Not much of a write up, but some good before, during and after pictures – plenty of contamination to deal with too!

During…

And after…

Foam – needs to be clean!

A lot of contamination to deal with!

Time for some compounding – dealing with the dreaded swirl marks

Boot opened to get in tighter to the bottom lip

Compounding done, ready for refining

ready for some wax

Roof cleaned and protected

Wax applied…DONE

Dull, lifeless and lacking gloss…

…to glossy, sharp and reflective

The day started well. The car was dropped off to us the previous evening and the early morning sun was welcome as the car was washed, clayed and dried. After a few hours of pulling off the contamination it was clear that we were going to be up against it. Many years of automatic car washes had left the car very badly swirled and the passenger side had seen a lot of country lane hedges – clear even without the inspection lighting that the scratches to the side sections were deep.

swirling and marring

some very deep scratches to deal with

some deep scratches on the mirrors and doors were a dead giveaway

Out with the paint thickness gauge – a little low for a Mercedes

and the stone chip free bonnet gave away the fact that it had seen some paint before

With this in mind, we taped up a section of the boot ready to test and set the Chicago rotary to work with Menzerna 203s

In normal daylight the correction was obvious – the colour restored and the light swirling removed.

lighting it up with the LED torch showed a different story though

deep scratches and heavy swirling remained

Getting there, but still not great! Out with the powergloss

two hits with powergloss and we were getting somewhere

But then it all came to and end. With the scratches and swirls still remaining a rethink was required. The bonnet was corrected with 203s (clearcoat was much softer than the rest of the car) but the other areas would require something with a bit more cut.

A few phone calls later and a bottle of 3M Fast Cut was ordered and ready for collection in the morning. With only two days remaining I sent an email to the client – we would need the car for four instead of the three days. We weren’t going to cut corners and the magic 95% correction mark was still in sight. With the Fast Cut ordered it was time to down tools and concentrate on the other areas of the car for the rest of the day before admitting defeat and packing up for the day.

Test section on the door – correcting well but those tougher marks were proving hard to remove.

Day two soon came around and armed with a bottle of fast cut we set to work on the door. Here you can see the difference as well as those deep scratches – we had to be careful here as the amount of paint overall was very low so we had to proceed with caution. After every set with the polisher it had to be wiped down with a strong IPA solution (60:40 compared to the normal 50:50 due to the filling properties of the Fast Cut). This revealed the scratches that would still take two and in some cases three hits before we hit the 95% correction we were aiming for with such low paint. Any further and we would have had to wet sand and possibly compromise the amount of clearcoat on the car – something that we weren’t prepared to do.

The correction we were aiming for – still needing refining

Some of the remaining scratches – hidden with the LED but showing up under the halogens.

With the benchmark set high it was time to finish the compounding stage – and 10 hours later we had nearly finished. With the ambient light fading, arms aching and seeing swirls with our eyes shut it was time to call it a day. The car was given a final IPA wipedown and we packed up.

Next day it was time for the polishing and refining stage. With the car rinsed down it it was clear the that the heavy compounding inflicts marring of its own that has to be polished and then finished down to ensure the clearcoat is free from tight swirling that is put in from heavy the heavy cutting compound. The whole car was finished and refined with Menzerna 203s and 3M Ultrafina.

The whole day was spent polishing, checking, polishing and refining to ensure it would look the best it possibly could.

And how it looked once corrected, glazed and topped off with a premium “vintage” carnauba wax.

It went from looking like this….

To this…

All in all a very hard but very satisfying job. We hope you enjoyed the write up and would love to hear your comments.

When the email came in the brief of the job was simple, make the brand new car look as good as possible and lay down some protection that would be easy to maintain and not need constant topping up to look good.

Regular readers may be aware that the preparation at dealerships often leaves a lot to be desired. Detailing World is awash with horror stories of yard brushes dipped in traffic film remover being used to remove transport wax and film from the exterior of brand new cars.

Thankfully this wasn’t the case today! The dealership were very helpful and accommodating to the customers request to PDI it and leave it. If you ever need a reasonably priced new or used Skoda then the All Electric Skoda Garage in Kings Heath are worth a visit!

Anyway, back to the detailing. The initial inspection was arranged for a few days before we were due to go out and protect the car and it was clear from the start that the car was suffering from areas of damage from iron filing fall out – this is common for cars that have been transported long distances via rail and then sat waiting to move again. The car was clean but felt rough to the touch and the embedded iron filings had started to rust a little bit.

To totally remove the contamination I knew clay alone would not be enough, and have recently been impressed by some of the reviews of a product called Iron Cut by Aquartz. This pH balanced product is used to open up the pores of the paintwork and dissolve the embedded iron filings – the only downside to the product is the smell – but at least we know it is doing the job.

