# 100+ hours of Modding and Detailing By Dan



## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

I've been busy with the car of late and thought i'd stick the pics up ready for Tv Live and Tv mag feature.

where do i begin, well, the problems, The car was is a sorry state after having to much fun these past 6 months and with it being a daily use car i was busy so it have been neglected.....Until now

heavy pitted from bumper and grill
need new brakes discs
car temps high
new front tyres and wheel refurb
Paintwork as scratchs and chips

The solution was to try and do as much as possible to get the car looking good so to keep cost down i have done pretty much all the work myself single handed, some bits i liked doing and most of it was a nightmare as things dont always go to plan and most of all takes time.

It's took 1 month and well over 100 hours of time to get this on the road again and this is how it started.

Bumper sent off to coachworks along with grille, fog lamps, rear boot trim for painting in saphire black.










Dirty Car










Got a nice new Pro Alloy Radiator to fit to help reduce water temps





































Full new setof forge coolant hoses, which i thought i'd clean first but a silly thought as i got them dirty whilst fitting:lol:





































Also got a full set of Samco hoses to replace all the other hoses i had fitted last year.

So in Total 12 new red hoses to be fitted......I ended up cutting my hads to bits, I hate those clips so much now!










time to strip the front end to fit the rad










May as well clean the dirty areas with some g101

grubby



















cleaner


















Rad is fitted...



















Got the parts back from the coachworks and needless to say i wasnt to happy but you cant complain when you cannot afford big money jobs.










Very bad orange peel finish, so out comes the wet and dry sand paper....1500, 2000,3000 grit










not going too crazy i took care of all edges and thought i can live with what i dont remove so it's not the end of the day......but it did take me a lifetime to put it to a decent standard.




























Wool pad and super fast cut action on the menu










Followed by a yellow 3m pad with Megs 105# and blue pad with Megs 205#

phew the result..



















Not too bad and much cleaner sharper finish.

back on to the rear boot strip..










CG heavy cut pad and fast Gloss followed by megs 205 and Gtechniq p2



















Result










Finish was ok on the grill for some strange reason lol so i left it. but thought i could jazz it up with some red wrap and fit the painted griffen badge.
treated with Gtechniq c3 and Perl.



















Got the parts fitted and and decided i needed a new front number plate.

so thought i'd get a Resin dome carbon lettering with a black highline to set it off with the rest of the red theme the border made red too.





































Time for new Brakes, I got some used K sport 8 pot 356mm in black for a good price so saved me buying discs for mine. with them being black i wanted them red like my redgal ones.

so got my mate some red caliper paint from halfords and he thinned it down sprayed them.










Had no hi temp solution so went for the concours..x4 layers:lol:














































When i was greeted with with nice new wheels, Revolution Milleniums, Wrap in my favorite Rubber, Yokohama Prada Spec2, Happy Days......Yes they are WHITE:lol: but I can go any colour with these in the future and i like them white at the min (trust me it looks fantastic in the flesh)

anyways here we go...



















Time to clean and protect.




























Tardis to remove left over tyre signs and fitting lube.










but then Glazed, dont know why but hey oh it's done now.



















X2 layers of concours...




























Rain...



















Tidied up the rear brakes and clean the inside arches with g101.



















Ready for fitting some big brakes...and cleaning

the old..(amazing brakes and will be missed lol)



















The new big and noisy brakes, i fitted these upside down at first and couldnt figure out why i kept needing bleeding. so now fitted correct and fully bled they are just as good as my regals



















Going to move onto Detailing now and the state my car is in But we are in good hands...my hands which are not so looking good anymore after all the mechanic work i did:lol: but lets says this bodywork as been well worked after and has never seen a machine polisher since may 2010 and has had hard life since....oops.

4 stage machine polish on the menu.....No compounding to save the clearcoat from being torchered:lol: and i am going to leave the bonnet stonechips and deep scratches alone as i dont want to go all out when it will look bad or happen again.

After a Snow foam, Wash, and tardis dwell, it was clay time.

Not much dirt and tar which is Good



















Got lots of defects though, most from teh clay bar and some more desturbing images (some viewers may want to look away now:lol:





































How could i let this happen to my own car lol, well just aswell i am going to remove it now so job done.



















In the menu the special today is

Millwaukee Ap12e.....AKA The Ripper
yellow 3m pad used with Menzerna 203s 
Blue 3m pad with Megs 205
Blue 3m pad with Gtechniq p2
Black 3m pad with prima amigo



























































































Some 50-50 shots...



















