Full detail - Astra H 1.7 CDTi

jajaja, asi les doy trabajo de editar el nombre del post

muy buen laburo tambien, bien fotografiado el proceso.


Introduction

Firstly, before I talk about the car, I thought I'ed give you a little background info about me, what I do and and how I got into detailing. Well, back in 1996, I happened to be working for a small car sales company that sold nearly new Fords and Vauxhalls. Back then I was a trainee car salesman and trade at the time wasn't exactly brisk shall we say! At that point all valeting work was subbed out. After trying a few places neither my boss or myself were happy with how the cars were looking. One day I thought 'whats the point sitting here all day with not much to do, I might as well start valeting the cars to how we wanted them, after all, I enjoyed doing my own car at the weekends [in the voice of Jeremy Clarkson] just how hard can it be!'.

I managed to persuade my boss that we really ought to be using Autoglym. A range of products I was familiar with having used them on my own motor. For a while we just used to buy what we needed from Halfords. However, I soon realised there must be a way of buying the stuff in larger quantities. Autoglym HQ put me in touch with our local rep and from that day I was hooked! Quickly booked myself on their course ( was the 3 or 4 day one, which I learned alot from) and it took off from there. In 2000 I left the company to set up a valeting side to a business venture the mechanic who did our mechanical work was setting up. I was still very much Autoglym focused but the line of valeting I wanted to get into was the more indepth work rather than the splash and dash type jobs most were doing. Word quickly got around especially in the trade and within a few months I had a waiting list. My biggest customer was a car sales company based literally over the road. This contact proved valuable a year later. Whilst I was very busy, unfortunately the rest of the company wasn't and the inevitable happened. Said car sales company offered me a job doing the high level valeting or what is I suppose called detailing now and I've been there ever since. Thats where my ties with Autoglym unfortunately ended as they wanted to use Autovalet which I still have to use today. The point at which my 'detailing' changed dramatically was in 2005 when a link to a new forum was put on Vectra-C.com. It was called Detailing World. I'ed never thought to look for an online forum or websites for detailing/valeting before so was intrigued to see what it was all about. I can honestly say, in the past couple of years since being on here, I've learned one hell of a lot more than I ever had in the previous nine!

Whilst an awful lot of the techniques I've learned from DW filters through to what I do on the cars at work, ultimately my hands are tied there with regards to products and equipment. This is why once or twice a year I buy myself a little project to play with for a few months (or more!). I never make any money on them, but, it gives me the chance to try out new ideas and products that other wise I might not get to play with. Oh and yeah, I like to have a bit of a challenge!

Okay onto the car. In October last year, my VW Bora was up for sale and to be honest I wasn't really looking to buy anything else. Then one day a black Vauxhall Astra appeared at work. We don't sell this kind of car often and being a big Vauxhall man my radar soon tuned in! I tried to ignore its presence for as long as I could, but curiosity soon got the better of me and had to go and have a quick look at it. Unfortunately I was spotted by the management and a comment was said, something along the lines of " its got your name written all over that" and later "why don't you take the Astra home for the weekend and see what you think of it". Needless to say, by the Monday morning it was mine!

The car itself is a 2004 54 registration Astra H 1.7 CDTi SXi 100 in Sapphire Black. Its covered 47,000 miles from new by one owner, who was a friend of my boss and he bought it new from a local (ish) dealer for his business. No longer needing the car he brought it down to us to sell where it found me. Needless to say it wasn't exactly 'concourse' to the eye, but mechanically seemed spot on as it should be.

Now, one thing I have taken on board from the Bora thread is trying to fit a write up of this style into one thread isn't perhaps ideal. So this time I'm going to break it up into different parts and see if this works any better. Please remember though, this is just how I went about this detail/project and working in a way which I'm comfortable, but this doesn't mean to say its 100% the correct way. I'm sure alot of the pros here would do things differently and probably achieve a better finish. Below are links to each part of the detail so you can browse the bits you want to see at your leisure!

Before

Here is the car in the state it arrived in. Or 'in its working clothes' as we say it at work!
doesn't look too bad from a distance and in all fairness it isn't really



and again from the rear



Scuff to front bumper...



...and just below that...



...and in the in the middle. The bumper had to be painted!



Not been washed for a day or two



this was down to primer, again had to be painted



this is supposed to be body coloured



A little something to keep the dent man happy!



Interior was inkeeping with the exterior



a close up



The passenger side



and in the rear



Door shuts



and around the boot shut



I very much doubt this has ever been cleaned



One of three scuffed wheels.

