Today’s guest at OCD-HQ is this Citroen Saxo Track car. It is a solid black car that has not seen much care an attention past the engine bay and mechanical greasy bits. But this is all about to change. The owner wanted it car to get some of its shine back after it has become dull and very swirled. On initial inspection there are a lot of deep RDS that simply will not come out this side of a paint gun but being a track car, some battle scars are a prerequisite. We agreed to remove what we could and “hide” what we could not take out. On measuring the car there was a very healthy reading of 120 microns apart from the drivers door which was reading 80-85 microns indicating some previous buffing so softly softly here. Wash Process. • Foamed with Snow foam and left to dwell for 5 minutes • All wheels sprayed with Reflection Perfection Wheel cleaner and scrubbed • Power hosed off. • Wheels individually re-sprayed with wheel cleaner the scrubbed to remove all dirt and grime. Then hosed off and individually treated with Tardis and tar removed. Rewashed and arched scrubbed with degreaser then tardis. • Whole car refoamed and then washed with Megs gold class in a bucket with the trusty noodle mitt. • Rinsed with water and inspected. • The car was badly tarred so it was treated to a panel by panel application of tardis applied with a Megs foam applicator then washed off. After the whole car was finished it was re washed using the above method. • The car was then clayed using Bilt Hamber white clay and Autosmart Reglaze as lube. • The engine bay was “dry washed” using a new type of wet wipe I have found that is great for doing engine bays etc. this means I do not have to worry about getting coil packs etc wet. They leave a nice finish and do a great job. Time consuming though and of course there is that bit you can see but can’t reach. • The car was given one final wash and brought inside. Here are the Pics. Now onto the correction, due to the severity of the swirling it was decided that at least a 2 stage correction process would be needed then finally refined ready for LSP to get any sort of decent level of finish. Process used: • Initially I used a Reflection perfection compounding pad and 3M FCP. 2 pea sized blobs on opposite sides of the pad and a spritz of QD to add some lubrication. My routine for correction was: Spread at 600rpm Begin working at 1200rpm, light pressure to get residue evenly spread to start correction. Work at 2000rpm, medium pressure working up to heavy pressure towards the end. As residue began to go clear, reduce pressure for a couple of final passes at 2000rpm. Reduce speed to 1200rpm. • Then for perfecting the finish This was on a Gloss-it yellow pad 1 pea sized blob of Megs #105 and one pea sized blob of Megs #205 Finally to sharpen the Finish I used Megs #205 polish on a Blue 3M waffle pad using the following method. Spread at 600rpm Start at 1200rpm, light pressure and slow movements evenly spreading the polish Work at 1500rpm, medium pressure with steady movements. Then finally reducing pressure whilst speeding up machine movement Refine at 1200rpm, light pressure and slow to medium movement. Finally, burnish at 900rpm, with slow machine movements, with very light pressure. A few in process shots. What was visible in natural light. The Bonnet Before: During: After: Wing Before: During: After: Door During: Rear Quarter: Interior and Engine bay: Dressed using AS Finish. These are not great for lap times so removed!!! Exhaust cleaned: Protection and LSP: Today, I am using Raceglaze products for my LSP of choice. Below I have listed what was used. • Paint cleansed using Raceglaze pre was cleanser Applied by G220 at speed 4. • Raceglace Concourse Wax Polish • Raceglaze 42 wax applied a panel at a time allowed to haze and removed • Raceglaze • Door shuts treated the same as the outer body. • Windscreen has 2 coats of Rain-X and all other glass polished. • Exhaust tips cleaned with autosol with fine wire wool along with back box then finished with Megs metal polish. • Interior Plastics dressed with Megs interior Dressing and wiped down • All interior glass cleaned with Reflection Perfection Glass cleaner and buffed. The final pics. In total I feel about 90-95% correction was achieved with a lot of dent removal and a bit of paint being the next step. Thanks for looking and as usual C&C most welcome. Rollo.
Great job on the car. Just a question: Whats the long brush in the background? I've never seen a brush like that before, but it looks like something i would want lol
cheers. Yep the wheel brush is a Vikan long reach brush. and the wipes are a citrus degreaser wipe that I have been testing for a while which will be going on sale shortly.
