Hi guys,
This is my first 'detailing thread'. I didn't know whether to put it in here, or my own section as your newest forum trader! I hope you don't mind me sticking it in here...
Right, I'll start from the top then. The owner of this car first contacted me with a view of tidying up the paintwork on his mother-in-law's Merc C180. When he arrived I quickly realised this was going to be no ordinary detail! I inspected the car throughout when my client got here, and we decided on a course of action. As of late I've had alot of "can you just" jobs added onto the original, which I don't mind, and put that down to people seeing more and more of what I can do (despite me avoiding DW like the plague).
So it changed from an enhancement / minor correction detail which you've seen me post quite often, to a full fat 2 stage polish with paintwork, dent removal, replacement badges, new stereo, new wing mirror and wheel refurb!!
Started out like this;
So I got it prewashed with ph-neutral snow, mixed with a little APC to give it some bite around the small work - the gunk oozing out of the window rubbers and around the roof guttering.. proper manky stuff. Didn't take a picture, hands were too dirty. It was washed using the two bucket method - why? even though the paintwork was goosed, I didn't want to create even more work for myself!! Then de-ironised and clayed when indoors;
Cleaned all these panel gaps out around the lights and got rid of the green slime that had gathered on the inner edge of the light. Then I clayed the car.
Taped the car up and started to take some paint readings - some panels had seen paint over the years, could see that without the gauge thanks to some lacquer runs and the usual kind of poor worksmanship that is too common these days. Once it was taped up and ready to go, I took shots as I was going along.. starting with the damage;
After polishing, colour looks totally different - it was flat in the above shots, now look at the gloss, and no scratches;
Moving around the car now..
After the first stage;
Final refinement;
The boot, under the strip light before and after (disregard the orange peel, I wasn't tackling that)..
Whilst the badges were off.. look at the dullness, as if it's been cleaned with an emery cloth.
Gloss returned;
Rear lights were the same - being plastic, they only needed a single stage, but the difference is still night and day - if I hadn't told you, you would more than likely think they had been replaced..
All the time this was going on, the wheels were also being worked on and refurbished...
The bumpers were also taken off to my paint shop for repair - when they arrived back I refined the finish to the same high gloss level as the rest of the car.
This is my first 'detailing thread'. I didn't know whether to put it in here, or my own section as your newest forum trader! I hope you don't mind me sticking it in here...
Right, I'll start from the top then. The owner of this car first contacted me with a view of tidying up the paintwork on his mother-in-law's Merc C180. When he arrived I quickly realised this was going to be no ordinary detail! I inspected the car throughout when my client got here, and we decided on a course of action. As of late I've had alot of "can you just" jobs added onto the original, which I don't mind, and put that down to people seeing more and more of what I can do (despite me avoiding DW like the plague).
So it changed from an enhancement / minor correction detail which you've seen me post quite often, to a full fat 2 stage polish with paintwork, dent removal, replacement badges, new stereo, new wing mirror and wheel refurb!!
Started out like this;
So I got it prewashed with ph-neutral snow, mixed with a little APC to give it some bite around the small work - the gunk oozing out of the window rubbers and around the roof guttering.. proper manky stuff. Didn't take a picture, hands were too dirty. It was washed using the two bucket method - why? even though the paintwork was goosed, I didn't want to create even more work for myself!! Then de-ironised and clayed when indoors;
Cleaned all these panel gaps out around the lights and got rid of the green slime that had gathered on the inner edge of the light. Then I clayed the car.
Taped the car up and started to take some paint readings - some panels had seen paint over the years, could see that without the gauge thanks to some lacquer runs and the usual kind of poor worksmanship that is too common these days. Once it was taped up and ready to go, I took shots as I was going along.. starting with the damage;
After polishing, colour looks totally different - it was flat in the above shots, now look at the gloss, and no scratches;
Moving around the car now..
After the first stage;
Final refinement;
The boot, under the strip light before and after (disregard the orange peel, I wasn't tackling that)..
Whilst the badges were off.. look at the dullness, as if it's been cleaned with an emery cloth.
Gloss returned;
Rear lights were the same - being plastic, they only needed a single stage, but the difference is still night and day - if I hadn't told you, you would more than likely think they had been replaced..
All the time this was going on, the wheels were also being worked on and refurbished...
The bumpers were also taken off to my paint shop for repair - when they arrived back I refined the finish to the same high gloss level as the rest of the car.
