Well a quick update on progress so far.
Got the car MOP'd and polished but my products hadn't arrived by Saturday AM, so as I was wanting the car finished by Monday I borrowed the bottles of Serum and Exo V4 from a friend. Ultimate Finish who are supplying the product have taken 5 days just to dispatch it, apparently it's in their terms and cond's and also it's the busiest week for on line orders so I'll let them off this time.
1st thing you need with this job is a lot of patience, you've got to get your panels/bodywork to the condition you want them keeping in, I know this seems obvious but it does take a lot of buffing/wiping and rebuffing to get a mirror like finish especially on a black car that's 18 yrs old.
Second thing you need is a warm garage. Then you need lots of microfibre cloths, some panel wipe (very important) an LED torch and plenty of time.
So I got the panels done and I had an issue with the bonnet, as I mentioned before it's been resprayed but as I've been buffing it some areas have gone a bit 'milky' white so I'm going to have see if I can restore it. The rest of the car is in pretty good shape.
So once your ready to apply the Serum you wipe the panel off with the solvent panel wipe, buff it up then get the pad/applicator which comes in the box along with some gloves. There is a dropper in the box and you put a full dropper's worth onto the pad and then just wipe it on, it goes on very easily and you start to see the solvent evaporate and leave the coating. Then you just get a fresh micro fibre cloth and buff it, polish it till it has a nice sheen and then move onto the next panel, remembering to use a fresh cloth for each panel.
It really is that simple, wipe it on then buff it off. Do a panel at a time or half a panel if it's large like a bonnet, it doesn't matter if you overlap as it just buffs off.
I've left mine overnight in the garage and then this morning I put the Exo V4 on, this the hydrophobic coating and it applies in the same way and again you just buff it up to a shine. Apparently you have to leave 4 hrs before the second coat of Exo V4, you need 2 coats apparently to get the finish right. You can feel straight away how silky smooth the panels feel and if you rest a cloth on a wing it just slips straight off.
I got the 30 ml bottles of Serum and Exo V4 and I have half a bottle of Serum left over and I think the Exo will be used up after I do the second coat, plus I need to sort the bonnet out which I'm in the process of doing.
Obviously on a new or newer car there should be less paint damage so you will probably get away with a MOP using fine compound and then wipe off and apply the Serum.
It is a time consuming job and that's why most people will say sod it I'll get the 'pro' to do it which is fair enough. As I said this was an exercise to see how easy/hard it would be and in all honesty I've saved £500 and I'd not think twice about tackling a new car, it's the preparation that makes it a good or bad job not the application of the product, that's the easy bit.
i'll post pictures when I can get the car outside in the day light.