Detailing is Timeless................And i need to get a move on:lol:










There was alot of dust to take care so a quick wash and and dry to finish the final stage off with a glaze.

using 4 items to dry the car safe.....overkill maybe lol

dodojuice super natural on the rear.










Poorboys deluxe on the front..










nice green towel for the wheels...










Good blast with the chemical guys hot air blower...



















time for more machine polishing...




























Looking tasty i must say.









rest of the car done and ready for wax. Thought it would be a good time to add a little badge back to where it belongs...



















make the exhaust sparkle again...wasnt hard:lol:



















Bit of the old tyre dressing being applied...


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

Windows Cleaned using a dodo juice supernatural window towel and Zymol Glas










Time to get out some Vintage wax, the Zymol Vintage all be it in a naf tub, but who cares it looks good on my car:lol:

















x2 layers applied with a day inbetween each coat.

Ready for some results? after all that graft the sun will not come out and play nice, huge grey skys so the car looks abit dull until the sun makes it sparkle anyways ......here we go.

















































































































































Pretty much the end until better weather comes. let me know what you think, I know my car wont be to everyones taste but it keeps me happy for now


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Stunning work there mate, car looks mint.


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## adamck (Dec 2, 2010)

VERY nice! Alot of hard work gone into that!
Well done


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## Sveneng (Apr 20, 2008)

Absolutely stunning work. You mention the rough time it has had since you last did any correction work on it, do you feel it would have been harder to do had you not tackled it before in the past. Are you going to keep on top of it more regularly now?

Sveneng


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## fretfret (Jul 31, 2009)

Superb job, car looks stunning, even better cos its on the banks of the Tyne.


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Fantastic work...


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## CIJ84 (May 18, 2011)

Great turn around mate, yeah you did let the car slip away from you


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

Sveneng said:


> Absolutely stunning work. You mention the rough time it has had since you last did any correction work on it, do you feel it would have been harder to do had you not tackled it before in the past. Are you going to keep on top of it more regularly now?
> 
> Sveneng


Cheers, It probs could of done with a very light polish about 5 months ago just to keep it fresh but since i had a few bits planned i put it off.



fretfret said:


> Superb job, car looks stunning, even better cos its on the banks of the Tyne.


Cheers mate, if only i could get it on the pitch at st james park, would be the perfect setting:argie:


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

looks good buddy... how do you find the K sport set up?

:thumb:


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

cheers, they are noisy sometimes, but work great. may change the pads once the yellow stuff pads have worn down.


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## Carlos_Bilibio (Jun 28, 2011)

OMG.... very nice man !!!


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Good effort!

How do you find the paradas in damp/wet conditions? I've got them on the WR1 and always thought they must be a bit "interesting" on a FWD car


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

Carlos_Bilibio said:


> OMG.... very nice man !!!


Cheers mate



Clark @ PB said:


> Good effort!
> 
> How do you find the paradas in damp/wet conditions? I've got them on the WR1 and always thought they must be a bit "interesting" on a FWD car


Thanks Clark, Fwd car and wet roads = no point. so i save it for dry and they are fantastic. also had them on another fwd in the snow and they done very very compared to eagle F1's.


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## meraredgti (Mar 13, 2011)

**** me thats some good work, so so worth it too. sexy exhaust manifold that


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

Thanks , The manifold is a Primary Designs, iconal metal and cermaic coated inside and out. SS V-band clamp and full custom 3" down pipe and fully decatted system


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## Dingo2002 (Apr 4, 2007)

Freakin' sweet :thumb:


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## ade33 (Jun 4, 2008)

Lovely mate, got a soft spot for an Astra. Wheel choice will always be marmite for some but for what it's worth I LOVE them - :thumb:


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## Jesse74 (Jul 19, 2008)

very nice mate, very nice... Nice car too


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## Zetec-al (Feb 28, 2011)

Amazing work there, and i love them wheels one of nicest VXR's i've seen!


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## Spoony (May 28, 2007)

That is absolute sex on wheels I really like that. 

I see soooo many of the Arden Blue VXRs now that they don't look so special but yours on the other hand is a beaut


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## chillly (Jun 25, 2009)

Lovin the wheels. Stunning mate


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## father ted (May 4, 2011)

am speechless ....................just stunning well done m8


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## HOTDOG73 (Apr 11, 2010)

Very very nice !! Nice watch too...


