# FinerDetails - paint restoration



## Finerdetails (Apr 30, 2006)

This car was booked in to have the famous Vauxhall Flame Red paintwork restored and returned back to a deep glossy red colour. After almost 8 years of life, the colour was, well, shall we say more pink than red?

Trying to maintain a car at the moment with the weather and volume of grit on the road is fairly difficult so I wasn't too surprised when the car arrived.....




























Wheels and exhaust



















As it was rainign fairly well I chose not to mess about with the camera bu to crack on and get into the garage as soon as I could.

Wheels were cleaned with Espuma Revolution (10:1) and a mixture of wheel brushes. Car was washed with Espuma Activo. Then clayed with Grey clay and Autosmart Re-glaze for lub.










Once inside and dry, I taped up with 3m 3434 masking tape, and started to inspect the paintwork:










The weapon of choice today was the Porter Cable, hooked onto it a 3m polishing pad, and this would be graced with a 3m final finish oily polish. The aim behind this was to feed and re-oil the paint whilst removing only the absolute necessary amount of depth/cut.









Still needs refining.

Some 50:50s





































Once all the work had been completed at this stage, I swapped the pad for a 3m ultrafina pad (blue) and reduced the speed to 4. I then applied swissvax cleaner fluid, working gently into the paintwork. The final protection would be provided by Swissvax Mystery, applied by foam applicator and allowed to cure for one hour.

Wheels were wipped with tar remover, before being protected with wheel wax. Allowed to cure for half hour. Glass was cleaned with Espuma Vue. Exhaust cleaned with Autosol metal polish. Tyres dressed with Espuma RD50.

The Afters:





































And Outside:


















































































Final comparison pair:



















Thank you for reading, comments and questions welcome,

Iain Brown
FinerDetails Ltd


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## Mike V (Apr 7, 2007)

Top job FD!

Its always a treat to turn a car from pink to red!:thumbs:


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## Vyker (Sep 17, 2008)

Good work


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## Jim W (Feb 3, 2007)

It looks well now you've brought it up; most satisfying these kind of jobs :thumb: Nice one.

The exhaust came up well too!


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## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

brilliant work, thats one awesome change


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## empsburna (Apr 5, 2006)

Love it! A real transformation.


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## neilb62 (Jul 30, 2007)

Fantastic, a great turnaround..:wave:


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## ads2k (Jul 12, 2006)

Great difference :thumb:, bet the owner was very pleased with the outcome.


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## dw0510 (Oct 22, 2006)

Much better!


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## reign (Oct 6, 2008)

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

and :doublesho at that clay after! didnt think the car could hold that much dirt!! 

fantastic turn around, as usual! :thumb:


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## mouthyman (May 1, 2006)

excellent turnaround :thumb:


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## KleenChris (Apr 4, 2008)

Car looks much better great work


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## -Kev- (Oct 30, 2007)

great work - that exhaust was in a state!


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

great job!!!

not meaning to sound picky, but what's this on the inside of the skirt?









Looks like maybe foam of some sort


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## [email protected] (Dec 21, 2005)

Id say that is where the paint has come off over the years

Iain top work mate, the state of that clay was terrible!!:thumb:


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## Frothey (Apr 30, 2007)

yeah, stone chipping

Top stuff Iain :thumb:


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## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

Looks a different car Iain


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## HeavenlyDetail (Sep 22, 2006)

very nice turnaround that.....Great result.


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## Guest (Jan 16, 2009)

Nice turnaround Iain.

Got to love the REDS.


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## Piratez (Jun 28, 2008)

Superb result..!!!!!Nice work :argie::argie:


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## James_R (Jun 28, 2007)

Great turnaround Iain.:thumb:

Nice choice of wax too....


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Excellent turn around there Iain :thumb:


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## AndyJay (Jan 16, 2009)

:wave:
Evening all, this is my car and i thought I'd sign up to say a big thanks to Iain for such a superb job. I'd certainly use Finerdetails again and would recommend him to anyone!

There's still a few bits i'd like to sort of the car yet, stone chips, alloy wheel refurb and changing the wing mirrors back to standard but i'm very very pleased with the magic Iain has worked with her today. Big apologies for the state she turned up in  i just haven't had the time to clean!

Once again, big thanks to Iain! :thumb:


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## sayloday (Oct 5, 2008)

AndyJay

Welcome to the Forum

Dave


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## sayloday (Oct 5, 2008)

Really nice turn around Iain:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:


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## Finerdetails (Apr 30, 2006)

thanks to everyone for your comments, and to Andy for his surprise registering and post.

Iain


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## dodger (May 20, 2006)

Very nice work again Iain


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

very nice work Iain - I bet those faded red cars are a highly satisfying job to complete.

