I'll start this by saying, if anyone has any doubt about the worth of two buckets, grit guards, washmits and a well waxed car - talk to Rodger (Slick), the owner of this beautiful Black Magic Leon from day one.
Early start on Sunday for the trip to Essex to see Rodger. We've been trying to put this together for a while and finally found a space in both our diaries. With one eye on the weather I whizzed around the M25 to get to his place.
Rodger has spent, and continues to do so, a lot of time, effort and money on all aspects of his car, and it shows. It is stunning, pictures really don't do it justice. Both inside and out have received attention, and the quality of work is a credit to Rodger's skills.
The car has been very carefully washed from day 1, and at around 2 years old, I can honestly say I hav never seen paint in such good condition and relatively swirl/scratch free. It can be done people!
The car had a light covering of dust and dirt on it, so I started with a pre-soak on the dust and bugs, before a rinse followed by a thorough wash using the two bucket method and a couple of washmits. No need to clay, it was smooth as silk already, so once rinsed it was dried off with a couple of Cobra Super Guzzler drying towels.
Once dry, I inspected the surface of the paint with the use of a Brinkman torch and halogen light, and readings were taken with my paint thickness guage. This showed mainly consistent thickness over the car, one spot in the middle of the roof showing a slight cause for concern, along with a couple of spots along the bottom of the doors. However, thanks to an exceptionally light covering of swirls, it was evident that I wouldn't have to use anything too harsh to bring it up to standard.
Trim was taped with 3M tape as usual.
Out with the Metabo rotary, a little experiment with prodcuts, and I settled on Menzerna Final Finish PO85RD on a polishing pad. One hit was enough to see the finish pretty much flawless and glass like. I tried to get a 50/50 shot on the bonnet, but the camera couldn't pick up the difference. To the eye though, it was evident where the polished sections looked really black, compared to the sightly misty/grey unpolished area.
This is the driver's door:
Early start on Sunday for the trip to Essex to see Rodger. We've been trying to put this together for a while and finally found a space in both our diaries. With one eye on the weather I whizzed around the M25 to get to his place.
Rodger has spent, and continues to do so, a lot of time, effort and money on all aspects of his car, and it shows. It is stunning, pictures really don't do it justice. Both inside and out have received attention, and the quality of work is a credit to Rodger's skills.
The car has been very carefully washed from day 1, and at around 2 years old, I can honestly say I hav never seen paint in such good condition and relatively swirl/scratch free. It can be done people!
The car had a light covering of dust and dirt on it, so I started with a pre-soak on the dust and bugs, before a rinse followed by a thorough wash using the two bucket method and a couple of washmits. No need to clay, it was smooth as silk already, so once rinsed it was dried off with a couple of Cobra Super Guzzler drying towels.
Once dry, I inspected the surface of the paint with the use of a Brinkman torch and halogen light, and readings were taken with my paint thickness guage. This showed mainly consistent thickness over the car, one spot in the middle of the roof showing a slight cause for concern, along with a couple of spots along the bottom of the doors. However, thanks to an exceptionally light covering of swirls, it was evident that I wouldn't have to use anything too harsh to bring it up to standard.
Trim was taped with 3M tape as usual.
Out with the Metabo rotary, a little experiment with prodcuts, and I settled on Menzerna Final Finish PO85RD on a polishing pad. One hit was enough to see the finish pretty much flawless and glass like. I tried to get a 50/50 shot on the bonnet, but the camera couldn't pick up the difference. To the eye though, it was evident where the polished sections looked really black, compared to the sightly misty/grey unpolished area.
This is the driver's door:
