# Seat Alhambra - Shocking to Acceptable in 2 Days!



## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Bryan told me about this car... "Its a real mess" he said... "Uh huh" I said, convinced it wasn't going to be as bad as all that... its 8 years old maybe, but how bad could it be... "The owner has kids, they've washed it..." said Bryan... "Hmmm... okay... well... we'll see what's what!" says me, gearing up ready for the detail!

The car on its arrival - grey, I figured with dirt in the first instance, as the car is meant to be black...



















The car was fully washed down and clayed using Bilt Hamber Soft clay, just using the rinse water on the paint plus some additional water from the hose, worked superbly and pulled _a lot_ of contamination off of the paint... but it still looked grey 

The reason - seems the kids may have washed it with stones, and earth - just look at the wing and bonnet :doublesho:doublesho





































The whole car was like this...



















Dont suppose we really need the Sun Gun here, but the wing and bonnet were to be the test areas and under the gun the true horror was obvious...





































Bryan set to giving the wheel trims a thorough clean while Stu masked up and finished claying... meanwhile, I decided to see what was going to work on this paint... No surprises really, we were up through the grades very quickly until I arrived at the following. 3M Fast Cut on a Meguiars W7006 cutting pad, two hits. Followed by Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish on a Meguiars W8006 polishing pad to soften the remaining RDS a little further without removing dangerous amounts of paint (two hits of fast cut, with me being severe, lost 20um consistent). The finish off with Menzerna PO85RD Final Finish on a Meguiars W9006 finishing pad to give the finish the best gloss we could...

Applied as follows:

*3M Fast Cut*

Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass
Begin working at 1200rpm, couple of passes
Work at 2000, 2500, 2000rpm until residue clear or defects removed

*Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish*

Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass
Begin working at 1200rpm, 2 passes
Work at 1500 - 1800rpm until residue clear
Refine at 1200rpm, couple of passes

*Menzerna PO85RD Final Finish*

Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass
Begin working at 900rpm, couple of passes
Work at 1200rpm, couple of passes
Work at 1500rpm, until residue clear
Refine at 1200rpm, couple of passes
Burnish at 900rpm, two or three passes with remaining very fine abrasives to take paint to high gloss

The 3M was worked hard and fast, a little pressure was found to give a but more cut and the high speeds did generate a fair amount of heat but did deliver the most effective correction while still maintaining safety to the finish. No attempt was made to refine the finish here... Intensive Polish was then used to tidy up the hologramming but also to soften the RDS just a little further without more severe paint removal. The finish was then refined to a deep gloss using Final Finish...

The results, first of all with no light, on the wing:










Huge improvement for sure... under the gun:










Working on the bonnet and wing, the finished shots:



















Not perfect, but a huge improvement to a very poor original finish - severe stone chipping on the bonnet though really needs more serious attention outwith the scope of this particular detail...

Onwards down the driver's side. Before:










After (minus in behind the door handle, required cutting in by hand...)










Again, big improvement... But as time was now winding on to 10pm, it was time to call it a night. Stu and Bryan had finished the roof (huge) and boot by the time I got down the side...

The afters thus far:



















A gloss returned, no LSP here, just the machine finish you see under the gun above:



















Onto day 2, and the other side of the car greeted us just as bad as the dirver's side... Before pics:























































The above methods yielded the following results:





































The glass was polished with Autoglym Glass Polish, tyres with Meguiars Hot Shine and plastics with Meguiars All Seasons Dressing.

After correction, the paint was wiped down with IPA to assess the finish and Collinite 915 was used as the wax to offer good durable protection to the underlying machine finish.

Remember the front wing at the start...



















Here it is now...



















Couple more inside afters...



















Better though, that we roll the car outside into the daylight for the after shots - really quite pleased with how this one turned out considering the befores... Its not perfect, but its leaps and bounds better while maintaining a decent paint thickness across the board


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

Sensational turn around there!! Wow!!

Can I use 3M Fast Cut with my PC, or is it better suited to a rotary?


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## Pad (Jun 27, 2006)

pah, thats a tiddler compared to some of the big ol units you will get in the US! Seriously though, a great improvement...

