# My Unit/Man Cave build



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

Hi everyone welcome to my new unit build! So whilst doing a project on my fiesta 
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=349463

Ive managed to secure myself a new unit to start detailing better and give me the shelter i deseperately need! Heres how the unit looked when i got the keys! 
















So as you can tell its going to take alot of work to get it looking half decent! So after i full day of sweeping and removing cobwebs this is how she looked? Not sure yet wether to keep the racking at the back havent decided fully on that one? Thinking more like kitchen units instead?









I know it isnt perfect but its something and its mine!
C+C's welcome as always they really help! More updates to come in due time!


----------



## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

Well done!

That racking looks pretty robust and would hold/support more weight than old kitchen units.


----------



## Hereisphilly (Nov 17, 2014)

Looking good, are you able to paint any of it?
Putting a coat of outdoor white on all the walls will instantly brighten it up and it should look a treat


----------



## Maniac (May 20, 2012)

Once its painted and sealed it will probably be a fairly nice place to work. I second keeping the racks, they'll be far better than chipboard/mdf cabinets. Stick doors on the rack if you want to improve the look plus you can get some sealed units underneath to store stuff that might get damp/be eaten by errant rodents. White walls and some seal on the floor will improve the look no end. I wish I had the space... Perhaps also consider removing the wood panel at the window and put on some opaque plastic to still allow light in but stop anyone peeping. The bars will do the rest/for security. I'd also consider some insulation for the roof if you're going to use it in colder months. That way if you stick an electric heater in it won't all just vanish out of the roof.


----------



## Alex jb (Mar 23, 2015)

Definitely get some paint on the walls and floor if allowed, keeps the dust down and open up spaces, make it a nicer place to be


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

So after a good tidy up the real work begins!
Guna be alot of late nights painting this thing!








As you can see the painting is going well! Also tried a grey floor paint but imm not total sure on it so i may change to red at a later day! But still plenty of painting to be getting on with!
















Heres an outside shot of the unit!








Please excuse the dirty car it really needs a clean!
So heres howmthe unit looked after alot!!! Of painting this is just after i installed my LED floodlights on either side of the walls! Got some big 50w LED floods to come so will put pics up once installed!








Ive also put some scrap carpet on the walls just to ensure no door dings occure!
So after much ummming and arrrring i decided to go with red floor paint as i thought it might go better than the grey! I used Leyland heavy duty floor paint























l
Properly gutted i ran out of paint with literally had this small bit left to paint!
















Luckily i managed to source enugh paint just to finish the floor off so ive just gota let that dry now!
Alot more to come C+C's welcome! Thanks everyone


----------



## Mike! (Jul 3, 2010)

Were the pictures taken with a potato??

Progress is looking good and heading the right way, will be a nice space when it's finished.


----------



## pajd (Sep 17, 2014)

Looking good mate. How much did you pay the FoneJacker to paint the walls?

http://static.bips.channel4.com/bse/orig/fonejacker/series-1/fonejacker-s1_625x352.jpg


----------



## s29nta (Mar 9, 2013)

Good work so far mate!:thumb:


----------



## MAUI (Feb 1, 2008)

Looking good. Is that bay wide enough to do work on both sides of the car?


----------



## Soul boy 68 (Sep 8, 2013)

I love these man cave threads and this is the reason why, as said already, is the garage wide enough to walk around the car whilst detailing?


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

Yeh its over 3.5 mtrs wide! Would struggle to walk round a rolls royce in there haha


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

Also forgot to say sorry for the crappy photos theyve been taken on a crap iphone 5c but upgrading soon so pics will be better!


----------



## ianrobbo1 (Feb 13, 2007)

Looking better even with some dodgy photo's :doublesho are you doing anything about the roof?? I ask as they always seem to shed something dust bits of rust ETC!!  and are you going to be putting in extra plug sockets?? another addition that helps prevent tripping over extension cables all the time!! dont ask how I know!! :wall:


----------



## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

Mike! said:


> Were the pictures taken with a potato??....


:lol: :lol: :lol:


----------



## Jake-cos (Apr 24, 2012)

We used that floorpaint at work, its MUCH tougher stuff if you use the clear sealant on top.


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

So after deciding to remove that warehouse stye racking i had a nice set of kitchen units installed into the unit to give a better feel!
































Looking alot better now just got to get the fridge wired up and get some upper wall units! For now though she is all set to go! Ill update again soon! C+C's welcome as always!


