The Cruze Returns................
I actually started with the worst part of this job, the interior. Looking back to the previous times I have detailed this car, vacuuming the carpet was a nightmare, so I wanted this out of the way first. And once again, it fought me the whole way! Using some P&S Paint Gloss to cut down the static helped, but in the end, I had to call it good and move on.
It was then onto the exterior, starting with the wheels.
NV Purge for the wheels, applied after the rinse, left to dwell while I scrubbed the tires and wheel arches with Wise Guy. I then rinsed, reapplied the Purge and attacked them with various brushes.
Next, I applied Gyeon Iron to the whole car. Geez, I don't know how the pro's use this stuff every day! Even after a shower, I can still smell it on my skin!
I also applied some P&S Bug Off to the front bumper, wing mirrors and windscreen to soak them down.
Both chemicals were then left to dwell while I rinsed the black sludge out of my wheel bucket!
This car will never have been treated with iron remover before, hence the strong reaction. I then followed this by foaming Carpro Lift over the top to increase the dwell time.
Next up, a thorough rinse to remove the soap and chemical residue. This is where the time and effort applying these products reveals a much cleaner surface to contact wash. I have to say, I was very impressed with what the iron remover, bug remover and Lift achieved here.
I then re-foamed with Lift for the contact wash. During this step, I also grabbed a car-wash towel and wiped down the door jambs.
After all that, the paint was completely flat, not that there was much protection on the car anyway. Hydr02 to the rescue, applied to the paint, glass and wheels. I really only do this to make the drying process easier, but it does add some gloss and protection to the equation.
After a blow down, I continued the Carpro theme by applying some Reload 2.0 to the paint and glass. I have to say, this new version is much more friendly to work with, flashing nicely and only requiring minimal towel work.
The door jambs were then dried with ONR, the wheel arches sprayed with Hyper Dressing and the tires dressed with yet another Carpro product, this time Darkside.
Back to the interior, cleaning the plastic surfaces with Griot's Interior Cleaner.
The main selling point of this product is the complete lack of colouring and scent, meaning you just get an interior cleaner and nothing else to complicate the situation. This is probably the dirtiest interior that this product will deal with in the DFB garage, so it got put the to the ultimate test today. While it performed well, I can't help feeling P&S Express does a better job. I actually switched to Express to clean the leather for comparison's sake and felt like I preferred it over the Griot's.
Following the cleaning, I went over the plastics with P&S Swift. While this offers some mild cleaning ability, I like how this has just the right amount of dressing ability without leaving an oil slick behind, or looking too dry like some interior detailers can. I treated the leather to some NV Nourish, the glass was then attended to with Invisible Glass, the carpets misted with KCx FU (an odor neutralizer), and the carpets vacuumed (again!). A quick spritz of Griot's Fine Leather Scent and the interior was done.
A quick wipe over with some Bead Maker and the Cruze was done!
