# Mk2 Clio Headlight Restoration and 'The Works'



## Mr Moley (Sep 28, 2010)

So this has been a long overdue detail on my mates clio, he bought it a while back as a run around for damn cheap and after inspecting the paint work today i can see why! Started this detail at 9am this morning and did a full wet sand of the headlights to start off the day as they were in a state! Grab a cup of tea for this one! :buffer:

On inspection of the car my initial thoughts were: Filthy. Car was head to toe in grime, tar, mud and more tar. The headlights were a lovely shade of yellow due to the years of abuse they had recieved with no protection. First thing to do was soak the sand paper!



















After one pass with 320 grit wet sandpaper:










A further pass with 1200 grit:










Looking better already....look at the difference!










After a pass with 2500 grit sandpaper and a compounding pad with menerza power gloss:



















After a little refining with a yellow pad and power finish:










And both done:










Now onto the car...




























The car was covered in tar!










And here are some of the goodies ready to be used to get this car back to it's former glory!










First off a snow foaming and some brushes to release some of the dirt from the harder to reach places!



















Car was then thoroughly rinsed for a good 5-10 minutes to get as much dirt off the car as i possibly could.

Moving onto the wheels i used bilberry wheel cleaner and a selection of brushes to clean the wheels:

















Moving onto the engine bay i used bilberry to clean to dirt off:


























Once this was completely clean i moved onto washing the car using the 2BM with AG shampoo and conditioner (love this stuff) and my lambswool wash mitts.










And this shows how dirty the wash mitt can become after 2 passes of the car!










Now moving onto the mountains of tar i let tardis work it's magic for a few minutes followed by a swift wipe with a clean microfibre leaving the paint tarless.



















After this stage i then moved onto claying the car with dodo juice born to be slippy and sonus ultra fine clay, this process alone took me 2 and a half hours  The cars paint was unusually rough with such little contaminents coming off onto the clay so not much to show. Some overspray and un-removed tar was also removed leaving the paint ready for correction.










This left my clay destroyed.....needless to say it went in the bin.










The car was then foamed again and washed with the foam using my lambswool mitt:



















The car was then dried with my euro drying towels and plush towels.

Someone had snapped the wiper off the rear of the car so i set about removing it completely ready for a neat grommet.










Horrible faded plastic:










The car was then taped up and polished using my DAS-6 with a white compounding pad and AG SRP as im not getting along with the menerza polishes i was provided with with my kit.
No pictures of this as i cracked on as time was ticking but here is what the car looked like after a few passes of each panel:










And here are the newly polished headlights and car after a long machining session:










The car was then given a layer of poorboys black hole (awsome lsp)










Wheels were then sealed with Poorboys wheel sealant:










Tyres were dressed with AG Tyre Dressing










The plastics on this car had looked like they'd never been treated since it came out of the factory, so some of these 50/50's are pretty :doublesho

Weapon of choice.





































And now here comes my favourite product of the day: AG High Definition Wax










The wax was left to cure for 30 minutes while i moved onto the interior:










Sugar anyone?










Interior glass was cleaned with invisible glass:










And now, the finished product, after buffing off this great wax and adding the finished touches the car is on the right track now. The owner has agreed to only let myself touch the car from now on for cleaning! :detailer:

Hope you enjoyed and let me know what you think!





































Voila!


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## Barnz (Jan 26, 2010)

looking good


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## bonzo (Nov 21, 2007)

brilliant turn around fella.


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## North east Car Care (Jan 14, 2008)

Cracking turnround. lovely glow to the paint


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## Posambique (Oct 20, 2010)

LSP = Last Step Product

In this case it would be the AG HD wax. 
Right?


A massive difference! Great job - it looks better than new!


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## prokopas (Apr 29, 2010)

great turn around. well done


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## Mr Moley (Sep 28, 2010)

Posambique said:


> LSP = Last Step Product
> 
> In this case it would be the AG HD wax.
> Right?
> ...


I thought it was the LSP until i decided to use the AG HD afterwards to add some extra protection 

Cheers guys.

I have a VW polo, Modified MK4 Golf, Ford KA and a Modified Fiat Punto booked in for this week aswell. Write ups should be under way soon!


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## moono16v (Oct 12, 2010)

Brilliant job! Well done. How do you rate the HD wax in terms of easy on/easy off? Durability? Does it give a nice shine off? Finally how well does it bead?


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## Mr Moley (Sep 28, 2010)

HD is the best wax ive used to date. SUPER easy on and off with alot of durability and beads like a beauty! Definatly get yourself a tub!


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## gally (May 25, 2008)

Good job mate. I would add the reason your claybar fell apart is due to the tardis. I always PW the car after wiping the Tardis off with an MF.

The Tardis ruins Clay bars no problem.


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## Mr Moley (Sep 28, 2010)

I put it down to the heat and how much i used it mate, the panels were getting hot in the sun and i was using lots of water and dodo juice BTBS. At 3 or so passes per panel it was just wear and tear tbh. I wiped all the tardis off thouroughly aswell.


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