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  • Time to add some shine…

    Jan 4th 2011

    By: TiidaTales

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    Just look at this shine!

    Now I would love to say that it took a whole day of my sweat and elbow grease to get HER Tiida to shine like that, but I would be lying.  The truth is that the car has just come back from her yearly treatment, compliments of Amazing Glaze and the pts106 product.

    Now before you think that I am being paid by them or I am affiliated to them, let me assure you – I am not.  I am just truly amazed with their product hence the write up.

    On my previous car, the white Opel Astra 200IE Euro, the paint was starting to fade and dull in certain places,  also one could see those swirling marks on the paintwork (even after washing the car)

    Example of Paint Swirls

    A friend of mine recommended that we have the car “glazed” to help bring the colour back and protect it from further fading. So a trip to the folks at Amazing Glaze and lets just say I was sold  (and it helped increase the trade in value of the car 🙂 ).

    When we got HIS Tiida we had him glazed in the first week.  When we got HER Tiida she was glazed the next day.

    OK so what is this  Amazing Glaze or pts106?

    If you go to their website , currently there is just a welcome page with their contact numbers.  If you use the Web Archive you will find a page with more information on it, but dated back to 2008…

    To quote another website:

    “The Amazing Glaze Paint protection system was initially developed by NASA in the eighties as a measure to reduce wind resistance on the painted surfaces on their shuttle fleet.

    Characteristics:

    PTS 106 is a polyurethane resin, penetrates the pores of the paint and bonds with paint structure.
    PTS 106 is applied in two stages: the first stage cleans out pores of paint and the second acts as a catalyst for second stage, the second stage bonds quickly with paint structure assisted by the catalyst already present.
    PTS 106 strengthens the paint structure by about 35%.
    PTS 106 does not peel, fade, chip etc. it is not a clear layer applied over the paint work.
    PTS 106 is safe to use on all colors and paint types.

    Benefits:

    PTS 106 protects against the damaging effects of: bird droppings, salt spray tree sap, industrial fall-out and UV rays
    PTS 106 maintains the vehicles appearance thereby retaining its resale value.
    PTS 106 seals the painted surfaces making the vehicle easy to keep clean.”

    OK so tell me more?

    Well the glazing costs R550,00 (as at January 2011). For this they give the car an “executive” wash and glaze. It takes about 3-4 hours. You drive out with a sparkling glazed car, a warranty card that states if the pts106 fades or dulls in 1 year you bring the car back and they redo it for you, as well as a complimentary sponge, masterguard leather and car wash that is good for about 5 washes.

    They also let you have a complimentary wash (to ensure that the pts106 has fully bonded to the paint) about a week later.

    If you want your car valeted then add an extra R100,00 to the price and an hour extra time.

    In closing if you have a car that you want to ensure it’s paint looks great you need to have it glazed. It protects the paint and water runs off of it like water off a ducks back!  I can highly recommend it!  In fact HIS Tiida is scheduled for this Friday!

    HER Tiida, HIS Tiida

  • Tiida Hubcaps – why you want to use cable ties…

    Aug 18th 2010

    By: TiidaTales

    No comments

    We decided a while back to go for a family outing to the Johannesburg Zoo. We hopped in HIS Tiida and off we went for a day of fun with the animals. When we arrived we parked in the far corner of the parking lot.

    The Johannesburg Zoo is really a great place. The animals look happy and in good condition and it is also a very clean zoo. For anyone visiting, and you need the bathroom, be sure to use the one by the Tiger enclosure. We discovered it quite by accident, but it was quite an experience to be sitting on the thrown and have a tiger pass your window…only thing separating the two of you is a thick piece of glass.

    Tiger outside the toilet at JHB Zoo

    Anyway we left the zoo and headed back home later that afternoon.

