# Wax-it: Renault Clio RS Cup 20th Anniversary



## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

Hi there!

We're a detailing firm based in Belgium combining details with a local store. The company was founded when one of us was looking for more and better products, things you could only buy in the UK or the US. Soon the Wax-it shop was founded and details gradually started filling every saturday and sunday. The need for our own studio instead of a rented studio became very high combined with full time detailing. A new location and a third new detailer were added last year to keep up with the high demands and ever growing orders!

Trying to improve what we do and what we sell we recently got in touch with Gloss-it. We've tested the products for a while, getting to know them through and through.
This is one of the cars we did using (almost only) Gloss-it products.

On to the works. It's a new car detail to protect the optional nice white pearlescent paint.

*All those who want to view the original article on our website, excuse us but it's in Dutch, we're working on an English translation of our website: Click*

*Those who'd like to view the photoslideshow: Click*

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*The write-up:
*

More and more people are expecting a perfect looking car, but it gets worse when these expectations aren't met on delivery. The dealer doesn't do a lot of prep work before delivery because a large number of the customers aren't looking for the perfect result we all like. In this particular case the damage on a new car was really shocking. The customer told us the car was only 3 days old and we almost couldn't believe this. This shows us once again the difference between a clean and a detailed car is really big, 14 hours of polishing and cleaning in this case!

*Preparation*

This limited edition is only bought by real car nuts, and nothing but perfection is what we're looking for. The car arrived at our place on a cold winter day, covered in snow, road salt and lot's of other winter road crap. Just like every other car we started of by foaming the car to lift most of the dirt of the paint. After working the foam in on some particular spots like the grill and door surroundings we removed using the pressure washer. This was enough to remove up to 75% of the dirt. Following with a 2 bucket wash with lukewarm (our hands were cold!) water the car was clean.

A closer inspection showed us a pearl white paint covered in little black dots on every panel. This showed us once again that claying a brand new car is really necessary! Using the soft green Gloss-it clay and Gloss Enhancer diluted 1:1 with distilled water every spot was safely removed. After drying using the very plushy towel and the Black Baron air blower we moved the car on to the detailing bridge for another inspection and taping up rubber and plastic.

  

*Damage*

The car suffered a lot during transport, this was obvious during claying but a closer look showed us even more. The car is painted pearl white and the black paint is added afterwards. The paint thickness gauge showed us very thin paint at only 40microns, be careful!

The front bumper and rear diffuser is made from soft black lightweight plastic, those where covered in lots and lots of small scratches and swirls, this is not what we want on a new car! The interior was looking good, only the pedals needed some attention, they're covered in dirt and look dull, remember this is a new car!

*Wheels and tires*

We lifted the car to it's highest point so we could easily work on the lower parts. The wheels needed some small cleaning and protection, but nothing extreme, so we did this while they were still on the car. Signature Wheel gel removed most of the dirt, using our classic wheel combo we did some more cleaning and durable protecting. Werkstät Prime Strong and Blackfire All Metal Sealant is one of our favorite combination's.

When a car is equipped with black wheels it's important to have a deep black tire, keeping this result for a long time is even more important. To get the result we want we used Gloss-it in two steps. At first the tire was prepped using Gloss-it TRV which proved to be a perfect base coat for tires. It improves the Tire Gloss durability a lot! After letting the tire absorb the TRV for a while we applied Gloss-It Signature Tire Gloss for a perfect finish.

  

  

*Interior*

As said before the interior was nice and tidy, it only needed a protective layer. Using Gloss-it Leather Polish the plastic and vinyl received much needed protection. This was a tip we received from Rich after asking for a nice matt product for the interior.
The pedals were cleaned using Werkstät Prime Strong but this still didn't cure the dull finish on the metal. Swissvax Metal Polish is a very concentrated product with micro-abrassives, the ideal product for this task.
Doorshuts needed some minor cleaning and protection, again Werkstät Prime Strong is a fast and easy product to do so.

  

*Paint polishing*

When receiving a new car you can expect al sorts of scratches as the car had a life of traveling before arriving at your dealers. It travels a lot of miles before reaching you and sees a lot of potential damage and harmful conditions.. This was obviously shown on this car.

When the car was lifted to clean the wheels it was the perfect moment to take care of the rear diffuser. A closer look showed a lot of swirls, RIDS and some dullness in the finish. At first we cleaned everything a second time using Briliant Citrus Cleaner. The very soft plastic is easily scratch and marred so you need to take care when polishing, a nice slow finish is essential. Gloss-it polishes are the ideal choice for this, no abrasive but enough correction combined with the right pad. A Gloss-it green polishing pad + Evolution Polish was the perfect combination to remove the scratches, lowering speed and adding Gloss Enhancer left a mirror like finish. All this was done using the DAP900 dual action machine.

