Classic Jaguar E-type: Full Correction and Detail

Todd@RUPES

Just a regular guy
The Jaguar E-Type is considered a work of art, literally. It is the only car chosen by New York?s Museum of Modern Art to be on permanent display. This 1974 Series 3 model features a 5.3 liter Jaguar V12 producing 290 horsepower and gobs of low end torque. This particular E-Type belongs to one of our favorite clients and a man who demands concours level work on his daily drivers! (Not to mention great taste in cars as his Titanium Ferrari 360, Grigio Silverstone Ferrari F430, Tour De France Blue Ferrari 456, and Nero Maserati Quattroporte have all received our full treatment and have been the subjects of write ups on this site)

The plan of attack with this beautiful example of art was simple; bring it to Pebble Beach standard by taking each area of the cat to its highest potential.

Upon initial inspect, I was shocked to see how deep and reflective the paint was, and further shocked to see the amount of damage in the clear coat?s surface. Since we know that perfectly polished and jeweled paint will always reflect more light, we knew the car could look better? but we didn?t believe it. This car has an extremely high quality paint job, and we knew it would be a pleasure and an honor to see it right.

Initial inspect did reveal a significant amount of flaws in the paint?s surface, holograms, swirl marks, and R.I.D.S. Taking paint depth readings proved rather frustrating and useless and it was obvious by the variations in readings that the body had been mudded with a filler (such as bondo) and block sanded straight. Paint depth readings ranged from 11.5 mils to over 35 mils in some area?s, again indicative of mudding process. However the finish definitely had high quality clear coat and a lot of it (judging by the depth of the bare paint).

General Procedure and Process Outline

Exterior Paint Work

Wash entire car with P21s Total Body wash using two bucket method

Clay paintwork, glass, and trim using Sonus Gray clay using Zaino Z7 cut as lubricant

Rinse

Dry car using Ultimate Microfibers Waffle Weave?s and 2 220 MPH leaf blowers

Inspect paint and measure paint thickness

Polish Correction
- Meguiars M95 on a Meguiars So1o Yellow Wool pad at 2000 RPM x 2-4
- Menzerna PO85 3.02 on a Lake Country Green German Foam CCS Pad at
1700 RPM burnished down to 1200 RPM
- Menzerna PO85u on a Meguiars So1o Foam Finishing Pad @ 1500 rpm
jeweled down to 1000 RPM
4 inch spot pads where used in numerous areas to achieve 100 percent correction using the following steps
- Meguiars M95 on a Lake Country 4inch Purple Foam Wool Pad at 2000
RPM x 2-4
- 1Z Intensive Paste on a Lake Country 4inch Orange CCS pad at 1200 RPM
- Menzerna PO85u on a Lake Country 4inch Gray CCS pad at 1500 RPM
burnished down to 1000 RPM
Also certain areas required hand polishing (headlight buckets for example).
- Meguiars M105 by hand using Lake Country Yellow Foam (custom cut into
hand applicator)
- 1Z Intensive Paste by hand using Lake Country White Foam (custom cut)
- Meguiars ScratchX by hand using Lake Country Gray Foam (custom cut)

All chrome and trim on the exterior was hand polished using DeepFinish Deep Chrome and protected with Meguiars #16

The original top was washed with Meguiars APC 10:1 and topped with two coats of 303 Aerospace Protectant

After polishing the paint was rewashed then treated with Meguiars #7 to enrich the depth and wetness of the paint.

P21s 100% was used as the LSP for two coats

Tires/Wheels/Wheel Arch Process

The tires where scrubbed using Eminn Fabrik Tire Cleaner

The wheels where cleaned with Griot?s Garage Wheel Cleaner using the EZ Detail Brush and Swissvax Wheel Brush

The wheels where polished using Eagle One?s Never Dull and topped with Zaino Z-AIO

The tires where dressed with 2 coats of Zaino Z16 Tire Dressing

The wheel wheels where scrubbed with Meguiars APC 10:1 and dressed with Meguiars Hyperdressing 4:1

Interior Process

The interior was blown up using compressed air and various boars? hair brushes to remove loose dirt.

The carpet was removed, and stains where spot treated with Folex before the being shampooed using Meguiars ACP 10:1

The leather was treated with Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil, which was left to dwell for 6 hours before being wiped clean with Leatherique Pristine Clean

The interior vinyl and hard surfaces where cleaned using 1Z Cockpit Premium

All interior surfaces where treated with 303 Aerospace Protectant

The glass was cleaned with Meguiars ProLine Window Cleaner and sealed with Zaino Z-AIO

All interior metal was hand polished with Flitz

Engine Compartment and Trunk Process

The engine was wiped down using Meguiars APC 20:1 and damp cloth

All metal was polished using Mother Mag and Aluminum Polish using Lake Country Green Foam

All paint work under hood was polished with Meguiars #7 and topped with Meguiars #16

Meguiars Hyperdressing 4:1 and 2:1 was used on all black work under the engine compartment

Misc Processes

All jambs received Meguiars #7 topped with Meguiars #16

All weather stripping was cleaned using Meguiars #39 and topped with 1Z?s Gummi Phledge

Total Working Time: 23 Man Hours, non-stop

Okay let?s start with the pictures.

