What did you do with your MINI today?

Drove to work. Seems like all I ever get to do with her. I'm thinking about doing some detailing this weekend if I don't get suck in the office

 

I cleaned all my windows and RainXed all the windows. Tomorrow is brake flush day with Motul 600.

 

Nice tail lights, but I'm more interested in that paint you have that changes colors. That's cool!

CD

 

The power steering went out on my wife's car yesterday as I was driving it for the dog's and my evening walk to the dog park. I mentioned it to her when we got home and she replied, "oh yes, I noticed it last week!" Of course, she probably figured it was a non-issue, since her avg. speed is around 14 mph.

 

I ordered 4 PIAA wiper blades for my cars a few days ago. They were ordered on one order with quantity = 2 2 18" blades, 2 19" blades.
Yesterday 1 arrived in 1 very big box. Today, two more very big boxes were delivered with 1 blade in each. I suspect the 4th box will arrive on Monday. I guess Amazon needs to get their quotas for "free shipping" up.

 

Ran my 2009 Clubby up to the tire store, I've had a VERY slow leak (5lbs a month) in the left front for a while now, since I'm headed to Tenn. next week I decided to get it fixed, sure enough they found a small nail in it.

 

looking to buy a mini, from last 2 months..

test drove couple of mini's.
decided to buy one of them.
it will be delivered by next wednesday.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

 

Very nice. From all of the red bits, I'm assuming it's a JCW. Great choice!

 

Rinsed the coat of pollen off her yesterday. Just picked up some Sonax engine cleaner and Gyeon wet coat for the wheels.

 

Washed my car yesterday. Today I began machine polishing my car and I did the roof, rear hatch, hood and both bumpers is 5 hours. I also coated all those panels with Gyeon Pure today. In a few days I will be coating them with Gyeon MOHS and Pro-Syncro after everything has cured.

I only have to machine polish the doors and quarters tomorrow after work and coat them. Then it can bake in my garage “curing” in for another night.

 

Dave, How often do you do that?

 

Once a year before the Dragon and it is 100% not needed.

The coating on the car will last 2 years easy but I am OCD and like to clean / polish / jewel the paint on my car and coat it again. It’s hard to say my 13 year old R53 with 103,000 miles is not a daily driver but the fact is it sits in the garage a lot until I need it.

I have the oil changed every 3k / maybe twice a year if that. I always do all my maintenance, oil change and everything in the Spring before the Dragon and have the oil changed again right after I return from the Dragon no matter the mileage.

Example, I sent my summer rims out to be refinished nd when they come back they looked perfect. I cleaned them, prepped and coated them. Now it was still winter and I would get bored working (at home) and I would coat them again and again. When it finally got warm enough to put them on they each have at least 5 coats on them.

 

5 coats of your Geyon Prime? That's gotta be some serious shine! I got 2 or 3 coats of Zaino on my wheels when they first arrived... It's always important to get those early base coats on to protect from brake dust, etc.

I washed my daily driver (a Volvo XC60 - baby SUV) and was amazed at how nasty I'd let it become. It usually got a few coats of Zaino twice a year, but I've been so tied up w/ Rufus since September that I've let it go. It was lucky if I took it through a touchless spray wash That and the Volvo is now parked outside 100% of the time as Rufus has taken its parking space in the garage. A bird took to roosting on the side view mirror last week and the bird crap dripping down the door finally got me off my ass and the wash bucket out. My wife's Audi A6 got a couple quick coats of Zaino while I was polishing out Rufus' paint last November. I've found that my wife is much more forgiving of detailing time spent on the MINI if her car gets shined up at the same time.

Now that the weather is turning warmer and the massive checklist for Rufus is complete, I'm looking forward to some leisure time out in the driveway, catching up on my detailing.

 

Zanio is just a wax with a little sealant in it. It’s not really that good but some people swear by it. I tried in and was not really impressed. All wax only really last 3-4 weeks and does not keep brake dust from bedding into it. Wax is the last thing you should put on your wheels. Sealants on average last about 6 months but not much longer. All of the traditional waxes and sealants do not offer much protection or resistance to contaminates getting stuck to your car. They capture them in the wax and hold them until they are removed or the wax is stripped. Dawn and a clay bar or nanoskin synthetic clay mit that can be rinsed. You can not strip coatings like that.

Coatings / ceramic or carbon based bond with the paint and cure to it. They offer a much better true layered protection that repels contamination and does not let it stick / bond to the paint. Think of coatings as a coated T-fal frying pan. Nothing sticks because of the coating versus a plain pan with butter / wax in it. As it gets warm the protection break down quickly and bakes in to the pan. That’s the best example I can give as to why coating are far more superior to old school wax and sealants. Most people still think coatings are to plastic glassy looking compared to the warm glow of carnuba wax but the formulas have changed and they are almost identical now.

Oh I don’t have 5 coating of Gyeon Prime on my rims. I have a layer of each on the following coatings including Gyeon old PRIME, PURE, (PURE has replaced Prime for 2018) Gyeon MOHS, Gyeon Rim and Kamikaze Stamce coat.

Yes, I have a lot of coatings including all the above and 22 ple VX PRO 2 and Kamikaze ISM coat and Gyeon Syncro. I detail cars as my hobby and I am always buying new coatings to test and keep or I toss them.

I have tested H9 and it’s too much work for what you get and coating a car 9 times is just silly.

CQuarts, several version by carpro, is a pain to work with to get average results, it will provide good results with a good amount of work but too much work compared to Gyeon line of coatings.

Gtechniq is very tempiture sensitive product which makes it very hard to apply and remove smoothly. Think of spending syrup on your paint and then removing for a nice level gloss withnot any streaks. Lol

Gyeon is far and away the market leader in coating, pricing and ease of application and results.

Kamikaze is a small brand from Japan that has been around for a while and is in my opinion is one of the very best. You will have to pay a lot for it and can currently get it from Esoteric is the US but it is a excellent product and looks like wax with the warm glow but is a 2 year plus coating.

 

This is high end Kamikaze ISM done the right way.

 

The garage......

 

Good lord. My dining room isn't that formal! 42 hours of polishing! Yeowza!

I may have to break down and try some of the newer coatings. Right now I've got a shelf full of Zaino to finish up.

 

Today I got the oil changed and the tires rotated, along with 5 mm spacers installed. Looks great...but too cold to take a pic