# Vauxhall Corsa bought back from the dead. Picture heavy



## footfistart (Dec 2, 2013)

Hello all this is my first detailing thread so please be gentle with me and comments are more than welcome. This was done about a year ago over four days with ended up being about 20 hours in total. ( afternoons and evenings as it was extremely hot for this)

so here it is a very sad pink Vauxhall Corsa with only 39,000 on the clock. this is also the first ever car i have machined apart from scrap panels.








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car wasnt snow foamed as i didnt have a jet wash at the time
The car was washed three times!!!! that amount of dirt on there i couldnt belive it. it was washed with the standard 2BM with meguiars gold class with a small shot of G101 to help shift the dirt.

car washed and looked no different really as the paint was in such bad condition.





here is a picture of a possible strike through from some time ago? not sure how or what happened. all i know it was there before i started.



so back to the car... time for claying. i used meguiars clay kit and i must say i dont think it had ever been clayed.... EVER.



half a bonnet and look..





The rest of the car was more of less the same.

pics of the car after clayed ready for machining.









Next was the compounding. the products i will be using is Meguiars Ultimate Compound, Ultimate polish and Liquid wax.
i did a test spot by hand to see how the paint would react with my handy work and Here is what happened.

Before:


Half and Half.


and the reflection achivied with five minutes hand work.
.

right hand rear wing before and after.


.

Rear tail light before and after. please not i didnt have the after shot for the left but ive got one for the right so you can imagine what it looked like.

Before


After


here is what the wheels looked like after cleaning with Autoglym wheel cleaner and G101.


now for the me bonnet. a good 50:50


Front right wing.


More of the bonnet.


Done


Left door. note the paint removed from my pad.


good reflection from a cut.


with time getting on i started to take less pictures but here is the bonnet swirl free after refining.


Roof refined.


and here is the finished Product after it was waxed... hope you like it.















Comment welcome. Please note I didn't treat the grey trims as i wasn't sure at the time but im sure some black trim dye would of sort it? the trims were restored with meguiars trim dressing the ones that would take the dressing after years of nothing.

keep watching as i have more cars to upload over the next week also.

Many thanks

Ryan


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## N16k_W (May 12, 2013)

Good turn around.


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## WAZ92 (Mar 26, 2014)

Love seeing these threads. Fantastic turn round on that car. Well done. Looks bloody amazing :thumb::buffer:


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## ibiza55 (Feb 22, 2008)

Lovely jubbly, hats off to you, a great turnaround on approx a17 year old car


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## Nico1970 (May 15, 2014)

Wow, what a turnaround alright. Well done...


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## Kimo (Jun 7, 2013)

Looks good

In reference to the trims, you can use dyes etc but some look blotchy. Couldn just replace the trims for about £20 from eBay


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## iPlod999 (Jun 23, 2012)

Looks almost as good as my Corsa thread. 

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=334877

To finish off the trims get some Plasticare and top off with some AF Revive.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/251559338121?nav=SEARCH

Then it will be complete.

A job well done.


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## ronwash (Mar 26, 2011)

Fantastic work!!.


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Great turnaround:thumb:


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## ocdetailer (Apr 9, 2014)

Amazing transformation, bet it was very satisfying


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## Mini devil (May 4, 2014)

Well done great work! Would love to have a go at a car like that!


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## Farqui (Jun 24, 2014)

Amazing, well done


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## Steve (Mar 18, 2014)

superb


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## steve from wath (Dec 12, 2008)

love doing these
the transformation is worth doing the job

paint now needs to be waxed regulary or it will oxidise again

good solid work


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## Guru (Aug 28, 2013)

Pink to red is always the most satisfying job.

To me this one looked more than dead - good job bringing her back.


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## footfistart (Dec 2, 2013)

Wow thanks everyone for tour thoughts and comments . Yeah red is the best for this kind of satisfaction level. The car wasn't mine but afterwards I did buy the old guy a new genuine Vauxhall wheel cover from fleebay. As I said it's been a year since I've done that car and I saw the car a couple of days ago and still going strong . I told the guy to keep topping up the wax every so often to keep the shine and to stop the paint from turning pink. There was so much dead paint I used 8 pads in total and loads of hand pads for smaller areas. You could even take paint off with your bare finger just rubbing. Anyways the trim. Most of it I treated the best I could and did keep adding to it every other day to get the oils back in. But now in my kit I've got some die so may go back and finish up. I would like some gtechniq C4 for future trim restoration. I forgot to say after claying it was washed again. Then after machined it was washed and ipa applied. Used to get this from work so I didn't have to use it sparingly .
Keep comment coming the more the better.
Many thanks Ryan


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## iPlod999 (Jun 23, 2012)

As I mentioned above I used Plasticare dye on my black trims.