    The following day one of my staff, Dirk Schaap, asked me why did I only have two hubcaps on HIS Tiida? I thought he was joking but he was serious, he said that the passenger side hubcaps were missing. I went down to the basement and yup only hubcaps on the car were on the drivers side…someone had decided they wanted Nissan Tiida hubcaps…

    I called up the local Nissan dealer and asked the spares chap how much 2x Nissan Tiida hub caps would cost. He looked it up on the computer and said politely R783,00 EACH! Yes, let me repeat that – R783,00 E-A-C-H! I asked him to double check the price and he confirmed it was correct.

    Now one of the articles that I had read on HelloPeter.com when we were researching issues on the Nissan Tiida’s ironically brought up an incident where a person had hired a car from a rental company and had lost a hub cap and was quoted – yes R783,66 for a replacement one. Read the incident here.

    I called my brother-in-law Pierre and told him how I suspected that someone had stolen the 2 hubcaps at the Zoo, and asked if he could keep an eye open for hubcaps at scrapyards in Port Elizabeth, as I was NOT going to buy new.

    How’s this for irony… that evening my brother-in-law pointed out that the Zoo had aired an appeal for donations on a local TV program called 50/50. Sharp as ever he said that I had obviously been very generous in donating 2x R783,00 hub caps to the cause… 🙂

    Well at least this story had a happy ending. Pierre kindly went scrapyard hopping and managed to pick up a complete set of hub caps that looked identical to mine and paid R500 for the set.

    He brought it up with him when they came to visit. I have marked them inside with permanent marker stating “Reward If Found and Returned to Michael Scanlen – (and my phone number)”, it they ever happen to find themselves off the car.

    Like I said this story has a happy ending. HIS Tiida has four hub caps that are now cable tied to the car…and the zoo got their donation.

    All, HIS Tiida

  • MustGet: Door Handle Cup Protectors

    Aug 5th 2010

    By: TiidaTales

    No comments

    If there is one item that every Tiida owner needs to get it is Door Handle Cup Protectors.

    Go have a look at any Tiida’s door, you will see that there are scratch marks in the cup behind the handle. Obviously the darker the car colour the easily you will see it, however having said that on white Tiida’s the scratches show up with brown lines.

    This is what I am talking about (please ignore the dirty car – btw it is not my car):

    What the door handle cups end up looking like

    Believe me, how this happens (be it from finger nails when opening the door, or a persons ring) is one of those unsolved mysteries – but sadly it happens.

    I tried polish. I tried compound. I took the car for a glazing. There was just no way of getting those scratches gone. Well if you cannot fix it – hide it!

    I called the local agents and asked if they had any protectors or film that I could use to protect the cups. Other than the startled “you want to do what” the answer was a “no”. OK then, off to Ebay…

    Now the trick when searching for parts on Ebay is to ensure you also search for model name of the vehicle as it is called in the USA.

    (Did You Know: The Tiida is called “Tiida” is Japan and South Africa. In South American countries it is called the “Latio”, and in the USA it is called the “Versa”. )

    I typed in “Nissan+Versa” in the search box – 4000 hits (you can also try “Nissan+Tiida”). Now sort by “Price+Shipping – Lowest First” and then I chose “ZA – South Africa”, because remember you have to ship it all the way from the other side of the world and it is no use paying for an item costing $1,00 and you have to pay $100,00 for shipping…

    Anyway back on topic, I saw a picture looking like this:

    Ebay Example Photo

    The Ebay store selling it at that stage was FeiOutlet, and it cost $4.99 + $10,00 shipping (see why you want to sort with shipping costs included…). I ordered it and 6 weeks later I got a slip from the Post Office to say I had to pay R12,00 import duty on the parcel. Total Cost to my house = $15,00 x R8,00 + R12,00 = R132,00 for a set.

    This is what it looks like when unpacked on the kitchen table:

    How it arrived here (unpacked by me)

    All I did then was clean the door cups on the car, remove the red backing of the 3M tape on the cup holders and stick in place. No more unsightly scratches!

    End result

    Until next time…

    Accessories, All, HER Tiida, HIS Tiida

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