Ok folks, I'm reallly tired. I just spent 13 hours on this makeover, and the last 20 minutes downloading and processing pix from my camera. The full writeup will come later--have another long detail day tomorrow, so here's a teaser.

Before


After


This super detail involved painstaking vinyl removal, rotary buffer polishing and waxing. I used Meguiar's M80 Speed Glaze for polish. Epic for the LSP, and Nero for the trim. Clarity for the glass, and Meguiar's Interior Quik Detailer for the interior. More coming later.....

 

Hey what's this!

What's OctaneGuy doing being intimate with Wanda?




That's not the same car!

The before picture looks almost like a counterfeit MINI

The after looks like a magician took over and presto.
El magnifico.


Excellent job.

I'll be sending my MINI over to you for another extreme makeover.
Don't forget the engine compartment.

You've earned your well deserved rest.

How much do you charge anyway????

 

WHOA NOW! Wanda looks better than when I took delivery of her, Richard! YAY!

 

What a shine! I bet your smile was just as bright Clo when you saw her!! Wanda looks amazing

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, Niiiiiiiiiice!

 

WOW, Wanda looks 20,000 miles younger

 

Thats my reaction

 

W EEEEEEEEEEEE !! Look at that shine !

That's a good looking MINI you have there, Clo !! But what happened to Wanda's bonnet stripes ?? Going to put something else on the bonnet or are leaving her naked ?

Didn't look so hot when you started, Richard... very nice work !!

 

Yup, Clo's a driver alright!lol

 

Holy transformations Batman !


Ok - that settles it - I am going to clean Godzilla today.......

 

Thanks everyone. Clover actually hasn't seen the car in person yet. I finished very late last night, so she will be seeing it for the first time today.

I would highly recommend her against installing anymore vinyl. I spent 4 hours removing the freaking bonnet stripes because the mirrored stripes were so badly deteriorated there was no more chrome in 50% of the stripe itself, just a film that softened and tore very easily when wet, or shredded and split when heated up and scraped off.

A lot of that time was making sure that the paint wasn't damaged during the removal. Then there was the dried adhesive mess that had hardened. Lots of Goo Gone, made it doable--pretty much had to squirt it on, and let it sit for a minute before it softened up enough to be removed even with lots of rubbing pressure.

The vinyl on the glass was easy to remove. I still haven't removed her severely deteriorated Union Jack decals on the sunroof. These look horrid, and there just wasn't any time to deal with them this time around.

Her bonnet stripes after heating up with a hair dryer and using a plastic scraper. Granted the second stripe only took about an hour once I discovered the best process, but still, it wasn't fun work! This picture doesn't show the hundreds of little fragments that ended up on my driveway that never made it inside the can.

 

clo- you did take my advice (?)

looks great!

 

cant wait to see the rest of the write up. I wiush it was warmer here...makes me want to see what I can do to the jeep. 2 years of ownership and only one wash...nothing else. Its a Jeep thing, I don't understand.

 

Wanda never looked more wicked!!!

 

OctaneGuy-
You da man.

4 hours to remove the bonnet stripes! Yikes!

I'm glad I have resisted the "striped" look. Maybe painting the stripes is more workable.

You have to post more pictures. Wanda is too beautiful now to keep her from the public.

Any details on how you did it would be appreciated. It's a really good thing that MINIs are NOT jumbo sized like MINIvans or SUVs. I usually get started cleaning then in not so long I've reached the other end of the car. I guess that is what happens when your other MINI is a MINIvan.

 

Wow, looks great! Man, I really would love you skills on something - maybe I need to take a roadtrip :P

 

Wanda is awesome. Great job. Drat, I almost wish I hadn't ordered the bonnet stripes now.

 

Thanks all. Bonnet stripes are ok as long as they haven't deteriorated yet. I've removed vinyl that's a couple years old without problems. But once it starts to look ragged--actually physically degraded, and not just cosmetically, then that's where the problem is.

 

Richard, are you coming east anytime soon?!? Prudence could use some attention!

Slightly off topic, removing the rear wing (in order to replace the 3rd brake light LED unit) requires a similar procedure and patience in case anyone ever has to tackle that job.

 

Here's the full writeup. Enjoy!! I gotta run now.
************************************
So here is Wicked Wanda, the 2003 black MCS owned by MINIclo. Due to living outside and recent rains, the finish looked pretty horrid.


Can you believe the bonnet stripe is supposed to be chrome/mirror????? Hmm it's torn, and look at the swirls in the paint! Woohoooo!






The trim was all faded and mottled.


The wheels are in pretty good shape!


The plastic trim around the roof needed some help. All the vinyl was stripped on the paint and glass.










