Originally posted this in "Show Us Your Clubman Photos" thread, but thought I'd share them here as well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I just gave my MINI a bath with Mystique, Hydro, Slick, and Clarity today. Washed and Hydro'd the wheels. Nero'd some of the interior and exterior plastic. Last week, I put some BG on her and Epic the week before that. Everything was going well today until the Slick slipped out of my pocket and started rolling down the driveway. The nozzle caught on the ground and the rolling momentum unscrewed the top! Lost all but a quarter of the bottle. Dang! This weekend, I'm heading up to Anaheim to meet with OctaneGuy to get some professional advice (like "Try not to drop this stuff") and more product. If I can just keep it from spilling... Hydroing the wheels really does help. I did that last weekend. This weekend, 60% of the break dust came off in the first rinse. Wasn't expecting that technique to work as well as it does. Looking forward to a week of getting her dirty again.
That cleans up right nice. I too am plagued with the steep driveway issue. When the car is parked there hopping in the driver's seat projects an angle of preparing for a moon shot. The "launch pad" has soaked up more than it's share of product as well. I feel your pain. I have also tried Hydro on the wheels and it works well but found that this seems to hold the brake dust at bay a bit longer. Although a lot of work to apply you can hit the wheels with a blast from the air compressor and it removes the majority of the dust before washing. Again, nice shine!
Mark came up to visit me at the shop today and here are some shots. We went over quite a bit from washing to claying to waxing to some polishing. I went over the car showing him the best way to wash and maintain his paint. The paint looked pretty good. The black bumper and roof had some light swirls that Jet Black always shows, but it's a great color. He let me drive it to lunch and I enjoyed it! I could see myself owning one someday. He had two booster seats in back. We didn't do much in terms of polishing. Just washed with Mystique, clayed the bonnet and applied Banana Gloss. We used less than 5 gallons of distilled water to wash it. 2.5 gallons in a 3 gallon bucket and 2.5 gallons in the Nomad.
Thanks, OG! I picked up a lot of great information, techniques, and some products yesterday. Can't wait to see your new digs. Let me know where you end up. Maybe a house-warming party when you get settled? I'll bring the Togos... Take care, MarkFM