# Daily Drive Ford Focus RS (Mk1) Pic Heavy!



## rs_si (Apr 20, 2010)

Been planning a big clean on my pride and joy for a while now. Having spent a small fortune on boosting my product collection here are the results of 30 hrs work. :detailer:

Comments and criticism are welcome.

Day 1































































































































Medium Grade clay bar used. Not dirty at all.








































































































































Day Two

I wanted to touch up a few defects on the vehicle. My preferred way to do this was by using the Halfords touch up pens as the metal nib allows you to be precise and control the paint amount. Unfortunately Halfords didn't do my colour....

...So I bought a Genuine Ford touch up stick which as you can see is fairly useless










I therefore bought a different coloured set and made my own!









































































This wasn't my first time using a rotary but I still class myself as a beginner. I went for Scholl S17 on a Spider Polishing Pad. This seemed to create a fair bit of dust in my opinion. I think I may have used too much product but I was concerned of the pad being too dry. I refined using S40 on a Hex Logic White Pad.





































Got a bit carried away and ended up marking this rear window plastic 










Used a bit of Wet N Dry to try and fix it. May just order a new one though.



















I used IPA to check my work and found I then inflicted marring from the IPA despite being very careful. Overall I wasn't overly happy with the finish I got from machine polishing. I can still see RDS when I use my homemade sun gun. I think I may not have worked the polish enough? As mentioned I'm still learning.

I therefore resorted to old faithful...






















































Washing the number plates marked the end of Day 2.

Day 3 would be started applying the protection!









































































I'd been lucky with the weather so far. The rain made doing the interior difficult as my garage lighting is poor.









































































Homemade Sun Gun. Best detailing product I have!

















































































































































And there we have it. Felt like a new car when I drove home after the third day. Should hopefully be protected from the elements for a few months.

As mentioned at the start, comments and criticism welcome. Would be interested in hearing advice on why my machine polishing didn't quite give the results I hoped. I found a lot of insect etching remained which I was hoping would go. I wouldn't consider my car as having heavy swirls or RDS but my fairly strong polishing combo should have given a fairly high level of correction?

What would people recommend I do now for maintenance cleaning over the next 6 months? Was thinking just wash, blackhole, wax?

Hope you enjoyed the pics

Si


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## cleancar (Sep 21, 2006)

Very nice , what power you running?


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## rs_si (Apr 20, 2010)

Not had it rolling roaded but prob around 250 bhp


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## Zetec-al (Feb 28, 2011)

awesome car, great work too.


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## Vxrtombo (Apr 14, 2012)

Hello mate what a lovely car you have,
My Thought would be not using the rotary properly as these are a tricky bit of kit to use if not used properly. As for a da polisher it's very hard to go wrong with them and as u said in your thread u don't have bad paint work a da polisher should work a treat for you. But that doesn't mean a da polisher doesn't correct very bad paint work as it will and it certainly does as this is the only polisher I use and have corrected very bad paint work in the past. 
Go slow with the rotary not too much pressure but keep it moving but not drastically and u will be fine if your not sure just slow the rpm and unwill do great.
Very nice car and very good work there mate


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## Bigbruno71 (Sep 28, 2010)

That's a really good job mate, if you ask at halfords they usually have a spare empty pens behind the desk, sometimes blagged for free , sometimes not .

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## paulj (Mar 28, 2010)

loverly work there 
the car looks great 
well done 
Paul


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## rs_si (Apr 20, 2010)

Vxrtombo said:


> Hello mate what a lovely car you have,
> My Thought would be not using the rotary properly as these are a tricky bit of kit to use if not used properly. As for a da polisher it's very hard to go wrong with them and as u said in your thread u don't have bad paint work a da polisher should work a treat for you. But that doesn't mean a da polisher doesn't correct very bad paint work as it will and it certainly does as this is the only polisher I use and have corrected very bad paint work in the past.
> Go slow with the rotary not too much pressure but keep it moving but not drastically and u will be fine if your not sure just slow the rpm and unwill do great.
> Very nice car and very good work there mate


Thanks for tips. Forgot to mention I only used 800 - 1000 rpm. I guess it's just a case of practising. Thing is now I've gone over my car with a rotary I'd start worrying about paint thickness if I was to do a similar 2 stage polish again. I dont want to buy a gauge either as I've heard even the £200 ones are unreliable.


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## rs_si (Apr 20, 2010)

Bigbruno71 said:


> That's a really good job mate, if you ask at halfords they usually have a spare empty pens behind the desk, sometimes blagged for free , sometimes not .
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


Thanks. Luckily I got the set in the picture from eBay for a couple of £

Will bear that in mind for future.


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## carrera2s (Jun 28, 2009)

That's a very clean car mate. Credit to you!:thumb:


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## Vxrtombo (Apr 14, 2012)

rs_si said:


> Thanks for tips. Forgot to mention I only used 800 - 1000 rpm. I guess it's just a case of practising. Thing is now I've gone over my car with a rotary I'd start worrying about paint thickness if I was to do a similar 2 stage polish again. I dont want to buy a gauge either as I've heard even the £200 ones are unreliable.


Well don't do a stage 2 polish just use something like a glaze or megs 205 wat isn't harsh. U have taken out the bad defects so this will just eliminate them completely but a da won't give u the buffing marks etc.


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## Tom H (May 20, 2009)

Great looking car Si, always been a fan of the MK1 RS


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## Tristan001 (Dec 20, 2009)

very nice car great work there and is a credit to you keep up the good work


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## rsdan1984 (Jul 31, 2009)

looking good si. i had to use a similar polish combo on mine when i did mine last summer. the only thing i'd add is that it looks like you are using waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much clay. i use a 50p sized piece - you want it to thin out as you are using it so you can feel the paint.


