The polishing ready for M.O.T

[Guest]

This Thursday the car is going in for M.O.T so today I polished her up as I can't do it tommorow as I'm at the day centre. Took me 3 hours to clean her up and it was very windy as I did it.

[D87SMW]

It doesn't have to be clean for its MOT, but that does look very clean and shiny! Well done.

[Guest]

Thanks Steve. I'm very car proud. lol I use Autoglym HD wax, Autoglym Resin, Turtlewax and Mean Machine to polish her with. Last year at the M.O.T centre, the people there always said how clean she is and how smart she looks.

One day I'll be like this when I get my car.

[Austin-Rover]

You missed a bit.

[G51 NAV]

Looks lovely mate, well done

[daveyboy]

Thats one very shiney and well looked after Astra fair play to you

[Guest]

She went in today, and she failed but its not bad its something to do with the leaf spring and front offside sprut. We can't use her on long journeys so we'll have to borrow a car. Other than that she's passed!

Tuesday they're fixing the leaf spring and offside sprut.

[e692wtt]

Astras don't have leaf springs - certainly not in their suspension, and not anywhere else as far as I am aware.

[Guest]

I just looked on the M.O.T paper now and it says coil spring the offside rear. Dad said to me its called a leaf spring, like me, he doesn't know that much about car mechanics.

[e692wtt]

Good good, the garage are not taking the mick then (if the MoT paperwork said 'leaf spring' I'd be concerned!) .

Incidentally, the rear springs on the Mk 2 were called 'monobloc' springs (they are narrow at the bottom and top, wider in the middle, meaning the springs can be kept underneath the car and giving more room in the car) - I dont know if the Mk 3's rear springs are any different...

[Guest]

The car was fixed this morning! Yesterday I did the routine and washed, polished and waxed her up.

[G51 NAV]

You don't really need to wax that often, maybe once every month. If you wax too often, over time,a build-up of layered wax can cloud the reflections. What you need to buy is a detailing-spray to use after you've washed and dried the car, to give it the 'freshly detailed' look.

[Guest]

You don't really need to wax that often, maybe once every month. If you wax too often, over time,a build-up of layered wax can cloud the reflections. What you need to buy is a detailing-spray to use after you've washed and dried the car, to give it the 'freshly detailed' look.

Does Autoglym have detailing spray?

[G51 NAV]

They've just brought one out called Rapid Detailer, but I'm not an AG fan as such so I don't know what it's like. Meguiar's have several (Quick Detailer, NXT Speed Detailer and Ultimate Quick Detailer), Turtle Wax have one (Ice Detail Spray) and lots of 'boutique' car-care specialists like Chemical Guys, Sonus, Victoria Wax and others have them in their ranges.

[Austin-Rover]

I've just bought the AutoGlym detaling spray, simply because it was slightly cheaper and you got 50ml more in a bottle than the Megs stuff. I've only used it with the clay bar, and have yet to try it as purely the detailing spray. With the clay, it works just like the Megs stuff.