On contact with the iron filings the solution turns purple and reveals some interesting results – I wasn’t prepared for the amount it would reveal and dissolve!

The purple spots are where it is working

As you can see – even if you can’t see the contamination it is still there – an important step!

Next job was to clay the car to remove any remaining contamination (this is still important as the iron cut only really deals with the fall out).

Once the car was clayed it was washed down, dried and ready for some cleanser. Serious Performance Cleanser was used on a finishing pad to remove any marring that may have been inflicted when claying – a common side effect.

Once the car was cleansed we would normally begin layering the protection – but not in this case as the brief was to lay down protection that is easy to top up – and what could be easier than opti-seal?! This product bonds best to freshly polished paint, so out came the IPA for a full car wipedown to remove the layer of cleanser – usually used to help the application of synthetic and carnauba waxes – but not in this car – it had to go! (Opti Seal will strip any existing wax protection when you use it!).

While the first coat was curing we set to work on the interior, the leather was protected and the mats treated with 303 Fabric Protection – an excellent product that repels water and stains. While the mats were drying it was time to lay down some opti seal on the wheels as well as give the engine bay a wipe down with some APC to remove any marks and then top off with 303 aerospace protectant – brilliant for jobs like these.

Wheels being sealed

Interior getting wiped down and protected

engine bay marks to remove…

…and top off with 303

and the finished engine bay

Once the first layer of opti seal had cured on the paintwork it was time to get a second layer on…then a third..and fourth…we managed six layers roughly ten minutes apart – while it is curing you can go around and do the small jobs like cleaning windows and laying down the opti seal in the door shuts etc.

And how it looked after the last layer.

Couldn’t resist a few cheeky pics and the wheels really set the car off, the Monza 2′s with a custom paint job looked fantastic.

Enjoy!

some light holograms to be removed.

How it looked afterwards – more after the break!

some dirt build up behind the numberplate to get rid of ready for a layer of wax to help prevent in future

Light coating of dust removed with Jeff’s then topped off with more wheel guard

All cleaned and ready for fitting, new centre caps and wheel bolt covers were used – little touches really help!

Gloss restored and some nice reflections coming out

All the seals fed

Often overlooked shuts cleansed and optisealed to keep them clean

All done – afternoon sun bringing out the best of the paintwork

More reflections

Holograms all gone

And all finished

Not much talking, I think the pics speak for themselves!

Before

After

The car arrived with us on a Wednesday afternoon and was due for collection on the Saturday afternoon and we knew we would have our work cut out from the start!

Swirls poking out through the dust.

Some local wildlife.

Bird dropping marks – this would prove difficult to remove later on because of the location on the sunroof!

Some areas of repair where we had to be extra careful – Paintwork should be thoroughly checked before correction!

Another nasty bird bomb to deal with.

Wheels suffering from btake dust marks and general road grime.

Some scuffs to deal with;

Areas often missed when washing

On to the wash stage – getting in all the hard to reach and often overlooked areas

On to the wheels, acid free wheel cleaner and a selection or brushes to bring them back to life.

Wheels all clean, water after one wheel isn’t! Fresh needed after every wheel!

All washed and dried, now to inspect the defects! EEEEK!

Time for some compounding; Menzerna Powergloss required to remove the swirls

…and a second hit required to remove most of the remaining random deep scratches

Much better – still some refining required to remove the marring from the compounding

So out with the cleanser and a polishing pad to remove the holograms and any marring.

And now for the little touches – Exhausts polished

Still left with some dust from the polishing though!

Time to get it rolled outside, rinsed down and engine bay attended to.

Much better – car now rinsed, bonnet, boot and door shuts primed and optisealed…

While that is curing time to attend to the interior

Leather cleaned and fed and carpets hoovered – much nicer place to be

Just enough time to get a premium show winning wax on and get some pictures taken

late afternoon reflections

the sun – the real judge of three days of polishing!

Remember before? Scroll back up to compare how it looked when it arrived!

Overall a very challenging but very rewarding four days!

It is rare we get as excited as this, but the distinctive jaguar interior smell, a car that looks good from any angle combined with an engine powerful enough to make your eyes water was enough to have us squealing like six years old’s in a sweet shop.

The car itself has covered a mere twelve thousand miles and arrived with us clean, but in need of some love.

The car wash washed, treated to tar removal and then clayed, rewashed and ready for the machine polishing.

Swirls removed and gloss restored

The car was then finished down to refine the look and to leave a perfect finish for a premium vintage wax which we left on for 12 hours before being removed the following morning.

The after shots speak for themselves.

