BluKoo
Member
Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
User status: Offline
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Yesterday saw this Lamborghini Gallardo belonging to a very good friend of ours come in for a 1 day All Surface Protection Detail, due to the stealthy appearance of the car it's started to be known as the Batmobile - hence the title 
The car itself has been driven "enthusiastically" over it's short life and has competed in 2 Gumball Rallies aswell as having a full camouflage body wrap at one point, so being solid black it was looking a bit tired:



Previous machine polishing attempts were easily visible by the buffer trails and product sling:








A quick tip for you all - Don’t leave your car with a window half down in a damp garage or there's a good chance you'll get this....

:eek:
Clearly the car could have been doing with a lot more than just a 1 day detail but the owner is the first to admit he isn’t overly fussed about swirl free paintwork etc so a good general clean up was agreed as the most sensible option 
The front and rear grills were removed for easier access for cleaning:


Then as always, the wheels were done first:
Gloss-It wheel gel (4:1) was used with the various brushes:




Then rinsed (the inner rims were dry of paint and a bit rough so they only came up around 90%):

Arches and tyres were then cleaned with Meguiars Super Degreaser:

There was a large amount of tar in the arch liners...

...so out came the Tardis and a MF towel:
Before:

After:

The car was then foamed with APC at 60 degrees:

This was thoroughly rinsed and then all the exterior trim etc were cleaned with APC and a brush:





The engine bay was sprayed with R222 and then agitated:

I then rinsed at 60 degrees and left the engine to idle for 5 minutes to help with the drying, as you can see from the steam it doesn’t take long for the heat to build up from the V10!

With all the little details completed the car was then washed with the 2 bucket method and Meguiars Shampoo Plus. After rinsing this then highlighted the defects in the paint even more now the bodywork was clean:

After a quick going over the bodywork with Tardis to remove some minor tar spots I moved the car inside for claying. Surprisingly the clay took next to no contaminants off the paint or glass:

When it comes to preparing a car with swirly paint that’s only in for 1 day we usually glaze to try and fill/hide as much of the defects as possible but once inside the buffer trails and massive amounts of scratches were clearly visible, making the paint extremely dull and milky looking:


Luckily, having the fast acting Meguiars 205 to hand for a good few months now I was confident of making a vast improvement without taking multiple hours to complete. So with the Kestrel and a Gloss-It green polishing pad, I worked the polish at speed 6 with alot of heavy pressure for the first few passes before stepping down to speed 4 and using very light pressure. This took no longer than glazing but produced far better results:
We went from this:

To this:

Obviously loads of scratches left but alot of clarity and depth restored to the paint :thumb:
Left side of the bonnet polished, right side untouched:

The paintwork was then cleansed with Raceglaze Pre Wax Cleanser and then waxed with Vintage.
The wheels were also given a spruce up with the machine:


I then sealed them with Blackfire Metal Sealant:

For the tailpipes (which had been removed from the full Tubi system - my god the car sounds nice!! ) a combination of Blackfire, Brilliant and Meguiars metal polishes were used as well as the dremel:

Side by side comparison:

The engine bay was dressed with 303:


The interior was fully detailed including the leather, which was cleaned and fed with Raceglaze leather products:

The plastics and vinyls were thoroughly wiped with APC and then a new product from Raceglaze to ensure the mould didn’t re-appear:


The faded trim around the boot was dressed with Meguiars All Season Dressing:

After just over 12 hours of work and a wipe down this morning with Werkstat Carnauba Glos, this is how it looked:



















Thanks for looking :thumb:
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DannyB
Premium Member
Registered: 6th Feb 08
User status: Offline
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Fantastic result as usual, black on black looks immense
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Rich H
Member
Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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beast!
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BluKoo
Member
Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
User status: Offline
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2 black beautys tonight eh Rich.
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Wrighty
Member
Registered: 28th Feb 04
Location: Howden
User status: Offline
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Lovely
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sand-eel
Member
Registered: 15th Mar 07
Location: carluke/braidwood--IRNBRULAND
User status: Offline
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Beast 
I got some of that tardis today from him, bloody brillient stuff.
P.S Halfords paint laquer can't handle tardis
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mart08uk
Member
Registered: 10th Jan 08
Location: N/A
User status: Offline
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Gorgeous car! As i was scrolling down through the images, i saw the swirl marks and was praying that they decided to machine polish it still brilliant results!
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Adam_B
Member
Registered: 13th Dec 00
Location: Lancashire
User status: Offline
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Needs silver wheels.
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kz
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 02
Location: Southend, Essex Drives: Mini Cooper S
User status: Offline
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Lovely! Needs clear indicators tbh
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sampayne21
Member
Registered: 3rd Sep 08
Location: Sidcup Kent Drives: BMW E46
User status: Offline
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nice work, how much would a clean of that standard cost?
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Ian_GTI
Member
Registered: 26th Mar 07
User status: Offline
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probably the best one ive seen him do, top work
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AK
Member
Registered: 5th Jul 00
Location: Aberdeen City
User status: Offline
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Gareths?
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Adge
Member
Registered: 28th Aug 04
Location: Lancashire
User status: Offline
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at is brilliant, Love that it been used and abused and not just left in sum rich garage to look at!
Love it, my fave so Far out of all the details!
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Adge
Member
Registered: 28th Aug 04
Location: Lancashire
User status: Offline
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also could u give me any advice on whats best to apply to brand new paint, Audi white to give it a good seal for winter? and also he best product to clean it with!
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alan-g-w
Member
Registered: 9th Nov 07
Location: Glasgow
User status: Offline
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I think it looks as good as the ones you see that have had 3 times as long spent on them.
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MoesTavern
Member
Registered: 19th Jul 07
User status: Offline
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If there's a better looking car than a black on black Gallardo I've yet to see it. Stunning.
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Scotty_B
Member
Registered: 11th Jun 03
Location: East Kilbride
User status: Offline
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Graham88
Member
Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Awesome car, impressive results again
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deano87
Member
Registered: 21st Oct 06
Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta
User status: Offline
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Awesome
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fir3vip3r
Member
Registered: 14th Jun 06
Location: Stevenage, Hertfordshire
User status: Offline
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a very good promotion for your bros company if ever i saw one.
great changes for a day
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CORSA NUT
Member
Registered: 3rd Aug 01
Location: Wirral
User status: Offline
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Man those front/side reflection pics are just awesome Well done lads.
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gavin18787
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 05
Location: Basildon, Essex
User status: Offline
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Black really does come up best in details like this 
Stealth bomber I want 
Drives supercharged Tec with torque
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rustyarchs
Member
Registered: 29th Aug 04
Location: scotland
User status: Offline
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stunning machine
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flybikeslee
Member
Registered: 2nd Jan 07
Location: Liverpool
User status: Offline
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thats bossssssss
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