Meanwhile the wheel sealant has cured nicely and was ready to be removed. The front bumper received the same treatment as it was the same material, two shiny parts on the car, a lot to follow!

  

  

The roof has a black finish on this special edition and when we have a closer look it's obvious this was done after wards. The black layer is sprayed on after the car is finished in pearl white. A thin layer of black followed by a clear coat. This is very soft and easily marred and hazed. The roof had a lot of damage when we received the car, RIDS, swirls and other things we don't like! As this was very soft paint we tried the same combination as before. This seemed to be successful but left a haze (see the third picture). We changed the green pad for the blue one with the same correction but a better finish, still using Evolution Polish. Gloss Enhancer is the solution for a nice and easy finish.

  

*Gloss-it vs. Menzerna Polishes*

As we have a lot of experience with Menzerna we chose to compare the correction and ease of use to the newer Gloss-it products. This soft roof was a nice test as it showed how easy we could work the product and remove it. Any product that was not easily removed would scratch the surface and left a finish with much to be desired.
So it was important to have a enough correction and a very soft and easy finish in the same step.
Menzerna 106FA + Lake Country's Finishing pad (black) vs Gloss-it Blue finishing Pad + Evolution Polish.

*First remarks:*

 Evolution Polish is fluid thus easily spread out
 Gloss-It pad is more flexible and feels softer
 Menzerna breaks down clearly (inherent to the polish)
 Menzerna needs (more) time to diminish
 Use of Gloss Enhancer necessary (inherent to the polish)
 Finish +- equal
 Working time +- equal

Classical polishes like Menzerna, 3M, Poorboy's and others are made like the typical polishes. There's an abrasive, lubricating products (oil) and some extra's. When working the abrasive gets diminished and removes the scratches. Slow but certain the abrasive is doing it's thing but also getting weaker because it's getting smaller. That's why you have different grades of polishes, because only some can be totally diminished to a perfect finish. Refining is necessary. The pad you chose is inherent to the product you use.

Gloss-it polishes are based on a chemical cut. Only Extreme Cut and Evolution Cut have some abrasives but less then a typical polish. With the well known polishes even the lightest polishes have abrasives. This results in a different approach.

Gloss-it polishes can be used longer because the cutting doesn't change during usage. You can keep working it as long there's lubrication, this is the only thing that dissolves. That's why using Gloss Enhancer is very important and is a commonly used product in the Gloss-it range. It creates the lubrication we need as long as you keep working the polish. The more you add, the softer the polish (cut) becomes. This means that when using a polish with a stronger cut combined with a soft pad and Gloss Enhancer you can have a very soft finish. Which pad you choose has a bigger consequence on the result you have.

There's less dust too because of the lack of abrasive in Gloss-it polishes and there's less product to be removed after polishing. This is has a very positive effect on polishing soft paint as there's on this car. The biggest disadvantage is the lack of an official heavy compound but the test products are very promising!

The finish with the polishes were the same but Menzerna required more work to remove, using the Gloss Enhancer when polishing left very little to be removed! That's why we choose Gloss-it in this particular case.

*Back to the car which still needed a lot of work*
The special color is painted in multiple layers and this showed when using the paint thickness gauge. An average of 174microns was measured on the car. This proved what we already knew, it's painted in multiple stages to achieve the pearl effect. When looking at the car under different lighting we can see the typical damage. Light swirls, some RDS but also one sanding mark/spot on the right fender!

On the normal paint we could achieve a nice deep finish using the combo that left much to be desired on the soft black plastic. This proved us that a test spot is always a plus. We corrected the parts with more damage with Evolution Cut on a white pad, followed with the green pad.

  

After the thorough correction there's a smooth and soft surface, one of the things we like a lot when using gloss-it. We followed with an IPA wipe down and protected all our hard work with Gloss Finish / LSP on a Red Ultra Soft Finishing pad at 3.75 using the DAP900. Working it in is useful as it becomes easier to remove, it can be removed directly after applying, something we don't see regularly on sealants


 The first step is a proper clean using IPA.
 Second step is applying the Gloss Finish, you need very little to protect the car. Two small dots with a rather high speed while applying is enough.
 Third is removing the residue immediately after applying, this is done using Gloss Enhancer.

To maximize durability and gloss, it's useful to follow by applying Concorso Gloss. Durability is achieved with Gloss Finish and when using Concorso Gloss you can get even more gloss - a real concours gloss - out of the paint. It's possible to apply in multiple layers for even better results. Working the product slightly in using a red gloss-it applicator pad, it takes some more time compared to a classic carnauba wax but working it results in a easier removal and longer protection.

