# Polished Bliss®: 65+ hours on a Range Rover...



## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, the hunt for our new second detailer plus a heavy work load has lead to virtually no time available for write ups but hopefully that's about to change 

This Range Rover was in for full correction a month or two ago and this was how it looked on arrival:










Generally pretty grubby with alot of product residue in panel gaps etc and several parts of trim such as the front and side grills were badly stained from a strong TFR type product:


















































































My camera batteries were needing a good charge so unfortunately no pics of the wash stage but I'm sure most of you know what a car covered in foam looks like by now.

For those that are interested though, the wash stage was as follows:

- Wheels cleaned with Gloss-It wheel gel, Tardis and then Iron Cut.
- Tyres,arches and suspension cleaned with Meguiars Superdegreaser and then Tardis (Arches)
- Engine Bay, door shuts & exterior trim cleaned with R222.
- Car foamed with R222 & thoroughly rinsed at high pressure (60 degrees)
- Washed with 2 bucket method, LW mitt & Meguiars Shampoo Plus.
- Tar removed with Tardis.
- Iron deposits on the rear end removed with Iron Cut.
- Paint and glass clayed with Meguiars Aggressive Clay.
- Dried with PB Luxury drying towel and Black Baron.

So we'll pick up with some examples of the paint defects - some of which were more apparant now the paint was clean...



















...And inside under natural light:




























Aswell as being brush washed from new, it was obvious it had maybe seen a scouring sponge at some point to remove some dead bugs...
































































And a few shots with the halogens to show just how tightly packed together the scratches were:





































Surprisingly for a Range Rover the paint was generally pretty healthy and consistent, mostly in the 130-140 micron range with the odd high spot:










Unsurprisingly for a Range Rover, the paint was slightly sticky. Whilst it's nowhere near as bad as the likes of many Porsches it's enough to be a bit of a pain at times so to keep panel temperatures down I used Gloss-It white wool pads with Menzerna 3.02 to correct the majority of the paint, occasionaly stepping up to Meguiars 105 where the scratches were at their deepest.

50/50 after 3.02 (yet to be refined):



















The smaller wool pads are extremely handy for deep defects on bumpers etc:










50/50 with the Sun Gun:










And with the strip lights:










Before:










After:










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Before:










After:










Rear bumper before:










After:










Foam pads were used for the few places that weren't quite so bad:



















The vinyl decals had to be masked off while polishing the surrounding paint with the rotary but this obviously left an un-corrected part:










This was solved with some Meguiars 205 and a Gloss-It Fast Cut spot pad with the DA machine:










Onto those akward Range Rover letters now - the paint surrounding them was polished with Menz 3.02 and a Lake Country Light Cut hand polishing pad:










Always amazes me how well you can correct even the swirliest paint by hand if it's just a small section 

It took a few hours to get these bits spot on but it was well worth it:



















Before:










After:



















I used a cotton bud and some 85RE to clean all the little parts of the badges:



















When it came to refining the finish, I found the best method was to do 90% of each polishing set with the Rotary and Menzerna FPII with a Lake Country Polishing Pad and then do the last few passes with the DA and the same polish and pad combo. Due to the sticky paint it was incredibly time consuming ensuring the rotary finished 100% trail free so it was much easier and quicker to finish up with the DA :thumb:










My intentions of taking pics of every stage of the LSP/interior steps went out the window unfortunately as the last couple of days ran into really late nights so I just wanted to get it finished so here's the rest of the process:

- Car dusted down with Lambswool Duster to remove polishing dust.
- Paintwork wiped down with IPA.
- Paint sealed with Blackfire Wet Diamond.
- Glass polished and protected with Werkstat Prime Strong.
- Wheels sealed with Blackfire Metal Sealant.
- Tyres dressed with Gloss-It Signature Tyre Gloss.
- Arches & exterior trim dressed with Meguiars All Season Dressing.
- Engine Bay protected with 303 Aerospace Protectant.
- Interior fully detailed including cleaning and feeding of the leather.

So that then takes us to the finished shots - you'll see in some of the pics the TFR stained trims still aren't 100% perfect as nothing seemed to improve them much and I tried EVERYTHING :lol: Pretty annoying but just one of those things I guess.

