I would like to share this detail i did a few months ago for a very good friend of mine called Dave .....I did this detail for his 21st birthday and he cherished this car so much that no one could possibly love a car more......He worked 24/7 just to insure it and he never drove it in the rain....Dave gave me the responsibility of looking after this car and i cleaned and prepared it for shows for him last year as a massive hobby and passion with him.... Unfortunatley 2 days ago Dave tragically lost his life in this car at 8.30 pm on sunday. The police and eye witnesses reported that he was travelling at a speed of approximately 60 to 70 mph when he lost control of the car on a sweeping bend. He regained control of the car but he ended up hitting a large tree sideways on and the impact took his life there and then. I was informed that hs death would have been sudden and he would have felt no pain which is a relief to me and his family although nothing will take away the pain of losing a son at such an early age... Dave would have been proud to know that the memory of his car still lives on and i plan to get a large framed photo of it in my garage for everyone to see when i do my details in future...... R.I.P DAVE......I miss you buddy!!! Today my mate Dave came round with his RS Focus.... It was his 21st so i wanted to make sure that the car was ultimatly perfect for him ready for Fast Ford in a months time.... The car upon arrival in the worlds worst week for terrential downpours.... The first thing to do was to spray the arches with Apc diluted 4:1 and then mix up a good strong mixture of snow foam to give it a chance in the wet conditions....I decided to mix about 150% of my normal mixture topped with about half a centimeter of zymol autowash to give it a really shaving foamy feel to try and make it last longer... The car was then bathed..... and left to dwell for around 5 minutes... Before being sprayed off..... Then using a two bucket method using Zymol autowash .... i continued to wash the car in straight lines..... Once the car was washed i decided to work on the wheels with Zymol wheel cleaner because these rs focus wheels seem really delicate compared to most and even hd cleanse i tried a few days earlier had actually taken off some of the coating......I can only presume that this is a problem with the wheel itself and not the product... [/img] Using my wheel brush i proceeded to work away at the insides which were covered with road grime but not to bad with pitting or tar.... The owner treats this car with care and only takes it out at weekends and very rarely in the rain...... I always pay particular attention to the weights as they drive me mad if i cannot read the numbers on them.....Does anyone else find this? Ok so the wheels are finished so its on to the clay...I decided on sonus green simply because Dave takes good care of the car and there wasnt much contamination on the bodywork at all..... Then using Zymol autowash as my claylube i clayed the car but didnt feel much pickup at all..... And the clay bar at the end.... I then changed the water in the soapy bucket and washed again ..... The car was then sprayed off..... Before pouring 50 litres of ro water over it to help with the drying and wing mirror drips issues..... The car was then dried using Megs Last Touch as a drying aid..... and drag dried..... Once the car was dryed i inspected the paintwork under fluo lighting to find that actually this was going to be a very long day.....The car was not in good condition and had got some serious swirling and contamination possibly from a previous owner.... Infact knowing the reputation Rs paintwork has i knew i would need all my products today and a fair few cd,s.... :lol: I then decided to mask the car up..... Ok first i decided to do a test panel and started with a megs pro polishing pad with menz 3.02 and found that after 2 passes i was barely takeing the swirls away...... I then decided to try a sonus fx-1 pad using menz again and found that this again was not really making an impression so tried a 4" pad and found this to be better..... Ireally didnt want to rush this as i wanted it perfect so worked a touch with this combination before ultimatly moving upto a megs pro cutting pad which after 2 passes worked a treat but it took a while and much sweating... :lol: Now i realise i could have gone upto powergloss but i really didnt want to try this on this car so decided to stick with the combination i was using and i felt that it also left the paintwork lsp ready....... These were the sort of roof scratches i was trying to get out..... So after nearly 2 hours just on the back end i started with this..... a paintwork i would personally call kryptonite (comments please??) and ended up with this..... Next Dave had some hd cleanse which i said i would use and let him have some of my concours as he had only ever used carbon before on another car..... So i proceeded to apply it to the car panel at a time before buffing off each panel..... Whilst i was doing this i was also doing a wheel at a time to get my timing right as i wanted to apply the wax and have 20 minutes for the Jetseal 109 to bond with the wheels for ultimate protection..... Jumping ahead slightly but the wheels buffed up to a nice shine inside and out..... So onto the wax.....Concours was the order of the day although i feel the colour would have also suited a glaze / sealent combo.... This was how much i used for the bonnet ..... which i then applied by hand..... and gently buffed off after approximately 2 minutes due to the weather..... THE RESULTS AND MY WALKROUND VIDEO
What a great way to honour your friend..then and now. Just wondering (the collision reconstructionist in me is), did the car have stability control? NHTSA has said that stab control and side impact air bags have done more to forward safety then anything in a long time. I have it on my car and love it..will never be without S/C again. Again, sorry for your loss.:comfort:
Tragic... 21 - what a shame, his life had just begun.. I am sorry for your loss, my thoughts go out to you, his friends and family...
Sorry to hear about your friend. He was so young, I wish you and his family there best, I'll say a few prayers for him.
beautiful car man... definately sucks on the loss part... but hey hopefully he's in a better place then we are now!!!
My condolences to you and your mate's family and friends. His car looked great. Nice rig as well (mountain biking is another hobby of mine)
I'm so sorry for your lost. Thank you for taking the time to post this. I know he is looking down and saying thank you for the tribute you done. You done a beautiful job on his vehicle.
Sorry to hear about your friend Marc, I remember this detail when you first posted it at Detailing World it impressed me then and it still impresses me now, like always excellent write up and attention to detail. I agree, very noble of you to honor your friend in this way :applause: Thank you for sharing with us.
So sorry for you Marc. I feel so bad for the family. No matter where you live, what ethnic background you come from, loss of life effects people. Its such a terrible thing. My deepest condolonces to you and your friends family.
You don't know how much it pains me to read about your friend,it is so tragic when a father has bury his own child,now all he is left is just his memories,what a waste of life. I hope from the bottom of my heart that non of us would ever have to go through this . My sincere condolences to you and his family.
Condolences for the loss, must be hard for all concerned. Terrific job on the car, what an improvement indeed. 2 quick questions, what is RO water and what wheel brush is that that you are using ?
Sorry to hear this...my thoughts and prayers go out to his family/friends.. also ..i would like to say you did a great job on your friends car..posting it after his passing is like a gift that keeps on giving...