  

This last layer was given some time to cure, we left it for an hour and a half.
After this was removed we followed using Gloss Enhancer one last time to make sure the finish is sparkling clean.

*After a day and a half we had the car looking as it should've been from the start, a special treatment for a limited edition special!*

  

  

*If you have more questions, suggestions, remarks or comments, please fire away! *

Kind Regards,

The Wax-it Crew


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## horned yo (Feb 10, 2009)

I love Gloss IT stuff. Got aload of polishes for xmas just waiting until the summer to use them. Gloss IT pads are excellent


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## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

horned yo said:


> I love Gloss IT stuff. Got aload of polishes for xmas just waiting until the summer to use them. Gloss IT pads are excellent


If you're used to other polishes it will be a total different way of polishing. We didn't get the results we were expecting when using them like Menzerna or Poorboy's or other typical polishes but when using the correct technique it's really great stuff.


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## spiros (Mar 30, 2010)

Wax-IT.be said:


> If you're used to other polishes it will be a total different way of polishing. We didn't get the results we were expecting when using them like Menzerna or Poorboy's or other typical polishes but when using the correct technique it's really great stuff.


what is the right technique becouse i have all the range and i didnt use them yet


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

Great write up and welcome along to the international section


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## Scrim-1- (Oct 8, 2008)

Fantastic car, and welcome to the forum


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## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

Thanks! We've been following for a while but were very eager to start actively supporting this forum.


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## 3976 (Nov 20, 2006)

Lovely 200 write up :thumb:


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## Maggi200 (Aug 21, 2009)

Awesome!


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## Joeya (Jul 6, 2010)

Really nice write up, would like some more picture though


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## himpe (Apr 20, 2006)

Joeya said:


> Really nice write up, would like some more picture though


All the pictures are available on the flickr link :thumb:


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## Joeya (Jul 6, 2010)

Nice one, cheers


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## GSVHammer (Feb 7, 2009)

Welcome to DW. Very nice write up and detail.


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## nick3814 (Dec 31, 2010)

Great write up there :thumb: nice motor, I love 200's


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## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

nick3814 said:


> Great write up there :thumb: nice motor, I love 200's


Indeed, love them too.. The owner recently added an Akrapovich exhaust, he says it's amazing!


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## ash-g (Jan 24, 2011)

nice car got a soft spot for these


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## bilout48 (Apr 10, 2008)

ha une superbe rs comme la mienne ;-)


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## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

Truly first class write up and welcome to the site and onboard as a supporter :thumb:


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## chillly (Jun 25, 2009)

spiros said:


> what is the right technique becouse i have all the range and i didnt use them yet


Quote:
Originally Posted by Wax-IT.be 
If you're used to other polishes it will be a total different way of polishing. We didn't get the results we were expecting when using them like Menzerna or Poorboy's or other typical polishes but when using the correct technique it's really great stuff.

what is the right technique becouse i have all the range and i didnt use them yet


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## Eurogloss (Jan 22, 2008)

Awesome work guys :thumb:
Welcome to the forum as an international supporter :wave:

Best Regards 
Mario


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## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

chillly said:


> Quote:
> Originally Posted by Wax-IT.be
> If you're used to other polishes it will be a total different way of polishing. We didn't get the results we were expecting when using them like Menzerna or Poorboy's or other typical polishes but when using the correct technique it's really great stuff.
> 
> what is the right technique becouse i have all the range and i didnt use them yet


In short you have to keep working the polishes way longer than you're used to. Adding gloss enhancer to keep working the polishes. Doesn't matter if it is a stronger or softer polish.

When you work the polish in at speed 5 you can't just lower the speed to 2 for finishing. Lower it slowly first at 4, then 3, then 2 and you'll get more correction and a better finish.

The same with the sealant (gloss finish). Use it as if it's a finishing polish, work it in slowly at speed 3 and lower to speed 2 or even 1 depending on the machine.

I'm working on a new write-up where i'll explain it a bit more.


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## Racer (Oct 27, 2005)

Amazing work and i have to try more the gloss it polishes .


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## Curley89 (Apr 18, 2008)

Stunning work, great results


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## Karl88 (Jan 30, 2011)

nice work and what a lovley car


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## josadler (Jul 14, 2010)

Nice to see a compatriot at work over here.
Looking forward to Your next details.
Maybee we'll meet at a course to improve my techniques a bit.
I definitely will send You customers, even though I live in Antwerp, because i've seen Your work and i think it's impeccable


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## Alphamen (Feb 3, 2011)

What a great write up!! Some really good info contained here that I think many will benefit from. :thumb:


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## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

Alphamen said:


> What a great write up!! Some really good info contained here that I think many will benefit from. :thumb:


Thanks a lot! Nice to hear such positive comments. We hope to keep this up and do even better in the future


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