Bentley Arnage 155 Hour Detail...

This was the latest Ne Plus Ultra detail that was completed a month or so back on this Bentley Arnage:













(centre caps were removed at this stage to get rid of all the road salt)



The car was booked in for the best part of 2 weeks but it had been in to us the week previous for a 1 day protection detail as a friend of the owner was getting married so he wanted the car to be spruced up for their big day. The Exterior was pretty filthy again due to the salt on the roads etc but the interior was still pretty much spotless...



...As was the engine bay, just a light covering of dust:




As the car had been freshly detailed last week we were able to get through the wash stage fairly quickly as everything was still pretty clean underneath the road grime - here's a few pics of the wash stage anyways using the usual methods and products:





303 Aerospace beading away nicely on the engine bay after a quick rinse:







The car was rinsed and then put inside for a bit of spot claying to remove a few fresh contaminants on the paintwork and then dried with PB luxury drying towels and the Black Baron drier:






With the car ready for paint correction it was time to assess the paint thickness:




Some fairly low spots...






...And some fairly high!




Composites gauge was used for the plastic panels:




So all in all, very inconsistent readings, which meant alot of readings had to be taken for every panel (approx 100 for a door etc).



The short story of why the car was booked in with us is as follows:

The owner was unhappy with the paint finish due to several of his drivers using the local car washes/brushes etc so he had several different places machine polish the car in attempt to bring some life back to the paint - one of those were Bentley themselves. The owner was still far from happy after this and the following pics should show you why...















































The wedding ribbons had left their mark - quite literally...





So as you can see, it wasn’t exactly in the best of ways! The owner had made it quite clear that this was the last chance for the car and if he still wasn’t happy with it by the end then the car would be getting sold.



So, on with what was my biggest challenge to date!...


As always, I spent a bit of time working out a pad and polish combination that would achieve the desired level of correction. The paint was pretty hard but quite sticky in places too - not something I've usually associated with hard paints in the past but first time for everything as they say.

First stage of correction was Meguiars 105 and Lake Country foamed wool:



The good thing with the wool is that sticky paint isn’t really a major problem due to the cooler temperatures when compounding so at least that was something!

This was then followed up with Menzerna 203S & 3.02 in some places with a Lake Country polishing pad. The first two stages were done a panel at a time so I only had one more trip round the car to refine at the end - more of a psychological thing really as I didn’t fancy the soul destroying task of three seperate trips round such a huge car!

The result of the first two stages (with the last refining stage still to follow later) were as shown below:




So with my method sorted out I cracked on with the rest of the car, with just under 90 hours of compounding ahead of me. Most of the correction shots are in no particular order:

Ribbon marks fully removed on the bonnet:



This small nick in the paint is typical of what was left:



This could be removed if you took another circa 10 microns off but it would be complete overkill when you can see the rest of the surrounding paint is perfect

There were some really deep sanding marks next to the headlights, the below shot is after 1 hit with the wool pad and an IPA wipe down:



After a 2nd hit:



After a 3rd - just the wool marks left now:




The DA machine was used for the headlights:




Front bumper before:



After:




Before:



After:





Before:



After:




Martin from Dent Devils dropped in by to work his magic on a few minor dings - I love watching this guy work, I'm always amazed at what he can remove from what seems like impossible places to get to! Highly recommended if you're in the Aberdeen area :thumb:





Onto what was probably the worst area of the car, the boot lid:







Before:



After:




50/50:






Completed shot later :thumb:



Before:



After:




One good thing with all that sanding from the factory is the low level of orange peel:





Before:



After:




A couple more 50/50's:






Up onto the roof:








Rear bumper before:



After:




Whilst I'd been busy with the paintwork I'd found plenty for Colin to do, including waxing all interior trim...



...And cleaning in and around all the switches etc with cotton buds and some IPA (I'm sure he was really hating me by this point ):




The pedals were really letting the interior down so these were removed and after a bit of attention with crackle finish paint and some sand paper they were back to new again :thumb:

Before:



After:




The wheels were removed and polished with Menzerna 203S:



The areas the machine couldn’t reach were done by hand:



They were then cleansed with Werkstat Prime and topped with a couple of coats of Blackfire Metal Sealant:




Arches were fully detailed and hubs painted too:

Before:



After:






The back arches had fabric liners (I don’t care if they reduce road noise, they're a complete pain to clean sometimes!) so a good thorough brush and vacuum was needed for these!




