# Me and a Black Range Rover Vogue



## paul2505 (Jan 24, 2009)

Hi Guys,

I've not posted anything in the showroom since the Honda Civic a month or so ago.

Since then I have been really busy, with the new addition to my family but also detailing for friends and family, also in that time I went on a one to one tuition detail with DaveKG http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=125626 where I did my car at the time with him and finally got to grips with a Rotary polisher and some new techniques in the detailing process.:thumb:

So after I got home some friends saw how good my car looked and asked me if I could do the same thing to their car but also to their dads car. I said yeah sure, so we arranged a spare couple of days (I knew I would need that due to the size of the car also being a relative beginner and the fact I am flying solo).

My friends car will come in the next few weeks but first its their dads Black Range Rover which is just over a year old. This car oozes Luxury inside and out and I'm sure there will be no bad backs in one of these over a long Journey. 

On first inspection the car looks lovely and clean with good reflections from the paint but as you'll soon see there is plenty of hidden dirt and oodles of swirls from poor car washing technique.



















Plenty of Bugs murdered on the front grille and bumper.





































Scuff marks on the polished sill tread plates, These looked to deep to polish out by hand which was later confirmed but will be polished as best as possible anyway.





































Wheels looked reasonably clean but on closer inspection there was bad brake dust pitting between the spokes and wheel backs had never been cleaned. 










Also the wheels had extremely bad problems with the laquer on them...



















....The owner discussed with me how the wheels could have been ruined and I initially suggested an acidic wheel cleaner had previously been used, the owner said only a BMW wheel cleaner had been used so this had me wondering what could have caused this damage....Your thoughts and opinions would be appreciated here people. The owner said he was going to take the car back and try get the wheels changed under warranty so I decided I would not remove the wheels and protect the inners.

Offside arches showing a bit of dirt here and there.





































Dirt in the fuel filler area too....



















...and in the gap under the rear window too










The exhausts were not too bad, suffering from a bit of fading and some tar spots on their too



















Boot and door shuts with plenty of hidden dirt around
































































Strange contaminent on the paint too 










Now the hubs were rusty too, Something I will be wanting to attend too in details further down the line but not until I can arrange my working times much better










Nearside arches showing much more dirt which when you think about it is quite right seeing as its the side closest to the edge of the road. :lol:














































Same scuffing on the Nearside polished sill tread plates










Onto the interior....



















Some bad marks on the drivers seat and also some bad dye transfer too (not photographed) :wall:










Boot trims had some scuffing too.
































































Armrest had a strange grease mark on it too.




























And the engine bay.....




































































































So enough of the befores and onto the detailing process...

Firstly I raised the suspension on the car from inside (good perk of the range rover) then I rinsed the wheels and arches with the PW, then sprayed BH Surfex on the arches and various other parts these were then aggitated with various brushes left to dwell for a couple of minutes then rinsed off.










Then onto the wheels, the wheels were sprayed with Bilberry wheel cleaner at 10:1 then aggitated the wheel backs with an EZ brush and faces with a Swissvax style brush. Then left to dwell a couple of minutes before rinsing with the PW.




























Now onto the wash process, Firstly apologies for the lack of photos here guys but its hard to take photos and detail at the same time,

Firstly all Door shuts, panel gaps and general crevices were first rinsed with PW then cleaned with G101 at 10:1 using a swissvax style brush and then rinsed off.

Then the car was snowfoamed using BH Auto Foam left to dwell for a few minutes then rinsed off with PW working from bottom to top.




























...After this I washed the car using the 2BM using Megs Gold Class shampoo (for the last time) and a Microfibre wash mitt, I then rinsed the car with the hosepipe on a lowish pressure to sheet the water as best I could.

I then dried the car using a CG Miracle Drier towel and CG speed wipe as a drying aid.

I then looked at the car and found what looked to be white paint drops across the whole of the front end of the car! This would take some shifting with clay!










On with claying using BH auto clay regular using CG speed wipe as a lube.

