Raffle Winner!

I offered a 2 hour free Standard detail to the winner of a local raffle in aid of the Aylesford Under 7's football club and Demelza Hospice and it turned out to be ... another Mini!

The paintwork was in great condition as the owner hadn't used potentially damaging supermarket car washes so it was just case of bringing back the shine.

As usual the wheels were the dirtiest part of the car and were covered in road grime and brake dust ...

The Mini was just looking a bit sorry for itself after the recent wet weather and was looking for some ME16 TLC ...

As usual I started with a foam pressure wash and a decontamination of the wheels with an iron fallout remover and a wheel brush ...

The Mini was then rinsed with a pressure washer before I launched into a warm water hand wash using my 2 bucket/mulitple soft mitt technique and a professional grade shampoo. One bucket is for the wash and the other is the rinse bucket for the used mitts. Several mitts soak in the wash bucket. I then take a soapy mitt and wash a portion of the car from top downwards and then discard this mitt into the rinse bucket. The process continues using a fresh mitt each time until the car is fully cleaned. This ensures that no dirt whatsoever is transferred from the car back into the wash bucket ... simple really! This helps prevent washing the car with a dirty mitt and inducing swirls/holograms or scratches in the clear coat of the paintwork.

The next step was a further pressure wash rinse before drying with super plush microfibre towels. The mini was then treated with 2 coats of quick detailer ...

The tyres were then coated with a protective satin tyre gel ...

... and the exterior glass polished ...

... and the black trim treated with a silica coating ...

The Mini was now looking absolutely gorgeous ...

It was a great way to spend a crisp sunny morning in November and hopefully the raffle raised loads of money for the Aylesford Under 7's football club and Demelza House.

Happy detailing - Dave.