hey guys, this was originally intended for a detailing ( obsessive compulsive car cleaning forum lol) so excuse all of the words....

just thought I'd share the fruits of my labour:

Hi guys,

I've just got it back from the body shop, after having a lot of little bits and pieces fixed, and some damage repaired. I used to look after it, and keep it spotless until I had a run in with a low wooden post, then I started to neglect it... so back from the body shop and I'm happy as larry! It was damaged for a while and I have not got one single picture, not even an accidental picture or one on my phone of it... I was pretty unhappy about the whole thing to be honest lol.

It came back with some of the usual things you would expect - areas of light overspray, dust and so on.

My plan was this:

1. power wash

2. 2BM wash with wash mit

3. rinse

4. clay

5. machine polish to remove swirls and some marring / holograms

6. wax

7. interior detail

8. wheel detail

products used were

Washing:

microfibre noodle mit, turtlewax shampoo (yea I know... I've got a lot to use up though!)

polishing:

clarke multi speed rotary polisher with screwfix extra soft pad. Menzerna 85RD

Wax:

Chemical guys XXX Hardcore

others:

Bilberry wheel cleaner, Poorboys Bold n Brite tyre + trim dressing, various megs products including quick detailer, speed detailer, clay bar, microfibre, trim *stuff* ( gold class new look trim type stuff, I dont like it at all :( )

unfortunatly this car was not looked after by the single previous owner. I'm slowly fixing everything that was spoiled. He was a landscape gardener, so when I first got it it was covered in resin, thousands of chips (from being close to a strimmer?) and the interior was just disgusting!

This is how it started off, pretty clean from the body shop:

The roof rack was past it's best really. I never use it and the paint was chipped, faded and looking a bit sorry for it's self.

I took all of the parts off and took them into my workshop for a respray.

I managed to get it all done in a day: 2k primer, basecoat, and 2k clear - ready to put back on the car the following day. I could not decide whether to paint them black or 'fun gelb' at first.

and on the car:

there was not much to see with regards to washing and claying, It was already pretty clean. so I moved onto the machining.

swirls were really bad. a few spots of RDS on the bonnet, but I'm replacing it with an airbrushed counterpart very soon so I'm not too worried about the RDS for now. It's also badly chipped too.

I'm polishing using Menzerna 85RD on a screwfix direct red foam 6" pad. I quite like these pads, I use them a lot for the final polish on my airbrushed / custom painted stuff, but I've never used them with menzerna - I'm very impressed with this stuff! (Buffing / Polishing Sponge Pad 150mm M14 Red - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys)

Before:

After:

The top edge had not been done yet - just where the sun is reflecting really.

Removing some of the tape:

next step was the chemical guys hard core xxx wax. these types of waxes are quite new to me, so I went for the cheapest wax with the best reviews.

I applied it by hand and buffed it with microfibre. A fairly painless process as it was quite easy to buff.

Check out the beadage - on my hand

So far:

I was very happy with the finish at this point.

I'm saving the rest of the interior for another day as I plan on restoring the leather, which is completely shot (being yellow :() I cleaned and hoovered it in the usual way, nothing much to see really as again - it was already fairly clean.

I finally sussed out how to clean the grey rubber surrounds though!

I used a brass wire brush to clean them. I know what you're thinking - but being hard rubber, it did not scratch, or receive damage from the brush. it just flexed and let me get at all the dirt that a normal plastic brush just would not touch.

50/50:

The wheels are almost beyond reasonable repair, I think they're due refurbishment but that's not on the cards at the moment so I just cleaned them as best as I could.

looks like a black wheel with yellow dirt doesn't it!

I'm using a strong mix of bilberry and various brushes

almost.... heavy pitting is the only thing letting them down.

The arches had a similar treatment:

all that was left was to dress the tyres as they're looking pretty grey here :(

I had nothing left to do it with as my brother had cleared out my supplies so I headed over to north east detailing for a look about... pics later though.

so far so good, but more to come. I'll get some better pictures later as these are just snap shots really. it's not picking up the two tone paint or anything :(

thanks

Ricky Doodles

p.s next on the list is:

leather restoration

35-40mm lowering

pickup bed cover

Fantastic Job! Great work.

When are you free to do mine?

Spot on mate, always loved these cars.

what did you use to clean up the arches like that?? pressure washer??

Hey! Looking really nice... where did you get the paint from?

Alex.

How are your wheels almost beyond repair?

They don't look kerbed.

But awesome job!!! And your Fun looks.......FUN!!