Wash and Clay

To start with I simply gave the Astra a quick splash just to clear the dirt so I could see if there were any further horrors that would need bodyshop attention. Thankfully there wasn't anything too horrific so I sent the car away to get the front bumper, door and a mirror cover painted. There were chips on the rear bumper too, however, I hoped at that stage a local repair would suffice, but more on that later.

Once back from the bodyshop it was time to get stuck in. Started off by spraying the whole car from the protection moulding hight down with P21S Total Autowash. Paying attention to get to the sill areas that run under the car and left to dwell for a couple of minutes.



Whilst the P21S was doing its stuff, I mixed up my snowfoam mix in the Gilmour. What works well for me, is to put about an inch of snowfoam in the bottle then add a couple of capfulls of Chemical Guys Maxi Suds 2 although I've found Z-ymol Autowash also works well for me. The mix was topped up to just under the bottle neck with warm water.





Without rinsing the P21S, I foamed the Astra with the Gilmour on the 1:64 setting. When foaming the car with the Gilmour I tend to follow one of L200Steves many tips of aiming the gun above the car rather than straight at it, giving the snowfoam longer to mix with the air before 'landing' on the car thus giving a slightly better foam.



Leaving the foam to dwell on the car for a couple of minutes, I prepared my two buckets for washing. Both were equipped with grit guards and my Shampoo of choice for this project was Zaino Z7 ( a product that for me was an instant hit. Feels very slick, smells great, looks great giving the water a nice Aqua blue tint and also gives a very good finish. Its not cheap but a little goes quite along way and IMO 'you do get what you pay for'). I find three and a half Z7 bottle lid fulls of product is plenty in the wash bucket.



Back to the car and using the Karcher I pressure washed the car bodywork down thoroughly to remove as much of the dirt as possible. Note I've not bothered with the wheels/engine/door shuts etc. This is simply because a) the wheels will be removed and detailed separately and b) as the paintwork renovation will be completed over a period of weeks, there will inevitably be alot of polish dust etc, getting into these areas so there was little point doing much with them at this stage



Next up was to wash the car. My weapon of choice was a Z-ymol sponge. Working from the top down. I find squeezing the sponge over the area to release some shampoo before touching the panel helps the sponge glide over the surface even better.



The car was then re pressure washed and left and kept wet.

Next up it was time to clay. My choice of clay was Z-ymol Lehm Klay combined with their Klay Lube. I broke the clay up into three pieces and kept them in a jug of warm/hot water to keep them soft



Spritzed a workable area with the Klay lube and with little pressure rubbed the Lehm Klay over the surface until it felt smooth



The Astra was definitely benefiting form being clayed. This was from just a quarter of the roof!



About 4 hours later, the car had been clayed. I then washed it again to remove anything that was left over and re pressure washed. Seeing as the Astra was now totally bereft of any LSP, not that it had much if any to start with I decided to give the car a mist coating with Autoglym 31 Autogloss Rinse diluted to about 50/60:1 or there abouts to help aid water removal.



Then soaked the car again just using an open ended hose which with the AG31 sheeted most of the standing water away (sorry forgot to get a pic of this), leaving just a little to be mopped up with a Sonus Der Wonder drying towel and Meguairs Last Touch (diluted 1:1) as a lube.




During the project the Astra was washed in the same way as above before any work was done although as the paintwok renovation came to an end there was no need to use AG31. Also, I did switch to a yellow Karcher foam lance rather than the Gilmour during the project.

Paintwork Renovation

Now that the Astra was clean, I could see exactly what state the paintwork was in. Just as I thought it was covered in the usual chips, scratches and swirls.










The bodyshop were just going to blow into this wing, however, they noticed it had a number of chips so painted the whole thing. They admitted they couldn't finish as good as I could, so rather than get carried away themselves they left it to me to sort.



Although they made sure I had somthing to do. Mmmm, pig tails!

Before any work could be done I needed to get a good set of readings from the paint. Using a CM8828 I went around the car, breaking panels up into imaginary 6 inch squares, taking 5 or 6 readings in each and noting down the lowest number. Followed by some underbonnet readings where there is little if any clearcoat which gave me an idea of what I had to play with.




Seeing as time wasn't too much of an issue, being my own car not a customers or a works sales car, I could afford to work panel at a time. More often than not this meant a panel per day, usually a Sunday. On the days leading up to working on the car I built up paint in any stone chips using original Vauxhall touch up paint with smart repair touch in buds. Slowly building up the paint to form a small 'dome' above the surface.




