# Arden Blue Corsa VXR Detail



## piston_warrior (Jul 25, 2012)

I have been experimenting with a variety of products over the past few months and I have always wanted to do a write up of one of my details and now the sun has arrived this week has been the perfect opportunity.

I started with the alloys. First of all I jacked the car up and put on axle stands so I could remove the alloys, clean and seal them and jet wash all the dirt and grime out of the arches. My car is two years old this month and the insides of the alloys have never been touched (besides the odd run off from using fallout remover on the faces)

Arches before:










I used my trusty Briteclean diluted 8-1 with a foaming trigger head, left to dwell, agitated and jet washed off.


























Now to tackle the alloys. Usually my go to product to shift all of the baked on brake dust and grime would be Autobrite's Purple Rain however Tesco have been selling Wonder Wheels 500ml for £1.73 reduced from £10 which smells exactly the same and does pretty much the same job so I used this instead.










Before - Untouched. (Excuse the wonder wheels sprayed on the top, I forgot to take a picture before spraying)










Left to dwell for 10 mins.


















Jet washed off without agitation.


















Out with Just the Tonic tar remover - left to dwell for a few minutes then sponged off.


















Finally I gave the alloys a quick shampoo wash with a mitt and jet washed again before drying and sealing with one of the best sealants I've ever used. Hellshine!


















Berry Blast Endurance Tyre dressing was then applied generously.

Next to tackle the interior. I try to keep on top of the inside of my car by cleaning up any crap that accumulates throughout the week so it's never too bad. I also treated the seats and mats a few days ago with Autobrite's FAB and an upholstery sponge so they didn't need to be touched again.


















I started with the door shuts as when I rinse I usually splash water inside so it made sense to do these first.

Once again I keep on top of the grime so I just used a shampoo solution and my trusty brush to agitate and then rinse off.


















Inside the doors were a different story and had remains of thick grease so Briteclean came along to the rescue.


























The door trim had random feet marks and stains so I attacked this with Briteclean and agitated.


















Then wiped down with a microfibre and dressed with Autobrite's Pink Sheen.


















I vacuumed everywhere and wiped down with Briteclean before attacking the interior with Pinksheen, cleaned the leather with Autobrite's Leather Cleanse and finally cleaned the interior glass with Autobrite's Crystal.


































Next I made a DIY trim dressing applicator to apply Autobrite's Berry Blast Endurance Trim and Tyre Gel to all the rubbers.


























Interior... DONE.

Now to crack on with the bodywork! Here's a few before pictures, mainly dust and dirt from the rain we had last week.


























Not a great need for Magifoam but I like using it :lol:


















Whe'elzebub and Berry Blast Endurance doing their magic.










Washed with a thick pile cotton wash pad using the two bucket method and one of the slickest shampoos I have come across.










A few more beading shots of the alloys and tyres.


































I had a mixture of Abyss, HD Wax and Project 32 on the paintwork so they all had to be removed.


















Then removed all the fallout (one or two blobs)


























Removed all tar.


































Refoamed, 2bm wash, rinsed and dried.










Then I taped up all the black plastic for a healthy application of SRP by hand. It took me what seemed like forever so I really want to buy DA in the near future but I had to make to with this for now.

A before and after picture of some stone chips on the front bumper, by no means corrected but slightly reduced/filled.


























Then to seal it all with two coats of Autobrite's Abyss sealant.


















Now time for the windows. I polished using Clear Vue and applied Repel to each of the windows.


































Finally finished and I was so happy to have a sit down and a bite to eat so excuse the lack of final photos. Hopefully the Hellshine sealants should hold up for the summer now so all the hard work is done and I can just use my maintanance weekly wash routine until September!


















Thanks for reading 

Matt


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## Jonny_R (Oct 23, 2012)

Looking good Matt, you certainly do like your AD products dont you


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## piston_warrior (Jul 25, 2012)

Thanks Jonny,

I think if I started buying elsewhere they would go out of business! :lol:


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## R14CKE (Aug 10, 2012)

Brilliant once again matt like said when I picked up the very berry. The alloys looks amazing! Your making me want to go down tomorrow n get some abyss, not good! 
Like the write up pal 👍


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## Jonny_R (Oct 23, 2012)

looks like Bens lost a customer now, brilliant job


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## piston_warrior (Jul 25, 2012)

R14CKE said:


> Brilliant once again matt like said when I picked up the very berry. The alloys looks amazing! Your making me want to go down tomorrow n get some abyss, not good!
> Like the write up pal 👍


Thanks Alex  Alloys are so stone chipped though, I never realised until I took them off and cleaned them.