Some before pictures of the interior. The original carpets had 34 years worth of stains and grime and the leather was in need of cleaning.

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Initial inspection of the paint revealed significant marring.

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50/50's working toward perfection. Given the initial gloss and color of the paint I was pleasantly surprised to see how much improvement could be made.

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I had Brian apply Leatherique to the interior leather surfaces and massaging a liberal amount of Rejuvinator Oil into the hides by hand.

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A couple more 50/50's

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Some pictures of us polishing. Most work was done inside the garage, although we where able to polish outside in the early morning. By 11 AM the sun was over head and the temperature was climbing past 90 so we had to bring it in.

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When Bella Macchina perfects paint, we do not miss any spots. Perfection is only complete when every area of the paint has been brought to its highest potential, no matter how small the area or insignificant it seems.


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Here is a picture of Zaino Z18 clay after being used on the rear window (which is original and had 38 year's of grime, soot, and nasty stuff on it). I love this picture because the clay resembles The Rolling Stone's lips logo.

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Some pictures inside the garage, after all the polishing has been done and the reflections are at their sharpest, courtesty of Bella Macchina and Menzerna's P085u.

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After polishing we drove the Jaguar back outside for a wash and to inspect for any swirls.

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Some area's with RIDS where identified then repolished. Then we washed the car and snapped some more pictures.

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The engine compartment was very clean to begin with so I did not take any before pictures. However a lot of hand polishing went into the various metal parts, the frame rails where hand polished and waxed, the various rubber's recieved various dressing, etc...

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The Stromberg carburetors took at least 25 minutes a piece of hand polishing to restore the original shine.

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The Jag was pulled into the garage and all final detailing steps where completed including removing the Leatherique with Pristine Clean, polishing the paint with #7 topped with P21s100% for two coats, sealing the glass, finishing the carpets, dressing the tires, polishing rims, etc, etc, etc...

With the sun going down we took some pictures of the cat outside.

The paint was absolutely glowing and honestly, the pictures do not do this car justice. The combination of artful body lines, high quality aftermarket paint, and about 18 hours of paint correction and perfection probably mark this car as the high light of my detailing career.

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Some after's of the interior.

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After a night of sound sleep, we returned in the morning to finish up a few details and capture some sun shots.

The early morning South Florida sun...

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The headlight buckets after a lot of hand polishing with copious amounts of passion.

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Now I'm only 39 cars behind :D

The owner of this car is an American Muscle freak. He owns a Katchek (not sure of the spelling, but the name of the company that builds C6R race motors) Z06 that has about 630 horsepower and a Shelby GT500. He also is considering a lime green 08 Viper :D

The GT was washed with Z7 and clayed with Sonus Gray.

The paint had moderate swirls and very light RIDS...

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The paint was compounded with M105 on a Edge Black Wool pad. This was followed by Menz SIP on a white pad, and finished with 3M UltraFina SE on a Lake Country Blue pad....

This was one of the easier cars I have worked on lately and only required about 7 hours of correction. The most time consuming parts consisted of working the various scoops with 4 inch pads. Even then, compared to the 20+ hour paint corrections I have been doing lately, it was nice to have a break, lol.

The bottom has been polished...

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Jon did an amazing job going through the interior with numerous 1Z products, boar's hair brushes, and conditioning the seats with Z9/Z10. 303 was used to add UV protection to the paint and 1Z Gummi Pledge was used to condition the weather stripping.

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Your's truely polishing...

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The engine was degreased with Meguiar's Super Degreaser and rinsed with de-ionized water. This was followed by CD2.

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Finishing up with P21s 100 percent.

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Che Bella!

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Wheels where cleaned with P21s Wheel Gel and various qtips, brushes, and boar's hair. The wheels where protected with Werkstatt Prime/A Trigger. The tires where cleaned with Meg's APC 4:1, then dressed with Meguiar's Endurance Gel.

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The end :D

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Great looking detail on the Ford GT. Having done a few of them myself, they're amazing machines and always leave me liking them more after each detail.
 
Wow - I got to forward that Jag write up to a friend of mine - a relocated Britt you pronouces "aluminum" funny! I'll take the Ford!
 
Awesome work to everyone who worked on these cars.

P.S. Does anyone know what kind of paint is used on the valve covers of the GT?
 
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