Polished Bliss: Elise 111R (arty finals)
05 October 2007, 10:18 PM
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Polished Bliss: Elise 111R (arty finals)
A recent detail... done and written up by Clark, posted by me. 
---
The owner had booked the car in with us after attending an evening we'd organised for the Jaguar Owners Club, and the car is obviously his pride and joy - it was pretty much imaculate when it arrived to us, just a bit of road grime from the rain, etc.
Wash:
So, firstly - the car was foamed with APC:
This was left for 5 mins and then rinsed at high pressure.
I then set about cleaning the wheels, using a non acidic tyre and wheel gel:
This was sprayed on and left for a few mins before being worked with a microfibre mitt and wheel brush. The arches were cleaned as I did each wheel, using a super degreaser which was sprayed and left for around a minute before being rinsed at high pressure.
The car was then washed with the two bucket method, larger tar spots removed with a tar & glue remover, and then clayed with a mild clay - with very little coming off the paint at all.
I then foamed the car again before rinsing off and then drying with the leaf blower.
Polish:
Once inside, I took a look at the paint - which in all honesty was pretty damn good for a car a couple of years old now!
There were also feint buffer trails all over it, similair to what the orange one had when I first did it - same dealership maybe??
Anyways, as the defects were light, this was the polish and pad combination for the day:
The polish was worked at 1500rpm's with just the weight of the machine so as to keep temperatures down (the elise bodywork is composite for those that dont know), this resulted in 99% correction first time, with some panels having a few deep randoms that couldn't be helped.
(The PC was used on the front and rear bumpers)
A quick shot after correction (not of the bootlid though as the after pic of that was a bit blurry).
Once that was done, I gave the front carbon splitter a good clean with a chemical cleaner:
This removed slight oxidization and restored a nice shine.
The car was then dusted down to remove the polishing dust:
And the side repeaters re-fitted, these are removed to make things easier for polishing (and I hate leaving swirls round about them!)
LSP:
As the car was 99% perfect, I didnt HD-Cleanse the paint as usual as I knew it wouldnt add anything to the finish left by polishing alone on this particular colour, so out with the Vintage:
Which was applied by applicator pad as usual:
Next up was Carbon....
...which was applied to every single piece of exterior trim, including the wiper arm/window rubbers, etc:
The Vintage and Carbon were left as I completed all the other jobs on the car.
The engine was given a quick wipe down and dressed:
Before:
After:
The wheels were sealed, tyres/arches dressed:
The rear difuser was also quite tarnished, so I spent 15 mins with a metal polish and a german applicator pad:
Before:
After:
I then applied an all in one product to give it some protection.
The interior was also detailed but it was quite clean to begin with and my only after pic came out crap so I wont bother posting it.
A couple of hours had passed since applying the wax, so it was now ready to buff off (including the Carbon on the trim), with no final wipe down needed after a final inspection.
Inside pics only I'm afraid as the rain was on and off and I couldnt be bothered to dry the car again if it got wet!
Thanks for looking!
---
The owner had booked the car in with us after attending an evening we'd organised for the Jaguar Owners Club, and the car is obviously his pride and joy - it was pretty much imaculate when it arrived to us, just a bit of road grime from the rain, etc.
Wash:
So, firstly - the car was foamed with APC:
This was left for 5 mins and then rinsed at high pressure.
I then set about cleaning the wheels, using a non acidic tyre and wheel gel:
This was sprayed on and left for a few mins before being worked with a microfibre mitt and wheel brush. The arches were cleaned as I did each wheel, using a super degreaser which was sprayed and left for around a minute before being rinsed at high pressure.
The car was then washed with the two bucket method, larger tar spots removed with a tar & glue remover, and then clayed with a mild clay - with very little coming off the paint at all.
I then foamed the car again before rinsing off and then drying with the leaf blower.
Polish:
Once inside, I took a look at the paint - which in all honesty was pretty damn good for a car a couple of years old now!
There were also feint buffer trails all over it, similair to what the orange one had when I first did it - same dealership maybe??
Anyways, as the defects were light, this was the polish and pad combination for the day:
The polish was worked at 1500rpm's with just the weight of the machine so as to keep temperatures down (the elise bodywork is composite for those that dont know), this resulted in 99% correction first time, with some panels having a few deep randoms that couldn't be helped.
(The PC was used on the front and rear bumpers)
A quick shot after correction (not of the bootlid though as the after pic of that was a bit blurry).
Once that was done, I gave the front carbon splitter a good clean with a chemical cleaner:
This removed slight oxidization and restored a nice shine.
The car was then dusted down to remove the polishing dust:
And the side repeaters re-fitted, these are removed to make things easier for polishing (and I hate leaving swirls round about them!)
LSP:
As the car was 99% perfect, I didnt HD-Cleanse the paint as usual as I knew it wouldnt add anything to the finish left by polishing alone on this particular colour, so out with the Vintage:
Which was applied by applicator pad as usual:
Next up was Carbon....
...which was applied to every single piece of exterior trim, including the wiper arm/window rubbers, etc:
The Vintage and Carbon were left as I completed all the other jobs on the car.
The engine was given a quick wipe down and dressed:
Before:
After:
The wheels were sealed, tyres/arches dressed:
The rear difuser was also quite tarnished, so I spent 15 mins with a metal polish and a german applicator pad:
Before:
After:
I then applied an all in one product to give it some protection.
The interior was also detailed but it was quite clean to begin with and my only after pic came out crap so I wont bother posting it.
A couple of hours had passed since applying the wax, so it was now ready to buff off (including the Carbon on the trim), with no final wipe down needed after a final inspection.
Inside pics only I'm afraid as the rain was on and off and I couldnt be bothered to dry the car again if it got wet!
Thanks for looking!
08 October 2007, 05:28 PM
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i see that you said you leave the wax on for a couple of hours before you buff it off! i only leave it a few mins! do you get a better finish for leaving it longer? im using vics concours.
08 October 2007, 10:51 PM
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Cheers folks. Work time was 14-15 hours, and if the wax is applied thinly enough, it can be left overnight if needs be without any problems buffing off. As Matt says, applying waxes by hand tends to result in way too much being applied, so applicator is best in our opinion. By allowing a long cure time, we feel that more wax is given chance to bond; whether this is true or not who knows, but it makes the job easier for sure. 
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