We all know like the rest of you once you get a Mini you become a Mini freak in terms of keeping it clean...Mini obsessed if you will. On top of that, I enjoy keeping my MINI as clean as possible and as shiny as possible as well. My future brother-in-laws brother also owns a Mini and is a huge Mini freak like myself. However, there is one major difference. He drives his Mini through the winter, where I do not. In his line of profession, he doesn't exactly have the time all the time to upkeep his Mini in the condition that he wants it to be in or what it should be in. And so, a recent visit to me and a conversation about my MINI and detailing led him to ask me to spruce up his baby Lucy and get her back into the shape she deserves and originally was. I agreed without inspection.

This is an older write up so I now have Black Wow so please ignore the part where I speak of waiting for it.

I had to delete some shots because of the 30 limit but you'll get the just of it.

However, I quickly learned the following.

Foreword:

* Lucy had never been waxed since he took delivery of the car
* Lucy has never been hand washed
* Lucy only received a washing through touchless and the wax the drive through puts on
* Lucy's once purring engine has never been cleaned
* I didn't have to spend to much time on the tires and wheels since Lucy is getting outfitted with new ones soon

Some lessons learned:

* Going to buy myself a creeper seat. Sitting on a case of beer just doesn't do the job I want after a while
* You can always do with more Supreme Shines

When I got the car I evaluated its condition with the owner and went over a few details about what was to take place.

Products Used:

NXT Car Wash with two bucket and Chenille Mit
2 Water Magnet
Blue Clay with Last Touch 1:1
M80
2 x W - 8006 for M80
M83
1 x W - 8006 for M83
M66
W - 8006 for M66
M07
Foam Applicator for M07
M16
Foam Applicator for M16
M21
W - 9006 for M21
Supreme Shine Microfibre
Meguiars Terry Towel
Meguiars Glass Microfibre
Hyper Dressing 4:1
APC 4:1 and APC 10:1
Rain-X

Process:

Wash with NXT Car Wash Soap
Clay
M80 with W - 8006
M83 with W - 8006
M83 with W - 8006
M80 with W - 8006
M80 with W - 8006
M66 with W - 8006
M16 with foam applicator
M07 with foam applicator
M21 with W - 9006 x 2
Black exterior plastic dressed with Hyper Dressing 4:1
Tires dressed with Endurance High Gloss x 2
Interior cleaned with #40 and then dressed with Natural Shine
Rubber Mats cleaned with #40 and then dressed with Hyper Dressing 4:1
Engine Cleaned with APC 10:1 and 4:1 and then dressed with Hyper Dressing 4:1
All windows cleaned with Windex and then topped with Rain-X with Meguiars Glass Towel and Supreme Shine Microfibre

Start Time: 8:00 am
End Time: 9:00 pm with breaks and guests and unexpected visitors

The end results were AWESOME!!! A smooth glass like finish and one sweet shine to this Chilli Red Mini!!!

And now, here's your writeup and pics for you.

Step 1: The MINI's finish was inspected from top down.

BUGS BUGS BUGS is all I found. Nothing but BUGS!!! Nothing Gold Glass Bug And Tar Remover can't handle!!! Works Great!!!



During my inspection, all I found was SWIRLS!!! Take a look for yourself.



Gotta love that dealer job. Full of streaks and hazing!!!



If only you could have seen this pillars in person. Much worse. I couldn't believe how bad they were.



"I only go to touchless so the swirls shouldn't be to bad..."

Really...



It used to be clean. It used to purr. It used to shine. You used to be able to show it off. How's that nice and dirty engine for you?

So those are suppose to be black wheel wells!!! Those chambers should be a Chilli Red.




Where did the MINI go?





One final shot before I begin. The hood. Look at that poor colour and shine.



In the lower (bottom) portion of this pic you can see some hazing marks left behind from the previous detailer. Not cool!!!




Some more hazing for your viewing pleasure.



While viewing the hood from a different angle (flat across) this is what I saw. What a lovely site to see before I began.



Step 2: Wash the car.

I could tell that Lucy had been neglected. Touchless or not, it hadn't had a hand wash and it made a huge difference. It was its first hand wash using the two bucket system and NXT Car Wash Soap with my classic Chenille Mitt. And boy, can I tell you how dirty it was. Brutal. I have four buckets so I'm okay, but the buckets that I use for the tires were completely black and brown and full of philth. I did think at one point that I was going to have to change the tire water it was that bad. But I finished before I got to that point.


Even after a wicked wash, the finish still felt rough, but not nearly as bad as it was before the wash. I captured a picture below that show the hood before I clayed. If you can tell through the lens, the water on the hood isn't beading at all. I guess I was a little shocked, but really, I should not have been since it'd be a couple years since Lucy had been waxed.



After claying the car with Meguiars Blue Clay and Last Touch 1:1 you can see a difference already. The water started beading and it started to feel smooth as glass.



Post clay job, I dried her up using two water magnets and let it sit for a while to let it dry even more. Once I felt it was ready and I was ready to tackle her, I got my test spot all prepped up to see exactly which products and what method I was going to use. Or as I say, my weapon of choice.


The only problem with the Minis is that if you tape, it feels like you're taping forever because there is so much taping. However, taping is going to be a thing of the past with Black WOW arriving soon !!! Alone, for a Mini, taping takes approx. 1 hour or so.



Once I finished with my test spot, I had decided that the best method for me to go with that would achieve the results that I would be happy with would be M83 with W - 8006. You always go least aggressive first, and I know that and I tried with M-80 and W - 8006, and after one pass, it just didn't cut to the results that I wanted that I felt were good enough for myself. I even tried two passes of M-80 and stuff, although it helped a great deal, it just was up to the standards I have set for myself.