Before working on each panel the first thing was to re-clay, just to make sure the area was totally clear of any surface contaminates. For this I used Sonus Green and Meguairs Last Touch as a lube.



Then removed anything in the area to be worked on that was 'easy' to remove and taped up everything else.






Badges. These all had to be removed. To do this, I firstly warmed them up using a hot air gun to soften the glue in the backing tape. Obviously making sure not to get the gun too close or hot enough to damage anything!



On this car I found the badges simply peeled off and luckily the vast majority of the tape came off with them. This was handy as it meant I only needed to wipe over the area with some Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover to remove the last of the tape.





Next up was to block back the touched in chips. To start with I used a 3M Finesse-it hand block, with 3M 268L Finesse-it 9 micron abrasive petals and Meguairs Last Touch as a lube. I only wanted to block the chips back by about 80% using this method (the remainder would be sorted during the next stage) and always sanded in the direction of airflow.



Then it was time to get serious and out came my latest toys! Mirka ROS325NV 77mm air palm sander, Mirka ROS625CV 150mm air Palm sander both with Interface pads and 2000 and 4000 grit Abralon discs in both 77mm and 150mm sizes.




To power the sanders I used my 2.5 hp 25L compressor. To be fair and as I've said before on other threads, this compressor did the job simply because I was sanding small areas at a time and not really any more than one panel per day. I wouldn't attempt to try and sand an entire car at once using this, it simply isn't man enough. Within a few seconds it cuts in and slowly looses the fight to supply enough wind to power the sanders.



Anyway, the night bore sanding I put the required pads in a bucket of water so that they were ready for use the following day. Adding a squirt of Meguairs #00 High Tech Wash to a bottle of water to use as a lubricant, I sprayed the area to be sanded. I soon found with this paint the 2k discs performed better without the interface pads (except on panels with many sharp creases Ie. wings, then I used them as a safety precaution)

Starting off with the 150mm sander to cover the big flat areas, working the sander pretty much in the same way as you would a PC/G220.




Then cut in the harder to reach areas with the 77mm sander



Whilst sanding I regularly stopped, dried the area with a Sunus Der Wonder polishing towel, inspected how things were going and checked the PTG readings.




Once the 2000 grit stage was complete, this is how the panels looked.



Then on with the 4000 grit using the same process, but, this time interface pads were used as you can see.



Leaving this as a finish. You can see the reflections are sharper giving an almost satin look.



Now it was time to bring out the Makita. Initially I wanted to use the Menzerna range and did for a couple of panels but they were playing up most of the time, so in the end I turned to another range of products that were new to me. The Meguairs #80 Speed Glaze and #83 Cleaner Polish.

Starting off by putting 3 pea size blobs of #83 onto a Meguairs polishing pad. Once the pad because loaded this was reduced to 2 blobs



The polishing procedure for using the #83 was roughly

* 600 rpm to spread
* 1200 rpm for a few passes
* 1600 rpm for as many passes as it took to break the polish down
* 1200 rpm to finish polishing
* 900 rpm to refine



On a few areas #83 didn't provide enough cut so I upped to a combo I've used many times before, which is a Farecla G3/G10 mix. I used this on a Meguairs compounding pad. Basically its 2 pea size blobs of G3 and 2 x G10.




The procedure for using the G3/G10 mix was to firstly spritz the pad with water then

* 600 rpm to spread (spritz again)
* 1200 rpm for a few passes (spritz again)
* 16/1700 rpm for as many passes as it too to break down the polish (sometimes spritzing during this process)
* 1200 rpm to finish polishing



This was then followed up with Megs# 83 as above. Both Farecla and #83 were buffed using a Z-ymol towel



I then gave the panel a good IPA wipe down, checked for anything obvious before giving it a quick coat of Jeffs Acrylic Prime just to add a little protection and left. I did this in case polish fall back occurred (which it did in places)

Seeing that no write up is complete with a 50:50 shot, here one I did for you on the drivers wing. Taken after sanding, and polish down to and including #83 stage.



Once I'ed been round the car I stopped working on the paintwork and turned my attention to the interior, details of which will come later.

On returning to the paintwork it was time to re correct any areas that had suffered polish fall back with the processes above before finishing with Meguairs #80. For #80 I used a Meguairs finishing pad and as usual 3 blobs on the pad reducing to two when loaded. The process for using this was

* 600 rpm to spread
* 1200 rpm for initial polish
* 1500 rpm for as long as it took to break down the polish
* 1200 rpm to finish polishing
* 7-800 rpm to refine




Once again I gave the panel a good IPA wipe down and then a thorough inspection



Once happy with the finish, it was time to Start the Zaino process. To start with the car received two initial layers of Zaino AIO. Why two? Simply to ensure I covered everything. This was applied using the red side of a German foam applicator and buffed with a Poorboys Ultimate Mega towel. I sometimes found AIO a PITA to remove, however, a little help from Zaino Z6 soon sorted this.





