Todays detail for Bryan and me was yet another red car, but this time a much more faded one than yesterdays Clio... Yet another flame red Vauxhall to have turned candyfloss pink over the years and the owner was looking to sell her car so wanted it looking its best again.
Here's the car on its arrival:
Over 100k miles on this car, and the paintwork was looking very tired and faded, the plastics not much better. So, down to work.
The wheels and arches were first washed and then the car foamed with Autoglym Powermax3 using the Karcher foam gun and then rinsed. The car was then washed with
Meguiars Shampoo Plus and then clayed. The claying stage helped remove a lot of ingrained contamination from the paint, with the clay ending up looking pretty manky at times.
With the car prepped for machine work, it was rolled into the garage... Under the Brinkmann light, the severity of the oxidisation was clear to see on the bonnet:
Now, knowing that Vauxhall flame red paint is very softm it was a softly softly climb up the abrasive scale to get a combo which was to work best. Restoring the colour was the easy part -
Menzerna Final Finish took easy care of that, but what remained on the paint after this was a lot of random deep scratches. So, I ended up using Menzerna PO85RD3.01 on a
Meguiars Polishing pad to remove these marks, some areas getting two hits (where the paint thickness was deemed to allow). Alas, even after this, some very deep scracthes remained, correction being at about the 90% level but with soft paint and already having removed notable amount of paint, I didn't want to push any further. Also, with soft paint, extreme care had to be taken with the rotary to ensure finishing to a hologram free sharp finish. This was achieved with
Intensive Polish however, providing the polish was thoroughly worked, there was no need to step down to a lower abrasive or get out the PC to get the finish hologram free. My method was the IP today wasspread at 600rpm, two or three passes at 1200rpm, two or three passes at 1500rpm, about ten passes at 1800rpm until the residue started to go clear, then two or three passes at 1200rpm followed by a final pass at 900rpm. A lot of passes, but this is what I find is required in order to work the polish correctly and properly finish down to a hologram free finish...
So,
50/50 shots of the bonnet:
and a completed shot of the bonnet after polishing:
While I was working with the rotary, Bryan was cutting in the small areas with the PC, and also went onto the rear 3/4 to get this 50/50 shot:
On the driver's side, the rear door and rear 3/4 were not anywhere near as faded as the rest, suggesting a respray at some point... within second ofg looking at the paint, this became obvious and also that the respray job had had clearcoat applied as this was starting to peel in places... Not a good sign, and nothing we could do for this. Checking the thickness in the peeled areas and where the clearcoat was "good" shows a significant amount of clear still there, but we decided to err on the side of caution and tackle this area gently with the PC rather than the more aggressive rotary.
Down the passenger side, a before shot of the front door:
After one set with Intensive POlish as described above, we can still see a significant amount of random deep scratches in the paint,
So, as the paint thickness allowed, a second hit to remove these as best as possible,
Still a couple remaining, but at this stage I no longer deemed the paint thickness removal worth it for these last marks erring on the side of caution and working to the principle of better safe than f****d.
The rear passenger door before:
and after:
With the polishing stages complete, it was time to cleanse the paint ready for wax... it was a Swissvax LSP chosen this time (Saphir), so
Swissvax Cleaner Fluid was applied by PC using a Meguiars Finshing pad, spread at speed 2 and worked for three or four passes at speed 4, and the residue removed with ease.
Then onto the wax, Swissvax Saphir. Smells amazing this product and after seeing the blinding results it delivered at the Leeds Vectra C day on a black Vectra, I thought it would be just the ticket for this solid red Astra. I was not disappointed! I applied it directly by hand, Bryan following to buff off the residue... The wettness of the shine from the Saphir really impresses me with great depth as well, which really gave a lovely glow to the red paint.
The trim was revived nicely by applying Meguiars #38, glass was polishes with Autosmart Glass Polish. Tyres treated to Meguiars
Endurance Gel. Then, rolled the car out into the daylight for the after shots.
Vauxhall Astra - Candy Floss Pink to Flame Red! 
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