# Renault Megane F1, Turnaround....



## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

A mate i went to school with asked me if i'd be able to sort his Megane out so i was more than happy to give it a going over.

It started out pretty grubby, bugs splattered and loads of Tar spots and swirls galore!!

How it began......










Grey wheels??






















































So where to start???




























Car was first of all snow foamed:




























The car was then rinsed off, and washed with the 2BM using Zymol Autowash, with 2 x Autobrite buckets & Grit guards with a Meguiars lambswool wash mitt.

I then refoamed it, rinsed and clayed all over with CYC Blue Ultra fine clay and some Autosmart Reglaze as clay lube.

The car was then dried off with an Autobrite fluffy blue towel and some Meguiars last touch.

I then set about inspecting the paint to find quite a few swirls and surface scratches.



















I got the machine ready, and taped up the rubbers and badges etc.

I started out with an SFX2 Pad, and some PO85RD 3.02 but even this wasn't having the desired effect, i didn't expect the Renault to have hard paint but obviously it is...

I stepped up to an SFX-2 Spot pad with some Menz Power Gloss S100 and this was much better.

50/50 having just done the top section










Another 50/50










50/50 of bonnet



















LSP was a choice between the various waxes i seem to have ended up buying so thought i'd try the Britemax #6 Liquid wax via machine










Wax left to cure





































I just bought these, a 10 pack of Eurow ultra fluffy towels and they are simply awesome, gorgeous in fact!

Used to buff off wax










I had to use some Last touch when buffing as the britemax stuff had splattered a fair bit when being applied by the machine and this seemed to really stick on but i got there in the end.

Wax all buffed off























































Few final pics after tyres dressed with Meguiars endurance Gel, Exhaust polished with some Autosol, wirewool and MF cloth and finally plastics all dressed with Meg's trim detailer





































Thanks for reading


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

Great work, lovely turnaround 

Renault paint can be a right faff at times!


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## sicko (Jun 20, 2009)

Fantastic job  Gorgeous colour, very glossy


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## Ad.sk (Sep 17, 2010)

Great Work ! , nice pics :thumb:


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## prokopas (Apr 29, 2010)

Very nice results


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## Igloo (Oct 18, 2009)

Why wax the windows?


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

Igloo said:


> Why wax the windows?


Fantastic beading


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

I personally love that Megane and the F1 edition is particularly nice, great seats, brembo brakes, LSD, 230Bhp, 6 Speed, fantastic handling - I know it looks a bit different but i really like it.....


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## Dip the Dip (Feb 14, 2009)

Excellent! Love the F1's. RS's definitely rock. 

Where did you get your plates done? I want some this size!


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

nickg123 said:


> Really not a fan then???
> 
> I personally love that Megane and the F1 edition is particularly nice, great seats, brembo brakes, LSD, 230Bhp, 6 Speed, fantastic handling - I know it looks a bit different but i really like it.....


That's a 225 F1 which doesn't have the LSD, but it's still a great car


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## southwest10 (Oct 27, 2010)

very nice sir,but in england tardis in spraybottle's nais


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## Th3Doctor (Feb 2, 2010)

RussZS said:


> That's a 225 F1 which doesn't have the LSD, but it's still a great car


Yeah I think your right - read a review where they said the 225 was abit of a dog and the 230 with LSD was a massive improvement - they really are marmite cars looks wise tho.


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

southwest10 said:


> very nice sir,but in england tardis in spraybottle's nais


I never have an issue - i either spray onto a MF cloth, or just spray close to the car lower on the doors, i always make sure i quickly wipe it away anyway so not had a problem yet


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

The later 225's with cup suspension (such as this one) are a lot better than the earlier versions, but none quite 'hit the spot' until they released the R26, which was improved upon again with the R26.R.

I have an R26, and I agree with you, it doesn't look wonderful, but it's the best handling hot hatch from 2007/8, which is what I wanted.


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## Th3Doctor (Feb 2, 2010)

It's a close run thing for me I think the FN2 civic type R (Champ white with LSD) and the Megan R26 were the only hot hatches that were pure (required a level of skill to get the best from) and offered real driver involvement at a good price. It was just the looks of the Megan I could not live with (interior/exterior) but the CTR ticked all the boxes 50/50 great looks great performance. 

Made me laugh in a recent review of the new meg RS v the focus RS as the gap between them should have been about 60 hp and the focus was so down on power it was only around 10hp. Now the looks are sorted that Meg RS is defo worth a look.


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

Slightly off topic now haha.

Thanks for all the comments though, my mate was extremely pleased as he said it was a bit of a state when he got it so seriously needed some TLC!


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

Very nice turnaround. I am amazed you couldn't get the desired results with 3.02? Did the power gloss not need refining?


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

Ultra Blue is a pig to correct, so I'm not surprised that 3.02 wasn't leaving a perfect finish tbh


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

RussZS said:


> Ultra Blue is a pig to correct, so I'm not surprised that 3.02 wasn't leaving a perfect finish tbh


A pig in what way, difficult to perfect or hard clear?


