Maserati Detail (lot's of pics!)
Discussion
Devastated and done over 
Thats was how I felt after I set eyes on my car an hour after I first washed it (about a week into ownership).
I thought I'd bought my car carefully - I inspected the paintwork under florescent lights and under bright sunlight (both of which are notorious for showing up swirls and paint defects), the car had a VERY low mileage and came with hundreds of pounds worth of invoices for Swissvax detailing from Maranello. So, I had visually checked the paintwork and the car came with what should have been good 'detailing' history.....what else could I have done to make sure I bought a car with pristine bodywork?
However, it appears the previous owner and/or who I bought it from had used some kind of filling polish to hide the multitude of sins including various scratches and widespread coverage of swirls and holograms. As soon as I'd washed it, whatever was used to hide these defect came off which was when I first saw the disgraceful paintwork that has blighted my aesthetic enjoyment of the car since I've had it.
After being quoted some ridiculous prices for paint correction (some people want to charge sums into 4-figures) I finally found a local guy called Ben Griffiths from Demon Detailing www.demondetails.co.uk (he's based just outside Loughborough and as you'll see from the pictures below, I would through recommend him to anyone looking for a detailer in the East Mid's). Ben came out to look at the car and quoted a very reasonable £275 for a days work to correct the paint. His credentials looked good...he does work for Graypaul and other dealers, he does details for super-car club Ecurie-25's and his gallery of previous work looked impressive.
He did the car at Graypaul when it was in for the suspension work although he wasn't too impressed to begin with as the car had just been to Rockingham for a wet handling day and was in significantly worse condition than when he quoted to do the work (he had to spend a couple of hours polishing out the stains caused by the baked-on limescale from that day).
Despite this, the end result was stunning after he washed, clayed, polished, corrected and waxed the paintwork. Unfortunately, it appears someone at Graypaul then wiped section of the front of the car between him finishing and me collecting it a couple of days later so he came out to me again this afternoon to re-correct some of it. This evening before it started to rain, the car looked incredible
Here's some pictures of what he did last week...enjoy!
Before (checkout the limescale on the first pics!):
Prep work:
Paint Correction (check out how many swirls before and after!):
It didn't look THIS bad until I saw how good it could be....
The types of wax used....
The finished results:
Thats was how I felt after I set eyes on my car an hour after I first washed it (about a week into ownership).
I thought I'd bought my car carefully - I inspected the paintwork under florescent lights and under bright sunlight (both of which are notorious for showing up swirls and paint defects), the car had a VERY low mileage and came with hundreds of pounds worth of invoices for Swissvax detailing from Maranello. So, I had visually checked the paintwork and the car came with what should have been good 'detailing' history.....what else could I have done to make sure I bought a car with pristine bodywork?
However, it appears the previous owner and/or who I bought it from had used some kind of filling polish to hide the multitude of sins including various scratches and widespread coverage of swirls and holograms. As soon as I'd washed it, whatever was used to hide these defect came off which was when I first saw the disgraceful paintwork that has blighted my aesthetic enjoyment of the car since I've had it.
After being quoted some ridiculous prices for paint correction (some people want to charge sums into 4-figures) I finally found a local guy called Ben Griffiths from Demon Detailing www.demondetails.co.uk (he's based just outside Loughborough and as you'll see from the pictures below, I would through recommend him to anyone looking for a detailer in the East Mid's). Ben came out to look at the car and quoted a very reasonable £275 for a days work to correct the paint. His credentials looked good...he does work for Graypaul and other dealers, he does details for super-car club Ecurie-25's and his gallery of previous work looked impressive.
He did the car at Graypaul when it was in for the suspension work although he wasn't too impressed to begin with as the car had just been to Rockingham for a wet handling day and was in significantly worse condition than when he quoted to do the work (he had to spend a couple of hours polishing out the stains caused by the baked-on limescale from that day).
Despite this, the end result was stunning after he washed, clayed, polished, corrected and waxed the paintwork. Unfortunately, it appears someone at Graypaul then wiped section of the front of the car between him finishing and me collecting it a couple of days later so he came out to me again this afternoon to re-correct some of it. This evening before it started to rain, the car looked incredible
Here's some pictures of what he did last week...enjoy!
Before (checkout the limescale on the first pics!):
Prep work:
Paint Correction (check out how many swirls before and after!):
It didn't look THIS bad until I saw how good it could be....
The types of wax used....
The finished results:
Fantastic. I've disliked this car visually since launch but I've been quietly mending my ways and your delightful example has finally converted me; yup, stunning.
Tbh, go past any of the money laundering Kosovak car washing operations and behold the lines of new car pedalling muppets subjecting their freshly painted waggons to nothing less than superficial butchery.
I had something similar with my Alpina B5 a few years back; looked 100% at the stealers but when it finally rolled of the trailer on delivery, sunlight revealed the shocking reality.
These paint correctors are worth every penny; after 3-4 years my motors are still almost blemish free ito swirl marks and that's even after many dozens of sometimes, not exactly tri-bucketted OCDism.
Tbh, go past any of the money laundering Kosovak car washing operations and behold the lines of new car pedalling muppets subjecting their freshly painted waggons to nothing less than superficial butchery.
I had something similar with my Alpina B5 a few years back; looked 100% at the stealers but when it finally rolled of the trailer on delivery, sunlight revealed the shocking reality.
These paint correctors are worth every penny; after 3-4 years my motors are still almost blemish free ito swirl marks and that's even after many dozens of sometimes, not exactly tri-bucketted OCDism.
I don't think it is limescale in your "before" picture. I have black car which lives outside and it was covered in white residue for first time ever last week. I think it is from the Icelandic volcano and it is difficult to remove by just washing. Why would you limescale from rain? Great detailing job BTW!
Thanks for comments chaps...it's probably in better condition than a brand new one now (well, a brand new one after dealers have PDI'd it!)
Volcanic ash....mmm....I think thats what it's covered in now. I've hardly driven it since it was done at the weekend and it's covered in dust already!
iandc said:
I don't think it is limescale in your "before" picture. I have black car which lives outside and it was covered in white residue for first time ever last week. I think it is from the Icelandic volcano and it is difficult to remove by just washing. Why would you limescale from rain? Great detailing job BTW!
It's definitely limescale - it was perfectly clean (if still full of swirls) and it picked up the limescale stains when I went on a wet handling day at Rockingham a few days before. It was a really hot day and the water just dried and baked these spots on almost immediately after getting it into the dry Volcanic ash....mmm....I think thats what it's covered in now. I've hardly driven it since it was done at the weekend and it's covered in dust already!
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