Enjoy!

Using the Tornador means you don’t have to worry about getting everywhere soaking wet and you don’t have to compromise on the cleaning power.

If you would like any more information on these services please get in touch through our contact page.

Today i got the minging headlining cleaned by Paul @ Midlands Detailing.

I didn’t want to soak the headlining, as it could easily come away from the backing, sag and look water stained if not dried properly. I put a post up on here to see if someone could help me out. Paul @ Midlands Detailing (http://www.midlandsdetailing.co.uk) replied saying that he had a tornador. This is an awesome bit of kit, it varpourises a solution (in this case Meguairs All Purpose Cleaner + water) via compressed air on to the surface. You then agitate it with a microfibre, wipe off with a different microfibre, switch the tornador to an air setting and it dries the surface. Simples! So no need to leave it soaking wet, it just blasts the dirt out of the material.

I think i’ve got that right?

As for the car, it had obviously been smoked in at some point, quite heavily too, the headlining was grey in places where it should be champagne! The champagne headlining was an option, so i wanted it looking as good as possible. Not look ‘new’ just fresh and loved.

To give you all an idea of the condition before, look at these pics:

Horrible!!

Paul cracked out the tornador and set about seeing it right – watching this was just amazing….and it was dry to touch in 5 mins! :smt004

50:50′s

The result:

Much, much better!

Big thanks to Paul – a real nice guy – thanks for your time this morning!

After a tough year for the group where costumes and scenery were destroyed they put on a brave face in aid of charity and give us a fantastic performance on the classic tale of Robin Hood.

Thank you so much for your generosity in sponsoring Robin Hood – The Pantomime

The show was a great success and loved by all.

We and our charities will be eternally grateful for your contribution and it is through your kindness that we are able to help them:

* At least one child dies in the UK every week as a result of an adult’s cruelty and thousands more endure abuse and neglect at the hands of their carers. We hope that our donation will help the NSPCC to put a full stop to this – thank you.
* The Mary Stevens Hospice specialize in the active, total care of patients with incurable illness. Care focuses on maximizing patient quality, rather than quantity of life. With your help the hospice can give special care to local people who really need it – thank you.
* The Max Appeal Supports families affected by DiGeorge syndrome. This is an inherited condition which can result in health problems of varying degrees. It affects about one in 4,000 births. It can cause autoimmune disease and often heart defects. With your help we are able to help this small group of local children.

Thank you again for your help

Kind Regards
The Panto Factory

If you have a local charity/event or group that you think we could help then please get in touch!

Midlands Detailing have been contacted about working on a rather unique display piece. The piece is currently part of a developing Aerospace and Technology centre that benefits Air Cadets in the Staffordshire Wing area.

The centre has just had a major refurb and the Phantom was suffering from some serious dust coverage but also some more permanent staining on the nose cone from its previous place of retirement.

Here at Midlands Detailing we don’t like to shy away from a challenge so we turned up on a nice spring day to be greeted with what can only be decribed as a mammoth task.

Here are some befores…

Due to the nature of the aircraft and the fact that getting it outside would require dismantling the already sizeable door we decided to address the issues with some more conventional wash techniques and used Optimum No Rinse on the panels of the aircraft.

Once that was completed we tried to work out an effective way to clean the rather awkward paint. Finally settling on Menzerna Final Finish by hand we set about working down either side of the aircraft.

Here are some pics from during the day as we worked away on the outside of the plane.

Finally we completed the outside and I jumped in the cockpit to clean the millions of switches and displays using a light APC on a brush. The entire canopy was cleaned with APC inside and out before being followed up with glass cleaner, even in the tricky areas.

Finally after 6 hours we were left with a finshed product looking considerably better than when we started…

Keep your eyes peeled for some more interesting details from Midlands Detailing in the near future.

This MG ZS was a customer from the Rover Tech website and came to us feeling a little sorry for itself. It’s a bit of an on going project for the owner after it’s recent 2.0 Turbo conversion and then having various other mods added to it.

From the pictures below you can see the sort of condition the car was in:

I think we may have our work cut out on these recently refurbished wheels…

As the vehicle was in for an enhancement and protection we set about getting it cleaned up using our ususal de-contamination method of APC foam baths, a two bucket wash and some Clean Your Car poly clay. A thorough dousing of Tardis is also added into the mix to help deal with any tar deposits that may be lurking.

Following the decontamination we polished the car by machine using a mild abrasive polish to give the paint back the shine and lustre it had been missing. The car was then topped with two layers of the trusty Collonite 476 24 hours apart.

The after shots speak for themselves:

Over all an enjoyable job for us and a happy customer, we couldn’t of asked for a better start to 2010!