It’s been a while since we’ve featured our Project MINI, so here it is everyone, our 2002 R53 MINI Cooper S in Porsche Signal Green if you have yet to get acquainted. This bright green finish was painted over 5 years ago and has never received professional detailing of any kind, ever.
Therefore, the MINI made perfect sense as a candidate for a comprehensive car detailing service. So, just last month we commissioned this restoration job to Hikaru Automotive located right in the heart of Malaysia’s car tuning capital, Bandar Sunway.
Hikaru Automotive is a professional car detailing outfit who represents the likes of Protech Monte Carlo and HoGo Coating products in Malaysia, where they offer a wide range of services and packages to suit any needs, budget and car.
First Inspection
- A trained technician is assigned to each car.
- A thorough paint surface inspection is carried out and covers everything from watermarks, scratches, swirl marks, imperfections, blemishes, orange peels, clear coat thickness and so on
- An in-depth report is then generated and the customer is briefed with current status of the car’s paint condition, including photos for proof and relevant solutions.
Surface Cleansing
- Initial car wash
- To clean general surfaces from wheels to body
- Utilizing showroom grade shampoos and wash mitts
- Steam Cleaning
- Industrial steam cleaners are used to effectively remove stubborn stains
- Able to reach and clean in-between seams and crevices
- The safest non-toxic method to clean both the interior and exterior
- Clay Bar Detailing
- A clay bar works like an adhesive to essentially remove surface contamination
- A primary process that effectively prepares a surface before polish or wax
Paint Correction
- A trained technician performs surface polishing process
- This process conditions the car’s clear coat and will remove almost all:
- swirl marks
- visible scratches
- watermarks
Second Inspection
- This second inspection determines if the newly prepared surface qualifies for the final coating step
- Certain areas of the car will receive further manual detailing to achieve a perfect base surface
Showroom Condition
- At this point, the car’s paint surface would have exceeded its initial factory state.
- With every inch of the paint surface detailed and inspected, one critical final step remains.
- To protect this perfected surface and sheen, a customer can now choose to have their car either:
- Waxed – A traditional and undisputed method to preserve surface gloss that requires multiple reapplications yearly
- Coated – A synthetic coating process that ensures gloss protection for an extended duration, typically lasting over a year per application
Coating
The benefits of protection at a molecular level is no longer new. Nano-coating technology has evolved beyond simply water-proofing your fabric shoes and has become a viable alternative to waxing.
Needless to say, our MINI received HoGo’s Glass Coating, a third-party service available through Hikaru Automotive. This futuristic application is said to last over year and will continue to perform with regular basic maintenance.
HoGo’s Glass Coating repels virtually everything the environment can throw at it. Rain water simply slides off with gravity or motion. Dust, mud or bird poo easily falls off coated surface with running water.
As you can see from the video above, a technician demonstrates how running water glides off our coated MINI like cold water on a hot pan.
Having experienced this exceptional coating for a couple of months, it is almost magical how clean the MINI stays over a longer period, now even post-rain feels like a post-wash. With an exception of stubborn post-urban thunderstorms, dirt and grime dissolves with a blast of clean water.
Home maintenance has never been easier.
Hikaru Automotive
No:3, Jalan PJS 11/20 Bandar Sunway,
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Phone: 03-5612 0303
Email: [email protected]
Hikaru Automotive Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/hikaruautomotive
