash scratches and micro-marring with a generally dull appearance without too many deep scratches. We felt that it was a pretty good example of a typical Kiwi everyday car.

Cobb-web effect and carwash scratches are quite evident under lights

The standard Mothers pads were never going to be firm enough to do anything other than gently caress the paintwork so we put them to one side for later when wax would be called for and opted for something with a bit more bite. We tested a 2 pad combo with a Meguiar’s 6" 7000 red cutting pad followed by a 6000 yellow polishing pad - both closer density pads than the Mothers pads and both readily available. Meguiar’s ScratchX was chosen as a scratch removal compound; I was tempted to try a heavier commercial product but thought that most consumers wouldn’t have access to it. ScratchX seems to be the ‘go to’ product for minor paint rectification for lots of Kiwi car enthusiasts.

We ran some masking tape down the centre of the bonnet and began the test, The Wax Attack is very easy to use, comfortable in your hand and easy to manage and powerful enough that you know it is working for you yet not so grunty that you feel that there is any danger of it causing damage. The orbital action is gentle enough that you could possibly polish all day without over polishing (not that I would recommend that of course). After a few passes with the polisher using the ScratchX and the red correcting pad we were keen to see some results. After peeling back the tape we were pleasantly surprised. There was already a distinct difference in the gloss and depth of colour and many of the small scratches had been removed.

Already you can see a distinct lift in colour depth

Quite a noticeable difference under lights

Getting back into it we worked the ScratchX thoroughly with both the cutting pad to give extra correction and the polishing pad to ensure we left a nice smooth even finish and we were quite pleased with the results. Not everything was removed but i would have been very surprised if it had. Meguiar's does have a product called Ultimate Compound that is more aggressive than ScratchX without being too intense and I couldn't help but wonder if it would have made an even greater difference to the scratches.

With a little time and effort we achieved a great result, with a significant lift in paint finish.

Considering the extent of the scratching the correction was quite remarkable.
I was a bit concerned that ScratchX might have just filled the scratches so I gave the panel (both sides) a good solvent wash with Wax & Grease Remover to remove any polish residues and the correction remained which was reassuring as the last thing we wanted was a temporary fix.

All in all excellent results without expecting total perfection. Most of the scratches worked out and we didn’t do anything that any enthusiast could do. Finally we used the gentle Mothers Pad to apply a nice coat of wax for the final step.

A great, result with a nice deep shine and very few remaining scratches.

While the last thing I want to do is cut myself out of business with regards to ongoing polishing I’ll definitely be recommending the Wax Attack to customers who want to spend the time maintaining their own paintwork. I wouldn't want to overwork it and wear it out too quickly as it was never designed for heavy duty correction but it has proven itself quite capable of performing minor correction

We'll have the Wax attack at Speedshow later this month so please ask us about it, we'll even give you a go and Mothers have indicated that they are happy to supply them as a machine only so we can build our own paint care kit around the Wax Attack to ensure that you get a safe easy to use polisher that will fulfill your needs without the cost of a full commercially capable tool.

With that in mind I think it's time to try the Mothers Powerball and Powercone for polishing 'difficult to get to' areas. Maybe I'll be impressed again?

Careful Car Washing. - The 2 Bucket Method.

After a trip recently along some very wet and muddy metal roads my work ute was left in a state showing more mud than paintwork. It was always going to be a bit of a mission to clean up again but it got me thinking about the best techniques for washing cars without causing extra damage to the paintwork.
A lot of the swirls and scratches that you see in paintwork are actually caused when the cars are being washed. They severely dull the paint finish and can take quite an effort to properly correct.

With this in mind we'd like to help our car loving customers with their ongoing paint protection by providing a quick run down of the very popular 2 Bucket method.

Basically it's one shampoo bucket and one rinse bucket, the rinse bucket allows your wash mitt (or car wash brush) to release all the grit and grime before picking up the next load of shampoo - Greatly reducing the risk of adding swirls and helping ensure a longer lasting protective shine.
I'll let one of the experts explain it in more detail below and see if I can source a few of the 'Grit-Guards' that he shows us.

Aston Martin

We had a call this week from one of our very good customers and they'd taken delivery of a brand spanking new vehicle that had arrived from the factory in quite a state. We're at a bit of a loss as to why such a premium vehicle might have such swirls and dull patches in the paint; we suspect it is to do with curing periods of new waterborne paint systems but we've really got no idea. We're just excited that we are the team that gets called to enhance the finish.

The swirls are quite dramatic, but not too serious, a high quality polish from a team that knows just what they're doing can bring things back to the way they should be.

I love the way this paint looks when it's properly polished. The black is so deep that you could drown it it and the metallic flakes seem suspended in space between the clear coat and the black beneath. By far my favorite colour.The finished vehicle, all ready for the showroom. Cars don't get much cooler than this.

Custom Painted Javelin

Recently we were asked to do a custom paintjob on a Javelin to be used for this years athletic season and hopefully to qualify for the upcoming Comonwealth games. It was a pretty fun project and we're pretty sure it will look the part flying through the air as it goes for gold.
We tried to hold it in keeping with Kiwi colours and emblems, there's some little silver ferns ghosted underneath the black towards the front that become visable in direct sunlight. I was pretty happy with the effect as it was the first time I'd attempted it.
This sot of thing's a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to developing some real skills in the future.


It came to us primed and basicaly ready to spray.

The spiral will hopefully help it climb a little higher as it spins.

The silver fern's NZ represent. Under the black are some more ferns that fade out further down the shaft.

New Final Touch Operator for Wellington.

2009 will not be remembered by many as the year that they launched into a new venture but We're stoked to be able to introduce a guy that is doing just that-
Mr Craig Dias has joined the team and will be developing and running the Final Touch operation in the Wellington region. Wellington has been needing a quality Final Touch operator for years and although Craig is quite new to the industry we are sure that his desire for quality and his attention to detail will ensure that he builds a very successful operation in the capitol city.
Craig can be contacted on 0212724430 or by email craig@finaltouch.co.nz We'd recommend getting in touch with him early so you can become one of his 'original' customers.

Wicked Ferrari F40

Sometimes we work on truly unique and rare vehicles; this one here is a particularly rare one and we were privileged to have the opportunity to work on such a vehicle today.

There's not much more to say about it really except perhaps that there has to be a certain irony with having two cars parked side by side in a garage, One an F40 Ferrari and the other... well you can see it in the photo down below :)

LHD rules

I heard a rumor recently that there are some possible/probable regulation changes in the review process for LHD importing, particularly with respect with the 90 day ownership rules.
It's exciting, and makes something like a Dodge Charger Super Bee a possibility for the family sedan sometime in the future, without the possibility of the change it would just be a pipe dream.

To find out more check the NZ mustang link - http://http//www.nzmustang.com/Thisthat/LHD-RHD-A.htm and keep those fingers crossed.

Perhaps a F150 Lightning is a possibility for a new work ute after all haha.

Now I cant condone this sort of driving outside of controlled conditions (TV driving as Mr Hammond puts it) but I can't wait till I see more of these sort of vehicles on Kiwi roads at realistic values