So this weekend Rustbucket & Myself had a rather sad patient in for a makeover. Whilst Grant had seen the car before hand I had not and was quite surprised to see the condition it was in. Before we get into the pics, a quick rundown of the tools and products we used on this one. Sonax wash Sonax polymer dewax Sonax Xtreme rim cleaner Sonax glass cleaner Sonax glass polish New car scent Meg's Endurance Gel Meg's Hyper Dressing Menzerna IP Menzerna FA Presta Swirl Remover LC white pad Flex blue pad Flex white pad 2000 grit waterpaper Abrasive pad CG's Extreme top coat 3x carnauba CG's XXX paste wax Flex 3401 Rotary Various brushes and MF cloths Right onto the pics, these are some of the pics we snapped after we went to collect it... Whilst the car was pretty dirty both inside and out and there was some serious swirling, plenty RDS all over and some bad etching from bird bombs, overall we figured it would look a whole lot better after a thorough wash and clay... Clay after a small section of the roof...The entire car was pretty much the same as this except for the doors which were fairly clean and free from bonded contaminants. After claying we dried the car and it looked as if it wasn't to bad afterall. Interestingly what we initially thought to be a black car proved to be midnight metallic blue once it was clean, the owner was just as surprised when we called to tell her :applause2: It was already dark so we decided to head on inside for some pizza and to watch a bit of JC and the Top Gear boys. Saturday morning arrived and after a quick trip to the post office to collect some new goodies Don had sent us, we rinsed the car again and pulled it out into the sun to see what were up against now that the car was clean... Lots of swirls, RDS and some heavy marring possibly from the claying. There also appeared to be some buffer trails and holograms from a previous polishing attempt. We later discovered that one of the panels had infact been resprayed and the car was more than likely subsequently polished....anyways on to the polishing. After a few tries with various combo's we eventually found that hitting it with some IP on the blue pad followed by FA on the white pad worked well. Here is a quick 50/50 of a test section on the bonnet after a single hit with IP followed by a single hit of FA with the Flex. Unfortunately the IP was full of nonsense again and we wound up switching to Presta Swirl remover followed by FA for the polishing. Some of the deeper scratches as well as the bird etchings were wetsanded where required. Rustbucket getting stuck in with the Flex Some pics after polishing, the FA really finished down incredibly and left the finish like a mirror. With all of that out of the way the car was rewashed to remove any polishing oils and checked again before turning our attention to all the smaller bits. The interior, wheels and engine bay as well as the exhaust and the smaller hard to reach areas we missed with the buffers we sorted next... Interior credit to our 2 wives :clap: Engine Wheels Under the door handles Exhaust Now it was time for some LSP action. First up was a single application of the new CG's Extreme Top Coat followed by a single application of the CG's XXX paste wax. The Extreme Top Coat went on very much like a polish and needed some elbow grease to remove, the XXX went on like a regular wax and again, most likely as a result of the high nuba content was not the easiest to remove... Myself applying some XXX Once in the sun the full beauty of the dark blue paint could be seen Before and afters And finally some random reflection shots from around the car After 2 days of work we were both very pleased with the outcome and actually had a lot of fun doing this job. Thanks for looking :thumb:
This is one crazy restoration. Potential buyers (assuming this is for a sale) will have no idea how well the owner 'cared' for their car. Honestly, I am stunned.... IB
what are RDS? sorry no clue. i dont know all of the abreviations people use here. Awesome turnaround on this one.
Awesome job Carn. You and Rustbucket did a phenomenal job and get my vote for the August entries!!! The turnaround is simply stunning. I told you you would like the Flex and you did some beautiful work with it! And slanguage RDS stands for Random Deep Scratches. You will also see some people refer to them as RIDS.
Hi guys, thanks for all the kind comments :applause2: JL thanks for the vote of confidence....let's see what everyone else thinks, who knows maybe we win....that would be frikken awesome :gidiup: The Flex is really an awesome machine, I have to return the demo unit this week and am actually dreading the next detail this coming weekend without it :thud: Can't wait for the proper retail stock to arrive soon :campfire: Slanguage as JL mentioned Random Deep Scratches is how I know it What does RIDS then stand for BTW JL ?
I think it just sort of developed from RDS. I think the I just sort of showed up to make a real word.
Thanks Asphalt, was a tag team with Rustbucket as always so not a solo effort :thumb: That could be it, well sounds like it anyways. JL your theory might also be correct, RIDS sounds better than RDS :applause2:
Yeah, that's some strong cleaning up there both inside and out. The 3401 is one helluva machine. I hear you on the IP though; it can be a PITA to use at times. Also, what is that machine you guys used for the door handles and can I get one in the U.S.???
FANTASTIC WORK Guys... I love the close up full sun shots, that just shows the true level iof correction you guys attained since the sun is an evil mistress!!! I hope you guys win because you sure do deserve it! FYI: RIDS = Random Isolated Deep Scratches Great work!
Nice job guys, I like the idea on the door handles, I've been thinking about that but always forget to try it. Great turn around and I enjoyed the reflection pictures, job well done. Good luck :cheerl:
Thank you very much for the kind comments guys. Comming from all of you it means alot.:applause2: Ok, on the question of the dremel tool. The tip I was using is a soft felt tip. Now just remember the dremel only has one speed. Fast. I simply applied a small dab of IP to the tip. Spread it on with the dremel off and then turned it on and worked the polish in. Now at on stage I tried to hold the dremel verticaly and worked up and down under the door handle. I found this to leave matt looking vertical stripes under the door. :doh: So I tried again. This time, holding verticaly I swept the tool from side to side with just slight pressure. I then eased up on the pressure altogether and just let the tool buff back the shine. This worked great and was actually very quick. :thumb: