Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Today saw me in Kent carrying out a stage 2 detail to John_C's Fabia VRS. I've worked on a few Fabia's in the last few months, but this was my first VRS - Love these cars!
Took a gamble with the weather as it wasn't looking too promising according to the forecasts yesterday, but as per usual they were wrong - had a few heavy downpours to contend with, but not enough to stop me 
TBF, John keeps his car immaculate anyway, and it's only covered just over 10K miles, so here's what greeted me at 8.30am:
(Spot the Lifeshine sticker in the rear door window  )
I'd stupidly not asked if there was any dealer sealant on the vehicle when taking the booking, so had to change my plan for the pre rinse slightly to try and strip it off.
Pre rinse with AS G101:
Then again with Bilt Hamber Autofoam before being rinsed off.
Wheels, tyres and arches with AS G101 and various brushes and rinsed off.
Bodywork washed using TBM and Dodo Sour Power shampoo and rinsed.
Bodywork dried with ultra plush drying towels and Dodo Time to Dry as drying aid.
AS Tardis applied to the lower half to remove tar spots:
The paintwork felt very rough and there were specks of pinky coloured paint all over it, there was also tree sap present - none of which came out in the photos I took!
Clay was BH Regular clay with AS Reglaze as lube. Due to the amount of contamination this was a lengthly process, and removed around 90% of the bonded contaminants, here's the clay after 1/2 the bonnet:
As you can see, it was picking up the paint and turning the clay pinky-red!
Once clayed, I re-rinsed the car and re dried it, and set about taping up all vulnerable trim. Once taped up I took paint measurements. All the paint was giving healthy, original readings, there was a slight hike in readings at the front of the bonnet that I've not seen on other Fabia's before, so it may have had a slight blow in for stone chips at the front, if so though it was very well done 
It was now time to experiment with various pad and polish combos to establish what was going to give me optimum correction - it soon became clear that this was one of the hardest VAG paint jobs I've ever worked on, so out came the 3M Fastcut Plus with matching pad (green compounding pad)
Each panel took several hits to correct these sorts of defects:
Try as I might, I couldn't get a decent after shot 
There were also a few deeper scratches to tackle - these wouldn't come out just with the Fastcut, so I wetsanded the areas in question with 3M "Daisy's" 2000 grit.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
There were also a few more but these were harder to capture on camera.
Once the initial compounding was done (amongst heavy showers!) I refined the finish with something I haven't used for a while - Dodo Juice Need for Speed, it's got very similar cut to the Lime Prime I usually use, but also masks any remaining deeper RDS. Correction today was pretty high, but due to the amount of passes it took to remove the swirls, I had to leave a few RDS as the panels were getting too hot and I had removed my personal limit of clearcoat (around 3 Microns per panel)
Again during applying the Need for Speed it rained again, leaving some pretty cool beading:
Dried off again, it was time to wax the car. Todays choice being Collinite 476s for it's durability, and also I find it leaves a great finish on light colours.
Whilst this was curing I set about the other smaller jobs such as the exhaust (wire wool and Megs NXT metal polish) dressing the tyres and arches ( AS Finish) and sealing the wheels (Collinite 476s also)
I then went back and buffed the wax off, cleaned the glass with AS glass clear and dressed all other black trim with Aerospace 303 to leave:
And some obligatory pretty reflection pictures (who said you can't make silver shiny?!  )
Thanks for looking. Comments, questions and constructive criticism welcome as per usual 
Rich
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DannyB
Premium Member
Registered: 6th Feb 08
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Good work on them scratches
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andyc1234
Member
Registered: 7th Nov 06
Location: Lancashire
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good stuff as usual
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John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
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I'd have one of these again in a heartbeat.
Nice work as usual
I'd also like to point out how far the bumper colour is off from the rest of the car and how it also looks like this in real life, it's not just the pictures, some people just can't see it.
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CorsAsh
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Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
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No matt black spraypaint? *disappointed*
Looks excellent, factory fresh.
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Tomnova16
Premium Member
Registered: 21st Jan 06
Location: Gerrards Cross Drives: Porsche 911
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good stuff rich, see your putting some recommended items to good use, bloody weather though eh
http://www.lemass.co.uk/ for all your automotive/bodyshop needs
Located in Chalfont st Peter
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by CorsAsh
No matt black spraypaint? *disappointed*
Looks excellent, factory fresh.
Well I packed the paint but I was a bit buggered when I got there to discover it was silver - I thought he might notice if I just sprayed the defects with matt black....
Plus the weather wasn't very Monaco like so it'd have taken ages to dry
Cheers for the comments guys - yeh the weather is an utter PITA!
And yes colour match in the flesh is spot on on all panels!
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Apart from the bumper.
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by John
Apart from the bumper.
Not on this one that I noticed... - although I didn't look too closely at it I have to admit lol.
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John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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Ahh I thought you'd have agreed with me 
It's like this on most modern cars.
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by John
Ahh I thought you'd have agreed with me
It's like this on most modern cars.
Sorry, a lot of them it's the case these days, yeh, but didn't notice it too much today
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VegasPhil
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Jan 05
Location: Fareham, Hants Drives: Octavia VRS
User status: Offline
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Nice work as usual bud.
Corsa 2.0 16v Vegas - Sold
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corsayoung
Member
Registered: 10th Feb 09
Location: Cheltenham
User status: Offline
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i love reading your posts, i fine them really really interesting good job!
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psycho sport
Member
Registered: 27th Mar 03
Location: Guildford Surrey Drives: Vauxhall Monaro
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You ll be pleased to know i may be enlisting your services to save my fabia vrs from it's shocking paint work!!
I ll be up at Lemass to collect my new grill surround on Sat, hopefully you ll be there! u2u the kinda quote i should be expecting, just so i dont pass out in front of you in person!
Looks a top notch job that!
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Cheers guys!
psychosport - I'll be there on Saturday from about 9.30am so will be more than happy to take a look and let you know what can be achieved.
u2u on the way
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jr
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Registered: 20th May 02
Location: Kent
User status: Offline
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you love kent dont you 
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John_C
Member
Registered: 5th Mar 03
Location: South east, Bromley
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cheers rich - looks great.
Not sure on the bonnet reading and what work has been done previously, i've only had it 3 months.
...just need a garage now!
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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James - Gotta love Kent!!
John - Pleasure - a very clean car to start with! Hopefully you'll find it easier to maintain now as well with some proper protection on it, not just AG Lifeshine!
A garage would be helpful in keeping it away from the fallout it had bonded to it!!
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deano87
Member
Registered: 21st Oct 06
Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta
User status: Offline
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I need to save some money and get you on my car. Seriously. I gave the it the full Super Resin Polish and Carnuba Wax, and already it's back to its same old pink ways.
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by deano87
I need to save some money and get you on my car. Seriously. I gave the it the full Super Resin Polish and Carnuba Wax, and already it's back to its same old pink ways.
You know where I am when you have the moneys
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deano87
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Registered: 21st Oct 06
Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta
User status: Offline
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Yeah, too far away 
you can see in my avatar the difference between the boot colour and sides.
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by deano87
Yeah, too far away
I'm mobile  Move to Kent I'm always there
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