An date with a rather dirty Seat Ibiza
Today I had a lovely opportunity to revive a car for a customer I have been doing Electrical work for, for many years so I was genuinely looking forward to this.
The client - has owned this brilliant white Seat Ibiza for many years - used as a daily work horse but quite clearly hasn’t had many trips to the car wash.
But hey! Thats why I’m here right! - Bit of a breakdown:
The vehicles paintwork was covered in what looks like at least one winters worth of road grime
The bodywork was clearly covered in alot of brake dust, which really dulled the paintwork
The seals and rubbers around the windows and roof were starting to grow their own eco-system
The wheels were completely caked in dirt and brake dust - in fact I honestly thought the wheels were black, behind the dirt
The glass, inside and out was fairly smeared and generally dirty
The vehicle had many blobs of bird bombs which needed attention
The vehicle is covered in swirls and a handful of light to medium scratches. Some of which we could tackle, but for today we wanted to get the car clean
A white car has its benefits when it comes to cleaning because you can clearly see the dirt! Fortunately today was a sunny day mostly but not too hot.
But before hitting the bodywork to break down the grime, I had to hit the wheels…..
These are not meant to be matt black wheels! They are in fact a blend of silvers under the baked-in brake dust. We tackled the wheels as best we could in the time we had with multiple iron fallout remover treatment along with using our barrel brush multiple times between the spokes on all the wheels to get them as good as we could with the time we had.
After the iron fallout, we added to the dwell time with a mix of our wheel cleaner, along with tyre cleaner to remove the dirt and freshen up the look of the Kumho tyres
This was the condition of the wheels after multiple passes of fallout remover along with at least 2 contact washes with brushes and detailing brushes.
As mentioned, its clear this Seat Ibiza hasnt had a good wash in a long while - we went over the bodywork lower half with a degreaser and insect remover on the front bumper before covering the vehicle in a grime tacling snow foam to further break down the dirt. At the same time, we continued to coat the wheels in iron fallout remover to see if we could work any more on the baked in brake dust - The determination paid off and although we could strill do more, the wheels were as good as we could get them during this visit.
After rinsing the foam, applying agan=in and rinsing again, the vehicle was treated to a contact wash which included coating the vehicle in car shampoo in a snow foam lance to further break down the remaining contaminants.
After this, we covered the majority of the bodywork in iron fallout remover - and the signs are obvious. All those purple streaks are where the fallout remover is breaking down brake dust and other contamination. It lit up like a Christmass Tree!
Despite our slight time constraint, we found the time to clean all the door shuts and boot, clean and treat the glass inside and out along with coating the tyre walls with a silicon tyre gloss. Finished off with a hydrophobic sealant which also helps improve gloss. The wet-applied sealant has a short lifespan of 6-8 weeks as the vehicle would really need a clay bar and polish treatment if you wanted to seal in the bodywork for any longer than a few weeks.
All in all, I’m very happy with the outcome even though the wheels really gave us a run for our money. The bodywork is now a fair 95% free of contamination and this brilliant white Seat Ibiza can be brilliant on the road again.
The one thing I take from this job is knowing that brake dust and Seat Ibiza wheels want to be best friends and never want to be separated.
