Hello to all 
As a few of you will know, i picked my Raider up in the first week of March after trading in my Albi blue FF 200. So far i love it and now, a few hundred miles later has made me have brainwaves of ideas (like you do) so i guess i'll start a thread. Not a lot that i am going to do compared to some but a few mods i guess is better than none :thumbup1:
First was the pick up and the detail............
Finally went to get my Raider this morning. Sad to see my 200 go but the new one is worth every penny! Only had 6 hrs to do something with it so here goes.....
First up was the initial wash, car was quite dirty as it hadn't been washed analy first time round so i requested just to leave it till i came for it. Cant really see how dirty it is but a matt finish that hasnt been treated looks very shabby in areas
Wheels however were the familiar signs of a new pad
Bilberry was diluted at 10:1. Had to make a temporary brush out of a wash schmitt as i had sold my Ez Brush, forgetting that Polished Bliss hadn't received their wheel woolies yet :@ Swissvax style brush was also used
Still got the job done for now and got them clean enough. Arches were also done but they had been treated to something so using just shampoo and another homemade brush sorted it but with no pics.
Next up was the body work, not many pictures here but used the shampoo that came with the car, a Swissvax mitt and cleaned the usual intricate areas and badges & sills/shuts with several brushes
The car was then moved into the valet bay and i just timed it right as it started to rain. Full car patted down using a few small microfibres
Washing and drying has taken up more than 2 hrs for some reason. Maybe i was being too careful so i had to crack on with the paint. Opaque cleaner fluid was applied to all matt areas
Spraying on every panel and wiping off, turning the cloth frequently to buff off excess using the Swissvax cleaner fluid towel
Full car was then completed and ready for the Opaque wax
The 50ml pot that comes with the discovery kit does seem small just like the autobahn but a little goes a very long way. Put this on with the black applicator pad and took it off using the blue wax cloth that also came with the kit
Putting this on actual matt paint as apposed to vinyl wrap was visually different as it didn't significantly darken the area as it does with vinyl so there was a very slight darkening of color but was very hard to capture, even with the wax on
Left half of the bonnet
Better pic of the small section on the left hand side
Lot of hard work indeed for a full car. Timing needed to be right for every panel as you can't let it cure. The car needs a full re buff after a few hrs as the wax needs to gas off. This could be clearly seen and looked a bit milky in areas but i couldn't really capture the finish and didn't have the time so i moved on to waxing the shuts and sills etc.
By now i had used up 6 hrs! and there was just a little too much to finish in the given time so the gloss areas and wheels were treated to a bit of diluted c2 1:1 as a temporary measure until i can give the areas a once over with the rotary and get some autobahn on the wheels. The show plates that were taken off the car had left remains of the double sided sticky pads so these were removed, taking extra precaution on the rear because it was stuck on the matt finish so i didn't use a tar/glue remover, just heat. New private plates were put on that i was chuffed to bits with as it makes it look that bit more special. Final wipe down of the car was then done after an hr and a half of being in a bit of sun. Few pics of the more or less completed work .........
Most importantly, keys were handed over by the salesman himself
The week after i got 6000k xenons fitted, led side lights and got the fogs changed while the bumper was off. Then i stuck my Ktec panel filter in from the other car. I done the 3 interior lights leaving the ones in the door and the rear number plate to do maybe next week.
The Chester meet was not so long after so i decided to de-badge the rear and take the dealer stickers out of the back window. I had to phone several people for reassurance on taking the rear badge off because of limited product use for matt paint and purely how the paint would look underneath. Anyhow, i removed the badge which took over an hr because i wanted to get every letter off without the glue separating and staying behind on the paint. Once all off, I was left with an outline of the lettering :@ A few attempts were made by using the pre cleaner with the swissvax kit i bought but didn't have the effect i was after so ended up mixing it with some with petrol (being able to evaporate) giving it the extra kick to remove the outline. A hairdryer didn't have enough heat build up so i used my heat gun. Pic of the finished work and a few from the Chester meet that someone kindly sent me
2 months on and still loving the Raider, i decided not to mess around with getting the silencers removed from the exhaust and getting decats made. What ever i buy for the car will be staying on it when i sell it one day, including the private reg (for obvious reasons) so the expense was worth what i received Wednesday morning.........
Took the plunge and got an Evo Akropovic System after watching several videos on you tube and a few people praising it to death (cheers Kenny)
Ive now took it all out of the huge box and put in my car ready for tomorrow morning when it is going to be fitted. I will posts pics up tomorrow with the progress and material list etc.
Hope this is as good to read so far as it is for me to try and make her a sensible monster!