Take a look at how bad the front third of the drivers door was! :doublesho Yes I did say Third of the door!










Once clayed I then re-washed the car and dried it again before bringing it indoors and masking up all the areas prone to damage. Then under the light of the Brinkmann the true damage to the paint was revealed, Plenty of swirls and RDS to deal with!














































So for the machine polishing process I tested a small area, working my way up through the polish/pad combos before settling on Menz 85RD 3.02 with a Megs W9207 polishing pad and Elite cool foam 4" polishing spot pad for the tighter areas (wont be using these again) and using my Milwaukee rotary.

The paint wasnt playing very nicely at all and I was at the peril of the infamous sticky paint, So much adjustments had to be made with machine speeds and hand pressure to get the desired correction sometimes after 2 hits.

The technique I tried to stick to was:

* Spread at 600rpm, light pressure
* Begin working at 1200rpm, light pressure for a couple of passes to get residue evenly spread
* Work at 1500 - 1800rpm until residue clear and defects removed

I then refined the finish using Menz 106FF on a Megs W9207 using the Double Zenith technique as follows:

* Spread at 600rpm, light pressure
* Begin working at 1200rpm until residue evenly spread, light to medium pressure
* Work at 1500rpm with increasing pressure, levelling at medium pressure tuntil residue clear
* Reduce speed to 1200rpm and begin reducing pressure
* Finish at 900rpm, light pressure to burnish the paint finish.

I then dusted the car down using a duster and make-up brush for the panel gaps it then received a full IPA wipedown using a 50:50 IPA/water mix and microfibre cloth.

I then went round the whole car with Lusso oro revitalising creme to cleanse the paint and give it that real wet look.










Then I applied a layer of Dodo Juice SN, and left it to cure whilst I did some of the smaller jobs.










All glass was cleaned with AG Fast Glass










Interior cleaned with G101 APC and a Microfibre and Vacuumed out using a Miele Household Vacuum (I need one of these)

Satnav screen cleaned with a general spectacle/sunglasses cleaner and its matching cloth.

Interior leather was cleaned with Zymule Leather cleaner, check out the dirt it brought off on the cloth...



















All window seals and exterior plastics treated with Megs All season dressing then buffed up later.










Wheel faces protected using CG Jetseal 109 using an applicator and then tyre walls given a coat of CG New look trim gel using a tyre applicator.










Exhausts and sill tread plates polished with Brilliant Metal Restorer and Alu and Stainless polish then exhausts treated with Renaissance wax.



















Yankee candle Sweet Strawberry air freshener added but not opened (as the car had no air freshener inside when I started and it had a great smell of leather too I thought I'd give the owner the option to open it)










Engine bay treated to 303 Aerospace protectant










All door seals treated to Einzett Gummi Pflege Stift










Wax then Buffed off with a Eurow ultra plush towel.

And now for the afters Interior first........




























Drivers seat much cleaner than before and no dye too :thumb:









































































Door shuts treated with CG speed wipe to make them sparkle that bit...























































The Engine Bay afters....









































































And Finally the exterior shots with some reflections in there too.


























































































































































And as you can now see with the Brinkmann, all those nasty swirls have gone, replaced with lovely shinyness.  (sorry about my ugly mug)





































This was a Big car to detail and much harder than I expected Total work time must have been going up for 30 hours but the results made up for the tough work. The owner was over the moon with it... So pleased he's asked if I'll do the other cars in the household other the next couple of months 

I'd like to thank the owner for trusting a beginner on his car, Baker21 for being an inspiration for me getting into detailing and also DaveKG for passing on his skills to me so I can develop my skills even further. (You'll see you've had me buying some of the products we used Dave! I'll post my invoice on to you dont worry. )

Thanks for looking guys, hope I haven't rabbled on too much. All your opinions, Good or Bad are welcome...

Paul.


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

Great work Paul. They are massive cars. Did you machine polish the roof????