And so out comes my M-83 and on to it I went. The entire hood required two passes M83 followed by two passes of M80. I found though that M-83 was leaving behind some lovely streaking and hazing marks that I knew I would have to take care and surely I did as I already had marks to clean up from a previous detailer. M83 was leaving some nice streaking and hazing marks that I had to take care of.

Throughout this step, I was constantly inspecting the finish at every possible angle using a variety of lighting. One was my handheld Noma Zenon and LED light and the others were two 500 watt Halogen Lights on a stand. This helped me see if I was achieving the results I was after.

Through this stage I went through one backing plate and two pads of M80 and M-83. Lucky for me I had plenty of extra. I stopped as I always do, every four product applications to clean the pad off of product build up, but I still knew that a cleaner pad would better help me achieve those results I wanted.

Remember all those marks on the hood a while back???

Bye bye bye...



This is a hood shot after I passed M66 to help clear it up even more. Awesome results here!!!



How about them pillars. I had to hit them hard and even spoke with Richard about them. Not these exact pillars but other pillars that I had to solve and he gave me some pointers :D !!! I hit them M-80 but didn't cut it. So out comes my M-83 and BOOM after some hammering down, all GONE!!!



Once I finished with M-83 and M-80, I gave this Chilli Red a good coat of M07 with a foam applicator and taken off with a Supreme Shine MF to help with the shine and gloss that the Classic Mini deserved. And after taking it off, I think I achieved that exact result. Reflections are already starting to show up.

I remember, when I first picked it up and looked it, there was barely a reflection on any of the panels.

After M83 and M80, I decided to give the classic M07 a go and add some nice richness to this Chilli Red Mini Classic!!! And that is exactly what it did. You can see some reflection already. At first, when I got the MINI there was barely anything and now I was starting to smile!!!



I had to take a break here to just relax a bit and get some grub to chow down. Was getting tired and hungry in this heat. And so during my break, I decided what I wanted to use. I orginally talked about using NXT to a friend who stopped by, but then figured I didn't have enough to do two coats so after looking at all my weapons of choice, figured I give it a go with M16 and a foam applicator. And so I went.

I was after a nice deep reflection and after using M16, I got exactly that. I was happy with that M16 achieved and will def. be using it more often in the near future.

Some M16 results!!!



How about that engine. Remember how dirty it was. Well the below pictures are the results of 1.5-2 hours of hard work!!!

Combine some APC 10:1 and then APC 4:1 for those stubborn stains/grease spots, a MF, some soap and water, and some fine detailing and you get the results you're after!!!

How? I first started by spraying the entire engine down and NOT covering a single thing. Did I have any problems? NOPE. Lucy started first crank as I expected.

Once I finished cleaning and detailing the engine, I gave all the painted parts a coat of M21 while the rest got two coats of Hyper Dressing 4:1. He told me that he wanted his engine to shine and that is exactly what I did for me. With two coats of Hyper Dressing, I let the second coat sit for about 1-2 hours and then just went back and wiped off the excess dressing!!! Worked AWESOME!!!

Have a look!!!!





M83 - Check. M80 - Check. M66 - Check. M07 - Check. M16 - Check. Now after completing the above, it was time to top it off with my LSP favourite as of now: M21, until I switch to Prima Epic.

But WOW what awesome results!!!

Door shot!!!



The Classic Reflection Banner SHOT!!!



HELLO NAM!!!

ps. I tried this prior to waxing and was all a blurr!!!



SUN SHOTS!!!



Just so you remember it was a MINI I was doing!!!

Polished out the chrome boot handle and MINI emblem!!!



Kiss those streaks GOODBYE!!!



Shot of passenger side!!!



All done. Cheers everyone. Time for a break/drink!!!



The End.


Thanks for looking,

Buff N Stuff Detailing

 

Wow!!!

Excellent clean up!

 

Nice work on the engine. I sure hope somebody takes care of Lucy from here on out. Very nice work and great results.

 

You detail for a living? How much would a job like that cost?

Excellent work!

 

AMAZING JOB!!

 

No I do not detail for a living but I do have my own detailing business that I run as a side project.

That detail for full exterior, full interior, full engine, full wheel/tyres/wheel wells if I remember was $260 or so.

Took the better part of 2 days. I mean it says 13 hours but I spread it out and took my time to ensure it was restored to show car shine as he wanted it.

My longest part of the detail is after the final coat of LSP where I pull it in the sun and inspect every inch of the finish/interior/engine. This can take everywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours.

Thanks everyone for the comments!!!

 

Pretty amazing job.

 

Ah yes, the beer drinking and admiring part. My favourite part of the detail as well.

 

Yes it is.

Good times had by well at this point.

Its my favourite part because its the most relaxing. Knowning you're done and just touching up.

 

Excellent work !! Color me I M P R E S S E D !

That was one poor, neglected MINI and you saved it from it's owner-imposed hell. It will probably follow you to the ends of the Earth now as a showing of its gratitude.

Translation: take that gorgeous car away from your future bro-in-law and give it a proper life. He doesn't deserve it. And you can tell him I said so.

 

I'm not sure if I'd personally say he doesn't deserve it, but I will say he did neglect it badly though.

I told him that too.

But I've seen plenty of Mini's out there I'd love to take from its owner and put it in the hands of someone else.

In the end, it just means more work for me which i don't mind one bit :D!!!