This was then followed up with 3 layers of ZFXed Zaino Z5 Pro, applied using the red side of a German applicator, left for a couple of hours to cure and buffed with a Poorboys Ultimate Mega towel. I gave the car a Z6 wipe down between each layer




The following weekend I gave the Astra 3 layers of ZFXed Zaino Z2 Pro applied and removed the same as Z5.




Finally The Astra was given a wipe down with Zaino Z8.
_________________________________

Whilst working around the car I noticed there were still a number of imperfections in the front bumper. To correct these I decided it best to remove it, strip it down and detail it on the panel stand.

This was sanded back using the 77mm Mirka sander and 2 and 4k discs in the same way as the rest of the car. Then polished with the rotary using Ultimate 100mm spot pads. Starting off with the blue polishing pads and this time Menzerna IP3.01 which worked perfectly on the spot pads.

* 600 rpm to spread
* 1100 rpm for a few passes
* 14/1500 rpm to break down the polish
* 1200 rpm to finish polishing.

Because of the smaller pads, heat build up wasn't such and issue, but caution was paid! The bumper was put in the garage for a week or two to allow for any polish fall back. In that time I did the engine bay etc but again, more on that later.



Once checked and a couple of areas re polished, I finished with Menz PO85RD on a 100mm Ultimate finishing pad. The process here was

* 600 rpm to spread
* 1100 rpm to start polishing
* 1400 rpm to polish until product had broken down
* 1200 rpm to finish polishing
* 7/800 rpm to refine.



The area behind the bumper was cleaned with Meguairs APC then carefully rebuilt and put back on the car where it as Zaino'ed with the rest.



Whilst the grille was off I thought it would be the ideal time to polish the chrome part of that too. Firstly it was cleaned with Meguairs APC cut 4:1 using an old Microfiber and left to dry over night




The next day I taped it up and polished the chrome with a Lake Country polishing spot pad with Menzerna IP3.01 on the PC.

* Speed 1 to spread
* Speed 3 to start polishing
* Speed 5 to break the polish down



replaced the pad with a Ultimate glazing pad and with PO85RD on the PC

* Speed 1 to spread
* Speed 3 to start polishing
* Speed 5 to break the polish down
* Speed 2 to refine



It was then given a quick coat of Jeffs Acrylic prime until it got Zaino'ed back on the car.

I forgot to get any pics, but the chrome panel on the bootlid was polished in the same way as the above.

The rear bumper was then Removed.



This was taken away for a touch of smart repair. Unfortunately the lad who does our work suffered a bereavement in his family shortly after and wasn't able to touch it for longer than I could really be with out it for. So, back to the bodyshop and with hindsight this was perhaps the better option as its all been done properly.

When it returned a couple of days later it just required a bit of de-nibbing which I did in situ on the car as it wasn't quite as difficult a shape as the front bumper to polish, which incidentally was done in the same way as the front.

Once everything was complete and Zaino'ed, rather than put the shabby old plates back on, I replaced them with a new set, same number obviously! Likewise with the badges, those that were ok I stuck back on with Wurth 4mm badge tape, and those that were pitted I replaced with new.

Wheels, Tyres & Wheel Arches

First things first was to get the wheels off the car. Luckily I was able to put the car on a spare set whilst the originals were being sorted. I have to say, the Astra did look quite good on the 18's!



Anyway, it was clear these wheels hadn't been loved and I very much doubt they had ever been cleaned, except the parts the swirl-o-matic brushes and rain touched!




To start with I sprayed an even coat of Autoglym Clean Wheels over the face of the wheels (cleaned one at a time) and left to dwell for a minute or two. I then agitated with a Swissvax Wheel brush before rinsing with a B&Q gun attachment in the 'shower' setting.





This was repeated on the backs of the wheels. In certain areas on the backs of the wheels there were spots of brake dust that had bonded on too well for the soft Swissvax brush to remove. Seeing that this area was pretty much out of sight I switched to the Autoglym wheel brush, which having much harder bristles removed the bonded brake dust with ease.



Next up was to spray an even coat of Meguairs APC (4:1) over both wheels and tyres. Left to dwell for a minute or two, before wiping over with a old Lambswool mit, rinsed again...