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## paul2505 (Jan 24, 2009)

I'll be honest there mate I didn't do the roof, It wasnt that bad, I did the part above the doors upto the roof channels but the rest I just clayed, cleansed and waxed. Whats your reason for asking?


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## AndyNI (Jun 2, 2009)

awsome job it looks great. did you get the stain on the armrest removed using the leather cleaner? the arches look good, did you seal them with the megs all season dressing? 
cheers, Andy:thumb:


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## paul2505 (Jan 24, 2009)

Hi Andy,

I knew my lack of photographs was going to bite me on the bum with this write up :lol

The stain on the armrest came out no problem at all with the cleaner, I don't think it was on that long TBH and wasn't anything too harmful to the leather.

The arches did get a coat of all season dressing but I had to be very conservative with it as I was down to only an inch in the bottom of the bottle before I even started.

Paul


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## Dunkwho (Jan 23, 2009)

mmmm, black badge supercharged. nice


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## Charley Farley (Jul 8, 2009)

Paul

Thank you. A really comprehensive warts and all presentation, and I think the results speak for themselves. Cracking!

How did you find the recesses behind the door handles (which probably goes for most cars) I have found there is just very little substitute for hand work in these areas (usually very scratched, specially if a lady owner).

Thanks again.

Charley


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## Baker21 (Aug 7, 2007)

Great work Paul and all those questions are long gone now, seems like I will be asking you questions shortly.........:thumb:

You have taken on a monster there and fair play as the results speak for themselves.........:car:

I see some nice product selection going on there and I thought the report was written well, nice work and thanks for sharing..........:thumb:


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Awesome detail mate, paintwork looked shocking!!

Very well done :thumb:


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## pav-g (Jan 25, 2007)

Inspirational read and pics, well done mate :thumb:


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## David (Apr 6, 2006)

nice work mate, the paintwork on all black Range Rovers seems to be pretty poor from what i've witnessed


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## Planet Man (Apr 12, 2008)

Paul that is top stuff, loads of piccies as well!!

Brilliant:thumb:


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## Planet Admin (Jul 11, 2009)

Wow Great Finish mate, are those wheels chrome?:thumb: They look it


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## paul2505 (Jan 24, 2009)

Charley Farley said:


> Paul
> 
> Thank you. A really comprehensive warts and all presentation, and I think the results speak for themselves. Cracking!
> 
> ...


Thanks Charley, I used Megs ScratchX behind the door handles but to be honest I'm not all that taken by it, when me and DaveKG did my car I'm sure we used Menz PO91 polish so I may try that route in the future, I'm going to have to buy some 85RD 3.02 aswell as my sample bottle is nearly empty!



Baker21 said:


> Great work Paul and all those questions are long gone now, seems like I will be asking you questions shortly.........:thumb:
> 
> You have taken on a monster there and fair play as the results speak for themselves.........:car:
> 
> I see some nice product selection going on there and I thought the report was written well, nice work and thanks for sharing..........:thumb:


Hi Si,

I think the days where you ask me questions are still a fair while off yet.

Some of those products I used are going to be a permanent feature in my details from now on I can just feel it, especially the Lusso revitalising creme the supernatural also applied and buffed beautifully too. Also the new look trim gel on the tyres too worked and looked great.


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## paul2505 (Jan 24, 2009)

Ricey,

The wheels are a kind of chrome but they were so flat looking that they have lost the chrome look.

The pictures actually don't show just how bad the wheels were, they had Swirls and RDS all over the spokes probably from poor wash technique in the past.

I thought about super resin polishing them to hide the swirling and giving them some shine back but with the state of the laquer they would never have been up to my standards so I just gave the faces a coat of Jetseal 109 to keep the worst at bay.

HTH,

Paul


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## rich vrs (May 7, 2008)

Cracking work, look forward to your right ups the rest of his garage.


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## gestev (Jul 1, 2009)

Seriously nice work and a comprehensive write up..... great work!


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