WX51TXR
Polished Bliss
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2005
- Messages
- 1,452
- Reaction score
- 16
- Points
- 36
- Location
- AB51 0TH
- Website
- www.polishedbliss.co.uk
A month or two back, when we told Clark he was going to have to have a week off (!), it seemed like a good idea to me to book in a single car for the week. My thinking was that this would limit the loss of income from detailing, and also allow me enough time to do the work without compromising all of the other tasks I have to do on a daily basis. So, a week or two later when a local chap called Keith popped in with his newly acquired Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition, asking for a full show preparation detail and two coats of Vintage, it seemed like an ideal job... or so I thought.
The car itself is a minter; just fewer than 20,000 since it first hit the road in the year 2000, and a really full history, even including petrol receipts! In terms of paint defects and the need for the detailing work, a pre inspection revealed the usual swirling and random scratching, plus numerous stone chips that would need filling. Keith also pointed out the graphics were full of air bubbles (or trapped dirt), and that the wheels were suffering wear and tear around the bolt holes. It was agreed that the graphics would come off ahead of the detail, and that new ones would be fitted mid detail (after the machine polishing work but before the wax layers). Game on...
Monday
Mondays are always a nightmare, due to having to deal with the weekends e-mails, messages and voicemails, along with catching up on the forum sections we are currently sponsoring. Accordingly, I didnt want to lose too much of the day to the detail, so I limited myself to just the wash and claying steps...
The process was the same as usual. The car was foamed with Meguiars Safe Degreaser, rinsed using the pressure washer, then hand washed with mitts and Meguiars Shampoo Plus (2 bucket method), then rinsed again. Autosmart Tardis was then used neat to remove all traces of tar, and the car was rinsed again. All panels were then clayed with Meguiars Detailing Clay Mild, which took no time at all as the car was pretty clean anyway. The wheels required more effort, and a two stage process; firstly I used Menzerna Gel 7.5 and some new wheel brushes we are testing to shift the bonded brake dust, and then I followed up with Tardis to shift any stubborn tar spots. The final results were spot on...
Before
After
I finished up for the day by foaming the car with Hyper Wash one last time (as the car had sat for an hour or so while I did the wheels), rinsing thoroughly with an open ended hose and then drying the car off fully with our trusty leaf blower. It was then moved inside ready for polishing the next day.
Tuesday
Tuesday was looking little better in terms of free time, so I settled on doing just the roof and all of the pillars. After taping off the window rubbers I took readings across these areas using our hand held DFT Combo gauge. The results were not confidence inspiring...
I couldnt help at this stage but have a wonder around the whole car with the gauge, and soon found that most of the panels were sitting between 85-95 microns with numerous low areas in the 60s and a few higher zones up into the low 100s. On reflection though, 69 microns isnt that big deal on paint that only comprises two layers; a quick test confirmed I was dealing with single stage paint, so things were about to get messy. After a little experimentation, I opted for Menzerna 106FA and 3M pads to do all of the metal panel correction, as Menzerna RD3.02 was removing way too much paint and not finishing down LSP ready. On panels with relatively few defects, the 106FA and blue Ultrafina SE High Gloss Polishing Pads did the trick nicely in a couple of attempts, while on more defective panels, the black standard High Gloss Polishing Pads were needed, along with 2-3 attempts for maximum defect correction. Thus it was time consuming, but this was show preparation after all...
Before
After
Me in action on the roof...
Wednesday
Wednesday was the big one... I had to get all of the metal panels done by the evening ready for the installation of the fresh graphics, so I started early and pressed on all day long...
Little tips to pass on; on cars with bonnet vents, there are two important things to consider. Firstly, if you get polishing dust down into the vents, how easily will you be able to clean them out again? If in any doubt tape them off fully... but remember that the paint on grill vents may be very brittle, due to the effects of heat over time tape it and more often than not youll pull some off when you peel off the tape. To avoid this, you can cover the grills as follows and kill two birds with one stone; and it only takes 1-2 minutes per grill to do...
All you do is take a piece of paper, push it gently into the edges of the grill to define the shape, then take it out, cut it out, lay the grill shaped piece back in and finally tape the edges neatly. Job done!
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before x 2
After x 2
After doing the near side wing and front door, I was left with a nasty scratch that needed a lot more work. Jim at Auto Perfection had kindly sent me some new goodies to test beforehand, so I opted to dry sand the area with 4000 grit micro-sanding discs, removing a good 9-10 microns in the process. I then polished out the haze with ease using just 106FA and one of the black standard high gloss pads, which reflects just how fine the sanding haze was top trick Jim, cheers mate!
