m-ifw

Malaysia International Fashion Week

This show was held at KL Convention Center from 23rd Nov to 26th Nov 2006. There was a silver Mercedes Benz CLS350 being displayed over there. Condition isn't great with minor dents on the door plus hazy windscreen. A typical "show car" standard.


f=20mm, f/5.6, 1/30s, ISO800


f=24mm, f/5.6, 1/25s, ISO800


f=24mm, f/5.6, 1/15s, ISO800


f=24mm, f/5.6, 1/15s, ISO800

Canon EOS350D, EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

Quickie

The poor Vios was not washed for more than 2 weeks and the condition was quite bad. Seeing that my schedule for the coming week would be quite pack, I don't think I would have the time nor energy to detail it after work during weekdays.

So I decided to give it a quick wash. While drying up the car, I found out the paintwork especially on the bonnet, the roof and the trunk are sandpaper-rough. Furthermore, the water ain't beading that well after haven't being waxing for the past 3 months. Without hesitation, I clayed the bonnet, the roof and the trunk with Meguiar's Detailer Mild Clay. The paint turned into silky smooth condition again. But, there's a price to pay. I noticed faint swirls here and there after claying. This could be side effect of not claying often. The heavy bonded contaminants were dragged across the surface while I was claying.

Anyway, it's a silver color car which doesn't show up the faint swirls that easily. Adding to that, the paintwork has mild acid rain pitting too, which requires some rotary polishing near future when the condition gets worse. Will leave this as next year's project, perhaps.

To finish up tonight's quickie (of course not the quickie you're thinking), I sealed the paintwork with Soft99 Fusso Coat. Hope it could withstand the recent harsh weather better...

Rain Rain Rain!

I guess every detailing enthusiast is facing the same problem: Rain! Do you have the experience that each time you think you have the time to wash your car, and suddenly the sky turns dark and just rain? Worst thing is while you're washing half way, it rains! Not only your car is left half washed, you're being showered too! And this case goes on for days, weeks and months. Until the rain water doesn't bead at all on your paintwork.

The current weather really pushes me to apply the aforementioned Soft99 Fusso Coat fluorocarbon-based wax. It was a lucky wash on the Iswara just now. I managed to park the car under the porch right before it started to rain again. I took my own sweet time to dry up the car and started to clay the roof and bonnet. The paint instantly turned into silky smooth again without much effort. After that, I applied the Fusso Coat wax. The chemical has very strong smell. The product feels like cloudy water, similar to Autoglym's Extra Gloss Protection, hence spreading the product across the paint surface was a breeze. The mild cleaning solvent cleans up the paint at the same time, turning my Meguiar's Hi-Tech Foam Applicator into solid black color.

I let it cure for about 15 minutes due to humid weather. Buffing off with a piece of Meguiar's Ultimate Wipe was as easy as buffing off NXT Tech Wax and M21 Synthetic Sealant. The surface feels slick and glossier. Though I've received reports from other users of Soft99 Fusso Coat saying that the wax beads the paintwork months after months, but I still need to monitor and judge it by myself. Since the Iswara is always left outdoor and being showered frequently, it should be fair enough to justify the beading durability.

Door Handle Scratches

Having finger nail scratches at the door handle area is a common and unavoidable problem to most of us. Though I am very careful whenever I pull the door handle, but my passengers might not be. This resulted finger nail scratches at the door handle area on all of the doors, besides the driver's door.

Those scratches could be deep or shallow. As we know, that area is unreachable by machine, so working with hand is the only method. When it comes to removing paint defects by hand, the first hand polish in my mind is the Meguiar's Scratch-X. I get good results by rubbing Scratch-X with a piece of Meguiar's Hi-Tech Foam Applicator.

The other permanent solution is to tell your passengers to be extra careful whenever pulling the door handle, but of course this should be done in a very polite manner. Not all people could accept such words, so think before you say!

Below are the "before" and "after" pictures of the Accord's door handle. Due to the nature of the colour, it's rather hard to notice the scratches, but if you see it carefully, it is shown on the photo.

f=85mm, f/8, 1/200s, ISO200

f=85mm, f/8, 1/200s, ISO200

Canon EOS350D, EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM