Thank-you, gentlemen, for your replies.
To answer your questions:
(1) I have not obtained a quote yet but am under the impression that to have Supagard and Fabricgard on a new vehicle can be as much as £140...not cheap but perhaps a good investment.
(2) H.J., I think you may have scored a hole-in-one! When the Super Resin Polish turned white I had great difficulty in polishing it off (bonnet only at this stage) and it looked a real mess. I believe you swear by this treatment so will have another trial and report back in due course.
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I washed my Fiesta the other day, then Super Resin polished it, and then coated it with Extra Gloss treatment, and I was using the Auto Glym Perfect Polishing Cloth.
In the past I've found that the Super Resin can be a swine to polish off if the car has a lot of ingrained dirt, or if it get's in the slightest bit damp. Other than that, I think the stuff is great! Shame it doesn't repel Citreon ZX's as well as it repels rainwater :(
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I swear by Autoglym Super Resin Polish, for both our cars, my motorbike, and our pushbikes.
I agree with the comment though that both the polishing rag, and atmospheric conditions, must be dry, to get best results.
If they are dry, then results are superb, and the amount of effort required to buff up to a good result is minimal.
Although my motorbike gets a polish after just about every (dry, of course!) ride, I last polished my Vectra GSi with Autoglym Super Resin Polish eighteen months ago, and have washed it every week since with 'Halfords Advanced' car wash.
It comes up like new every time, and in the rain, water still forms small beads that run straight off the car. Parked next to my brother's Vectra of the same age, which has never seen a bottle of polish, and which suffers the rigours of the local so called 'high tech' mechanical car wash once or twice a month, the difference is staggering: Water sits in big puddles on his car, with no beading at all.
/Steve
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I don't even know of a high-tech car wash, they all use old fashioned brushes that whizz round at high speed removing aerials, or anything else that gets in their way such as paint!
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H.J.---Outcome, as promised:
I tried again and used all three products mentioned by Blue Oval. As previously, the SRP needed a lot of effort to remove and I thought "Here we go again!"...I think the problem was not dampness but the build-up of traffic film...I had used my usual Simoniz shampoo first...surely Autoglym brand would not have made a huge difference?
However, I persevered and the finished result is BRILLIANT!
Thanks to all for encouragement received. All I need now is somewhere to enter a Concours D'elegance if there is such an event for seven year old vehicles!
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Hi there OAP.
I am also thinking about polishing/protecting my car. Would you be able to tell me the the name, brand and cost of the products you used?
Cheers
Ross
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OAP,
I've used Autoglym for the last three years and you're spot on with your comments about the SRP being difficult to polish off. Bodywork needs to be *scrupulously* clean prior to application (I generally have to wash my Pug twice with the Autoglym shampoo then chamois dry). Even then the SRP can be a b*gger to polish off. The slightest amount of damp also causes problems, as does the bodywork getting too warm in the sun or not turning your polishing cloth often enough. Thing that amazes me is how difficult it is to find the right day to do this task - Seems to me that dry yet cool overcast days don't come around that often on the south coast at least!
Having said that, if you persevere and use Extra Gloss Protection as well, the results are as you found - brilliant!
RM
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Ross - the products are all made by Auto Glym, and they are:
Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner (Basically a good quality wash soloution)
Super Resin polish (A very high quality polish that provides fairly long lasting protection)
Extra Gloss Protection (Put on immediately after a Super Resin Polish to protect it for months)
You can get them all from Halfords, but be warned, they're not cheap! Also, you're best using their own Perfect Polishing Cloths, I found these give a FAR better effect than one of my dad's old shirts! (and they don't damage the paint as much either)
OAP - Glad you got it working, it's a swine when you spend hours and the results are bad! The Auto Glym shampoo probably wouldn't make much difference, I just started using it after I extra Glossed the car in case the cheap stuff we normally used started to take my shiny Extra Gloss off the car. I figured that if any car wash stuff should preserve it, then Auto Glym's should.
I think RM's right, the Super Resin needs a REALLY clean car to be applied successfully, it works well and easily on my 2002 Fiesta, but trying to apply it to my dad's 96 BMW is a waste of time, it was not washed for so long that the paint would now need a several T-Cuts to restore it properly before SR polish would work well. I find when I wash that car that it looks cleanish, but the paint feels rough, and is covered in rubbish that doesn't wash off. I've also heard of a Clay Bar which is supposed to remove all rubbish from paintwork and leave it perfect for polishing, but I've never tried one...
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Does the Super Resin not have a mildly cutting effect? I have successfully removed surface marks/sratches with it.
Certainly worth trying ahead of the otherwise excellent cutting polish which is best used all over, if you need any, rather than on specific areas which risks "patches". The Fastglass cleaner is excellent too, no hassle , no smears. Much better than the blue stuff they used to do.
I can add to the endorsement of Auto G's products though - terrific.
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I think it does have a very mild cutting effect, but if the bodywork isn't very clean to begin with, then polishing it off is a nightmare. I can only speak from experience and I know that the SRP can be applied and polished off my Fiesta easily, as long as it's dry, but on my dad's car it won't polish off and it leaves little dirty marks all over. We thought the stuff had "gone off" at first! (we've had our bottle about 4 years) If it's possible that polish can do that, although we doubted that very much.
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BTW, you mentioned Fast Glass, does that really work on the inside of the windscreen as well? I've tried all sorts on there and always seem to end up with a film that looks smearey when the sun is low and shines through it, and it attracts dirt in the air from the blowers in no time. Is it as good as their polish?
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I haven't tried it on the inside of car windows - I don't seem to have a problem with dirt on that side so I leave well alone because of the problems you describe.
I have used it on glass table tops and on the clear plastic lid of my hi fi turntable - it's great on them, no smears or residue.
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