With all of the metal panels polished, it was time for the new graphics to be fitted. Donald from the Vinyl Cut kindly gave up his evening to do the work, and as always, a damn fine job he did too...
The car itself is a minter; just fewer than 20,000 since it first hit the road in the year 2000, and a really full history, even including petrol receipts! In terms of paint defects and the need for the detailing work, a pre inspection revealed the usual swirling and random scratching, plus numerous stone chips that would need filling. Keith also pointed out the graphics were full of air bubbles (or trapped dirt), and that the wheels were suffering wear and tear around the bolt holes. It was agreed that the graphics would come off ahead of the detail, and that new ones would be fitted mid detail (after the machine polishing work but before the wax layers). Game on...
Monday
Mondays are always a nightmare, due to having to deal with the weekends e-mails, messages and voicemails, along with catching up on the forum sections we are currently sponsoring. Accordingly, I didnt want to lose too much of the day to the detail, so I limited myself to just the wash and claying steps...
The process was the same as usual. The car was foamed with Meguiars Safe Degreaser, rinsed using the pressure washer, then hand washed with mitts and Meguiars Shampoo Plus (2 bucket method), then rinsed again. Autosmart Tardis was then used neat to remove all traces of tar, and the car was rinsed again. All panels were then clayed with Meguiars Detailing Clay Mild, which took no time at all as the car was pretty clean anyway. The wheels required more effort, and a two stage process; firstly I used Menzerna Gel 7.5 and some new wheel brushes we are testing to shift the bonded brake dust, and then I followed up with Tardis to shift any stubborn tar spots. The final results were spot on...
Before
After
I finished up for the day by foaming the car with Hyper Wash one last time (as the car had sat for an hour or so while I did the wheels), rinsing thoroughly with an open ended hose and then drying the car off fully with our trusty leaf blower. It was then moved inside ready for polishing the next day.
Tuesday
Tuesday was looking little better in terms of free time, so I settled on doing just the roof and all of the pillars. After taping off the window rubbers I took readings across these areas using our hand held DFT Combo gauge. The results were not confidence inspiring...
I couldnt help at this stage but have a wonder around the whole car with the gauge, and soon found that most of the panels were sitting between 85-95 microns with numerous low areas in the 60s and a few higher zones up into the low 100s. On reflection though, 69 microns isnt that big deal on paint that only comprises two layers; a quick test confirmed I was dealing with single stage paint, so things were about to get messy. After a little experimentation, I opted for Menzerna 106FA and 3M pads to do all of the metal panel correction, as Menzerna RD3.02 was removing way too much paint and not finishing down LSP ready. On panels with relatively few defects, the 106FA and blue Ultrafina SE High Gloss Polishing Pads did the trick nicely in a couple of attempts, while on more defective panels, the black standard High Gloss Polishing Pads were needed, along with 2-3 attempts for maximum defect correction. Thus it was time consuming, but this was show preparation after all...
Before
After
Me in action on the roof...
Wednesday
Wednesday was the big one... I had to get all of the metal panels done by the evening ready for the installation of the fresh graphics, so I started early and pressed on all day long...
Little tips to pass on; on cars with bonnet vents, there are two important things to consider. Firstly, if you get polishing dust down into the vents, how easily will you be able to clean them out again? If in any doubt tape them off fully... but remember that the paint on grill vents may be very brittle, due to the effects of heat over time tape it and more often than not youll pull some off when you peel off the tape. To avoid this, you can cover the grills as follows and kill two birds with one stone; and it only takes 1-2 minutes per grill to do...
All you do is take a piece of paper, push it gently into the edges of the grill to define the shape, then take it out, cut it out, lay the grill shaped piece back in and finally tape the edges neatly. Job done!
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before x 2
After x 2
After doing the near side wing and front door, I was left with a nasty scratch that needed a lot more work. Jim at Auto Perfection had kindly sent me some new goodies to test beforehand, so I opted to dry sand the area with 4000 grit micro-sanding discs, removing a good 9-10 microns in the process. I then polished out the haze with ease using just 106FA and one of the black standard high gloss pads, which reflects just how fine the sanding haze was top trick Jim, cheers mate!
With all of the metal panels polished, it was time for the new graphics to be fitted. Donald from the Vinyl Cut kindly gave up his evening to do the work, and as always, a damn fine job he did too...