... and dried with an old Waffle Weave towel (no pics)

Now all four wheels were clean, three of these wheels were going to need a bit more help than a simple polish. These three were sent away to be refurbished. The one remaining wheel was de-tarred with Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover. This was applied using a Meguairs foam applicator, left to dwell for a minute or so before wiping clean with an old Farecla Microfiber.



Once all four wheels had been reunited, I clayed them all to remove any last bits of contaminates and overspray with Sonus Green and Meguairs Last touch as a lube.



The wheel that hadn't been repaired obviously looked slightly dull next to the nice freshly painted ones so I decided to give that a polish. Now, Because of the design of these wheels, I thought even I wasn't brave enough, even with a spot repair pad, to attempt to attack this by machine! So using the white side of a German applicator I polished the whole wheel using Menzerna 106FA. and buffed with a Sonus Der Wonder Polishing towel.




With all four wheels the same shade, I went over them all with Zaino AIO. This was applied on both face and rear of the wheels using the white side of a German applicator. However, this time buffed with a Sonus Der Wonder Buffing towel.




This was followed up with a Zaino Z6 wipe down...



... before being given 3 layers of Zaino ZFXed Z2 Pro. These were applied again to both sides of the wheels using the red side of a German applicator. Each layer was given 2 - 3 hours to cure before being buffed with a Poorboys Mega Deluxe towel.




The tyres were then dressed with Swissvax Penu using a tyre dressing applicator.



A couple of late evening shots of how they came up, taken under the Halogens.





Whilst the wheels were off the car it seemed the ideal time to take a look at the wheel arches. Like the wheels I very much doubt these have ever been cleaned from new.



front



rear

To do this job I deliberately chose a day when it was raining, which lets face it, wasn't hard to find one of those! My reasoning for this was a) I didn't want to waste a rare dry day doing a messy job like this, b) with degreasers, APCs, dirt etc inevitably splashing onto the paintwork, rather than having to make an effort to keep washing the panels around the arches down all the while, nature did that for me c) your going to get wet anyway doing a job like this so might as well do it when its peeing down and get totally soaked! Notice I started off by covering the brakes. This proved a waste of time as the bags simply blew off with the blast from the pressure washer, so I just made a note not to spray water directly at them.

Anyway, to start with I sprayed a good coat of Meguairs APC (4:1) over the whole arch, left to dwell for a minute or two before pressure washing down. This removed the vast majority of the surface dirt.




Next was to spray another even coat of Autoglym Machine clean over the arch. Wiped with half a jumbo sponge before pressure washing again. Hard to reach areas were done with a small plastic bristled brush




The arch was once again given a coat of APC, and this time was washed using an old Lambswool mit before drying with an old Waffle Weave towel. Then de-tared the arches using the same method as the wheels (no pics)



Seeing as the arches were 'under cover', even with the rain they were soon dry enough to be dressed. For this I sprayed a good coat of Autovalet Engine and Plastic conditioner over the whole arch then immediately buffed with an old Farecla Microfiber.




Didn't come up too bad really.



front



rear

Even though the exhaust isn't really visible, whilst I was under the car I did clean it up a bit with some 00 grade wire wool

Engine Bay

Yet another part of the car thats never been cleaned from new. Well, if it has its not been lately! To Recap what it looked like here is a 'before shot'



Whilst the front was off the car it was an ideal time to do the engine bay. To start with I 'hoovered' up the leaves from around the bay and then removed a few items that were easy to remove before covering anything with old disposable seat covers that could cause embarrassment let alone costly repairs later on!





Then soaked the wings and areas around the bay and rinsed them regularly. This was to prevent any decreases and APC to sit/dry on the wings



Starting with the underside of the bonnet, I sprayed a coat of Meguairs APC (4:1) on all metal /plastic parts (I made an effort not to get the sound deadening too damp). After the APC had been left to dwell for a minute or so, I wiped with an old Lambswool mit and then rinsed using a B&Q hose gun in the 'shower' setting.





I then blew dried the area with a blast of air from the compressor. Rather than using the standard trigger, I slightly modified the cheap oil can thing you get free with the compressor. Handy because it had a longer reach allowing me to get to areas within the engine bay easier. Lastly mopped up anything left with an old Farecla Microfiber.




Next up was the actual engine bay itself. because this is quite a complex and fiddly area, I broke it up into imaginary workable areas. Starting off spraying the area with Autoglym Machine Clean, agitated with either half a jumbo sponge, old Lambswool mit if it was a painted area, or a plastic bristled brush in the tricky bits and rinsed.