Anyways, here are the afters - not quite as many as I'd have liked as the owner was in a bit of a rush:






























































































































































































Thanks for looking, I'm going to be aiming for a write up every week from now on (Famous last words... )

Clark


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## alan_mcc (Oct 28, 2008)

Looks great clark. Think I recognise it  haha. In your weekly write ups are you planning on including any hd videos at all?


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## *Das* (Aug 9, 2010)

WoW what difference, its amazing how some people *dont* look after their cars.


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

Great work Clark on a great motor as well.


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## nicp2007 (Apr 25, 2007)

great work as always clark :thumb:


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## ampbmw (Dec 1, 2007)

my favorite detailer is BAAAAAACCCKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

I really hope you know Clark how much you inspire me. I recently even ordered my first PB order, all the way over here in South Carolina, USA!!!!

I often go searching forums looking up your work, just to study your techniques and products. LOVE LOVE LOVE your work!!!

I recently did a Range Rover too, here it is!
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=181029

have to click on the video, but shows you what I managed to achieve!

thanks for inspiring!

Austin Patton


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## paranoid73 (Aug 5, 2009)

Worth waiting for, great detail as always Clark :thumb:


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## Leemack (Mar 6, 2009)

Nice job Clark - Big bloody motors these - Hows your back?


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

Maximum respect as always. Awesome work,awesome photographs. Every time I see these write-ups it's always an inspiration.:thumb:


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## Tameo (Aug 20, 2010)

Amazing detail mate :buffer:


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## Edward101 (Jun 5, 2009)

Glad to see the write ups coming back, gorgeous work as usual and very nice 50/50's and final shots :thumb:


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## Kelly @ KDS (Aug 4, 2008)

Nice work as always clark :thumb:

Kelly

www.kdsdetailing.co.uk


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## s3 rav (Apr 30, 2008)

Great work as always.


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## gally (May 25, 2008)

Like a modern day Dave KG. 

Awesome as always Clark!


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## andrewst500 (Nov 2, 2008)

great work as always:thumb:


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## Ronnie (Nov 15, 2006)

cracking work Clark very nice indeed!


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## yamaha (Feb 17, 2006)

Nice job


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

alan_mcc said:


> Looks great clark. Think I recognise it  haha. In your weekly write ups are you planning on including any hd videos at all?


Ooooh yes - watch this space 



DasArab said:


> WoW what difference, its amazing how some people *dont* look after their cars.


That's a tad harsh mate - what people have to remember is that alot of folk think that they're taking good care of their car when washing them with brushes or taking them through car washes etc, we (the Detailing community) are still a small minority so it's still relatively unknown to most people 



ampbmw said:


> my favorite detailer is BAAAAAACCCKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> I really hope you know Clark how much you inspire me. I recently even ordered my first PB order, all the way over here in South Carolina, USA!!!!
> 
> ...


Thanks for the very kind words and nice work on the RR - thank you for ordering from us too, much appreciated :thumb::wave:



Showshine said:


> Nice job Clark - Big bloody motors these - Hows your back?


It's fine, nice and easy to do a Range Rover cos you can just lower and raise the suspension - wish you could do that on every car, have to start nagging our finance director to let us buy a ramp me thinks :lol:


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## horned yo (Feb 10, 2009)

another amazing job


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## Thorpy (Oct 7, 2008)

Lovely results mate.


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Outstanding work as usual!


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## Mini 360 (Jul 17, 2009)

recognise that car. See it about all the time  Superb detail and the finish on the paint is second to none now! :thumb:


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## saint1d (Jul 18, 2010)

Looks stunning.


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## p3asa (Aug 26, 2009)

I bet the owner was delighted with it. What a transformation. 
Brilliant.


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

i couldnt ever imagine spending that long on a car :lol:

great effort mate


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## ALANSHR (Jun 29, 2007)

Great work as always Clark and some turn round on that, some amount of panels on those so lots of hard graft I imagine, well done!

I see some folk asking for video's but i much prefer the photos as you can actually study what is being achieved etc so keep up the photos for me matey.


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## Blueberry (Aug 10, 2007)

What brush did you use to get into those narrow openings on the alloys?