Pad


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## -ROM- (Feb 23, 2007)

Which are the before and which are the afters, i can't quite tell


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Pad said:


> pah, thats a tiddler compared to some of the big ol units you will get in the US! Seriously though, a great improvement...
> 
> Pad


If they are like that but bigger in the US, I'm retiring! :lol::lol:


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## Huw (Feb 16, 2007)

Thanks for that Dave, the other half has just seen it & wants to know why her's doesn't look like that.

Cracking turn round, the bonnets on those do like stone chips.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

RussZS said:


> Sensational turn around there!! Wow!!
> 
> Can I use 3M Fast Cut with my PC, or is it better suited to a rotary?


Never tried it with the PC to be honest, but L200 Steve and Epoch have had very good results with Megs 105 by DA (more aggressive) so it would be worth a try... Will need followed with a lighter polish to refine the finish and it may well not get the correction it gets on the rotary in the same time... In honesty, the best compound I have found for DA is Power Gloss, seemingly more brittle abrasives that cut better under a DA action.


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

Dave KG said:


> Never tried it with the PC to be honest, but L200 Steve and Epoch have had very good results with Megs 105 by DA (more aggressive) so it would be worth a try... Will need followed with a lighter polish to refine the finish and it may well not get the correction it gets on the rotary in the same time... In honesty, the best compound I have found for DA is Power Gloss, seemingly more brittle abrasives that cut better under a DA action.


Thanks... this one?

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polis...50ml/menzerna-power-gloss-s34a-/prod_215.html


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## dubbers (Apr 3, 2006)

Looks like a lot of hard work to get that result Dave. Nice photo's.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

RussZS said:


> Thanks... this one?
> 
> http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polis...50ml/menzerna-power-gloss-s34a-/prod_215.html


Thats the one


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## The Autowerks (Mar 31, 2006)

awesome work guys, i think you've added £££'s to the value of that car.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

The Autowerks said:


> awesome work guys, i think you've added £££'s to the value of that car.


... and removed £££'s from the value of our backs!! :lol::lol::lol:

Though seriously, I relish cars like this, a real challenge


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

amazing stuff guys!


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## baasb (Aug 8, 2007)

Wow, what a turnaround, really nice job.
The car must love you guys for this:argie:


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## blr123 (Oct 26, 2005)

The owners kids has tried to wash the car using Balmullo chips..........kids eh LOL!! 

Bryan


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## Nickos (Apr 27, 2006)

blr123 said:


> The owners kids has tried to wash the car using Balmullo chips..........kids eh LOL!!
> 
> Bryan


or a stiff broom :doublesho


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## bidderman1969 (Oct 20, 2006)

wicked turnabout chaps!


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

"The owner has kids, they've washed it..." said Bryan - Brilliant :lol:

These cars are usually the family wagon and I've seen many in this sort of state, cracking turn around, some fantastic befores and afters!


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## Mr Singh (Apr 4, 2006)

Nasty, one of those brillo black specials.. I remember doing one little worse than this but with a PC took me 5 days :lol:

Nice work Dave, massive transformation :thumb:


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## Simon01 (Jan 14, 2008)

Nice work fellas, some nice reflection shots :thumb:


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## 1996a6v6 (Feb 8, 2008)

Stunning transformation, great work, well done :thumb:


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## ryanuk (Jun 22, 2007)

wow great stuff!!!


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Neil_S said:


> "The owner has kids, they've washed it..." said Bryan - *Brilliant* :lol:


Not quite what I said when I saw it...! :lol::lol:


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## Guest (Aug 4, 2008)

Do SEAT use VAG paint or their own version?


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## Brian-Brice (Jan 12, 2008)

I toast you on this job my friend.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

matt1263 said:


> Do SEAT use VAG paint or their own version?


I dont know the exact answer for sure, but on the Seats I have done I have found the paints to be a little softer than other VAG cars such as Audi or VW... This may just be how its worked out though as I also see variances across manufacturers in paints.


