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Today's Dundee Tag Team detail - a 1987 Lotus Excel, in solid white.
The car arrived yesterday evening with Bryan, so he got started preparing the car for polighint then... Here's the car on arrival:
Bryan TFR'd the car first with Autoglym Power Max 3, then washed using the two-bucket method. This was then followed by claying the car, and washing out and dressing the arches ready for the polishing to commence today...
I arrived at 9am at Bryan's ready to make a running start with the polishing - knowning it to be solid white, I suspected the paint might well be as hard as a rock and Bryan has said the swilrs were quite bad... Also, this car was glass fibre, so owing to its lack of ability to dissapate heat I decided to run with the PC on this car rather than the rotary. Also, our PTGs couldn't get a reading from the glass fibre so I didn't want to go ploughing in with compounds on a rotary.
So, a test section was masked off ready for the first product combo test. Here's a pic of the swilrs we were dealing with under the Brinkmann:
My first test was meguiars #83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish, applied using a Sonus SFX-1 Restore Pad (6"). Spread at speed 3, then several slow passes at speed 5 until the residue went transparent (must have been about ten passes). Residue wiped off, the result:
The #83 has done a great job of removing about 80% of the swilrs, but what remained were deeper scratches in the paint. I decided to mask off a neighbouring area and do aside by side test section to compare a more aggressive combo to see if it made an impact on the deeper scratches. It may have been these were just too deep to fully remove and so the #83 would have sufficed for the car. But it may have been a more aggressive combo would safely shift them. So to find out, on with a 4" SFX-1 restore pad and out with the Menzerna Power Gloss. Picture of test section number 2:
Power Gloss applied using the slow-cut technique and then followed with Intensive Polish on a 6" LakeCountry Orange Light Cut pad to remove the micromarring. The end result of this combo:
The finish was this time noticeably sharper and much of the deeper scratches also removed, now only isolated very deep scratches remained. It was decided to leave the deep scratches owing to not knowing the paint thickness, and settle for the above defect removal which was around 95% defect removal.
So, I proceeded to Power Gloss the enture car using the slow-cut method while Bryan followed with the Intensive Polish to clear up the micromarring and refine the finish. It was then time to decided how to finish and seal the paint. Owing to it being a solid colur and the PCs tendancy to very very slightly micromarr solid colours in comparison to the rotary, it was decided to finish the car using Meguiars #80 on a Meguiars W8006 polishing pad and the top with Meguiars #16 Paste wax applied by hand to protect the finish. #80 was chosen as the mild abbrassive would further refine the finish and the oils in it would bring the solid colour out to a nice glossy finish.
So, I applied the Meguiars #80 - single pass at speed 3 and then several passes on speed 5 until the polish had fully broken down (residue goes clear). Bryan the followed round applying Meguiars #16 by hand.
Some pictures of the car during the process - white paint does reflect!
The glass was polished using Autoglym Glass Polish, the wheels waxed with OCW and the tyres treated to Meguiars Endurance Gel.
We then finally went round the car with a spritz of Meguiars Last Touch and wipe clear to remove any small finger prints or smudges or dust. With the car ready, we rolled it out into the sun to evaluate the finish:
The onwer was delighted with the finish. So we parked the car up and took the final photographs:
The white paint on this car was as expected pretty solid, but mercifully not completely rock hard to the point where multiple hits of Power Gloss on slow-cut method was needed. The owner was delighted with the finish, and even mentioned possibly taking the car to a Lotus car show now!
The car arrived yesterday evening with Bryan, so he got started preparing the car for polighint then... Here's the car on arrival:
Bryan TFR'd the car first with Autoglym Power Max 3, then washed using the two-bucket method. This was then followed by claying the car, and washing out and dressing the arches ready for the polishing to commence today...
I arrived at 9am at Bryan's ready to make a running start with the polishing - knowning it to be solid white, I suspected the paint might well be as hard as a rock and Bryan has said the swilrs were quite bad... Also, this car was glass fibre, so owing to its lack of ability to dissapate heat I decided to run with the PC on this car rather than the rotary. Also, our PTGs couldn't get a reading from the glass fibre so I didn't want to go ploughing in with compounds on a rotary.
So, a test section was masked off ready for the first product combo test. Here's a pic of the swilrs we were dealing with under the Brinkmann:
My first test was meguiars #83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish, applied using a Sonus SFX-1 Restore Pad (6"). Spread at speed 3, then several slow passes at speed 5 until the residue went transparent (must have been about ten passes). Residue wiped off, the result:
The #83 has done a great job of removing about 80% of the swilrs, but what remained were deeper scratches in the paint. I decided to mask off a neighbouring area and do aside by side test section to compare a more aggressive combo to see if it made an impact on the deeper scratches. It may have been these were just too deep to fully remove and so the #83 would have sufficed for the car. But it may have been a more aggressive combo would safely shift them. So to find out, on with a 4" SFX-1 restore pad and out with the Menzerna Power Gloss. Picture of test section number 2:
Power Gloss applied using the slow-cut technique and then followed with Intensive Polish on a 6" LakeCountry Orange Light Cut pad to remove the micromarring. The end result of this combo:
The finish was this time noticeably sharper and much of the deeper scratches also removed, now only isolated very deep scratches remained. It was decided to leave the deep scratches owing to not knowing the paint thickness, and settle for the above defect removal which was around 95% defect removal.
So, I proceeded to Power Gloss the enture car using the slow-cut method while Bryan followed with the Intensive Polish to clear up the micromarring and refine the finish. It was then time to decided how to finish and seal the paint. Owing to it being a solid colur and the PCs tendancy to very very slightly micromarr solid colours in comparison to the rotary, it was decided to finish the car using Meguiars #80 on a Meguiars W8006 polishing pad and the top with Meguiars #16 Paste wax applied by hand to protect the finish. #80 was chosen as the mild abbrassive would further refine the finish and the oils in it would bring the solid colour out to a nice glossy finish.
So, I applied the Meguiars #80 - single pass at speed 3 and then several passes on speed 5 until the polish had fully broken down (residue goes clear). Bryan the followed round applying Meguiars #16 by hand.
Some pictures of the car during the process - white paint does reflect!
The glass was polished using Autoglym Glass Polish, the wheels waxed with OCW and the tyres treated to Meguiars Endurance Gel.
We then finally went round the car with a spritz of Meguiars Last Touch and wipe clear to remove any small finger prints or smudges or dust. With the car ready, we rolled it out into the sun to evaluate the finish:
The onwer was delighted with the finish. So we parked the car up and took the final photographs:
The white paint on this car was as expected pretty solid, but mercifully not completely rock hard to the point where multiple hits of Power Gloss on slow-cut method was needed. The owner was delighted with the finish, and even mentioned possibly taking the car to a Lotus car show now!
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