This car has been booked in for nearly 6 months now and is what I would class as a real sports car.

The had a full bareshell restoration just over a year ago now and the owners step son (another detailing hobbiest) spotted the terrible respray bodywork that the restorers had done, Simon then contacted myself as It was going to be a birthday present for his step-father and wanted it tip-top.

"My father bought the car in 1964 and gave it to me in 1976 so has been along standing friend.

I bit the bullet in 1999 and had the car restored by a firm in Sussex. I only collected the car in September of last year.

The paint work was taken back to bare metal and 2 new rear wings were fitted. she has been repainted in Italian Rosso Chiaro. I am not too happy with the paint as you can see some orange peal and some imperfections. they have used 2 pack"

It was a nice long treck up from Somerset on saturday for Graham which took just over 4.5hrs and this was how the car looked on arrival.





The car was firstly rinsed at low pressure and then foamed except the hood which was in great nick and clean, this was left to dwell for a few mins before being rinsed.

Then a 2bm wash using a ***** sponge and some dodo sour power, I left the wheels as these were being removed for polishing anyway plus I had to get a tyre changed and balanced for the owner.

The car was then rolled in the unit ready for claying, boy this sounded stunning Pitty it didn't look as good as it sounded.

Heres a few defects that I spotted out pretty quickly:

Paint runs:





Overspray all on the front wing:



Paint sinkage:



Sanding marks, basically all over the car:doublesho





Now time for clay, started off with the Autobrite gentle grey clay, this was picking up lots of tar and contaminats but not really touching the severe overspray so stepped up to the aggresive clay, this left some bad marring but wasn't worried as it was all being corrected anyway.



Some of the swirls and just a FEW......








The car was then taped up ready for machining, I knew the 2 pack was going to be pretty tough and with all the sanding marks I opted straight away for 3m fc+/untrafina se on a megs polishing pad, most panels were 4-5 hits to achieve a near perfect finish which is what I was after.

50/50's





Corrected shots:





I spent over 25hrs just machining the paintwork upto a good standard to remove the majority of the sanding marks and defects, I would like to see the car again for some more time next year and get up near concourse condition as it frequently visits shows and is at a private gathering tomorrow down in the west country, and back up to Goodwood Revival in Sept.













Once all the correcting work was finished the car was then refined using untrafina on a megs finishing pad, now it was time to gve the car a IPA wipedown to removes the oils ready for the Swissvax Best Of Show to be applied by hand.



This was left to cure while I polished the bumpers and chrome bits such as grill headlight surrounds etc using britemax metal polish/sealant, the wax was then buffed after over 2 hrs curing.

And now save the best job till last..... the wheels removed 1 by 1 and cleaned using some smart wheels and a swissvax style brush and then polished using the britemax again, each coner took 2.5 hrs to fully polish bringing them from this:





To this:





And after 10hrs of cleaning the wheels my fingers were numb and felt like falling off and with blisters.......

I then gave the cam covers and carb covers a polish but didn't get any pics:wall:

The exhausts were polished and the tyres dressed with megs endurance, the hood was hoovered and treated to 303 fabric guard and polsihed the rear screen with megs plasicx to remove some scratches and after 40hrs heres the final results:


























Thanks for looking and all C & C welcome.

Rgds
Paul