Just off out....

[Manders Mustang]

Quick update. Poor weather and the discovery of a dent :-o has meant that the prep is taking a bit longer than planned (as I lost time taking it to the dealer to review).

Issues to sort so far...

Pushed in dent on driver side, just behind rear quarterlight. Can be pulled with paintless dent repair - guy coming Tuesday to sort (though was tempted to do myself, as I have a paintless repair kit and have sorted similar damage to my other cars in the past)

Paintwork mostly good. A few surface scratches to polish out - rear decklid, lip of front nose (and an odd semi-circular fault which looks like it's in the plastic?). Scuffs above drivers door no doubt from logistics drivers getting in and out. Scuff on driver side chrome trim - for same reason. Wheels have overspray from the underseal (sigh). Worst is offside rear. Will try to rectify or just ask for a new wheel! Going to take them all off to prep and seal tomorrow hopefully.

On the plus side, interior all good, panel fit all good. Bonnet doesn't 'pinch' bumper, boot doesn't foul rear bumper.

I'll document the entire prep process - but there are loads of pics to wade through! Hopefully some up this eve.

It looks a hell of a lot better without stickers and covers though

Lovely jubbly! Get to work stig!

Also can you do the detailing process with pics on a separate topic I'd be interested to see [emoji87]

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Sponsored

 

[stiggy]

Lovely jubbly! Get to work stig!

Also can you do the detailing process with pics on a separate topic I'd be interested to see [emoji87]

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

It's half done. Have been taking photos of the process for those who are interested. I expect it will take me most of the weekend!

So far:
De-stickered / protective coverings removed
Rinsed
Snowfoamed
Rinsed again
Hand washed (2xbucket)
Wheel iron contamination removal (and overspray attempted removal)
Rinsed
Dried
Decontaminated (fallout contamination)
Iron removal part II
Rinsed
Snowfoamed
Rinsed
Dried
Damage checked

Next up:
Wheel removal, try to remove overspray and seal
Clay bar bodywork
Polish/paint correction
Full wash (snowfoam, rinse, handwash, rinse, dry)
Gtechniq seal
Beer

 

[Manders Mustang]

It's half done. Have been taking photos of the process for those who are interested. I expect it will take me most of the weekend!

So far:
De-stickered / protective coverings removed
Rinsed
Snowfoamed
Rinsed again
Hand washed (2xbucket)
Wheel iron contamination removal (and overspray attempted removal)
Rinsed
Dried
Decontaminated (fallout contamination)
Iron removal part II
Rinsed
Snowfoamed
Rinsed
Dried
Damage checked

Next up:
Wheel removal, try to remove overspray and seal
Clay bar bodywork
Polish/paint correction
Full wash (snowfoam, rinse, handwash, rinse, dry)
Gtechniq seal
Beer

A very thorough man indeed ;) Talk about not half ar5ing it!

 

[Gibbo205]

Yes thorough indeed, I am glad I got the dealership to pay to have mine done by a professional out sourced valet.

Cannot wait to see images!!!!!

 

[stiggy]

Yes thorough indeed, I am glad I got the dealership to pay to have mine done by a professional out sourced valet.

Cannot wait to see images!!!!!

I find it therapeutic and as I said, you really get to know every inch of the car.

Just clayed it. Overspray on the drivers door low down, but nothing dramatic. Thanks to decontamination earlier (all sounds very sci-fi doesn't it ;) ) there was very litte surface contaminants - so ready to start the polishing tomorrow.

Exhonerated in my decision not to let dealer prep. Whilst there are a couple of fine surface scratches, the car has zero swirls, rotary trails or holograms (sorry for the detailing terms). So hopefully a relatively painless process tomorrow.

For ref. the car came with a quite a good layer of polish/sealant. Good beading etc. Not it's clayed, all that is gone, but I need a clean surface for the Gtechniq ceramic to bond to.

 

[stiggy]

Righty tighty. I'll post some pics of the prep - then start another thread for the detailing.

First up - sticker removal. Very boring for the thread, so just the one - check your loose items

 

[stiggy]

Next up - removal of various covers. Interesting to see the date/time that they were installed (11th Jan) which is actually a day before I thought it was built. I expect build 'date' is end of the line?

Seats done by night shift looking at the timesheet...

 

[stiggy]

Next up - removal of the wax strips at the bottom of the doors. I imagine they seal the inner door with a wax to stop rust. The white vinyl stops it from dripping out onto the sills before it cures. Nice big snotty glob in there which proves the need for them!

Bonnet cover easily removed. Just velcro'd on. As I said, would have preferred an adhesive vinyl as covers flat about and grind grit into the paint. Fortunately there is only superficial scratching from this (but again, proves the point).

 

[stiggy]

Now the first issue - the dent. It's subtle - but there. It's just behind the point of the rear quarterlight chrome trim. An easy pull for paintless repair (I hope!).

3rd an 4th pics probably show best as reflection of the fluorescent lights should be parallel. The 'bulge' is the dent.

 

[stiggy]

Couple of minor scratches to correct. A patch above the drivers door and a long one on the boot decklid. Bonnet is very good. Just a few minor surface marks to remove.

Small scuff on rear bumper corner too. No biggie to correct.

The last pic is an odd one. There's some sort of imperfection in the bumper. Almost looks like someone put the edge of a coffee cup on it! There's a subtle half-moon shape under the paint. Nothing that can be done with this one, but it's very hard to spot.

 

[stiggy]

Wheel overspray from underseal - grrr! Expected a shoddy job and wasn't disappointed. Need to have a better look underneath tomorrow to see what horrors await.

Hard to see from the pics (this was post cleaning) but see the small black speckles on the lacquer. Clay may remove them, but an unnecessary ballache to do it.

 

[stiggy]

Overall paint finish is very good. Very smooth with little orange peel.

Two pics with/without flash gives a good idea. Note complete lack of swirl marks - I'd venture 99% of dealer prep cars will have them.

 

[stiggy]

Right - I'll start another thread with the detailing process for those who want to just look at that bit

Sponsored