# Prestige Reflections - Black Clio 172 gets a makeover...



## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

I wasn't planning on doing a write-up for this Detail, but the owner was keen to see some during shots and see the processes, so I was happy to oblige. The car is a black 51 reg Clio 172, lowered slightly and by the sounds of it; some engine modifications.
Some before shots first thing in the morning of the car with quite a few hundred miles of bugs and road grime on it:

































First job was an all over snowfoam to remove the worst of the dirt:
















Left to dwell for 5 minutes and run off the car:








Wheels washed first with the usual method, brushes etc and Megs Wheel Brightener:
















Two-bucket method and lambswool mitt for the main wash stage:








Next up - claying to remove bonded contaminants. 








A considerable amount removed...
Bonnet:








Wing:








Side panel:








Paint thickness levels were taken around the car (I did do a report sheet but forgot to photograph it). The Clio had healthy original paint all over, ranging between about 150-180um (thousandths of a mm).
















































Test section taped up:








Makita rotary polisher set up with a Megs polishing pad and Megs #83 polish.








50:50 results..
















There wasn't time for 100% correction, but some deeper marks that particularly caught my eye were wetsanded with 2000 and 4000 grit mirka discs:








A 4" polishing pad was used for the smaller areas such as 'a' and 'b' pillars.








The car was re-foamed and TBM washed to remove polishing residue. Apologies for the poor photos but time was getting on (plus it was freezing cold!) so stopping to take snaps became a bit tricky.








The next stage was Dodo Juice Lime Prime applied via a CCS finishing pad on a UDM orbital polisher. Lime Prime has mild abrasives to refine the paint after the polishing, plus glazes the paint adding depth and gloss. A firm favourite wax prep product of mine.
























It was time to call it a night after Lime Priming the bonnet, wings and roof so I applied a coat of wax to these panels to seal in the glaze. After discussion with the owner Victoria Concours wax was chosen for it's wet look finish and the fact that it's particularly well suited to black cars.
























Sunday morning and the remaining panels were glazed:








Victoria wax applied again.
















Whilst this layer was curing all the other details were taken care of including interior vacuumed, plastics dressed, tyres dressed, exhaust polished etc. Once the wax had an hour to cure I buffed the finish with Z**** Field Glaze. 








Here's the results.








































































The last shot reminded me of something else dark and disturbing.........








The owner is a photography fan so has promised some snaps of the car which I'm sure will be much better than mine. When I get them I'll post them up here so please check back. Thanks for reading, any comments welcomed.

*EDIT: OWNERS PHOTOS NOW ON PAGE 2!*


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## kiza132 (Oct 3, 2008)

Stunning Turnaround....


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## Jim W (Feb 3, 2007)

Nice resemblance with Vader!

That looks lovely now, tidy little car!

Used Victoria wax one or two times on black cars before, works a treat :thumb:

Good work.


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## ryanuk (Jun 22, 2007)

very nice mate!


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## CupraRcleanR (Sep 2, 2007)

Better than new. Nice job. Where in Cardiff are you Matt?


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## North east Car Care (Jan 14, 2008)

Stunning finish Matt


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## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

nice work bet the owner was pleased with that


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## Trist (Jun 23, 2006)

Very nice work :thumb:


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

CupraRcleanR said:


> Better than new. Nice job. Where in Cardiff are you Matt?


I'm in Cardiff Bay mate.

Cheers for all the comments guys, much appreciated.


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## MELennium (Dec 27, 2008)

Brilliant job mate :thumb: but I noticed the reg is still on display on one of your photo's (the one showing the rotary polisher)


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## KleenChris (Apr 4, 2008)

Great wet look finish :thumb:


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## Guest (Feb 1, 2009)

looking good there mate, iam also a fan of vic's concourse i applied clearkote moose wax on top of vic's and result's were stunning :thumb:


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## welsh172 (Jan 21, 2007)

that would be mine, and i'm very pleased!. Thanks for doing the write up Matt, really good to see the process you went through it the freezing weather we have here!

Massive difference when i got it home under the lights of the underground carpark!

i took a couple of pics this afternoon, but only managed to stay out in the wind for 10 mins! so here is a couple:


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Very nice indeed - that looks great.


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

^^^^^^^^Blimey that was quick posting up photos Carwyn! I was just about to email you a link to the write-up but you've already found it!


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## welsh172 (Jan 21, 2007)

lol, was passing through...all tucked up now, had to open the door for m g/f earlier so she didn't touch it lol!


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

MELennium said:


> Brilliant job mate :thumb: but I noticed the reg is still on display on one of your photo's (the one showing the rotary polisher)


Well spotted. Corrected now.

Cheers :thumb:


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

welsh172 said:


> lol, was passing through...all tucked up now, had to open the door for m g/f earlier so she didn't touch it lol!


I'm really glad you're pleased with it.

