So for this job, I drove 59 miles to Oxnard, California. Ventura County is a bit further than I normally drive, but there were several motivating factors, one of them being that the owner owns a body/repair shop for MINIs.
Prep:
Washed with Gold Class Car Wash Soap
APC 4:1 for engine bay
Meguiar's Clay Bar from Quik Clay system
Blue and green painters tape
Newspaper
Polishing:
Process was RB/W-8006 M80 followed by PC/W-8006 M80
The paint was relatively easy to work with. After the paint was cleaned off, I used a soft body brush to wipe down the wheels.
Dressing:
Hyperdressing
Endurance High Gloss (Tires)
Trim Detailer Spray
Wax:
2 coats of M21
Total working time: 10 hours.
Some before shots
No No, just kidding. This isn't the car. This IS it.
While the car looked pretty good from afar, it had quite a few swirls, especially visible in the custom painted black areas of the bonnet.
Swirls!
Swirls!
The roof was a separate issue altogether. This MINI came with a white roof, but the owner had the roof covered in a textured black vinyl. You can see near the antennae the draping of the material.
Swirls in roof vinyl!
Swirls in roof vinyl!
Roof is wrapped in vinyl!
Swirls on the mirror cover! The factory mirror covers would have been white since the roof was also white. I'm not sure if these covers with the checkers molded in were a factory option, but nevertheless they were swirled out as well.
The windshield pillars are just molded plastic and they are always swirled out.
Getting ready to inspect the finish! It was pretty nice working at the shop. Didn't have to mess with my EZ Up. Water access and electricity were right there.
Washed and Claybarred. What looks like a clear bra install, line visible on hood, was actually a painted on product. I forgot the name, but it was sprayed on with like 3 or 4 coats, then clear was applied over it. The product was supposed to then protect the paint from rock chips, so he drove it to Las Vegas and discovered that it didn't fully protect from chips--not the way Clear Bra does, so he doesn't recommend this expensive solution.
Washed and Claybarred
Taped off with blue painters tape.
Taped off with blue painters tape.
Lots of swirls. This is the black painted area on the bonnet.
Because of the sun angle, I wasn't able to shoot the test spot up and down. The buffed side runs diagonally from lower left to upper right. It's clearly visible where the swirls end.
I tried to bring the buff line closer too the center of the frame-horizontally. I used M80 with a RB and W8006 pad followed by same with PC. While these test spots weren't perfect, they did show that I was on the right track to restoring the finish.
Mirror covers are molded.
Buffed with rotary and M80 very lightly and it's swirl free.
All polished out using M80 on RB and PC.
All polished out using M80 on RB and PC.
Wheels were first cleaned with soft body brush and car wash soap, lips were polished with NXT Metal Polysh, and spokes were wiped by hand with Last Touch.
Bumper is painted, but boot is vinyl. Customer wants to eventually paint the boot as well. Vinyl presents buffing challenges.
Aerokit bumper was lightly buffed.
Exhaust tips were polished with NXT Metal Polysh.
Just another shot showing how swirls free the finish is. While I worked on his car, he actually had my car on the lift in his shop inspecting it. I had gotten into a little "offroading" accident on a recent canyon run, and I didn't realize that I had bent one of my control arms. He had a spare in stock--actually in the "takeoff bin"--and installed it for me. Looks like I'll be returning in a month just before he takes his car to the MINIs in Monterey event for touching up--I'll let you know what it looks like then!
