Hello everyone I would like to present You massive project of my own car. There are over 400 photos, so please take Your time while watching this thread I've been owner of this car since December 2008 . Leon was always in pretty good shape, but recently I had little time and wiling to take care of it, so I neglected it a little bit. But recently I found some time to make this project, and restore my car to it's one and only right state Here we go : Chapter I – engine bay Let's see, nothing serious to start with, maybe a little dust... Engine cover was removed to make better access: Pretty clean, isn't it... Strong TFR was used to wash engine block: After spraying, dirt is giving up : Much better Under hood was washed , polished with AF Tripple and sealed with SV Autobahn : Swissvax Pneu was used on all trims in enigne bay : Engine bay done, now we are moving to interior Chapter II - interior A little dusty here Fabrics have never been wet vaced, so they already show signs of dirt. Also plastics needed a bit of TLC. Rear seats were taken out . I also planned to take out front ones, but it was going to rain this day, so I had to hurry and skip this : Trusty George was used to vet wac , along with Tersus and Valet Pro products : This is what has been pulled out : Before/after : Already better : Headlining before : and after : Now plastics, just a little dusty : They were washed with VP Citrus Pre Wash 1:20 Steering wheel were cleaned with Swissvax Leather Cleaner and protected with Zymol Treat : Dirty... Flock were cleaned with SV Quick Interior Finish : Plastic face of dials was removed : and corrected in two steps, using Scholl S17+ : Results are clearly visible : Plastics were treated with Gtechniq C6 : Pedals were treated with SV Metal Polish & SV Pneu : One more thing to do : Spare wheel area washed with TFR : Spare wheel itself was cleaned and protected with SV Autobahn & Sv Pneu : Now it's time to do seals : Swissvax Seal Feed used to....well, feed them That's how finished interior looks now , : Chapter III – wheel arches and door shuts Wheels were removed before this stage : Wheel arches before , quite a lot of dirt here. Well, it shouldn't be surprise for a daily driver : Washed with VP Citrus Pre Wash : A bit better : Next tar remover was used to remove tar deposits : Wheel bolts , spacers and fronts of discs were painted to restore their look : Removing old paint and rust : Much better : Plastics in arches were treated with VP Dionysus Trim Glitz : Arches done, now door shuts and surroundings : APC and Autosmart Plus 10 were used to wash , with a little help from white vinegar to remove water spots : Now side skirts, which were particulary bad. As we know, paint on these is pretty thin so I had to be carefull here. I used Scholl S17+ on medium pad to restore a bit of gloss. Deeper imperfections remained, but thankfully gloss returned : On rear tailgate there were limiter which neede a bit of TLC. They were removed and cleaned, screws were painted : On door shuts I used GTechniq C 1.5 to protect , as it's very easy to get in tight areas : Plastic trims were protected with Raceglaze Color Enhance : Metal bits on pillars were treated with SV Metal Polish, as they already started to shown some signs of neglect : In the end that's how it looks : Just one more thing - neglected paint on rear screen, which needed a bit of touch up : Chapter IV - wheels This one was suposed to be simple - wash, detarring, some cleaner and wax. But it came out that wheels are pretty swirled and lacking of gloss, so I decided to make machine correction on them. First of all, washing. During this stage wheels were replaced with winter ones. Washing with mild APC, nothing stronger wasn't needed : Tar removal : TFR was used to strip down tires : Wheels ready for further actions : There was plenty of paint on wheels, so I could move on to correction : I've used Scholl S17 and Swissvax Cleaner Fluid Proffesional : Effects : I was pleased seeing this Where I couldn't get with machine, I ' ve used SV Cleaner Fluid Regular by hand : Tires cleaned and dressed with SV Pneu : Wheels protected with SV Autobahn : Wax removed, wheels have been put on car, showing some signs of shine and depth Chapter V - washing stage Nothing to serious really : Roof trims were taken out , area underneath were deeply cleaned and trims were polished : Some prewash photos : Details washed with APC : Car was washed with AF Lather : Next was claying , I clay my car very often so clay didn't have much work : Protection pretty much stripped : Drying : Chapter VI - rear lights and trims First issue with these were dead bugs, which I couln't handle with vac : [/img] Removing : As expected , a bit of dirt : Cleaned with SV CF, protected with Autobahn : No ale robale przynajmniej się wyniosły, i lampy mocno przejrzały : These were also corrected : Trims were done with Swissvax Nano Express & Pneu : Chapter VII - paint Last but not least - paintwork. There were some bad swirls and holograms left after recent respray, so some work were needed here to restore gloss to paint. On respray side level of correction is about 95%, on the rest of the car about 70. Before : As You can see, some defects are clearly visible. On cutting stage I've used Scholl S2 , S3 , Menzerna and 3M polished with variety of cutting pads. Bad imperfection left after respray : Under door handles : Car Pro Eraser was used to see true level of correction : And without this excellent Zymol duster I wouldn't handle massive amount of dust created during polishing : Well, there were some imperfections left , the aim was to restore general gloss, not to fight with every single scratch. Thankfully , during finishing stage and waxing I could use garage, thanks to my friend. Big thanks ! Car was washed before being pulled in, and dried using compressed air : For finishing stage I've used the best finish polish I'm familiar with - Swissvax Cleaner Fluid Proffesional : First hit on rear fender : Nice However, SV CF Pro didn't behave as I've used to. It dried fast, dusted a bit. In the end I've even started adding normal Cleaner Fluid, to maintain oilyness during polishing : I switched to small pads to make pillars with yellow Flexipads pad, and this was it - perfect. CF Pro once again started working like magic : I made rest of car with this combination, of course with larger pad So here we go : A little dust was settling on car, so once again duster saved the day : And now moment I've been waiting - waxing One layer of Swissvax Insignis V2 was applied : Mirrors and front bumper were protected with Autobahn : While wax was curing, I've done tires , trims ang glass : Now it's time to buff off the wax : I don't know how about You, but I can see some gloss here Let's drive outside : Quick wipedown with Swissvax Quick Finish : Sadly, no there was no sun these day What's more, 2 hours after there was some very heavy raining. However, I managed to take some photos later on gas station, despite car being slightly dirty : And yesterday...sun ! For the record At the very end a bit of comparission, between my car when I bought it, and now : And that's it. I must say I'm pretty pleased with results , even if not everything went the way I wanted to. Also , thanks for attention for everyone how managed to get so far, hope You are not tired Feel free to comment and ask questions
Christ almighty that was comprehensive. Took me 15 minutes to get through it all haha. Looks great, but I don't know if I think the car is cool, or ugly haha. Sorry. Tons of work, it definitely looks good.
:worship2: This is the most extensive photo essay I've seen and read here at DB! Truly a great job all around. Thanks.