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## leo_jones (May 27, 2008)

massive turnaround looks excellent


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## KnightUnit (Dec 31, 2007)

Very nice turnaround


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## Racer (Oct 27, 2005)

Great Work Dave


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## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

great work, its such a huge improvement


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

That was shocking but great turn around guys :thumb:


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## ashm (Jul 5, 2008)

Looks like a new car, well done


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## visor (Sep 8, 2007)

awesome turn around Dave :thumb::thumb:


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## Jesse74 (Jul 19, 2008)

Wowzers! It looked just as bad as the Skoda Superb I did a couple of weeks ago. Doesn't it just break your heart when you do a fantastic polishing job like that and the rock chips juts muck it all up?


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## Trist (Jun 23, 2006)

Shocking, one of the worst I've seen. Great job you lot :thumb:


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Clever Nickname said:


> Wowzers! It looked just as bad as the Skoda Superb I did a couple of weeks ago. *Doesn't it just break your heart when you do a fantastic polishing job like that and the rock chips juts muck it all up*?


Its annoying, but on a vehicle spending its life on motorways, a fact of life...


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## virtual (Apr 7, 2008)

Wow, this car was a real mess!
Awesome correction there Dave! 

Do you use FCP without adding a drop of UF?


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## KKM (Dec 10, 2007)

Nice turnaround.

You guys hate a challenge!!

;thumb:


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## scrapchallenge (Jul 17, 2007)

nice turnaround, I'm betting that the inside was just as horrendous - do you do interiors too? I seem to get plenty of "kid cars" to deal with, and to be honest I find them more difficult than "dog cars" - pet hair I can deal with, kids just stain stuff, drop food and intentionally vandalise car interiors 

I'd never have thought that such an abused vehicle could be turned around like that.

Kirsty


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## Kasomi (Nov 15, 2007)

Amazing turnaround!


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## Chris_4536 (Sep 20, 2006)

:doublesho :doublesho

WOW!

Fantastic work you three :thumb:

Looks simply stunning compared to before? ....did you re-spray it?! :lol:


Chris


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Just goes to show what can be done....superb


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Chris_4536 said:


> :doublesho :doublesho
> 
> WOW!
> 
> ...


I felt like it needed it!! :lol::lol:

This one was a challenge, but a rewarding one none the less


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## ClubmanCJ (Mar 2, 2008)

Oh yes...cars in general are just bigger here. Very VERY good job.


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## tdekany (Jul 22, 2006)

*Fantastic work once again Dave!!!!!:thumb::thumb::thumb:*


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## Tiberius (Jul 21, 2008)

Very nice work :doublesho

The difference between before and after is huge :thumb:


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## mouthyman (May 1, 2006)

great turnaround dave, :thumb:


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## saxoboy07 (Oct 20, 2007)

Great work on the Alhambra:thumb:


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## mattyb95 (Apr 21, 2008)

Dave KG said:


> Its annoying, but on a vehicle spending its life on motorways, a fact of life...


Nice work by the way.

What can be done for stone chips then in a professional capacity other than a re-spray?

I have a black Ibiza and it has some road rash on the front and whilst I have a touch up pen to do the edge of the door and rear wheel arch where it will not be noticed (when I get round to it!), I'm wary of using it on the bonnet as it will be more obvious.


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Bl**dy heck!! :doublesho

Awesome transformation Dave, i bet the owner didn't recognise the car afterwards!


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

mattyb95 said:


> Nice work by the way.
> 
> What can be done for stone chips then in a professional capacity other than a re-spray?
> 
> I have a black Ibiza and it has some road rash on the front and whilst I have a touch up pen to do the edge of the door and rear wheel arch where it will not be noticed (when I get round to it!), I'm wary of using it on the bonnet as it will be more obvious.


You could fill them all in with the touch up pen, with colour and then lacquer until the lacquer sits proud of the finish and then wet sand the region to blend the repair and then polish out...

Or you could fit a clear bra based on prevention being better than cure...


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## MAXI-MILAN (Oct 26, 2008)

very nice work DAVE:thumb:
Father would not allow his children to wash the car again!:detailer:


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## dizzydiesel (Aug 12, 2008)

Great write up.....great result


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## MrLOL (Feb 23, 2007)

what are they washing their car with, a patio brush ?

In all seriousness, they must be washing it with a pretty harsh brush not menat for car paintwork, and probably only the one bucket.

Hope you converted them to wash mitts !


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