I'll let you know what the durability is like with it, it needed just over 5 mins cure time otherwise it over cured and was a bugger to get off which is something I'm not used to. I like to wax a car and then go off somewhere and come back an hour later!


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## R14CKE (Aug 10, 2012)

matthewt23 said:


> Thanks Alex  Alloys are so stone chipped though, I never realised until I took them off and cleaned them.
> 
> I'll let you know what the durability is like with it, it needed just over 5 mins cure time otherwise it over cured and was a bugger to get off which is something I'm not used to. I like to wax a car and then go off somewhere and come back an hour later!


They don't look that bad. At least they ain't corroded and in need of a refurb


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## Scrim-1- (Oct 8, 2008)

Looks nice mate.


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## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

nice job! seems interesting products! shame I can't find it here in the benelux


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## R14CKE (Aug 10, 2012)

Wout_RS said:


> nice job! seems interesting products! shame I can't find it here in the benelux


I'm sure if you phoned mark at autobrite he might be able to help


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## jamesgti (Aug 9, 2007)

Grates work mate


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## TopSport+ (Jul 22, 2012)

stunning


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## piston_warrior (Jul 25, 2012)

jamesgti said:


> Grates work mate





TopSport+ said:


> stunning


Thanks guys


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## Huey (May 30, 2009)

Great turn round..........seeing this makes me wish I never sold mine:thumb:


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## piston_warrior (Jul 25, 2012)

Huey said:


> Great turn round..........seeing this makes me wish I never sold mine:thumb:


What did you buy instead? I won't be selling for a while, it puts a huge smile on my face everytime I drive it


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## Huey (May 30, 2009)

Got a 5 series BMW. Needed a diesel and something with a large boot due to working in Scotland but living in Norfolk. My VXR was tuned by courtenay sport to just on 300bhp, but would cost about £140 just to get to Scotland. Still il have another one day lol.


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## piston_warrior (Jul 25, 2012)

300bhp is a lot to get out of the 1.6T lump! You must have had a K04/Garrett setup running forged pistons/steel rods? I bet it sounded amazing when on full throttle


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Nice job:thumb:


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## bazz (May 15, 2007)

great job on a lovely looking car


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## colarado red (Jun 5, 2008)

Nice work


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## B17BLG (Jun 26, 2012)

brilliant read through matt! Love the work there pal 

Putting it on VXRonline?


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## Scottien (Jan 3, 2006)

Awesome work!


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## V3nom (Oct 31, 2012)

Such a smashing looking car when it's cleaned right


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## Toyota-Ant (Sep 9, 2012)

Great job, looks great :thumb:


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## piemp (Jul 14, 2010)

AB Xmas haul? 

I spent quite a bit there too. Looking great


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## Jonny_R (Oct 23, 2012)

Alright Andy


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## B17BLG (Jun 26, 2012)

Jonny_R said:


> looks like Bens lost a customer now, brilliant job


Don't worry I have deleted his number and have a sponge ready for when he comes to the charity detail!!


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## piston_warrior (Jul 25, 2012)

Thanks for the comments guys!



B17BLG said:


> brilliant read through matt! Love the work there pal
> 
> Putting it on VXRonline?


You just need to teach me how to use a DA and then I'm sorted! That's the only thing that let this down is that I still have a couple of swirls 

Yes I will 



piemp said:


> AB Xmas haul?
> 
> I spent quite a bit there too. Looking great


Sadly no I missed out on the Christmas sales!! The majority of it has been bought at full price bar 1 or 2 items that I picked up in the Easter sales.

This year however I'll be keeping a close eye on this forum closer to Christmas


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## piston_warrior (Jul 25, 2012)

B17BLG said:


> Don't worry I have deleted his number and have a sponge ready for when he comes to the charity detail!!


Ban?????


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## Black.MB (Aug 22, 2012)

Nice job, I love the color:thumb:


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## piston_warrior (Jul 25, 2012)

Black.MB said:


> Nice job, I love the color:thumb:


Thanks, it really comes into its own in sunlight.


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## Huey (May 30, 2009)

matthewt23 said:


> 300bhp is a lot to get out of the 1.6T lump! You must have had a K04/Garrett setup running forged pistons/steel rods? I bet it sounded amazing when on full throttle


Yeah garret and high compression pistons, forge intercooler, uprated fuel pump and a host of other goodies, custom 3" straight system with sports cat..... Noise was incredible but on a long journey could be really irritating lol..... Still miss it thou.


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