As a few of you will know, i picked my Raider up in the first week of March after trading in my Albi blue FF 200. So far i love it and now, a few hundred miles later has made me have brainwaves of ideas (like you do) so i guess i'll start a thread. Not a lot that i am going to do compared to some but a few mods i guess is better than none :thumbup1:First was the pick up and the detail............
Finally went to get my Raider this morning. Sad to see my 200 go but the new one is worth every penny! Only had 6 hrs to do something with it so here goes.....
First up was the initial wash, car was quite dirty as it hadn't been washed analy first time round so i requested just to leave it till i came for it. Cant really see how dirty it is but a matt finish that hasnt been treated looks very shabby in areas
Wheels however were the familiar signs of a new pad
Bilberry was diluted at 10:1. Had to make a temporary brush out of a wash schmitt as i had sold my Ez Brush, forgetting that Polished Bliss hadn't received their wheel woolies yet :@ Swissvax style brush was also used
Still got the job done for now and got them clean enough. Arches were also done but they had been treated to something so using just shampoo and another homemade brush sorted it but with no pics.
Next up was the body work, not many pictures here but used the shampoo that came with the car, a Swissvax mitt and cleaned the usual intricate areas and badges & sills/shuts with several brushes
The car was then moved into the valet bay and i just timed it right as it started to rain. Full car patted down using a few small microfibres
Washing and drying has taken up more than 2 hrs for some reason. Maybe i was being too careful so i had to crack on with the paint. Opaque cleaner fluid was applied to all matt areas
Spraying on every panel and wiping off, turning the cloth frequently to buff off excess using the Swissvax cleaner fluid towel
Full car was then completed and ready for the Opaque wax
The 50ml pot that comes with the discovery kit does seem small just like the autobahn but a little goes a very long way. Put this on with the black applicator pad and took it off using the blue wax cloth that also came with the kit
Putting this on actual matt paint as apposed to vinyl wrap was visually different as it didn't significantly darken the area as it does with vinyl so there was a very slight darkening of color but was very hard to capture, even with the wax on
Left half of the bonnet
Better pic of the small section on the left hand side
Lot of hard work indeed for a full car. Timing needed to be right for every panel as you can't let it cure. The car needs a full re buff after a few hrs as the wax needs to gas off. This could be clearly seen and looked a bit milky in areas but i couldn't really capture the finish and didn't have the time so i moved on to waxing the shuts and sills etc.
By now i had used up 6 hrs! and there was just a little too much to finish in the given time so the gloss areas and wheels were treated to a bit of diluted c2 1:1 as a temporary measure until i can give the areas a once over with the rotary and get some autobahn on the wheels. The show plates that were taken off the car had left remains of the double sided sticky pads so these were removed, taking extra precaution on the rear because it was stuck on the matt finish so i didn't use a tar/glue remover, just heat. New private plates were put on that i was chuffed to bits with as it makes it look that bit more special. Final wipe down of the car was then done after an hr and a half of being in a bit of sun. Few pics of the more or less completed work .........
Most importantly, keys were handed over by the salesman himself
The week after i got 6000k xenons fitted, led side lights and got the fogs changed while the bumper was off. Then i stuck my Ktec panel filter in from the other car. I done the 3 interior lights leaving the ones in the door and the rear number plate to do maybe next week.
The Chester meet was not so long after so i decided to de-badge the rear and take the dealer stickers out of the back window. I had to phone several people for reassurance on taking the rear badge off because of limited product use for matt paint and purely how the paint would look underneath. Anyhow, i removed the badge which took over an hr because i wanted to get every letter off without the glue separating and staying behind on the paint. Once all off, I was left with an outline of the lettering :@ A few attempts were made by using the pre cleaner with the swissvax kit i bought but didn't have the effect i was after so ended up mixing it with some with petrol (being able to evaporate) giving it the extra kick to remove the outline. A hairdryer didn't have enough heat build up so i used my heat gun. Pic of the finished work and a few from the Chester meet that someone kindly sent me
2 months on and still loving the Raider, i decided not to mess around with getting the silencers removed from the exhaust and getting decats made. What ever i buy for the car will be staying on it when i sell it one day, including the private reg (for obvious reasons) so the expense was worth what i received Wednesday morning.........
Took the plunge and got an Evo Akropovic System after watching several videos on you tube and a few people praising it to death (cheers Kenny
)Ive now took it all out of the huge box and put in my car ready for tomorrow morning when it is going to be fitted. I will posts pics up tomorrow with the progress and material list etc.
Hope this is as good to read so far as it is for me to try and make her a sensible monster!
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