----------



## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

Looking good!! :thumb:


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

so after getting the unit/mancave all up and ready i got my first nice car thorugh the door. the car in question is a 2003 BMW M3. my friend had recently travalled down to london to collect the car. so once back up here he asked me just to get the car cleaned nd then we would look at some correction work within the coming weeks. heres how the car arrived.
















































as you see theres very little protection on t he car as it stands.








again plain to see that the car is really lacking some proper protection this is just on the top of the detachable hardtop roof.

















have to say the interior wasnt in much better nick either. my mate had ovibiously had a few to many rolls up on the journey home.

























as you can see theres abit of wear on the side bolstering but i suppose thats to be expected when its had over 100,000 miles of people getting in and out of the car. overall though the condition of the interior is rather amazing condition its age and mileage.
































































so as you can tell overall interior not in bad shape. now the fun begins with the exterior wash down. pics up soon C+C's welcome guys/girls


----------



## Rían P (Jun 2, 2014)

Great space and love how its looking already!
Would love one as every time i go to wash the car it'll be sunny and warm, then as soon as i start filling my buckets it starts raining!!
Get up the pics of the BM as well!


----------



## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

golftdi said:


> Looking good mate. How much did you pay the FoneJacker to paint the walls?


:lol::lol::lol:

Brilliant


----------



## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

What a lovely gearknob, it really lends itself to the M3 interior............


----------



## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

MadOnVaux! said:


> What a lovely gearknob, it really lends itself to the M3 interior............


Afaik, that's the standard one which comes with the SMG g/box.


----------



## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

slim_boy_fat said:


> Afaik, that's the standard one which comes with the SMG g/box.


Really?

Bloody hell...it looks like something a 17 year old would buy from Halfords.


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

so after seeing the images of the car as it arrived his how the washing stage began. As you can see ive made sure I got all the products i need. new Snow foam gun from CYC, I have to say the service from the guys at CYC is second to none never come across a bunch of guys more willing to help than them will definately be using them again in the future. so aswell as a new snow foam gun i had the usual 2 bucket method with girt guards plus various Auto Finesse Products at my disposal.








so gave the car a good snow foaming using Auto Finesse Avalanche whilst that was dwelling i also used some diluted APC for the tighter areas than began cleaning the wheels.
























So first of all thought id hit the wheels with a coat of iron out, wow it smells unpleasant but it does a fantastic job and gives cracking results!








Brilliant bleeding effects!
























































So whilst the iron was doing its magic i decided to to clean the tighter areas with some APC and a small brush.








then to finish off i gave all the lower sills a spraying a of Auto Finesse Obliterate








before i got round to do the main wash i decided id give the tyres and arches a good scrubbing with some degreaser. gave fantastic results was amazed to see the overal amount of dirt and grime on the tyre walls.








so once the obliterate and degreaser had done there magic i rinsed the car again to remove any left over product residue. Just as i finished all of that the heavens decided to open, so unfortunately no wash pictures. car was washed with the usual 2BM method both with grit guards. shampoo came courtesy of Auto Finesse lather like every other product haha. once car was washed and dried it was put into the unit ready to be wax and tidyed up!
So got the car into the unit, please the excuse the mess kinda need to tidy up haha!








So we got the roof off so we could get that coated easier plus also allow access to the convertable roof underneath!








So one of the main requests from my friend was to address the dirty horrid looking exhausts so i made a start on those to begin with. Using some Auto Finesse Mercury and a cloth i started giving the exhausts a going over.
















Final results.
















So due to being a bit of a t**t i kind of forgot to take pictures of the coating stages! I finished the car using Auto Finesse Tough Prep and Tough Coat just to give enough protection untill the car is ready to come in for more extensive work! I managed to get some finished photos, so please enjoy? C+Cs welcome as always they really help. Thanks for the comments so far. Enjoy the pics.

































The mandatory beading porn shots






























































Thanks again everyone!! More updates and cars coming soon!


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

heres a few more updates of the adventures in my mancave. thanks to everyoe so far who has commented with help and advice its really helped me. So after getting a unit my lovely misses decided to pester me for a few weeks to begin sorting her car out for her as she was bored with the currrent look and style of the car. so the first thing she asked me to was to the remove the current grill on her car, then either paint it or replace it. in the end she went for the paint opition because she could choose how she wanted it to look. So began the tear down of the front








seeing as im slightly OCD i tnought id also give the area were the grill sits a good degreasing to get it ll nice and clean.








































plainly ovibious to see the grill had never been taken apart, can guess the reason why because jesus it was a sodding nightmare to split the 2 never again haha.
So heres how the car looked once we had the centre grill removed,








Whilst the girlfriend was deciding on which colours she wanted the grill i decided to make a start on some other jobs shhed ask me to do. first up was the removal of the rear badge.