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## rsdan1984 (Jul 31, 2009)

have you red the machine polishing guide on here? dave talks about the zenith point technique where you spread at 900rpm, begin working at 1500 rpm, fully work at 1800 rpm and then you come back down the scale until you burnish the finish. it takes quite a while to complete a set but it should mean that you are not leaving buffer trails.


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## Amer (Apr 7, 2012)

Great work


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## JwilliamsM (Dec 20, 2011)

christ thats amazing, bloody love the mk1 RS. when i was doing quotes for insurance these shocked me at how cheap they were for me at the time, 23 then 24 now. 
going to detail the M3 soon using similar products to yours hopefully will get a similar finish


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## Amer (Apr 7, 2012)

Great work


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## Derekh929 (Aug 28, 2011)

Fantastic work great attention to detail well done


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## andrewst500 (Nov 2, 2008)

great work :thumb:


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## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

very nice work! great car!


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

looks good....

from the sounds of it, you fell into the same trap as me with the Scholl polishes...

the first time I used them, I wasn't that happy, and got a lot of dust from them...BUT you have to work them a little bit different to other polishes out there...and certainly I feel they don't respond to the 'old' guide for polishing... things have moved on since that was produced, and is of little use for these polishes (IMO)....

have a look at this guiand instead, it's a specific one for Scholl, then maybe have another go.... they are a set of very good polishes once I got the hang of them! :lol:

http://www.cardetailingsheffield.co.uk/Scholl Concepts The Physical Shine.pdf

I would echo the comment about cutting the clay up and using smaller bits... did you do the windows and wheels too with it? 

overall the car looks very nice after all your hard work...

:thumb:


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## deni2 (May 4, 2011)

Really nice work, :thumb:.


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## Vision2k1 (Sep 26, 2010)

very good job, fantastic car!


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## martin_46 (Aug 7, 2012)

Great work...some dedication there mate :thumb:


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## rs_si (Apr 20, 2010)

Thank you all for your nice comments


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## rs_si (Apr 20, 2010)

The Cueball said:


> looks good....
> 
> from the sounds of it, you fell into the same trap as me with the Scholl polishes...
> 
> ...


Thanks for that link. That is a very useful guide. I did clay the windows but left the wheels as they received some Iron X instead.


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## Bill58 (Jul 5, 2010)

Great work!


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Great job there mate :thumb:


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## Marky-G-66 (May 31, 2012)

Loving that mate...Great work:thumb:


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Very very nice


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## J4Y (Mar 24, 2012)

Still need to scatch my mk1 rs itch! Car is a credit to you mate!


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## AdnanKhan (Aug 16, 2012)

Class work mate!


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## dyegoblb (Sep 16, 2008)

Good job!


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## seazer (Aug 10, 2012)

brilliant write up and very good job.

ahhh man i miss my rs so bad, i sold good old violet a few years ago to fund travelling australia.

promised myself i will get one back next year tho. 300bhp boy racer, those were the days.





































one day one day

the best car ive owned. i still weep over her.


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## shudaman (Sep 12, 2010)

good write up
carnt beat the purple prams!!


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## Ross08 (Apr 8, 2008)

Love the Mk1. and this is a very nice example - a real credit to you. Especially as it's a daily driver. Nice write-up too.

I hate these Mk1. write-ups though 'cos I always wanna go out and buy one!


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## rsdan1984 (Jul 31, 2009)

is that a flamer kit seazer?


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## gargreen7 (Apr 12, 2009)

looks great, i'd be very happy with that


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## Natalie (Jan 19, 2011)

That is stunning :argie: , great work


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Looks amazing:thumb:


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## Luke-Avfc (Jul 2, 2006)

Stunning mate - The Mk1 RS is 1 of only a few cars I'd evict my Mk2 Golf from the garage for.


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## bazz (May 15, 2007)

thats cleaner than when it came outa the factory fair play well done


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## gidged500 (Jul 17, 2012)

Really nice car this top work looks ace !


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## D.Taylor R26 (Feb 5, 2012)

awesome car and one of the nicest ive seen. far from the normal abused rough round the edges mk1's you normally see.


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## andy_ad567 (Sep 26, 2010)

brilliant write up mare and gorgeous car want one for myself but not sure weather to get the meaty mk1 or the lux mk2 haha. well looked after mate top job


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## edsel (Aug 22, 2008)

One of the best finished interior details Ive seen. Now go drive it like it should be driven :thumb:


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## warren1 (Oct 11, 2012)

lovely car, looks stunning:thumb:


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## OILRS (Oct 26, 2008)

Crackin job mate and a crackin car :thumb:


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## Dingo2002 (Apr 4, 2007)

rs_si said:


> Thanks for tips. Forgot to mention I only used 800 - 1000 rpm. I guess it's just a case of practising. Thing is now I've gone over my car with a rotary I'd start worrying about paint thickness if I was to do a similar 2 stage polish again. I dont want to buy a gauge either as I've heard even the £200 ones are unreliable.


I would be surprised if you have removed more than a few microns of paint. Whilst rotary polishers can be aggressive, based on you running it at 800-1000 rpms and the fact that there are still RDS present as you mentioned, your amount of paint left should be fine. However if you want piece of mind see if anyone on here with one is local and ask to borrow 

Great work by the way, love the attention to detail and the honesty in the write-up!


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