This was then repeated with Meguairs APC (4:1)



The bay was then blow dried using the compressor and my semi-home made tool before any standing areas of water was mopped up using old Farecla Microfibers.




The parts that were covered were cleaned with a old Microfiber with either Machine clean or APC sprayed on it.

This left the front end of the car looking like this



To dress the engine bay I used Autovalet Engine and Plastic conditioner. This was sprayed over the whole bay including painted parts and immediately buffed using Farecla Microfibers.




The sound deadening was simply vacuumed



The items such as the engine cover, were cleaned and dressed in the same way as the rest of the engine, then put back.

Leaving the engine bay looking like this

Door Shuts & Exterior Trims

It was of no surprise to see the door shuts needing a bit of work.




Working on one shut at a time, I sprayed some Meguairs APC (4:1) On all sides including sill and under the door.



This was wiped using an old Lambswool mit, then pressure washed at 1/2 pressure using the Karcher.




Then dried using a Poorboys waffle weave towel. (no pics sorry!)

Next up was to polish. For the areas that were reachable by machine, I firstly moved the door rubbers out of the way and taped up everything else that was in the firing line. With a 4 inch white Lake Country spot pad on the PC and Menzerna IP3.01, I polished using this process.

* Speed 1 to spread
* Speed 2.5 to begin polishing
* Speed 4.5 - 5 to polish until product had broken down
* Speed 2 to finish



The remaining areas not reachable by machine were polished with Menzerna PO91L using the white side of a German applicator. Both, for whats its worth, were buffed with a Cobra Microfiber.



Using the red side of a German applicator the painted part of the shuts were then treated with Zaino AIO and buffed using a Z-ymol Microfiber.




The door rubbers, internal window rubbers and wiring covers were then treated with 1Z Gummi Pflege using the built in applicator



The metal door catches were polished with a piece of Eco-premium cloth and Autoglym metal polish.



On these cars, the trim at the bottom of the windows comes in two parts. You have an outer black plastic trim (or chrome if you have a really posh one!) and then a rubber weather strip which has a felt part. When doing the main paintwork renovation, I removed all these as it made life a bit easier. Before replacing I decided to clean them, especially the felt parts that goes against the glass as they had a bit of Greenery on them. To do this I sprayed on some Meguairs APC (4:1), then lightly brushed, rinsed with the hose and dried with an old Farecla Microfiber.






The rubber part of the trim along with the other bits of rubber trim was dressed with 1Z Gummi Pflege. Rather than using the built in applicator, I used a piece of Eco-premium cloth simply as I find it more controllable.



The plastic part, along with the door mirror trim, rear aerial and wiper arms were treated with Z-ymol Carbon. I used this for two reasons. 1) It gives a 'natural' look which I like. 2) It doesn't make a mess down the sides of the car when it rains! This was applied in the same way as above but buffed with a Microfiber.



All other plastics, which were heavier grained was dressed using Chemical Guys New Look Trim gel. However, before dressing I warmed the plastic up using the hot air gun, being careful not to cook them!. I then 'massaged' the gel into the plastic and left for a good hour before buffing with an old Microfiber.





Immediately another layer was applied albeit much thinner, left and buffed

Lights & Glass

Starting with the headlamps. On the Astra H, these are, like many, plastic and were showing 47,000 miles worth of abuse with chipping, scratches etc. To start with I wanted to lessen the level of chipping and remove the swirls and light scratches. I've noticed over the years of messing about with cars, often these plastic lenses actually have like a clear film on the surface and don't seem to be just clear plastic right the way through, so just like paintwork, care needed to be taken! A quick snap of one of the headlights as they were untouched.



Initially I wanted to sand them using the 77mm Mirka palm sander. However, all it did was create loads of pigtails and failed to sand properly. So, I removed the discs with the interface pad and used it manually by hand. Starting off with the 2000 grit Abralon and a lube made from water with a dash of Meguairs #00 Hi-Tech wash. Stopping to check how things were going regularly by drying with a Cobra Microfiber.





Which left the lamp looking like this



This was then repeated in exactly the same way using a 4000 grit Abralon disc which left this as a finish.



To remove the sanding marks I used the Makita armed with an Ultimate spot repair polishing pad and Menzerna IP3.01. Being much smaller than the 6 inch pads, even with the rotary heat build up is 'not' so much of an issue so the process was

* 600 rpm - To spread
* 1200 rpm to start polishing
* 1500 rpm to break down the polish
* 11/1200rpm to finish polishing



This was then followed up with Meguairs Plastex. Again on the Rotary but his time with a Ultimate finishing 4 inch pad. Process:-

* 600 rpm - to spread
* 1100 rpm to start polishing
* 13/1400 rpm to work the product
* 900 rpm - to refine



The areas that I couldn't get to by machine was simply polished by hand with Plastex on a Meguairs foam applicator (no pics)

This left the headlight looking like this. Far from 100% perfect but much much better than they were.