This was done using a heat gun to warm the glue up then just pulled the badge off, just need to remove the remaining glue off and tidy her up. Easy job but makes a huge impace to the rear end of the car. Next on the list was to have new discs and pads all round so first job get the mucky wheels off.
I should say some of these photos were taken before i got my floor painted so my apologises for that ha.
As you can tell the wheels were rather muckey they would be getting a proper cleaning and sealing before going back on the car!
























As you can tell the paintwork isnt a great condition either but that will be attended to at a later date.








so after taking the wheels off to be cleaned i was giving another 'little' job. My misses wanted her Vauxhall wheel badges sanding down and painting to blend in with her wheels so off they came in a very delicate manor. these things are so cheap and filmsy.








as you can see just sanding them down with some wet and dry made a huge difference.








Next up a couple coats of primer








Will give all the badges a couple of coats of primer then leave them to dry for a few days and will come back to them. Luckily at the same time the misses new headlights had arrived so it was time to start the front end teardown!








Have to say its rather a long drawn out process to remove the front bumper requires alot of brute force and alot more swearing aswell to go with it! After alof of bashing about it finally gave way!
























So finally i managed to get both lights fitted and wired up so i could begin reassembling the front of the car whilst adding the new front grill after i finished painting it.








Heres a sneak pic of the grill colours just got the middle one left to paint then it will be al finished?








So after having a rather long debate about which colour to paint the middle line of the grill we finally settled on black so after a few more nights of priming, sanding and finally painting, the grill was finished and ready to be reinstalled in the car to finish off the new front end look. Heres the finished look complete with headlights and brighter whiter lamps.
















So after getting the front end all done and back together it was time to start the read end rebuild! So after removing the rear badge we decided to remove the rear chrome strip and the lettering on it to paint it gloss black to match the rest of the car! So after lot of fiddling i managed to get the rear strip off and get it painted! Unfortunately i forgot to get any photos of the removal and prepping stages. But heres a few photos of the finished product.
















To give it that extra shine i used a 4" spot pad and some Megs 105 & 205 really pleased overall now just to refit it all








Next up was to remove the rear lights and give the area a good clean!
Heres what i was greeted with after removing the lights, cant believe the dirt and mould hiding behind these lights!
















Plan of attack was a good dose of APC and some scrubbing with my little brushes. Heres some pictures of the final result.
















Overall hugely pleased with the results defo worth the effort. After reassembling the rear lights it was time to get on with the job we were initally wanted to do, replace the discs and pads. So first up was to remove the discs








Once we removed the the discs we noticed a fair bit of surface rust so we broke out the wire brush gave them a good rub down. Once all rubbed down gave them a coat of Hammerite satin black to keep them look fresh.
















So after all the prep work all done was to reassemble the new discs and pads nd get everything sorted? Heres a couple of photos of the finished rebulid
















So finally i finished the job i started to begin with from so far im really pleased! Now to begin the paint correction! C+C's welcome as always thanks everyone!


----------



## Mrkevbrown (May 28, 2015)

Good on you man braw wee space , bit tlc an it'll b mint ...


----------



## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

The grills arent designed to come apart, that's why it's bloody hard....it's only nutters like us that mod cars that do shizzle like that!!

and please take pictures with a camera....they give better results


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

yeh would like to apologise for the pi** poor photos that have been taken. Never realised how **** the camera on an Iphone 5C could be until now. thankfully i have upgraded to an Iphone 6 and looking into the purchasing a DSLR so future photography will be alot better. well thats the plan haha


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

few more updates to add. After the mammoth list of mechinical and visual jobs to complete i can now finally start the job i wanted to do from the beginning, the wheels off enhancement. so first up was the wheels whilst they were off the car made sense to get them fully cleaned and protected before refitting to the car. heres a few pics of the wheels before. Have to say im not totally pleased with the dishes the black over spray is from when i had them resprayed for the misses and theyve done a pi** poor prep job.








































as you can tell the overspray is awful i may look into getting ll the dish done black aswell so it all blends in.
time to give the wheels a good cleaning and degreasing. as always i decided to hit the wheels with a trio of Auto Finesse Products, Imperial, Iron Out and Obliterate.








First up was the Iron Out! Serious Bleeding coming from these wheels.
















Weirdly for some reason i forgot to take pictures of the rest of the wheel cleaning stages i just have one of of the claying stage, for this i chose to use a Farecla G3 as i found them massively quick to use and give great results allthough i have to say doesnt feel as nice and as natural as holding a normal clay bar.








