2008 ARDENT RED LOTUS EXIGE

Background

Following the Cayman and Boxster neighbourhood details for Davy and Jan, their neighbour initially wanted his Lotus Elise de-swirled. However, he traded it in and got the Exige to add that little bit extra to Knockhill track days.

The car was bought from an Edinburgh dealership last month and has been washed by the owner twice, using the 2 bucket method, high lube Gold Class and MF mitts. He is very careful in his washing. The defects you will see here were undoubtedly caused by the dealership prep routine. Although associated primarily with Volvo, the dealership really need to learn a thing or ten about how to treat their more discerning car buyers’ new purchases.

On with the detail then.



















Once finished, the whole car was given a wipe down with Tetrosyl panel wipe. This dealt with most polish residues but did not clear up some other heavily bonded stains.
To rectify this, the car was machined with a 3M blue finishing pad with JEFFS Prime Strong Acrylic (600-800rpm). This really worked well and gave an amazing finish and I was starting to see the 2 day’s hard work coming to fruition. It also left an acrylic layer ready for Zaino Z2-Pro application.

Wheels given Z2 and external trim got 303 Aerospace protectant.

Some afters photos now.













Comments and questions welcome.

Thanks,

JOHN

Thanks for your comments Jesters, very kind of you.:icon_thumright:

Obviously with this car being of fibreglass substrate, heat build up has to be constantly monitored and managed. This is where the passing speed and left hand pressure comes in. I was very very careful about both of these and managed to achieve ALL machining at lukewarm-warm level. On a flat panel you can check the heat with the other hand while continuing to hold the machine with the other. On trickier areas it is safer just to stop the machine and do a check. Always start the machine on the panel again at lowest speed and then turn it back up to the previous higher speed.

I've given some idea of pressures and speeds in the following pic and hope it answers your questions. Flat areas were done at 600-900-1200-1500-900 rpm pattern and light pressure.


This car did require lots and lots of concentration and could at times be mentally tiring. For the last 8 hours on this detail I was nursing flu symptoms and was getting very drained both physically and mentally, but there was no way I was going to fail to see the work through. There's so much perseverance involved that sometimes other people don't get to see. After all, it's just a dafty buffing a car isn't it LOL!!!! If you've done it, you'll know what I mean.

Hope this helps and answers your good question.

JOHN

PS Meant to say - I never go over an edge like from one flat area to another, trespassing over the edge in the process.. The edges were swirled and needed to be corrected. 600-900 RPM and just skimming in a longitudinal direction along the edges was enough to de-swirl them safely.

Thanks Matt and Rich.

Matt - the dealership in question were also responsible for heavy swirling on the guy's black Elise prior to the Exige. It appears that regardless of whether it's a Volvo, Lotus, Aston or Rolls Royce they all go through the same rough hands. Shocking really, but we don't expect them to change. Having said that, I'm hearing more and more stories from people whose cars have been washed by dealerships (BMW in particular). Apparently a couple of local people have returned their 'washed' cars and simply told the dealer to get rid of all the scratches they have inflicted on their car. And that's folks who are not big on detailing techniques.

Rich - I think the polish/pad/speed combo was perfect and decided against the PC in the end. I knew very quickly that the rotary was going to be fine. The PC was used for one section just above the rear lights.

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