Wow you expect the boot to look the worst, but this was baaaaad. :D



The Union Jacks flag is all beat up and deterioriated as well.



















The interior wasn't bad--just needed some dusting and vacuuming.






The tires needed cleaning and dressing.






The engine bay needed some attention as well.


So I started out with my 5 ounces of Meguiar's Gold Class Car Wash soap. I'm almost out of Mystique so I didn't use it this time.


Got my 2 buckets with grit guards ready. And my Lambswool wash mitt.


Laid out the chemicals I would be using.


After a quick rinse off, I decided to see if the moisture would help in the removal of the vinyl---it didn't.


You can see how thin the material was---absent of the mylar/reflective material.


I thought maybe starting on the other end would be easier.


Had to pull out my big gun! The hair dryer.


Hmmm, 1 hour has passed.


Look at all that residue!


Hmmm, this isn't coming off too nicely. Another hour passed.




Woohoo in the final stretch! I found out that I had to really heat up a larger area and pull at the same time. I put on a thick leather glove so I wouldn't burn my self, and chiseled away. The second bonnet stripe tool 1/3rd the time to remove. :D




The bonnet stripe as it appears in my trash can. Lots of tiny little pieces drifted in to the air or on my driveway instead of landing in the can, so we only see the big pieces.


Reside cleaned off, and ready to tackle the second bonnet---total time passed 3 hours.

Another hour and I'm done with this as well.

By this time, it's already getting dark, so I finish my wash, and then clay using Prima's Clay Bar. I'm still not crazy about this clay, though I found that my finger muscles got stronger from the kneading of this stiff clay, lol.



I set up my light system to see the true condition of the paint.


My test spot showed that the rotary buffer with a W8006 polishing pad and Meguiar's M80 Speed Glaze would remove the defects nicely. Polished side on right.


Wanda is all taped off and protected.


You can see the swirls and scratches in the paint lit by my halogen lights.


This shot shows the improvement of Prima's Nero on the trim. I left the center portion on dressed....naked!!! Woohoo.


I dressed the engine with Meguiar's Hyperdressing. Hard to see but it looks much better. :D






Ok an after shot 13 hours total! 9 hours of polishing.


Look at that reflection!!








I cleaned off the side markers with a mini squeegee--the same tool I used to remove the vinyl. I wrapped it with a MF towel and sprayed some QD to clean them.


Tires were dressed with Meguiar's Endurance High Gloss Gel.


The next day ready for delivery!
















And there you have it. Wicked Wanda fully made over. Time to go to my next detail!

Wax: Prima Car Care Epic
Polish: Meguiar's M80 Speed Glaze
Trim: Prima Car Care Nero
QD: Prima Car Care Slick and Hydro
Tires: Meguiar's Endurance High Gloss
Tire Cleaner: Meguiar's NXT tire foam
Clay: Prima Car Care Clay
Clay Lube: Meguiar's Last Touch
Chrome: NXT All Metal Polysh
Glass: Prima Car Care Clarity with MF towel
Towels: Prima Car Care Monster Fluffy (4) + Meguiar's Supreme Shine MF
Washing: Meguiar's Gold Class Car Wash Soap and Prima Car Care Waffle Weave drying towel

Tools: Makita Rotary Buffer & Porter Cable Dual Action Polisher

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!!

Richard

 

Wow. I'm speechless.

 

Wow...I've never seen stripes in such bad shape! No doubt because it is more of a chrome foil than a standard vinyl. How much time and miles did it take to make them that way?

Great makeover as always.

 

Holy cow, Richard... now THOSE are some "before" pictures. Incredible.... looks like a different car!

 

I cannot recommend to anyone installing chrome bonnet stripes. It was not until after they were installed (April 2005) that I discovered how fragile they are! If you even breathe on them, they scuff. They looked fine until the long heatwave in Los Angeles this summer. I returned home after a 6-week trip East (flew both ways) to discover that the bonnet stripes had disintegrated on top near the windshield!

The first metallic sunroof flag lasted exactly 4 months. I had the second one installed a little over a year ago, in early December 2005. It started to rot after 6 months, but due to my travel schedule, health and family issues, I wasn't able to address Wanda's needs until this week.

Richard and I are going to remove the sunroof flag after next week's holiday. He did a fantastic job of restoring Wanda to her former glory! In fact, she never looked this good even when she was brand-new. She has some paint chips and a few little problems, but she has almost 62K cross-country miles on her, so they are badges of honor.



She was rained on and then the dry winds whipped up...not a good combo on Jet Black MINIs that live in driveways.

I am so pleased with Richard's work...and so lucky! He lives 10 minutes from me!

 

and hyper blue, too... mine looked good until yesterday, then we got a minor rain storm and today Grover is filthy!

that is lucky!