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## pee (Apr 6, 2009)

Love everything youve done top job car looks awesome. I kinda thinking red wheels would look immense but the white looks cool aswell


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## [email protected] (Dec 21, 2005)

Looking sweet there mate!:thumb:


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## tom-coupe (Jan 17, 2009)

looks ace mate


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## andyb (Jun 4, 2006)

Superb job...looks great. I have K-Sports on an Impreza and have thought of painting them red....how did you get the K-Sport logo back so neatly after painting??


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## Superspec (Feb 25, 2011)

Looks stunning. Nicest VXR I've seen. Love the new front end treatment.


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## alexandjen (Feb 24, 2008)

Very impressed, a stunning looking car with a stunning finish, superb :argie: :thumb:


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## awallacee30 (May 4, 2011)

Some serious work has gone into that car. Fantastic job, looks stunning :thumb:


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## prokopas (Apr 29, 2010)

Nice write up and great work


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## uzi-blue (Mar 16, 2011)

Amazing work fella, car looks awsome, bet it goes some too?


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## KondukterCRO (Mar 28, 2011)

excellent work man....it looks stunning...


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## UCD (Oct 27, 2010)

Wow....great job!!!!


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## badman1972 (Jun 24, 2010)

Nice work mate, good mods and lovely glossy finish, nice motor :thumb:


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## CraigQQ (Jan 20, 2011)

loving this

especially the vaux badge on the front... looks great in black and red!


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## Scrim-1- (Oct 8, 2008)

Stunning car dan, great work too.


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## nick.s (Dec 21, 2009)

Two words...

LOVE IT!


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## badman1972 (Jun 24, 2010)

CraigQQ said:


> loving this
> 
> especially the vaux badge on the front... looks great in black and red!


Agreed with that, it's a really nice touch :thumb:


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## jamesgti (Aug 9, 2007)

Looks stunning mate.


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## Yoghurtman (Dec 9, 2008)

Lovely write up an sweeet looking car! :thumb:


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## Trucksy (Jul 17, 2011)

Great work and very tastefully modded motor:thumb:


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## toomanycitroens (Jan 14, 2011)

Absolutely brilliant.
Speechless............


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## illeagalhunter (Jun 17, 2007)

Looks mint


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## slobodank (Nov 17, 2010)

:doublesho


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## alfajim (May 4, 2011)

stunning


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

Thanks very much for the great feedback:thumb: Very much appricated

I had a great Day at TV Live yesterday, Nearly crashed it:lol:

Few Photos of the day, nowt special but there should be plenty from the Total vauxhall photographers soon


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## ITHAQVA (Feb 20, 2011)

Stunning Car mate, love it, the wheels do go well too & im not usually a fan of white wheels :thumb:

Like the two chicks too, wouldn’t mind giving them a track day, oooh deep & late on the brakes beautiful lines in & out, sqweeeeeezing every last inch of power out of the beasty, lubricants working to keep things cool & slick throughout the day  Ahem, sorry.


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## terryvtr (Mar 27, 2011)

Looks totally Awsome well done mate


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## ianstaley (Jul 13, 2011)

Grate read, thanks but I did notice that you complained about getting bits back from the body shop after some respraying, why the hell didn't you take it back to them and tell them irrespective of the price you agreed they should still provide a PROFESIONAL finish ie NO Orange peel. The only reason you got orange peel is SUB STANDARD WORK. I have just had to respray my window suround on my Toyota Supra from 87, bad rust at the top where the roof comes off. I bought off Fleabay a tin of mixed up paint in a TIN, £11.00, I have NO orange peel, NO runs and the job was done outside under a carport. Companies and so called tradesmen have no pride. So sorry for the fact you had to do all that rubbing down and finishing OFF THEIR JOB FOR THEM, but great to see you did a better job than them. Ian


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

Thanks, the paint job on the front bumper would of been acceptable to most customers, and in a whole the paint job was to a standard i think was worth the money paid (£200 for all the parts)

when i got them back home i wasnt fully happy so my options would be take it back and complain to which another spray job and will it be to a high standard or could i correct the finish myself...i.e create a mirror finish?

so me feeling pretty confident (done it a fair few times now on other cars) i gave it a go, being extra careful with the job i did think to myself if i balls it up it can get painted again. about 10 hours spent but i was getting good results from polishing so i knew the end result would be worth it.

some other work was done to the car prior to the mods and detail project which included me having to polish my garrett turbo housing by hand. a job i wish i never started but so happy with the outcome. that took 3 days alone to do.

