Clark @ PB

This was the first detail of the week and the 2nd Boxter in a row.

The car was booked in for a 2 day correction detail but the customer got caught in traffic travelling up from Glasgow so unfortunatley he didnt arrive untill after 10 and i didnt get started on it untill closer to 11.

So here it is upon arrival, and me already a couple of hours behind schedule!...





...And here it is after a covering of warm Hyper Wash (60 degrees) to loosen some of that grime from the journey north...






The car was then rinsed thoroughly at high pressure and i then pressure washed all the shuts/petrol cap after soaking them with Meguiars Super Degreaser.


Next up were the wheels which had started to turn yellow in parts:







These were cleaned up with Meguiars Wheel Brightener (4:1) then followed up with Autosmart Tardis and the Calipers/tyres/arches were done with Super degreaser:







The 2 bucket wash method followed, using Meguiars Shampoo Plus.


Tardis was applied to the lower halves of the car:



The tar spots were removed with a work towel but i could still see loads of tiny black speckles stuck to the paint, and they definitely werent tar as they didnt start to disolve with the Tardis:




So inside for the clay stage and for this i used Meguiars Agressive Detailing Clay:




The black spots were coming off but it was slow going and it took approx 1.5 hours to ensure the paintwork was squeaky clean - more time gone and the rest ticking away fast!

By the time the car had been dried off (waffle weave and leaf blower) and taped up it was now after 3 o clock and i then had to stop and give advice to a couple of customers who had dropped in past to buy some products. Time was now close to 4pm so there went my idea of a nice easy 2 days!

Eventually i got back to the car and took paint readings. The paintwork all round was fairly healthy ranging from 95-130 microns


Polishing should have been straight forward as the defects were medium/bad in some areas, but as i began to test out my pad and polish combinations it soon became apparant that this was going to be another one of those cars with "sticky" paint - the pads squealed and hopped and when they did stay in contact with the paint they didnt feel nice at all. A txt message from Matt @ OYM confirmed that Speed Yellow had given him similair problems before too so at least i wasnt alone on this one!

I finally settled for Meguiars #83 with a Polishing Pad:




Having to adapt my technique to suit the paint i eventually got the polish to break down to an acceptable standard without burning the paint(!)





Before:





After:







Before:





After:







Having got myself a bit wound up and generally pretty frustrated, i stopped work at around 7pm. I'd decided i would probably get more done the following day if i got a good nights sleep and started early, although i was already preparing myself for a late night to get it all finished




Day 2:



As planned, i started early and continued polishing. Strangely enough, on any car i get with sticky paint the bumpers are always fine!? As this was the case i started with these in order to motivate myself to tackle the sticky large panels later:






before:






after:






Rear bumper fully corrected:









Back up top -

Before:





After:







Rear lights before:





After:







Correction was done by the back of 4pm (i think!), but no rest for the wicked as they say, so on with the refining stage - using Menz 85rd:





The paint was still playing up at times so i had to really make sure i finished down properly as i had to go over a couple of areas twice after leaving very feint buffer trails. This was again quite time consuming and i finished up machining at approx 7:30pm. A quick bite to eat and tune in to the football on the radio perked me up a bit though



I needed to get the car dust free after polishing so out came our new duster:





Then the LSP, yellow wax for a yellow car




This was applied by German Applicator Pad and left to cure while i finished off everything else.







Tyres were dressed with Blackfire Long Lasting Tyre Gel, Arches done with Megs ASD and the wheels were sealed with PB Wheel Sealant:




The tailpipes were a bit,erm...black shall we say?




Half an hour later after using Blackfires Heavy Cut Compound,Unigrit 2000 and Megs NXT this was how they came up:



Better than i was even hoping for in all honesty!



The interior was also fully detailed but i was so intent on finishing at a sociable hour (fat chance!) i didnt even bother with any pics at that point.


All that remained was to buff off the Concours, using one of Poorboys new Green DMT's - i LOVE these, makes buffing such a breeze





The customer was picking up the car in the morning so i decided to wait untill then to give it a wipe down so that i could quickly snap a few after pics (dont think the smears were too bad though)- the time was now fast approaching midnight!



























Job done! I got home around 1 and was sleeping by 2 (takes ages for me to switch off - can hear the rotary buzzing in my sleep!), then up again at 7 to get to work for 8.


After a wipe down with Field Glaze this morning (Wednesday), this was the final results:





















The Customer was really happy with the results (as was i when i finally got time to stand back and admire! ) and he drove up from Glasgow in his mates car that was booked in next for the same treatment:





I'm half way through the Cayman as i type this and i'm hating every minute of it as it has a case of sticky paint too!! I cant wait for this week to end, although i'm doing another car all weekend too!




Thanks for looking as always


Clark

F1 CJE UK

iTrader: (8)

Interesting read as always … I would be very interested in a more detailed summary of the process to get that level of finish on metal work.. that’s a stunning level of correction

Great read tho (again )

Schumacher

Ah, the Terminator is back (see Cayman thread )!! I just can't get enough of these threads. Keep 'em coming!