What exactly have you done to the car in terms of mods if you don't mind me asking?


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

Love this photo by the way.........


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## welsh172 (Jan 21, 2007)

mattjonescardiff said:


> I'm really glad you're pleased with it.
> 
> What exactly have you done to the car in terms of mods if you don't mind me asking?


Lowerd allround 40mm
Custom ProSpeed full S/S exhaust 
DeCat
ITG filter
AP Developments Matched/Ported Inlets
and a few cosmetic things...

remap soon......


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

welsh172 said:


> Lowerd allround 40mm
> Custom ProSpeed full S/S exhaust
> DeCat
> ITG filter
> ...


It must be a quick little car then! A remap would bring all those mods together well.

The exhaust note is pretty sweet, I was wondering what it was. I had a prospeed cat-back on my old calibra. Really good systems and well made.


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## [email protected] (Aug 25, 2007)

Hi Matt
Top work as allways especially in this Baltic weather.
Let me know when you are Detailing next so i can turn the golf round so you can do the other side for me.:thumb:


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

[email protected] said:


> Hi Matt
> Top work as allways especially in this Baltic weather.
> Let me know when you are Detailing next so i can turn the golf round so you can do the other side for me.:thumb:


Haha - I think I wash your golf more than any other car!

I might start charging you


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## Sandro (Mar 16, 2008)

nice work man! well done staying out in the cold for so long!


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## welsh172 (Jan 21, 2007)

matt - out of interest what snowfoam solution do you use? and what do you use in the bucket?


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

welsh172 said:


> matt - out of interest what snowfoam solution do you use? and what do you use in the bucket?


I use autoraechem snow foam (I buy in bulk around 25l at a time). To be honest though there isn't much difference between all the snowfoams. It's worth noting that pretty much any shampoo will foam through a good foam lance.

This is the kind of thing that you'd need:
http://www.autobritedirect.co.uk/sh...=2060&osCsid=5ad7e24717f8960087128053ab217bdd

Snowfoam really is the number 1 defence against inflicting swirls.

For a wash solution I used Meguiars HyperWash. Good stuff, nice and slick.


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## -Kev- (Oct 30, 2007)

superb work


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## Jesse74 (Jul 19, 2008)

Great finish for a one-stage polish!


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## S-X-I (Sep 6, 2006)

Nice work!


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## ijaen (Oct 10, 2008)

Nice! Gotta love black cars when they are clean and shiny....


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## chris l (Mar 5, 2007)

Very nice


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

great results Matt - the afters shots look extremely glossy :thumb:


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## Owen 182 (Aug 13, 2008)

Looks a lot cleaner than when I saw you by Cardiff Prison a couple of months ago!

Good job Matt - you make it look easy, which from limited personal experience, I know it isn't.


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

great job!


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## sixsr (Jan 6, 2007)

That looks nice!


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## charlie_51 (Sep 19, 2008)

cant be using limeprime before wax. might as well leave the dual cleaner polish. you need a pure glaze not an abrasive before wax. do a 50 50 with lime prime and megs speed glaze. tell me what you think


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## welsh172 (Jan 21, 2007)

Owen 182 said:


> Looks a lot cleaner than when I saw you by Cardiff Prison a couple of months ago!
> 
> Good job Matt - you make it look easy, which from limited personal experience, I know it isn't.


don't think it was cleaned since then!


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

looks so great, very deep and reflective:thumb:


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## -Kev- (Oct 30, 2007)

charlie_51 said:


> cant be using limeprime before wax. might as well leave the dual cleaner polish. you need a pure glaze not an abrasive before wax. do a 50 50 with lime prime and megs speed glaze. tell me what you think


lime prime is called a pre-wax cleanser... you don't _have_ to glaze before wax


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## unreal106 (Jan 2, 2009)

thatlooks great really good work


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## KTR (Feb 1, 2009)

Thats some effort gone into that, looks mint.


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

charlie_51 said:


> cant be using limeprime before wax. might as well leave the dual cleaner polish. you need a pure glaze not an abrasive before wax. do a 50 50 with lime prime and megs speed glaze. tell me what you think


Thanks for your comment.

Meguiars #80 Speed Glaze also contains abrasives. In fact, about the same amount as Lime Prime. Megs #7 is their purest 'Glaze' if I was going to go down that route (I have all these products) but I absolutely love LP's combination of the best of these two steps.


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## Chris424 (Dec 5, 2007)

Really Nice! Thanks for sharing


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## Conlon (Aug 13, 2008)

massive improvement, im hoping to get my clio done in the next few months


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## lotti (Nov 20, 2008)

*Stunning*

Absolutely fantastic, worth the effort.


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## N8KOW (Aug 24, 2007)

Love the 172, good work matt.


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## mustisahin (Feb 11, 2009)

excellent work, congratulations


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