Paint correction and first real detail - Jaguar XJR

[KingRichard]

I've been using an orbital polisher for a little while, basically just with some cutting compound, and then Autoglym SRP over the top. This keeps my bright red cabs shiny, but not amazing... I mean, there are still swirls and stuff and none of the bright red paint seems to come off, so I can't see how it would improve the surface...

Anyhow... I've just bought an XJR. Car is blue and 8 years old, and although in good condition there are a few bits I would like to smarten up.

Firstly, the paint kind of looks hazy in places, not because of any defect, just due to a fair bit of swirling and light surface marks that have built up over the years. I thought I could sort this ok, but it turns out my methods must either be correcting some swirls and putting others in, or just not having any effect whatsoever

The car also has some repaired stone chips at the front which are in a slightly different shade to the rest of the paint - i'm guessing the colour difference is down to the way the light hits the 'splodges', any tips on cleaning those up would be great too

I've got some decent carnuba wax for afterwards, but I really want the ins and outs of paint correction - I thought I knew how to do it, but I've been proven wrong.

Can anyone recommend me some good leather products to give the ivory leather firstly a deep clean, and then a good feed and some protection? Restore that new leather smell

Is Jaguar paint generally quite thick? I've not owned one before. Cheers

[KingRichard]

PJ S said:

Leather care - LLT Solutions or Furniture Clinic is what you need.
As for your correction - could be a case of the SRP being too abrasive, not being broken down fully, or the wrong pad being used, or a combination thereof.
What pad(s) do you have? What polishes, aside from SRP do you have?
Jaguar paint isn't that thick, and it's not that that hard, so machine using SRP, I'd have thought, was a bit too much.

I haven't touched the paint yet... it's clean, generally shiny but needs making perfect again

[KingRichard]

I've got a cheapy orbital polisher from halfords. I've no idea if it's fast enough... I bought it to put polish on with on the Beemer because I was too lazy to do it by hand

Just the standard wool mops on that really

[KingRichard]

owain said:

KingRichard said:

I've got a cheapy orbital polisher from halfords. I've no idea if it's fast enough... I bought it to put polish on with on the Beemer because I was too lazy to do it by hand

Just the standard wool mops on that really

ah right ok, thought you meant a proper rotary polisher thing!

I think the general opinion on those is its ok to use, but wont really give you much advantage over doing it by hand. SRP should work at masking some of the swirls and generally improving the paintwork.
A layer of SRP by hand/polisher then buff it off followed by AG Extra gloss protection will work well ( can get it from halfords)
Unless you use a different polisher its going to be hard to remove much of the swirls to be honest, but SRP and then a couple of thin layers of EGP should get it looking good again ( EGP 24 hours apart works a treat ) should keep the car sealed for a few months too, will just need washing to keep it looking good.
You can use the megs polishers i mentioned earlier by hand, and there are a couple of swirl removing one's you can use by hand (will kill your arms though!) can't remember off hand which one's are the best but can find out if you want?

make sure you get some pics up when you pick it up too!

alternatively if you wanted to get a different polisher a megs g220 polisher seems to be the best beginners choice - probably be able to get one for around £150 with pads then get a couple of bottles of polish and you'd be away! Definately have the shiniest cars around
Take a look on Detailingworld if you want any more info, or drop me a mail

I might just invest in one to be honest... Are there any particular techniques I need to have a look at before pitching in with it?

[KingRichard]

owain said:

not really to be honest, you can get cheaper rotary polishers but as they only spin one way they are harder to use, and although they are better at removing scrathches etc its pretty easy to burn through the paint with them!
rotary polishers on the other hand, like the one i mentioned above oscilate? aswell so dont heat up the paint and its pretty hard to do much damage with them

here's a pretty good guide on them http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?... depends how much time you have to read, lol - you wouldn't have to worry about the transformer/adapter like the one in that thread. The g220 polisher is a uk machine with uk plugs, whereas the one in the pic is a us machine

quite a lot of guides around, but if you posted up on DW there'd be plenty of people offering advice and even more specific stuff like what polish would be best for you'r taxi's + the jag

the main thing is to take your time breaking down the posish, it can be a bit time consuming but the reults are great. Take a look at a few of the threads on DW and see some of the transformations - pretty amazing!

Cheers man, will do

[KingRichard]

Ok...

Today I went and bought:

AG Interior Shampoo
AG Autofresh
AG Leather Cleaner
AG Leather Care cream
Meguiar's Interior Brush
Meguiar's Clay
Meguiar's Quick Detailer
Brand new AG Super Resin Polish
Brand New AG EGP
Sample of Megs 'cleaner wax'
Some microfibre towels
Collinite Carnuba wax

Enough to be getting on with I reckon

[KingRichard]

Gonna try and get the interior done tomorrow morning. First light at 06.10 so that should give me 6 hours to get the shampooing and leather care out of the way... spot of lunch in town and then I can make a start claying the paint in the afternoon

[KingRichard]

Washed, clayed, polished, EGP'd, Carpets Shampoo'd and 'striped' (looks awesome), leather cleaned but not looking all that great. Used the AG stuff and it hasn't really removed any dirt at all. Bit disappointed

Anyway... She's looking hot, just got to get a coat of Collinite on her and I'll be getting some pictures up

PS: I'm loving the quick detailer stuff and those microfibre towels are brilliant

And clay is amazing stuff - it's cleaned all the old polish out of shuts and panel gaps, cleaned the rubbers, removed overspray from some chrome... I've got a new best friend

Was gonna leave the EGP on overnight but it was getting cold and I thought it might look funny if the car gets wet with condensation tonight.

Cheers for all the help chaps

[KingRichard]

owain said:

with regards to egp, what i meant was put some on, then buff it off and then put another layer on + buff that off the next day.
It's a bh to buff off if you leave it on too long, lol!
have you got any pics at all so far?

Every time I've finished polishing it's been dark

My neighbours think I've gone mad... I was out there at 9pm in the pitch black the other night putting on another coat of EGP

I've done a coat of collinite now which didn't do as much as I expected but it kind of looks 'deeper'... I drove it down past the cathedral in canterbury yesterday to an appointment and everyones neck was cranking right round!

I've found a leather specialist who is an old friend of my Grandads. He's going to teach me how to re-connolise the leather for free - I've just got to pay for the materials.

I like this old Jag so much I'm thinking about upping the game and looking for Bentley Turbo R to keep her company