WX51TXR
Polished Bliss
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2005
- Messages
- 1,452
- Reaction score
- 16
- Points
- 36
- Location
- AB51 0TH
- Website
- www.polishedbliss.co.uk
Done by Clark, Monday and Tuesday this week...
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Another full Zymöl detail for this great looking 348, belonging to someone who had been referred to us by a previous customer
The car was generally pretty clean considering its around 15 years old, however i could see even under natural light that the paint was a bit flat and lifeless, just shows what pics on the internet can hide as it looks quite reflective in the above pic!
I could clearly see alot of RIDS on many of the panels that i knew wouldnt come out fully and there were a couple of nasty scratches too...
Anyways, onto the wash stage:
As usual, all the normal areas were treated to APC before the car was foamed with a Safe Degreaser through the foam gun and then rinsed at high pressure, taking care around a few small sections (more on that further down the page). It was then washed with the TBM and then clayed with Zymöl lehm clay before being foamed and rinsed again theh dried with the leaf blower. The wheels were cleaned with a non-acidic wheel and tyre gel and a MF mitt/wheel brush.
Total wash time: 2.5 hours
Polish:
Once inside and under the halogens, the defects were clear to see:
There were also a couple of areas on various places on the car that would need masking off, as they had begun to corrode:
These were masked off as i wasnt about to risk making them any worse with the Rotary, especially as the 348's are mainly aliminium panels and can get hot very quickly.
There were light rotary holograms and some deep cutting pad "pig tails" which suggested that the car had probably seen some paintwork in its time...the Gauges confirmed this:
348's were also hand painted so readings can be a bit inconsistant ,but there had definitely been paintwork done on just about every panel of the car, as there were a few tell tale signs as well as the PTG readings
The plastics though, were rather thin, especially the bonnet:
The max reading i got on the bonnet was in the 80's, the bumpers and other plastics were between 60-90 mircons.
As the car had obviously been re-sprayed, i worked my way up the aggressiveness level, firstly starting with a finishing pad and the lighter of the finishing polishes, this did nothing so i went to the more aggressive FP and a polishing pad - this was alot better, although i had to do 2 or 3 hits @1500rpm's on some sections of the bonnet and the other plastics to get them spot on as i didnt want to go any harder considering they were on the thin side.
50/50 on the bonnet:
Onto the rest of the car, which was alot thicker paint wise. These panels appeared to be a hell of alot harder than the bonnet and the roof and i eventually settled for the cerami-clear compound and a polishing pad @1800rpm's, luckily the lubricants in said polish were working perfectly so the heat of the panels were kept to a miminum. There were alot of deep defects (including some crazy micromarring and holograms!) that needed 2 or 3 hits again on some panels, and even then they didnt come out 100% although greatly improved.
before:
after:
Drivers door before
after:
You'll notice that in the above after pic there are still a couple of small defects left, these were typical of what couldnt be completely removed from the majority of the car, but it was a small amount so i was happy considering what it was like before!
Another 50/50.....
...And fully corrected.....
The tighter areas around the engine cover were done with the PC and a 4" cutting pad
The lower intake vents were done by hand as the spot pad and PC were too big....
Total polishing time: 8.5 hours
After seeing some examples of different finishes, the owner decided to go for Vintage, so after the car was dusted down with the Zymöl duster it was then HD cleansed, including the bits that can so easily be missed....
The Vintage was then applied via applicator pad and left to cure while i turned to all the other small details, and on a car like this there's a few!
The grill on the bonnet had turned really grey so this was brought back to colour with an all season dressing.
The rear grill over the lights were the same:
These were treated to Zymöl Carbon, some staining remained but they were significantly improved:
The exhaust tips were polished too but the pics were a bit blurry so i never bothered uploading them this time
---
Another full Zymöl detail for this great looking 348, belonging to someone who had been referred to us by a previous customer
The car was generally pretty clean considering its around 15 years old, however i could see even under natural light that the paint was a bit flat and lifeless, just shows what pics on the internet can hide as it looks quite reflective in the above pic!
I could clearly see alot of RIDS on many of the panels that i knew wouldnt come out fully and there were a couple of nasty scratches too...
Anyways, onto the wash stage:
As usual, all the normal areas were treated to APC before the car was foamed with a Safe Degreaser through the foam gun and then rinsed at high pressure, taking care around a few small sections (more on that further down the page). It was then washed with the TBM and then clayed with Zymöl lehm clay before being foamed and rinsed again theh dried with the leaf blower. The wheels were cleaned with a non-acidic wheel and tyre gel and a MF mitt/wheel brush.
Total wash time: 2.5 hours
Polish:
Once inside and under the halogens, the defects were clear to see:
There were also a couple of areas on various places on the car that would need masking off, as they had begun to corrode:
These were masked off as i wasnt about to risk making them any worse with the Rotary, especially as the 348's are mainly aliminium panels and can get hot very quickly.
There were light rotary holograms and some deep cutting pad "pig tails" which suggested that the car had probably seen some paintwork in its time...the Gauges confirmed this:
348's were also hand painted so readings can be a bit inconsistant ,but there had definitely been paintwork done on just about every panel of the car, as there were a few tell tale signs as well as the PTG readings
The plastics though, were rather thin, especially the bonnet:
The max reading i got on the bonnet was in the 80's, the bumpers and other plastics were between 60-90 mircons.
As the car had obviously been re-sprayed, i worked my way up the aggressiveness level, firstly starting with a finishing pad and the lighter of the finishing polishes, this did nothing so i went to the more aggressive FP and a polishing pad - this was alot better, although i had to do 2 or 3 hits @1500rpm's on some sections of the bonnet and the other plastics to get them spot on as i didnt want to go any harder considering they were on the thin side.
50/50 on the bonnet:
Onto the rest of the car, which was alot thicker paint wise. These panels appeared to be a hell of alot harder than the bonnet and the roof and i eventually settled for the cerami-clear compound and a polishing pad @1800rpm's, luckily the lubricants in said polish were working perfectly so the heat of the panels were kept to a miminum. There were alot of deep defects (including some crazy micromarring and holograms!) that needed 2 or 3 hits again on some panels, and even then they didnt come out 100% although greatly improved.
before:
after:
Drivers door before
after:
You'll notice that in the above after pic there are still a couple of small defects left, these were typical of what couldnt be completely removed from the majority of the car, but it was a small amount so i was happy considering what it was like before!
Another 50/50.....
...And fully corrected.....
The tighter areas around the engine cover were done with the PC and a 4" cutting pad
The lower intake vents were done by hand as the spot pad and PC were too big....
Total polishing time: 8.5 hours
After seeing some examples of different finishes, the owner decided to go for Vintage, so after the car was dusted down with the Zymöl duster it was then HD cleansed, including the bits that can so easily be missed....
The Vintage was then applied via applicator pad and left to cure while i turned to all the other small details, and on a car like this there's a few!
The grill on the bonnet had turned really grey so this was brought back to colour with an all season dressing.
The rear grill over the lights were the same:
These were treated to Zymöl Carbon, some staining remained but they were significantly improved:
The exhaust tips were polished too but the pics were a bit blurry so i never bothered uploading them this time
