Finally had a decnt weekend and some free time to give the car a good going over.

I bought the car in january and it was raining and snowing the 2 times I went down to Brum to see it. Was very dissapointed at the state of the paint work after I got it home.

I started on friday night buy cleaning the Alloys, took them all off the car and cleaned them completly (wasnt nice as I think a CV joint is leaking) using Meguires Hot rims, and snow foamed and rinsed the car twice.
No pics from Friday tho as it was dark by the time I was finished.

Here are some pics from the start of play on Saturday Morning.










Next thing to do was to give it a good wash, it was washed with Meguires Gold Class and Sonus Lambswool washmit and 2 bucket method.
Then it was clayed all over using Meguires Smooth Surface Clay and Quik Detailer.

























as you can see the paint work is terrible.

Next step was to machine polish it, I used a Porta Cable with Menzerna IP and Menzerna White Pad.
only a few poor pics after 90% done this stage.








That was me done for saturday, did a 8am to 6pm and was seriously getting bored.

Sunday morning came and I had to finish off the Menz IP and move onto Menz FF on an Menz orange pad, the once the whole car had been polished and all the blue tape removed I cleaned all the windows with AutoGlym CGP with peachskin cloths then polished the chrome with Meguires NXT Metal Polish and then finished off with Meguires Gold Class Trim Detailer.

Didnt take any pics inbetween doing the above as was in a bit of a rush but here are the finished article at about 5pm today.





















Went off in search of some sun








Its not 100% as Id like, still quite a few straches, but the paint was very tough and Ive got rid of most the swirls and was right on the limit of my patience.
Pretty pleased with myself anyway.

Thanks for reading, if you manged to get this far.
Rob

damn that looks much better !!!

when are you coming to do mine ?

I admire your dedication, great job.

It looks good.

I had cleaned my car the other night at the jet wash, you know one ofthose quick jobs... Then I realise my paint on my roof is starting to fade So I dont know how to solve the problem, I guess a bit of polish is needed... Although its going in the garage Friday as suspected drive shafts needs replacing (either shafts or CV joints).

But anyway, I woke up Saturday morning, notice a load of spots, brown spots on my bonnet. Some one sprayed mud all over my car.

Black cars get filthy so quickly, I must give mine a good wash soon!

Looks good

What did you use (technique with the PC)? i have a PC polisher and loads of polish etc but no patience as it seems to take forever.

(wasnt nice as I think a CV joint is leaking)

Probably, its a common fault on these (like the VW passats) mine had split the boot and it had been replaced but no grease before i got it, so after a while it started clicking and finally locked completely when i was reversing, huge crunch as the bearing cage broke and the balls were loose in the boot when i stripped it.

Fairly easy to change and a new CV joint from GSF was only £70-80. Worth looking at it sooner rather than later.

I couldnt charge to do it tbh, as Im too much of a bodger (Id probably do a better job on someone elses car than mine tho to be fair) and id need the car for a whole weekend.

I think you can get a similar thing done by a semi-pro/enthusiast for about £150~ an dthey would be able to do it in a day, have a look on detailingworld.co.uk, i think there is a thread with people offering their services and what area they are in.

I think you can get a similar thing done by a semi-pro/enthusiast for about £150~ an dthey would be able to do it in a day,

costs more than that fella, good detailers charge in excess of 300 a day.

I did exactly the same to my S4 on saturday with a little assistance from my bro. megs polisher, menzerna 5 on white pad, then 2 on orange pad, finally rubbing some dodo purple haze in.



then i decided to take the grill off it and paint it flat black. tonight the rings on the back are gettng the same treatment and then this weekend i want to do the wheels. wheels off, tyres off, strip with nitromors and painted white overnight. ready for some sticky tyres.

Matt