Had a call from a Nick_c_1986, a fellow forum user, looking to put some sparkle back into his 2004 Seat Leon TDI in the beautiful shade of Black Magic. Having fairly recently had a lot of paint done due to a kind taxi driver using the Nick's car as a brake instead of the middle pedal, I was hoping that at least one side of the car should be reasonably defect free. When will I learn?
Early start to be in Bournemouth for 08:30, Nick had just finished fitting his side skirts. This was how I found it:
Generally grubby, but nothing too bad. Turned out the kit from the car and proceeded to get washing. At this point I will add that all week I had been watching the weather reports for both details booked in this weekend. Thankfully for the Lotus I did on Saturday (and didn't have the camera :wall: ) cover was arranged by the owner, but that wasn't an option for this Leon. At the last minute we decided to go for it, but I wasn't too hopeful!
Washing the car with rain showers helping, I first soaked the car from the middle downwards, including wheels and arches in Megs APC diluted 4:1. Left that for a short while. Then broke out the Karcher with foam gun, and soaked the car using a mix of Hyperwash, Gold Class and a touch of APC for taste.
Rinsed and cleared out the arches, then soaked with suds again before washing properly with two bucket method, Megs Hyperwash and a couple of mits. Rinsed once more and left wet for claying.
Using Sonus Green and Last Touch for lube, worked my way around the car. It wasn't too bad - bonnet and front wings needing the most attention.
Once that was done a quick wash and rinse again before drying with a Cobra Super Guzzler. Well, I tried to dry it but the rain had other ideas so had a brew while the shower passed before finishing the drying.
Taped up with 3M 3434 and got the paint thickness guage on the case. Knowing that the offside had received damage repair basically front to back, I was expecting to see that reflected in the readings but I didn't get what I thought I would. Everywhere else was actually very uniform, lowest I saw was 112 mics at the bottom of the nearside doors, an average of 120 mics on upper doors, roof and bonnet.
But on the offside (expecting thicker readings) I was stunned to find the paint was all sub-100 mics, the two doors being between 78-90 mics with terrible marks all over that I can only think were left by the bodyshop. The marks were too uniform to be regular swirls, and strangely enough formed a rough circle about the size of a 6.5 inch pad.....
I returned to the bonnet to start. Using the Metabo rotary with Megs polishing pad I tried Menz PO85RD FF first. Spread and worked for several passes at Speed 1, a couple of sets of passes at Speed 2, before going back to a couple more at Speed 1. Result was an improvement in swirls (maybe 60% improvement), but not good enough and certainly hadn't touched the considerable number of random scratches keeping the swirls company.
Switched to Menz IP PO85RD 3.02 on a polishing pad, same passes - result. Swirls gone, some of the straighter light scratches gone and the remaining few vastly improved.
Early start to be in Bournemouth for 08:30, Nick had just finished fitting his side skirts. This was how I found it:
Generally grubby, but nothing too bad. Turned out the kit from the car and proceeded to get washing. At this point I will add that all week I had been watching the weather reports for both details booked in this weekend. Thankfully for the Lotus I did on Saturday (and didn't have the camera :wall: ) cover was arranged by the owner, but that wasn't an option for this Leon. At the last minute we decided to go for it, but I wasn't too hopeful!
Washing the car with rain showers helping, I first soaked the car from the middle downwards, including wheels and arches in Megs APC diluted 4:1. Left that for a short while. Then broke out the Karcher with foam gun, and soaked the car using a mix of Hyperwash, Gold Class and a touch of APC for taste.
Rinsed and cleared out the arches, then soaked with suds again before washing properly with two bucket method, Megs Hyperwash and a couple of mits. Rinsed once more and left wet for claying.
Using Sonus Green and Last Touch for lube, worked my way around the car. It wasn't too bad - bonnet and front wings needing the most attention.
Once that was done a quick wash and rinse again before drying with a Cobra Super Guzzler. Well, I tried to dry it but the rain had other ideas so had a brew while the shower passed before finishing the drying.
Taped up with 3M 3434 and got the paint thickness guage on the case. Knowing that the offside had received damage repair basically front to back, I was expecting to see that reflected in the readings but I didn't get what I thought I would. Everywhere else was actually very uniform, lowest I saw was 112 mics at the bottom of the nearside doors, an average of 120 mics on upper doors, roof and bonnet.
But on the offside (expecting thicker readings) I was stunned to find the paint was all sub-100 mics, the two doors being between 78-90 mics with terrible marks all over that I can only think were left by the bodyshop. The marks were too uniform to be regular swirls, and strangely enough formed a rough circle about the size of a 6.5 inch pad.....
I returned to the bonnet to start. Using the Metabo rotary with Megs polishing pad I tried Menz PO85RD FF first. Spread and worked for several passes at Speed 1, a couple of sets of passes at Speed 2, before going back to a couple more at Speed 1. Result was an improvement in swirls (maybe 60% improvement), but not good enough and certainly hadn't touched the considerable number of random scratches keeping the swirls company.
Switched to Menz IP PO85RD 3.02 on a polishing pad, same passes - result. Swirls gone, some of the straighter light scratches gone and the remaining few vastly improved.
amazing work again, especially with that sub 100mic...thinner than a nats p3nis that and you still did well with it...
Thought that might ruffal your feathers that.. but i must say it truly does look like a water reflection, very wet look sealant!