I dyed my 205 trims 2 and a half years ago.

With a regular top up of AF Revive they are still going strong.

50/50 shot from last week.


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## Baracuda (Apr 28, 2008)

You got to love these pink to red transformations !
Makes me want to go and find one just to bring it back 

Thank you for sharing.


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## SlickRick (Mar 29, 2014)

Great work mate! I have a toyota MR2 to do soon, nearly as bad!


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Superb work  and the bonnet edge looks rust free amazingly...ive seen the best kept Corsas rust there!!

For the trims, some folk say a heat gun works wonders....i've not tried it myself but i've seen some done.


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## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

Awwwwwwww - I'd loove to get my hands on a pink Corsa. Your results are absolutely amazing there chum. Well done!!

Cooks


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## luke w (Dec 11, 2012)

That's incredible! Well done!


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## dreamtheater (Apr 12, 2010)

Great work...looks like a different car now


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## enc (Jan 25, 2006)

Fantastic !!!


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## SystemClenz (Oct 31, 2008)

I'll never get bored of these threads, got to love a pink vauxhall!

Great job fella :thumb:


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## paul mersea (Feb 25, 2013)

stunning job mate lovely little corsa b


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## footfistart (Dec 2, 2013)

Thanks for the comments  I love the pink to red transformation. It's the sense of pure satisfaction at the end of some hard grafting. The car was rust free and spotless apart from that strike through on the roof. I was abit scared as this was my first ever car machined. I had scrap panels to practice..... I didn't eve practice on my own car. I'm sure most people would do that before going out but I could resist. I have some my car since and a few other which will find themselves on here in the near future  Again thanks for the comments. I think I have a few more good pics of the car. I did take 140 but I didn't want to fill the page. If people want more picks just ask and I'll see what ones I can add.


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2014)

Well done fella...great job.
I would rather see a thread like this than the..."Ive just charged a footballer £4000 to polish his Range Rover" type deal anyday.


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## CliveP (Feb 1, 2009)

Great result Sir! I love doing these - as they make you feel so good when the owner turns up to collect them! I look out for them and want to find the owner!

Regards,
Clive.


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## mattyh2013 (Aug 5, 2013)

Amazing results.


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## H100S (Apr 3, 2013)

Its like history repeating itself! Great job, I used a heat gun on my trims and they came up real good.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=327841


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## Foxhound (May 5, 2011)

Brilliant work!!!

Congratulations!!


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## ericgtisuffolk (Apr 26, 2007)

looks great,i luv doing red cars, so satifiying


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## footfistart (Dec 2, 2013)

I have another faded car in the pipeline so keep watch.


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## siradamrees (May 3, 2011)

footfistart said:


> Hello all this is my first detailing thread so please be gentle with me and comments are more than welcome. This was done about a year ago over four days with ended up being about 20 hours in total. ( afternoons and evenings as it was extremely hot for this)
> 
> so here it is a very sad pink Vauxhall Corsa with only 39,000 on the clock. this is also the first ever car i have machined apart from scrap panels.
> 
> ...


Great work you must be over the moon.:thumb:


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## Sutty 90 (Aug 24, 2014)

Absolutely fantastic work mate, i would love to get a go at one of these pink vauxhalls. Such a great turnaround.

Sutty.


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## mitchy101 (Oct 11, 2014)

I have seen so many of these 'pink' corsa's on the road. Now it makes me want to polish them to get them looking like this!


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## siradamrees (May 3, 2011)

Corsa B in my opinion was the best Corsa Vauxhall did. I had a GSI16v and drove it like I stole it every were 50k of hard hard miles never missed a beat proberbly helped that it got serviced once a month had a friend who had a Vauxhall Trade Club card so £20 for Genuine service parts. I know a few people that have had newer ones and they have had problems with them. 

Great job by the way


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## MrDunleavy (May 23, 2014)

You wouldn't get strikethrough as it is a one stage paint. There is no clear coat which is why these old red vauxhalls turn pink!


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## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

MrDunleavy said:


> You wouldn't get strikethrough as it is a one stage paint. There is no clear coat which is why these old red vauxhalls turn pink!


I think the OP means striking through to the primer.

Cooks


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## footfistart (Dec 2, 2013)

That's what I meant a strike through the primer. A white primer used? I guess they did that to make the red more red if you get me instead of a dark colour and in turn making the top coat darker? I can only imagine that's what happens right?


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## Sutty 90 (Aug 24, 2014)

White primer will have been used purely because the red will cover it in less coats. Each colour takes a certain number of coats to cover what is underneath until opacity is achieved. White is the best colour to use beneath the paint for most colours.

Sutty.


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