I have one question though - how do you do all the fiddly areas where the machine just wont reach but have still faded? I'd love to do one of these at some point but must admit this would concern me....

thanks


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## glyn waxmaster (Dec 20, 2006)

Spot on Iain


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## AutoshineSV (Feb 21, 2008)

Mat @ SWS said:


> great job!!!
> 
> not meaning to sound picky, but what's this on the inside of the skirt?
> 
> ...


Not only that... but sorry Ian those wheels still have lots of ground on brake dust build up that will come off with more effort:thumb:

Also i dont understand why you used a Porter cable? to try and correct a badly oxidized bonnet, you would of made a much better job using a rotary with a strong compound first applying plenty of pressure.


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## Kev_mk3 (Sep 10, 2007)

fantastic job


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Stunning transformation Iain. :thumb:


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## Finerdetails (Apr 30, 2006)

AutoshineSV said:


> Not only that... but sorry Ian those wheels still have lots of ground on brake dust build up that will come off with more effort:thumb:
> 
> Also i dont understand why you used a Porter cable? to try and correct a badly oxidized bonnet, you would of made a much better job using a rotary with a strong compound first applying plenty of pressure.


Tony, thank you for taking the time to post your comments. Regarding your first point, could I refer you to post #23? The customer has indicated reasons to this. Its not my place to start describing a car's condition in this way, and something I would not do.

With regards to your second point. Clearly you do not understand. The single stage paint was soft, and dry. Using a hard compound and rotary would have only induced massive amounts of heat and further dried the paintwork. As the paint was soft it would have have removed un-necessary levels of paint from the car. The car is 8 years old, and does require some work to be completed in a bodyshop - again, please refer to post 23. Due to some of the work which is required I rightly felt the PC was the better option to ensure a safe level of working.



> The weapon of choice today was the Porter Cable, hooked onto it a 3m polishing pad, and this would be graced with a 3m final finish oily polish. The aim behind this was to feed and re-oil the paint whilst removing only the absolute necessary amount of depth/cut.


In the initial post I explained why I chose the PC and level of polish that I did. To further this explanation, as I was the one working on the car, the one able to see the results with my own eyes, I was able to evaluate and make the correct decisions to give the best results for my customer. If you would like to, again, refer to post 23, the customer has taken time to register and join the forum, andhas shared his opinions on the work completed.
I assume the combination you are referring to would be the rotary and the G3 like the MB you demo'ed on? In this case, I was able to use a fair more skilled and techical level of workmanship to achieve excellent results (see post 23) and ensure the car was left with as much paint as possible to ensure greater longevity.

I hope my reply has been useful to those reading, and has brought some added value to DW and its members, who do not have the experience or access to products at this level. Should anyone wish to discuss or ask futher information on an individual basis please feel welcome to get in touch.

Oh, and if you haven't already - post 23:


> Evening all, this is my car and i thought I'd sign up to say a big thanks to Iain for such a superb job. I'd certainly use Finerdetails again and would recommend him to anyone!
> 
> There's still a few bits i'd like to sort of the car yet, stone chips, alloy wheel refurb and changing the wing mirrors back to standard but i'm very very pleased with the magic Iain has worked with her today. Big apologies for the state she turned up in i just haven't had the time to clean!
> 
> Once again, big thanks to Iain!


I think *this post* is the real answer to this thread. :thumb:

thanks

Iain


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## JamesR (Nov 13, 2006)

wheels have come up really well.


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## Brazo (Oct 27, 2005)

Iain another quality post, as you know I don't often post up replies to threads in this section but given some of the more ignorant comments, I couldn't but help say 'top job' :thumb:


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Certainly cheered the red up there nicely, restoring the colour and dealing with a lot of the marring nicely. Looks miles better and the owner is delighted too and understandably so.

Regarding machine choice, we all have our reasons for choosing machine, polish and pad combinations which tend to come down to what is in front of us at the time ... dry paint, known soft paint, and fading, I can understand the PC choice here and the choice of an oily product. Many times I have said in the past about chasing perfection and how this can be detrimental in the long run despite looking spot on in the first instance. Many of us would doubtless have chosen a different polish and pad combo (me, probably a rotary with some 85RD or #80 and a finishing pad) and happily be able to justify why we went for the said methods - but thats detailing, we all have different approaches and the key is to achieve customer satisfaction while also retaining the integrity of the paint finish. Correction is "easy" - sensible correction takes time, thought and consideration which is what has clearly gone into your product choice. It may not match everyone else's but thats not to say its wrong or the job is any less because of it - simply your chosen route was different, the outcome very much the same.

Good work, nice transformation - I personally find pink to red very rewarding, and the owner is clearly delighted to see life breathed back into the car.


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## rossdook (Aug 20, 2008)

Great job that - I always love the pink to red transformations as they're as dramatic as they come. I bet the owner thought you'd swapped motors! Like night and day to me... :thumb:


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