So after giving the wheels a proper cleaning and the insides all coated up I refitted them so i could move the car outside to begin the washing. So once the car was in proper daylight it was easy to see the dirt the car has gained over the last few weeks








































































Then it was onto the fun part! This is were Auto Finesse Avalanche came into its own on this one providing lots of nice foamy photos for viewing.
















































I








So whilst the snowfoam was left to dwell i thought id crack on with the more delicate areas using a medium dilution of APC and a small brush.








After that i used some Degreaser and a long handled brush to degrease the tyre walls and the wheel arches to remove dirt and grime.








Once finished i rinsed the car down and started to do the main wash, unfortunately no pictures but i washed the car with the usual 2BM method and some Auto Finesse Lather smells lovely!! Again once done car was rinsed so i could start the claying stage, just my luck at this point the great british weather turned against me and it started to spit with rain!!!!! So i opted to use the Farecla G3 glay mitt i used the left over fresh AF lather as a lube aswell. Overally i generally like this mitt defo saves a lot of time.








Then after a final rinse down i moved the car into the unit and began drying it down! Used a CG wooly mammoth towel this thing is seriously fluffy! Its better than the towels i dry myself with haha, I bought the towel from the guys at CYC, have to say the service from them guys is outstanding cant recommened them enough for there help and advice. Cheers Chaps. 








After drying the majority of the bodywork with the towel I then broke out the pet dryer! Absolutely love this thing its a huge cost saving over the MetroVac tools and as far as i can see, it does just as good a job! Once totally dry it was time to check the paint and see what i was working with and frankly it was awful!
























So after seeing how poor the paintwork was i decided id use the Megs Microfibre Range as id heard nothing but great reviews so thought id give it a try!








So after starting with the microfibre cutting compound i managed to grab a few 50/50's there not perfect by all means but hope they give a better indication of reults im getting.


So after cutting the whole car i took it back outside snowfoamed it again just to remove any left over dust, have to say this system is 100 times less dusty than the 105&205 system so big thumbs up on that front! 
























Same as earlier once foamed i dried it off and put it back into the unit and began the refining stage! after a few more hours refining i was left with this.
















Massively pleased with the results! Now time for the protection and tbh there could only be choice! Auto Finesse signature wax Desire! 








Absolutely love this wax the smell is fantastic haha but also love the beading qualitys it gives and its fantastic durability. So after two coats of Desire and a final wipe down with AF Finale it was time to move the car outside and got some shots of the car in natural light!
































































Well its safe to say i have one very excitied girlfriend! She thought it was a new car! Cant argue with that i suppose! Haha lets just hope she keep it this way! Thanks for reading everyone sorry its been rather long and rather pic heavy. I hope the quality of these photos has made it a more enjoyable and intresting read haha. More amazing cars and updates to come. As always C+C's welcome they all help. thanks everyone!!


----------



## Stu Mac (Aug 18, 2014)

Great job and attention to detail mate, the Astra looks great. The red bits aren't my cup of tea but that's nothing to do with the finish. It must be great having your own work space


----------



## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Astra looks great bud! 

The unit is a perfect size for just yourself mate! Great stuff!


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

Stu Mac said:


> Great job and attention to detail mate, the Astra looks great. The red bits aren't my cup of tea but that's nothing to do with the finish. It must be great having your own work space


yeh im not sure wether im sold on the red myself but what the girlfriend wants, the girlriend gets haha. have to say yeh it is fantastic having my own little space allows soo much more time for cars than having to deal with the struggles of mother nature haha.


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

few more updates to add! would like to say that i am quite far ehind when it comes to keeping up to date with this blog so please excuse if you see anything on here that you looks like it happened a while ago haha. So a few weeks back a fantastic friend off mine came to me and said he was displaying his Aston Martin Vantage V8 at the Luxury Motor show at Goosedale hall in nottingham. He asked me if i could have a look and get the paintwork looking tiptop for the show. So first up a pic of the car on delivery.








as you can see paintwork doesnt look massively bad but wait till its under the lights in the unit, will tell a whole different story. unfortunately i only had a limited amount of time so it was achieve what you could given the time frame. So first up good layering of Snowfoam courtesy of AutoFinesse Avalanche. Cant get over how good it smells aha.
































usual procedure whilst the snow foam dwells i hit the smaller areas with a medium diluation of APC and a small brush for the tighter areas.








then onto the wheels using AF imperial,oblitarate and ironout.
















few pics of seeing iron out work its magic on the alloys.
















