A Week Of Detailing

[Leodhasach]

Hi guys,

Here we have my modified Skoda Fabia Elegance, which was needing a bit of TLC lately! Plenty of photos, as I was playing with my new camera

First was just a quick spruce-up to get it ready for a charity drag race I had entered. Being my daily driver and having covered a LOT of miles lately, she was a bit shabby:

Mud on the splitter, where I had to go off-road to dodge a fallen tree :doublesho

Engine bay wasn't too bad:

I started playing around with camera settings then to capture the etched-on muck, and various marks to be tackled:

[Leodhasach]

Anyway, on with the detail:

The wheels were tackled with a diluted mix of Meguiar's Wheel Brightener and various brushes, giving the following:

The car with foamed with Meguiar's APC:

Areas such as door shuts, widow rubbers and exhaust tailpipe were agitated and sprayed with extra APC.

Foam doing its thing:

A two-bucket wash with Dodo BTBM and a lambswool mitt was carried out, and tyres were then dressed, leaving the following:

For the drag race, I also partially stripped the car out

Gave me a chance to clean the carpets properly!

[Leodhasach]

Fast-forward a few days and it's time to start again, doing a proper job this time (although I didn't have time to break out the machine polisher to sort out some small marks...next time!). The car was also serviced in the meantime. The car was brought onto level ground:

Wheels were removed:

Somewhat iffy-looking coilovers:

The arches and suspension were scrubbed with Meguiar's Super Degreaser, and the coilovers were lubricated with a lanolin-based grease called Fluid Film. It's good stuff, but it actually smells of sheep :doublesho (lanolin comes from wool). I also took the opportunity to raise the front coilovers a couple of turns as my dad will be using the car during my forthcoming trip at sea.

After cleaning, but before the application of Meguiar's All Season Dressing...sorry

Wheels were cleaned with Bilberry, de-tarred with Tardis and decontaminated with Iron-X:

These were then sealed with Planet Polish Wheel Seal and Shine and re-fitted to the car, tyres dressed and pressures checked.

[Leodhasach]

The front had picked up quite a lot of bugs :doublesho

Car was foamed again:

Washed, 2bm, with Dodo BTBM and lambswool mitt:

After this the car was dried, de-tarred with Tardis, and then brought out for Iron-X decontamination:

After a rinse, the car was clayed with yellow poly-clay and Meguiar's Last Touch, which after the previous decontamination, had virtually nothing to remove. Happy days.

I was having to push on by this point so the photos had to stop, but the car was then rinsed, dried, interior hoovered and tidied, pedals cleaned, glass cleaned, and finally the car was waxed with Collinite 476s, which meant I ended up with this:

Cheers,

Andrew

[R1DAVIE]

Cars looking good Andy

Let us know how the drag race goes

[Leodhasach]

Cars looking good Andy

Let us know how the drag race goes

Cheers!

It was fun, but they kept putting me up against tuned Scoobys and things

[Funky Fab]

Lovvveeeelllyy car mate. Looks mint!!!

Love the colour of the car to.

[Rsrob]

Very nice fabia looks good :p i like the colour too looks good

[Leodhasach]

Thanks guys

Nice to know that the cause of today's aching joints and backache (I'm only 21, why do I feel like an old man?!) is appreciated

[gmaster]

Thats a nice fabia you got there mate!

[butler2.8i]

Cracking work matey

[devonutopia]

Nice work! Love the wheels for obvious reasons!

[Baker21]

Nice work Andrew, great colour for that Fabia

Waxes are in the post on Monday mate

[agentz]

That's a really nice looking Fabia you've got there

[Robshaw]

Always loved this car - Looks spot on.