I kept thinking I would polish my 2004 R53 someday, but not having a garage makes that complicated and very easy to put off, so tomorrow I'm driving up to ShowCarDetailing and having OctaneGuy give my car the royal treatment.

My MINI has lived outside for its 6.5 year life and traveled over 102,000 miles. It's generally had a good coat of wax on it, but I've never polished anything other than the roof at one of OctaneGuy's clinics. As you'll see in my photos, it's showing its age, especially on the bonnet which was replaced about 37,000 miles ago.

Here are the "before" photos I sent to Richard so he knew what to expect. Keep in mind that these were taken to show the defects as much as possible! My car really looks quite good to people who aren't detailing experts.









Richard or I will certainly be posting follow-up pics.

 

Richard will wave his magic Porter Cable over your car and it will be transformed such that you will walk right passed it, not recognizing your ever faithful MINI.

But, not too worry. As your faithful MINI will be so taken with its renewed appearance it will hold no grudge against you and will watch with a wee smile on its grill as you pass by, satisfied in its restored glory and pleased to know that it's owner, you, would think so much of it to place it into the care of one so famous and caring as Richard.

...Les

 

I think with that much damage the PC won't be strong enough. I think the Flex or even the rotary will need to be broken out. I can't wait for the after pics!

 

after !? hurry up!

 

yes bring on the afters. It'll be great to see the results. I'm sure you'll be excited as well. gonna need some aggressive attention if you use a porter cable, I know it took more than elbow grease to get my mini right with a porter cable.

 

The Flex with an LC Orange and M105 didn't give me the results I wanted, so I ended up using my Makita Rotary with an LC Orange and M105 for the first cutting pass. Followed that up with Prima Swirl, Amigo, and Epic.

I will do a proper writeup but for now some pix:

Before



During

















After (We started at 8AM and Finished 9:30PM..sun was gone)

 

Love white!

 

It was great seeing you yesterday! Thanks for making the drive up. Your MINI needed some TLC and after 12.5hours, the makeover was a success, lol. Richard

 

Stellar Results!! Whites never looked so nice.

Lucky customer to get a car back looking that good.

 

Well, folks, I have to say that the visit lived up to my high expectations. If you're anywhere near Orange County, you really should take your car to Richard. His deal for MINI detailing is basically 50% (or more) off, so you can't go wrong.

I told Richard I'd take some shots in the sun today. This one came out the best and makes for a perfect contrast to the "before" shot in my first post.



Reflections don't tell the real story the way Richard's swirl/no-swirl photos do, but they're still nice:



Here are a couple shots of Richard in the shop:





And of course I made the obligatory stop at In-n-Out on the way home:



Richard really puts a ton of passion and skill into his work and was nice enough to pack a 2-day detail into one long day for me (and I just watched a movie and read a book). I highly recommend taking your cars to him, or following his advice and doing it yourself.

 

Those are amazing pictures!! Thank you so much for posting them and for the kind words!!!

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, AWESOME job!! I wish you were in TN, LOL

 

Thank you!! I had a blast! Got another MINI on Sunday and another next Saturday..always fun to work on!

 

Awesome job! Can't wait to go up there in two weeks!

 

Looks awesome! A polish can make you fall in love with the car all over again.

 

Thanks! Agreed! Although I think I like using polishes more than just looking or holding a bottle of Swirl.... JK.