Standard OE look....










Finished polished look...


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## dwmc (Jun 6, 2010)

fantastic Dan , the garrett looks great , one hell of a great car you got and mods and detail to finish it of just right :thumb:


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## MattJ VXR (Aug 11, 2008)

Well hello didn't realise you were on here too! 

You know what I think from VXROnline 

Looks absolutely brilliant :thumb:


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## GSVHammer (Feb 7, 2009)

Very, very, very nice looking car!


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## black_civic_si (Feb 27, 2011)

Great work


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## Short1e (Apr 5, 2009)

Very nice... Great write up


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## tombronk (May 6, 2011)

Fantastic!


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

Very sorry to dig out this thread after nearly a year but this is what the hard work was for:thumb:...Just got the photos back from the Total vauxhall Mag Photoshoot today.


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## Elliott19864 (May 11, 2008)

Stunning, It looks so subtle, oem+.

When we're the pics took, 19 degrees in the rainy north east?? :lol:


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## Scrim-1- (Oct 8, 2008)

Absolutely stunning car, hats of to you mate.


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

CupraElliott said:


> Stunning, It looks so subtle, oem+.
> 
> When we're the pics took, 19 degrees in the rainy north east?? :lol:


haha 1st august mate, it was sunny one minute and thunder storms the next.


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## Adrian Convery (May 27, 2010)

That is amazing, thanks for bumping the thread up, I can't believe I missed it first time around! Fantastic car, think I'm going for a VXR next, have always been a Honda at heart but the noise from these is just crazy and the torque would be nice haha!


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## Trip tdi (Sep 3, 2008)

I love the engine mods plus the whole thread, very good write-up and detail, your car looks amazing.


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## OllieNeedham (Jan 18, 2012)

Beautiful work! Looks stunning, love the engine bay!


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## williamw1987 (Aug 10, 2010)

That looks great dude!


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## shonajoy (Jan 27, 2009)

Incredible!


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## TubbyTwo (Apr 14, 2011)

Tidy! now get that manifold wrapped!!


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

Thanks, need the make the next shoot something special:lol:


Manifold is ceramic coated inside and out, would be a shame to wrap Iconel metal Tubular (design by red bulls F1 exhaust maker - Primary designs)


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## TubbyTwo (Apr 14, 2011)

how much difference does it make to underbonnet temps after the coating?

Curious as have looked into this myself in the past and would do again for a future track car.


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## Phil H (May 14, 2006)

awesome work! very nice indeed


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

Cheers, manifold temps are fab since the coating.

saying that this is another TV pic done on the dyno:lol:


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## mikeydee (May 4, 2010)

really incredible. well done and good work:thumb:


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## dhiren_motilal (Apr 3, 2011)

looks clean as, guess 100 hours has paid off. nice work there mate


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## Pedro.Malheiro (Mar 18, 2011)

fantastic work!! congrat


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## Jacktdi (Oct 21, 2010)

Wow, great read, that car really is a credit to you.


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## 123quackers (Jan 29, 2009)

THE DEVIL wears PRADA!!!:lol:

hope the mrs doesn't find out her car can have prada shoes as well 

That's a stunning bit of kit you have and agreed the wheels look great:thumb:

Was a great read and what BHP you pushing now?


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## Mr.Mint (Nov 12, 2009)

Absolutely Stunning Man!!!

Great workmanship and beautiful example of a VXR aswell, well worth the effort you put into it...

A great big pat on the back from me! :thumb:


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## IanA (Feb 26, 2012)

That is gorgeous, stunning work mate, that's a great looking car


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

Just 2 words, Fantastic, Gorgeous :argie::thumb:


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## Jai (Mar 16, 2010)

Good read, love the VXR's. Wouldn't mind getting one next...


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## vo04lan (Sep 5, 2011)

stunning car love vxr's great work well worth the effort


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## EF Ian (Mar 18, 2010)

Great work, I love the shine you can get off black cars.

Your hard work definitly paid off.


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## Caameronn (Nov 8, 2010)

This car is phenomenal, so OEM+. Great credit to you with all your hard work! :thumb:


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## DAN: (Apr 18, 2010)

Thanks for comments, Its a joy to own and look after so it keeps me busy being black:lol: Hard work pays off with it being so easy to maintain and looks good, plus looking back at the pics of the photoshoot has made it worth while


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