.........................tiring day. I had promised Matt that when I was down next I would clay and polish his car, pictures are on the valeting section.
But before we could start Neil, another forum member, turned up. He had come round for Matt to fit a new stereo into his Copperleaf 75 saloon. A 2 minute job for Matt. So after tea out we went to get the work started. Matt's car did not need a wash so I got started on the claying. Now that I have the knack the work does not take that long, only thing that slows me down is age, be 23 next birthday.
Matt was expecting another friend, Baz, to come round for him to fit a new exhaust system on. But first he fitted Neil's radio. Meanwhile I carried on claying the Xpower Grey ZTT. The roof was starting to shine. Then Shirley came back, she had been to see her Mum, so lunch was prepared. Ok, more tea to be drunk. After lunch, Neil stayed on to supervise the fitting of the exhaust as Baz had now arrived. Baz had brought a brand new system with him to be fitted. Matt has a novel way of supporting the jacked up car. 3 spacesaver's stacked on top of one and other and a 4th one under the front wheel. Once the trolley Jack is lowered, the car sits at the right height for them to get underneath.
Neil bade farewell, heavy work involved. I by now had progressed to applying the cutting compound, by hand. We did try with a orbital polisher but I found it too much, it's my age. Matt and Baz had removed the old broken exhaust but found when they offered the new one up, it did not fit. Baz's car is a diesel saloon but the exhaust was for a tourer, too short and the sleeve was too small. But Matt had stripped a virtually brand new exhaust off of a saloon awhile back and was sitting in the rear garden doing nothing.
Shirley had gone to collect their grandson from school but once back she made some more tea. Much needed in my case. By now I had started using the New Meguiars high tech wax paste. Goes on really well and comes off even better. Matt and Baz were still fighting the exhaust but were winning. There is a cracking wax polish that used to be made by Turtle Wax called ICE. Very good for waxing plastic, especially faded black plastic. Alas the wax is no longer available but I still have a large pot.
Their grandson was now collected by his Dad, and it was tea time again. I had finished the entire car including waxing the 11 spokes, all the black plastic was done. I had returned to roof bars back to almost black. The tyres had a coating of tyre foam. All the door shuts, fuel flap and around the rear window had been cleaned. But by god my back was crying enough now, so the last application of the detailing wax will have to wait till tomorrow. Matt and Baz had finally got the exhaust system fitted. Now to get the car down onto it's wheels and get the engine started. Fingers crossed and away she went, oh! Boy did that sound a whole lot better. Thank goodness for that.
So tools away, and the boys got cleaned up. I, meanwhile was taking photo's of my work. Then Baz fitted his 'new but didn't fit exhaust' into his car. Being returned to where it came from to get his money back. We said our goodbye's and he set off home. Matt then put "Morris" his clean ZTT back into it's parking spot in the front garden. Matt still had another important job to do, he was cooking a curry for dinner. Me, well I transferred the pictures onto my laptop and had another cuppa.