Next up was a good degreasing of the tyre walls and wheel arch linings.








Then onto the wash stage doing the usual method 2BM with grit guards in each and the usual lambs wool mitt! Shampoo coming courtesy as always from the Guys at AF!








Once the car was fully washed and rinsed it was time for the claying stage! Again i opted for the G3 clay mitt. Have to say i really like this gives a fantastic finish!








Once clayed and rinsed again i rinsed the car to remove any remaing shampoo. i then broke out the CG wooly mammoth drying towel to dry the car off! Cant get over how well this drys the car! Such an incredible drying towel, definately a worthwhile investment!!
















After using the mammoth towel for the majority of the drying it was time to bring out the pet dryer for the smaller, tighter areas. Honestly cant believe how amazing this thing is compared to the price of the metro blaster range, this seems like the steal of the century!!!








Once the car was totally bone dry i moved it into the unit to see what id be working with.








So after getting it under some proper lighting it was clear to see the paintwork was in a rather sorry state!
















So realising the paintwork was so bad and that i was limited for time i decided to use AF Ultra Glaze to try and tidy up the paintwork and give it back some gloss and shine!








As you can see it made a huge difference! I know it isnt perfect but its a vast improvement over the current standard
















Once finished it was time to tackle some other jobs first up the windows! Cleaned using Gtechniq G6 Glass cleaner.








Then i used Mgeuiars endurance tyre gel on the tyres! Baked on using a heat gun to avoid gel splatter! Forgot to take photos of that part so my apologys for that! Once tyres were down i treated the car to a final wipe down using AF Finale!








After that it was time to get a Few snaps of the car in the unit before she was picked up the next morning!































as you can tell the overall condition of the paint has been greatly improved! To top if off i applied AF illusion wax at the show to give the car that ultra wet look! After that it was time to go enjoy the show! Will post up some photos of the show soon! Thanks again for reading everyone, as always C+C's are always welcome!


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

Thought id upload a few photos of the luxury motor show! Was trully incredible to be able to see the Holly Trinity of supercars

















































































































































































overal it was an incredible day and to be able to display a car there was such a sureal experience for me! roll on the next one. hope everyone is enjoying reading!!


----------



## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

Thanks!! :thumb:

Some lovely metal there, but those Ferrari mirrors look a bit vulnerable. Wonder how long it'll be before there are 'yoofs' swinging from them......?


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

slim_boy_fat said:


> Thanks!! :thumb:
> 
> Some lovely metal there, but those Ferrari mirrors look a bit vulnerable. Wonder how long it'll be before there are 'yoofs' swinging from them......?


Yeh i thought the same theres bound to be stupid enough to try and hang of them haha


----------



## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Awesome stuff!


----------



## CaptainGaunt23 (May 18, 2014)

after a relaxing few weeks of just chilling out and enjoying the sun, a fantastic oppourtunity arose for me to detail a trully fantastic car. A friend of mine has just taken delivery of a Mercedes GLA AMG45 such a stunning car the interior is a incredible place to sit in. Allthough i prefer to do cars In the studio/mancave he asked if i could just give the car a quick once over at his house as he was attending a party at the weekend! Heres a few pics of the car before hand!
















































































Overal the car wasnt that dirty it just wanted a nice spruce up! The interior on this car is an amazing place to be with the suede and leather seats! Cant believe how comfy they are aswell considering how lightweight and thin they are. As you can tell car is fairly clean so gave it a quick snow foam bath using AF avalanche then hit the tighter spots with a small brush and some Diluted APC.
























After finishing off the wheels with some AF imperial i then washed the car iusual 2BM method and then rinised the car down to ready for drying.
















got to say i love i love the matt black style of the AMG alloys.








so with the whole car now dried clean it was time to add some protection so i went for the AF Tough Coat really easy to apply and buffs off really well. after tat it was time for the all important mini photoshoot haha.








































i reckon the photos speak for themselves really pleased with how this one came out. Cannot wait to get this one into the unit for some proper work. More updates to come soon! C+C's welcome as always thanks everyone.


----------



## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Would you not be better posting these details individually in the showroom rather than updating this mancave thread? as they are not really about the mancave/unit and more people would get to see them and appreciate your work.

Just an idea.


----------



## Guest (Aug 27, 2015)

Lovely job on the unit.

What sort of money did the floor paint cost you? and how is it holding up? :driver:


----------



## joshb (Sep 26, 2010)

Nice little unit there mate, could do with one about thag size myself, keep up the good work


----------