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## adlem (Jul 6, 2008)

Another nice turnaround fella :thumb:


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## ant_s (Jan 29, 2009)

good work mate, corrected a 182 Cup in blue (not sure of the name) the other week so understand where your coming from with the hardness of paint, but you did a really nice job mate


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## saxoboy07 (Oct 20, 2007)

Lovely colour megane great work by the way:thumb:


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## Leemack (Mar 6, 2009)

Nice work mate

Looks good


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Fantastic finish, plates are illegal though.... but am sure the owner is aware of that :thumb:


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## raitkens83 (Jun 7, 2009)

Nice work there mate.


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

Thanks people, it was pretty hard work initially to get a decent level of correction - It surprised me as i just always thought a Renault would be fairly soft, more like Honda paint then a BMW...

The car did come up great though, and i really like the colour now it's all polished up and waxed.

That Britemax stuff did a good job too by the way, after i'd left it to haze i was seriously concerned at how much effort it was going to take to remove but amazingly it buffed off really well - I used Last touch in a few places to help which did the trick nicely.


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## burnt-toast (Oct 31, 2010)

great looking colour and what a finish, nice work


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## bilout48 (Apr 10, 2008)

beau boulot! bonne continuation


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

bilout48 said:


> beau boulot! bonne continuation


Que??


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## BAXRY (Aug 11, 2009)

RussZS said:


> That's a 225 F1 which doesn't have the LSD, but it's still a great car


RS nerd :thumb:


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## BAXRY (Aug 11, 2009)

Th3Doctor said:


> It's a close run thing for me I think the FN2 civic type R (Champ white with LSD) and the Megan R26 were the only hot hatches that were pure (required a level of skill to get the best from) and offered real driver involvement at a good price. It was just the looks of the Megan I could not live with (interior/exterior) but the CTR ticked all the boxes 50/50 great looks great performance.
> 
> Made me laugh in a recent review of the new meg RS v the focus RS as the gap between them should have been about 60 hp and the focus was so down on power it was only around 10hp. Now the looks are sorted that Meg RS is defo worth a look.


A lot of websites have been comparing the ordinary RS meganes like the 225 and the 250 to the focus RS when really the same level ford is the focus ST the focus RS if anything should be getting compared to the r26 r but it's only top gear that reviewed them side by side all Internet reviewers compare the 225 the 230 or the 250 to it and it still doesn't perform that much better unless it is in a long straight line otherwise it never gets away from the megane :lol:


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## Th3Doctor (Feb 2, 2010)

BAXRY said:


> A lot of websites have been comparing the ordinary RS meganes like the 225 and the 250 to the focus RS when really the same level ford is the focus ST the focus RS if anything should be getting compared to the r26 r but it's only top gear that reviewed them side by side all Internet reviewers compare the 225 the 230 or the 250 to it and it still doesn't perform that much better unless it is in a long straight line otherwise it never gets away from the megane :lol:


305hp I'm sure ford just plucked those figures out the sky. In that evo review the rolling road guy said he had never seen a focus rs make the claimed power. Rather have the meg any day.


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## Eddy (Apr 13, 2008)

nickg123 said:


>


Is it me or is that some serious orange peel?

Looks good though mate, nice turnaround


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## ALANSHR (Jun 29, 2007)

very nice indeed, well done.


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## Sportspack Mark (May 24, 2007)

Beautiful


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## kakeuter (Nov 3, 2010)

Great work, that blue looks completely different now.

-Kody-


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## CivicTypeR. (Aug 15, 2010)

eddie you just too the words out of my mouth there was wondering how noone spotted this. time for a bit of wet sanding there


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## Curley89 (Apr 18, 2008)

Great work!


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## Toomer (Nov 6, 2010)

brilliant job & stunning car well done


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## X18JAY (Oct 23, 2008)

looks great, what a turnaround


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

Eddy said:


> Is it me or is that some serious orange peel?
> 
> Looks good though mate, nice turnaround


This has bugged me since you said that, as i completely agree with you but have also noticed that sort of finish on a lot of cars, even new ones....

The thing that reminded me of this was the GTR that's just been put up by someone, if you look at the window reflection it's exactly the same sort of finish so i don't think that is actually Orange peel, but more just the way the cars are painted (Hope the original owner doesn't mind me using this pic)










Do you see what i mean? The car has a fantastic finish but i think in the right (or wrong) type of light, that's how a lot of paint finishes can look??


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## sanchez89 (Feb 14, 2009)

nickg123 said:


> This has bugged me since you said that, as i completely agree with you but have also noticed that sort of finish on a lot of cars, even new ones....
> 
> The thing that reminded me of this was the GTR that's just been put up by someone, if you look at the window reflection it's exactly the same sort of finish so i don't think that is actually Orange peel, but more just the way the cars are painted (Hope the original owner doesn't mind me using this pic)
> 
> ...


the effect you see on reflections are surface imperfections. commonly known as orange peel.

perfect paintwork should reflect the image as a mirror would.

look at any of the good wet sanding threads on here and you will see what i mean.

the image of the GTR above shows the paint has a slight amount of peel in the finish, alot less than the Megane which this post is about.

i dont think iv seen a car come straight from the factory with perfect flat paintwork. it would be uneconomical to do that during the production process.

the levels of flatness they achieve will be whatever their respective quality controls deem acceptable.


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