The rear lights were in much better condition, sporting just the usual swirls and light scratches (couldn't get any before pics that actually showed anything). Sanding therefore was unnecessary. For these I went in with the Makita as with the front with an Ultimate spot repair polishing pad using the same process of:-

* 600 rpm - To spread
* 1200 rpm to start polishing
* 1500 rpm to break down the polish
* 11/1200rpm to finish polishing



Again finishing with an Ultimate red finishing pad and Meguairs Plastex using much the same process as the front, being:-

* 600 rpm - to spread
* 1100 rpm to start polishing
* 13/1400 rpm to work the product
* 900 rpm - to refine



Firstly, I lowered the windows and polished the top inch of the glass with Autoglym Glass Polish. Using a piece of Eco-Premuim cloth I worked the polish until little remained then removed any excess with a Microfiber glass towel.




Closed the windows and with another piece of Eco-premium I applied Carlack 68 Basic glass cleaner thinly in circular motions to the external glass. Once dry I buffed with a glass microfiber and repeated to ensure the glass was properly clean.




I followed this by applying Carlack 68 Glass Sealant in the same way as above but with paper towel and left to dry for quarter of an hour or more.



To remove I gave the area a spritz of water and buffed the residue with a glass microfiber.



For the internal glass I used Autoglym Glass Polish. Using a piece of Eco-Premium cloth I applied a small amount to the glass. Starting off in the middle and working out in circular motions, working the polish until little remained before buffing the remaining residue with a glass microfiber. This method was a tip I got many years ago from my then Autoglym rep and it virtually eliminates dusting problems.




This was repeated twice more to ensure the glass was clean.

Lastly I renewed the nasty old License holder with a new one and as being a company man thought it fair to put their rear window sticker in (the plates and license holder has their name on too)

este flaco con el laburo del Bora y este se pasan....

sigo a la espera de que se mande un laburo de estos en esta temporada.. jejejej

Interior

Funnily enough, this wasn't quite what you'd call concourse condition either! To recap what it looked like, a few before snaps.





To start off I disposed of the three rubber mats and then removed the bulb from the interior light and boot light to prevent the Astra running out of electricity.



Braking the car up into sections Ie, Drivers footwell, seat, passengers footwell, seat etc etc, I began to vacuum the car using the Dyson and the crevice tool. Then with a suede brush, brushed the area, vacuumed, brushed, vacuumed until as much of the sand/grit had been removed as possible.




Once the whole car had been vacuumed and vacuumed properly including under the seats door cards etc, it was time to start shampooing the interior. Again I worked in a certain way to avoid messing up the work I'ed already done. This is how I worked my way through the car.

1. Headling
2. Dash and center stack but not the center console
3. Front passengers seat
4. Front passengers footwell
5. Drivers seat
6. Drivers footwell
7. Rear seat
8. Rear footwell
9. Center console
10. Door cards
11. Boot.


Okay, the headlining. I broke it up into 4 areas. Over the drivers seat, front passengers, O/S rear, and N/S rear. Started off by spraying a even coat of Autoglym Interior shampoo over the area and wiped with half a jumbo sponge that was clean and damp. Wiped again with a clean damp sheet of Eco-Premium cloth before drying with a Cobra microfiber. This process was used on the sunvisors and pillars also. Once fully dry, I repeated to make sure I had got everything.






Next up the dash. To start with I dusted everything down to remove dust from all areas especially the gaps around buttons, trim etc with a Meguairs side lock brush. For the vents I turned the fans on full and vacuumed as well as dusted. I have found before that using say the compressor to blast the vents can blow everything down the vents only to come straight back at you when you turn the fans on! Once dusted, I sprayed a load of Autoglym Interior shampoo on a sheet of Eco Premium cloth and wiped the shampoo onto a workable area of the dash. Sponged with a clean damp Jumbo sponge, wiped again with a clean, damp sheet of Eco Premium and dried with a Cobra Microfiber. Particular care was paid to electrical items such as the radio.