Once I'd finished the first 2 stages of correction I decided to put the car outside again to rinse off all the compounding dust. Usually I never find a need for this but with each panel needing at least 3 or 4 hits the dust soon got pretty heavy!

I foamed the car with Meguiars Hyper Wash @ 50/60 degrees and then rinsed, this was at approx 1am on a Saturday morning!





With the car back inside and dried with the Black Baron it was time for the refining stage.

As the car had sticky paint and was solid black I decided to finish with the DA machine, purely because I didn’t have to worry about leaving trails and the DA is usually much less effort on sticky paints - all you have to make sure is that you finish crystal clear with no micro marring left over. Due to the size of the car it would have taken forever to refine with the rotary and there would be no guarantees that it would finish down 100% trail free anyways so why make life difficult for myself?


Meguiars 205 was used with a Lake Country Polishing Pad. This polish is great with the rotary but I've been equally impressed when using it with dual action machines, especially on sticky paints where it almost buffs off like a sealant as opposed to an oily polish.

The polish was worked at speed 5/5.5 with moderate to heavy pressure for the first few passes before decreasing the pressure and slowing the machine to speed 4 with very light pressure to ensure a crystal clear finish.

A perfect micro marring free finish:




Hopefully this goes some way to rubbishing claims by some that you cant finish down that well with DA machines - all you need is the right pad, polish and technique :thumb:


When all the polishing was complete I lightly dusted the car down before carrying out a thorough IPA wipe down:




LSP of choice was Migliore Competizione - I've been seriously impressed with this wax and I swear you want to eat the stuff when you smell it :lol:



This was applied VERY thinly to a couple of panels at a time and then carefully buffed off. The Migliore waxes don’t set like most other waxes so they're still wet when you remove them - hence why you have to put them on as thin as possible or they can be tricky to remove and will clog up your microfibre.


As usual, the finishing touches were completed including Werkstat Prime Strong on the grill and all exterior chrome trim:



The engine bay was dressed with 303 Aerospace Protectant again:






After a wipe down with Migliore QD this was the result of 104 hours of machine polishing and 155 man-hours in total...
















































































The customer was so happy with the final result that he has now cancelled his order for the new Rolls Royce Ghost as he is now keeping the Bentley - cant say much more than that :thumb:


Thanks for reading,

Clark

 

wow just wow looks perfect

 

..... don't know what to say lol.

Great work Clark. It must have put a smile on your face when the owner decided to keep her instead of purchasing the new ghost

 

Yes and no really! I'd have quite liked to have got my hands on the RR haha!

 

Stunning work Clark....:worship2:

 

looks great, great job. what you mean freshly detailed? did it meant it was washed and clayed week ago?

like the front of car, bad not at all.

 

Unreal, best details of 2010 yet. Stunning work!

 

Once again you've left me speechless. Unbelievable save! Glad to see you finishing with a PC.

 

Yep. Owner got their Protection detail which is wash, clay and wax a week earlier!

 

Stunning work Clark!!

 

insane is what comes to mind

 

damn!

 

lol tell him that he should also get the ghost or at the very least get it for you for a job well done. He can take it out on weekends when you're not using it lol.

Cheers for great work.

 

stunning work i'm sure the guy is happy now an a client for life lol.

 

wow. speech less. The results are flawless. That thing looks like a pool of ink. Very nice work and another good set of picz. What camera and lens were you using to capture those pics?

 

beautiful work and great polishing work. glad you're proving DA haters wrong lol

 

that's whacked. i just don't understand how people, who can well afford these kinds of cars, can let them get in that kind of messed up condition. your work is stellar.:applause:

 

Remarkable work, that thing is stunning.

 

Clark, that was quite the save. The car looks pratically brand new when you were done.

Nice 50/50 shots as well. :applause:

 

It's a Nikon D3 I think mate - standard lense as far as I'm aware - can you guess I'm not into photography? haha!

Thanks for all the awesome feedback guys!