# First Detail of my DS3 - caution 'Picture Heavy'



## CliveP (Feb 1, 2009)

This is the first detail of my DS3 - where I've explained some terms here, this is because I have also posted this on the DS3 forum, which doesn't have detailers on it, so I've put a link to here as DW allows larger pictures to be shown, so please excuse anything that seems 'obvious'....
I decided would be a 'one hit' approach, i.e. one pass of a chosen pad and polish, I wasn't chasing perfection here....
So, here goes:
OK, conditions were not ideal today, bit too sunny, but hey, part of the fun is adapting your style to compensate :thumb:
Before starting, about a week's worth of road and traffic grime, nothing too bad in reality:
Mucky Wheels:








Exhaust looking tired and chrome sooty already (have noticed this petrol soots up faster then my diesels ever did):
















More muck:
















Fly resting place:








The Choice of Armoury:
















Wheels being treated to Autbrote Very Cherry non-acid wheel cleaner (@10-1):








Working it in with a soft brush:








Fly and bug remover on wing mirrors and front of car:
















Let that soak in, then wash time, two bucket method with a lambswool mitt:








Leave car wet, then clay bar, here's the clay plus clay bar lubricant: (berry blast diluted about 5-1 in the larger container):








Piece of clay moulded into nice size piece:








Method of Application:
Spray the lubricant generously on the wet car (car left wet from wash), then gently move the clay bar over the paintwork, exerting very little pressure, sometimes you feel the clay bar pull the embedded contaminents from the paint, but this DS3 had not picked up much on it's journey to the UK:
















After doing the whole car, re-wash then time to dry off with a soft drying towel, this one from Autobrite (from my choice of drying towels):








One dry and then the towel goes straight into my dedicated car stuff washing machine, located in the garage (yes, it IS OCD!!!!):








Some much needed supplies as now a couple of hours in!:








Out with my paint depth gauge - decent readings, roof over 150, doors 120, bonnet 110-130 (all microns, in other words one tenth of a mil from the surface to the metal work, loads of space!):
























Door sill reading, considered by some to give an idea of the depth of paint before the clearcoat, as you don't want to go through the clearcoat and hit the paint (in other words, the 120 or microns is about 50% clearcoat before the paint layer, if we assume the dorr sill depth is the approximate depth of the paint without clearcoat:








Weapon of choice - SIM-180 Rotary polisher, with Hexlogic White pad, using Meguiar's 205 polish (sorry no pics of the application, too busy concentrating) using the Zenith technique working small sections at a time:








Rats, I seem to have missed shots of the masking up, ah well, next time...
OK this takes a long time and after each set of polishing, the surface has a light spray of quick detailer followed my a buff with a ververy soft Eurow towel (sorry no pics, too much concentrating on the job at this point!), so below here is a jump to hours later....:
After all the polishing, quick wash and dry to remove any polishing dust, time to pick a 'LSP (Last Step Product)' - often thought of a wax or sealant - not to be confused with polish - you polish to get the surface smooth and perfect, then seal in all your hard work with a wax.
This is my favourite Wax, but like all good waxes, it needs to be put on a very well prepped (i.e.polished) surface. In detailing circles it is thought by many that wax quality is only shown if the preparation is very good....
This is tin number 8 (well, this is its presentation box) out of a limited production run of 100 units. This was applied with a very very clean foam application pad, then after leaving for a few minutes to cure, buffed off with a super soft Eurow blue towel (sorry no pics, too much concentration!):








Time for some detailing now (final shoots in a sec!):
Fine Grade Wool wire on those disgusting exhaust pipes:








Then some chrome polish applied and buffed off:








Very Cherry tyre and trim detailer applied to the plastics:








Looking nice:








One of the test products sent to me in my 'product review' position on DW, :








After whipping round the windows, a little touch up on the mirrors:








Bit more attention to the details (it's where it makes all the difference)!:
















Verry Cherry on the tyres, and I remembered I had a wheel sealant tucked away so thought I'd try it on the black alloys, wow they're gloss, it seems the dealer preparation didn't know as they were nowhere near that glossy when I collected it!:








OK a few final shots, sorry should have done some more artisitc reflection shots:








































Overall for about 6-7 hours effort very pleased!!!!
Hope you like and excuse all the pics, and I missed quite a lot out!
Regards,
Clive.


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## awallacee30 (May 4, 2011)

Looks real smart mate ! Nice job :thumb:

I do like red cars..


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## ITHAQVA (Feb 20, 2011)

Excellent work mate, better than new :thumb:


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## ROMEYR32 (Mar 27, 2011)

Good work, I sat in one at Goodwood - really like these!


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Great work..


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## Clairt83 (Jul 9, 2011)

Very nice clive, i will get to see it on sat, i will have to do mine now, cant let the side down and have a dirty DS3 can i


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Cracking job buddy.


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## Courtney (Jun 29, 2011)

Really nice work ;-)


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## -Kev- (Oct 30, 2007)

looks great Clive, look forward to seeing it (whenever that is )
what wheel sealant did you use?..


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## wrightys (Jan 27, 2010)

Looking good Clive, knew you would go for it  

Will keep an eye out for it in the car park! Been :buffer: myself at the weekend, so can compare reds.


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## Graham225 (Jul 18, 2011)

Looks brilliant mate, love the wet look alloys, cracking job :thumb: can i book mine in :buffer:

Graham


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## badman1972 (Jun 24, 2010)

Lovely motor and great work mate, nice to know it is now better than brand new supply prepped :thumb:
Love the dedicated washing machine touch, makes me seem more normal now :lol::lol:


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## dave_beast (May 13, 2011)

Hi Clive, stunning DS3, is it a petrol or diesel? A few of us got decided to leave DS3 club UK and start our own forum, there's a few of us into detailing over on there. Here's mine, had it since April and it's been detailed by myself twice http://ds3club.eu/showthread.php?t=15


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## CliveP (Feb 1, 2009)

Clairt83 said:


> Very nice clive, i will get to see it on sat, i will have to do mine now, cant let the side down and have a dirty DS3 can i


Thanks Clair, Looking forward to seeing yours in black, might need to give you a hand machine polishing it sometime :thumb:



-Kev- said:


> looks great Clive, look forward to seeing it (whenever that is )
> what wheel sealant did you use?..


Thanks Kev - it was planet polish wheel seal and shine, had it since it was launched. I always trade-off killing wheel sealants with wheel cleaners, but what made me stand back was revealing that gloss black finish!



Graham225 said:


> Looks brilliant mate, love the wet look alloys, cracking job :thumb: can i book mine in :buffer:
> Graham


Thanks Graham, on the list, god my list is getting long :lol:



badman1972 said:


> Lovely motor and great work mate, nice to know it is now better than brand new supply prepped :thumb:
> Love the dedicated washing machine touch, makes me seem more normal now :lol::lol:


Thanks mate, well would you want your car cloths to go in the same machine as your family's smellies? :lol: standards need maintaining :lol: dedicated tumble dryer might get added once the guinea pig 'moves on' and gives me a bit of floor space back :lol:



dave_beast said:


> Hi Clive, stunning DS3, is it a petrol or diesel? A few of us got decided to leave DS3 club UK and start our own forum, there's a few of us into detailing over on there. Here's mine, had it since April and it's been detailed by myself twice http://ds3club.eu/showthread.php?t=15


Thanks Dave, it's the THP 150 petrol Sport Plus, the mid-life crisis gets worse  thanks for the info.

Regards,
Clive.


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## saxo_gray (Jul 19, 2011)

I absolutely love these cars, a really good job on the detail. Always better when you've such a nice car to begin with


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## ade33 (Jun 4, 2008)

Every now and then Citroen come up with a car that is both unusual and fantastic at the same time - I really think they've pulled it out of the bag with the DS3, such a cool car. Struggling to suppress the envy over here.......  :thumb:

Nice work too, btw! Wheels look fab.


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## Sawyer (Feb 24, 2011)

Wow very nice!


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## chud786 (May 16, 2011)

Looks really nice Clive.

Hope mine looks as good when you have finished with it!

I haven't forgotten your kind offer, just got to find time.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Looking good there Clive, looking forward to seeing this car in the flesh at the weekend  ... Good weapon of choice for the machine polishing, can't beat 205 really  Nice writeup too, good job at laying out in detail what you are doing with pics :thumb:


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## Demetrios72 (Jun 27, 2011)

Great job Clive!!! :thumb:


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## Mr Face (Jan 22, 2009)

Hi Clive, now she is indeed a beautiful funky motor :thumb: 

Nice work and gorgeous result.


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## illeagalhunter (Jun 17, 2007)

Looks great ill need to get mine as shinny


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## AygoGUMMY (Nov 21, 2010)

Very very very nice indeed!


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