The steering wheel in this model is leather rimmed. The leather part was cleaned using Z-ymol Leather Cleaner. This was applied by spraying onto a damp sheet of Eco-Premium cloth and wiping on. Agitated using a soft nail brush (paying attention to remove all grime from the stitching). More cleaner was applied before going over again with a damp sponge, then again with a clean, damp sheet of Eco Premium cloth before drying with a Cobra Microfiber.







The seats and carpets were both treated in the same way. Sprayed a workable area with Autoglym Interior shampoo. Agitated with a soft nail brush. Re-applied more shampoo, sponged, then wiped with a clean sheet of Eco-Premium cloth before drying off with a Cobra Microfiber. Once fully dry I repeated the process.







Once the Interior was fully clean I re brushed and vacuumed again to remove any last grit and also lint from the cloth




The door cards were cleaned in the same way as the dash

The carpeted area of the boot was cleaned in the same way as the seats. The spare wheel and wheel well were also cleaned. To do this the wheel and tools were removed. The well and the metal floor around the boot area was vacuumed, then cleaned by spraying Meguairs APC (4:1) directly onto the surface. This was then sponged, wiped clean with a sheet of clean Eco-Premium cloth and dried with a cobra Microfiber. I left it at that as I didn't want a 'dressed' look to this area, preferring the natural 'newness'






The space saver was cleaned by spraying Meguairs APC (4:1) over both wheel and tyre. Wiped with an old Lambswool mit and hosed ( I could have sworn I took some pics of this but I can't find them anywhere!). Once dry the wheel was dressed with poorboys natural look, applied using a Meguairs foam applicator and immediately buffed with a Cobra microfiber to a satin finish. The tyre was left alone, again to leave an undressed 'new' look.




The tools were also dusted down and everything reassembled



to look like this.



The interior plastics were dressed using Poorboys Natural Look dressing. This was applied over a workable area using a piece of Eco-Premium cloth as I find it easier to get into all the tight areas and immediately buffed with a Cobra Microfiber to leave a deep Matt/slight satin finish.




To protect the Interior until the car is sold, I was very sad and did something I got the idea from when prepping a brand new un-touched Golf GTi a few months back. I had some sticky back plastic, so covered the drivers footwell. I then installed a set of brand new floor mats and cut a piece of plastic to fit over the drivers mat too, along with a bit over the sill cover.



Whist working on the Golf, I was about to chuck the seat cover it came with, but decided to keep it. On the Astra it went to help give the it the 'brand new look!!



Lastly installed an air freshener. (Yankee Candle car Jar 'Leather') and put the interior lights back together

chau me fui esto es mucho !

exlenete post


terrible detail

Finished Result

Well, 'Project Astra' is now all complete. Its not all been plain sailing as you can imagine. The weather being one of the biggest problems as its all been done outside. Its been another learning curve though and has given me the chance to try out some new toys and new working methods. I have to be honest and say deep down I was hoping to achieve close to 100% orange peel free finish. In reality of cause that didn't happen, although it is reduced I felt to make it OP free would have meant taking off more clearcoat than I would have been happy with. Its also not quite 'as new' and I have noticed one or two of very faint hair line scratches/marks visable in cirtain lights.

Anyway after all the work, Here is how she looks
























Many thanks for taking the time to read it all. I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I have doing it.

Stewie


Fuente: Detailingworld

ehhhhhh

2 cosas

viste atras tiene levantavidrios manual....

ajajaja no podes tener manijita en ese auto

y la otra es ue viste el auxilio??? es de moto esa rueda...

pero zarpado el laburo que se hace

yo creo que le haces eso a nose.. el fox mio y no se nota tanto como en ese, primero porque no esta tan rayado y aparte porque no te dura nada

o no?

A la mierd, aca existe algo asi!?!?!? o sea dejo de lavar el auto ya fue el dia antes de venderlo lo llevo a un flaco asi y que lo reviva.....


Aca se conseguira el Apc ese q le rocia a todo?!?! o es como ellimpiamotores de revigal!??!

ahhh te fuiste al carajo..

osea si te pones a pensar para hacer todo lo q hizo tenes q tener 4 dias..

y toooodos los productos aparte de saber


slds

Que ANIMAL por el amor de dios...!!! Mira lo que quedo ese auto... a la 3 foto, dije ya fue flaco, pintalo integro jejejeje como quedo!!! INFERNAL!!!
Q buen laburo...

Ahi te edité el titulo

Nah... q zarpado detail. Cada vez que veo estos posts me dan ganas de desarmar todo el golcito para ponermelo a limpiar

Terrible Laburo!!!!!

Excelente laburo, asi como termino lo meto en el garage y no sale nunca mas!

De los mas sarpados details que vi!