Tango's latest project
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Joined: Sep 2003
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From: Hatfield
Tango's latest project
After having done a deep clense on Scotts F40 he has commissioned me to work on his F50. This I am working on over two days to get it ready for the big event this weekend.
Car was washed in the regular way, rinsed then steaming the wheel arches;
Once washed time to get rid of all the contaminants still stuck on the paint using a Claybar.
Now the engine bay;
Steam, then degrease;
After drying it is then dressed with a matt dressing to bring out the depth then allowed to dry off before wiping off any excess as a first stage
Then paint clensing and polishing the perspex engine cover;
Time to check the paint thickness on the car so I know what tolerances I have to work with.
Readings did vary but this showed a typical value, the second number is the thickness of the clearcoat on the car this is what I will be polishing. The process I am doing is a very light machine polish to remove the swirls but not any scratches. We have here 143 to work with, I will be taking off no more than two.
Finally after dressing and drying door shuts and the boot all is rinsed down and then wiped dry with a deep pile micro fibre towel.
Then I got the car back in to the garage and set up my 'show no mercy' mercury lighting (same as a garage forecourt) to see how bad the swirling is now we have removed all waxes and polishes off the car.
Following day was about getting the car polished, although there had been a lot of preparation yesterday I needed to tidy up the swirls in the paint and polish. day started a little dreary plus the gardener was blasting dust everywhere so I stayed inside to work on the bonnet. First this was to take some reading from the bumper and the bonnet.
Paint thickness was showing around 160 but the bumper was much less, I was not happy to use the rotary on the bumper so I decided the Random orbital for that and the nostrils :grin:
Now we were starting to get a result with the paint. Here is whats called a 50/50 shot where you mask off one area and work on the other half. There is a distinct line going from left to right which shows most of the swirls having been removed but still a few deeper marks left behind. This was with one application of compound, I would need two to three to get it perfect but unfortunately we do not have the time. The single pass would be enough to get rid of the blooming but you would still catch a few marks when seen in strong sunlight.
Here I have worked things a little further to show what could really be done with three passes of the rotary, still only taking off 2-4% of the clearcoat. Thats how deep the scratches are from using a sponge.
So weather was getting better and gardener had buggered off, plus i'd had my morning coffee so it was time to get the F50 out and start polishing. First thing was to re-calibrate and check what progress was being made.
Then continue with polishing, the combination I was using was a Meguiars finishing pad plus their new product Meguiars Solo, a very good gentle combination for painted CF.
Once I had machine polished it was time to apply some paint cleansers and then three coats of Super Sealant, which is a little like Supagard.
Then it was time to wax
Now the trim was annoying me, there were stains on the plastic trim so it was time to go around this with the wax eraser and some dressing.
Here you can see where I have done up to the wiper blade in the top right.
Now the rear light clusters
Finally time to clean up door shuts and then wipe down the windows both inside and out
In total there was around 14 hours worth of work polishing the car, cleaning and dressing the engine bay and restoring the trim. I would like to come back later on if Scott is up for it to do further machine polishing and tidy up the cabin area. So some pictures before she was tucked away.
Car was washed in the regular way, rinsed then steaming the wheel arches;
Once washed time to get rid of all the contaminants still stuck on the paint using a Claybar.
Now the engine bay;
Steam, then degrease;
After drying it is then dressed with a matt dressing to bring out the depth then allowed to dry off before wiping off any excess as a first stage
Then paint clensing and polishing the perspex engine cover;
Time to check the paint thickness on the car so I know what tolerances I have to work with.
Readings did vary but this showed a typical value, the second number is the thickness of the clearcoat on the car this is what I will be polishing. The process I am doing is a very light machine polish to remove the swirls but not any scratches. We have here 143 to work with, I will be taking off no more than two.
Finally after dressing and drying door shuts and the boot all is rinsed down and then wiped dry with a deep pile micro fibre towel.
Then I got the car back in to the garage and set up my 'show no mercy' mercury lighting (same as a garage forecourt) to see how bad the swirling is now we have removed all waxes and polishes off the car.
Following day was about getting the car polished, although there had been a lot of preparation yesterday I needed to tidy up the swirls in the paint and polish. day started a little dreary plus the gardener was blasting dust everywhere so I stayed inside to work on the bonnet. First this was to take some reading from the bumper and the bonnet.
Paint thickness was showing around 160 but the bumper was much less, I was not happy to use the rotary on the bumper so I decided the Random orbital for that and the nostrils :grin:
Now we were starting to get a result with the paint. Here is whats called a 50/50 shot where you mask off one area and work on the other half. There is a distinct line going from left to right which shows most of the swirls having been removed but still a few deeper marks left behind. This was with one application of compound, I would need two to three to get it perfect but unfortunately we do not have the time. The single pass would be enough to get rid of the blooming but you would still catch a few marks when seen in strong sunlight.
Here I have worked things a little further to show what could really be done with three passes of the rotary, still only taking off 2-4% of the clearcoat. Thats how deep the scratches are from using a sponge.
So weather was getting better and gardener had buggered off, plus i'd had my morning coffee so it was time to get the F50 out and start polishing. First thing was to re-calibrate and check what progress was being made.
Then continue with polishing, the combination I was using was a Meguiars finishing pad plus their new product Meguiars Solo, a very good gentle combination for painted CF.
Once I had machine polished it was time to apply some paint cleansers and then three coats of Super Sealant, which is a little like Supagard.
Then it was time to wax
Now the trim was annoying me, there were stains on the plastic trim so it was time to go around this with the wax eraser and some dressing.
Here you can see where I have done up to the wiper blade in the top right.
Now the rear light clusters
Finally time to clean up door shuts and then wipe down the windows both inside and out
In total there was around 14 hours worth of work polishing the car, cleaning and dressing the engine bay and restoring the trim. I would like to come back later on if Scott is up for it to do further machine polishing and tidy up the cabin area. So some pictures before she was tucked away.