Great work, as always :thumb:


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## lego_man (Mar 29, 2007)

Lovely job dude..!


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

ALANSHR said:


> Great work as always Clark and some turn round on that, some amount of panels on those so lots of hard graft I imagine, well done!
> 
> I see some folk asking for video's but i much prefer the photos as you can actually study what is being achieved etc so keep up the photos for me matey.


I like both so don't worry - I'll always post full pictoral ones as well as the odd video 



Blueberry said:


> What brush did you use to get into those narrow openings on the alloys?
> 
> Great work, as always :thumb:


Raceglaze and both the large and small EZ brushes mate :thumb:


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## Exclusive Car Care (Jan 14, 2007)

Top work as usual mate:thumb:


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## pogo6636 (Jan 18, 2009)

great work as ever clark. 
little tips like the use of cotton buds for the spaces in the lettering are always a great help for the un educated amongst us like myself. 
(I am aware these tips appear in other posts but just thought i would point it out.)
Also the last pass with a DA to speed up the finnishing. gives me the encouragement to have a go at the brute on the driveway..


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## 911fanatic (Sep 10, 2007)

Great job as always Clark. Nice to see you posting.


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## gb270 (Aug 22, 2008)

Super as always


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## -tom- (Jan 27, 2009)

Very nice work again Clark  better the owner didn't recognise it after u had your wicked way with it


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## slrestoration (Nov 11, 2009)

Fantastic transformation Clarke, awesome finish:thumb: Suddenly hits you just how big the things are once you start work on them.
What DA is it that you use?

Nick


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

absolutely amazing as always Clarke!


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## srmtor (Jul 12, 2008)

Cant believe how bad the paintwork was, great turn around though!


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## tdekany (Jul 22, 2006)

Stunning work as always Clark!


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## Tyrrell (Jan 29, 2007)

Clark . . . .Amazing detail !! I love looking at your write ups 

Im looking at investing in a positector PTG like yours, what exact model is it ?? i looked at the Positector 6000 range and there appears to be loads of different variants and i havent a clue which to go for. 

Many thanks in advance


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## ross-1888 (Feb 22, 2009)

fantastic write up again guys.

out of interest here. how long does your wash process usually take you.


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

slrestoration said:


> Fantastic transformation Clarke, awesome finish:thumb: Suddenly hits you just how big the things are once you start work on them.
> What DA is it that you use?
> 
> Nick


The one in the pic is a Kestrel, but the G220 gets just as much use - it just depends which one is sitting on top in my box of machines lol 



ross-1888 said:


> fantastic write up again guys.
> 
> out of interest here. how long does your wash process usually take you.


It can take anything from a couple of hours on a well maintained car to 6-8 hours+ on a really bad 4x4 etc - it takes as long as it takes basically :thumb:


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Nice work mate. 

Similar story a couple of days ago for me, Black RR with sticky paint. It was a nightmare, even though it was only a protection detail, was the most difficult once over with Lime Prime by DA i've ever done :lol:


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## scooby73 (Mar 20, 2007)

Great detail, write-up and photo's too Clark!:thumb:

Always great when pros such as yourself share detailed information on techniques and products used!:thumb:


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## detailersdomain (Sep 13, 2006)

great job!


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## PaulN (Jan 17, 2008)

Smashing work on an un loved motor :thumb:

Interesting with finishing on a DA, its good to see these different techniques.

Thanks

PaulN


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## toosmiles (May 5, 2007)

such a nice motor but was a shame they never looked after it better.
excellent work though m8


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## cheechy (Nov 23, 2006)

Great work as always Clark - your attention to detail always inspires. I notice you used blackfire metal on the wheels. I only use this at the moment on exhaust as this is where heat obviously plays a part.

Have you guys seen additional benefit from using the metal sealant on wheels?


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

cheechy said:


> Great work as always Clark - your attention to detail always inspires. I notice you used blackfire metal on the wheels. I only use this at the moment on exhaust as this is where heat obviously plays a part.
> 
> Have you guys seen additional benefit from using the metal sealant on wheels?


Yes we have, hence why we've used this alot on wheels for the last year or so :thumb:


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