My “new” Chimaera
Discussion
I confess I have neglected my car over the last six months or so. I have also parked too close under a tree, resulting in quite bad sap burns in the lacquer on one of the rear quarters. To be honest, the poor old girl has been looking a bit sorry.
One of my driving students mentioned that her husband, who currently works as a polisher for a major sports car manufacturer based in Woking, does detailing in his spare time and is currently building up a portfolio. He kindly offered to give my Chimaera a full paint correction and detailing, with an interior clean and engine bay clean.
So my car has just had a four day detailing, working afternoons after work. He probably spent somewhere between 15 to 20 hours on it. He started on the interior, and this was a little embarrassing: it’s phenomenal how much black gunk came out of the magnolia leather and vinyl. I may choose to get a full restoration done on the seats.
His attention to prep was meticulous: the car was rinsed with a jet washer, foamed, then washed 3 or 4 times, clayed, degreased, decontaminated, etc etc.
Then the polishing started, which is when the transformation really began. I was relieved that the sap damage 90% disappeared. To my eyes it looks perfect. Minor scratches totally disappeared, and deeper scratches (such as where someone in the office car park scraped down the side) were vastly improved.
The work has, sadly, revealed that the respray I had on the bonnet is s
te. I knew it was covered with loads of small horseshoe shaped marks (“pigtails” he called them), which are due to poor prep and bad sanding before painting - and there was nothing that could be done. The bonnet looks very shiny, but the paintwork is poor. The south Oxfordshire TVR specialist that looks after the car normally outsource their paint work to Surface & Design, but on this occasion used a local firm - I may have to tell them not to use them again and get the bonnet re-done by S&D.
If you’re interested, there are more pictures in the write-up on this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MADdetailz/
Anyway, some pictures:
Bonnet selfie! This picture shows the “pigtail” marks from poor prep of the bonnet respray. Look around my shoulders and elbows and you’ll see the issue...
A 50:50 picture showing the extent to which the interior cleaned up...
Here’s a 50:50 showing the tree sap damage on the boot lid. I won’t be parking so close to this tree any more!
This shot shows how amazing the result is, but also highlights how bad the bonnet paintwork is...
One of my driving students mentioned that her husband, who currently works as a polisher for a major sports car manufacturer based in Woking, does detailing in his spare time and is currently building up a portfolio. He kindly offered to give my Chimaera a full paint correction and detailing, with an interior clean and engine bay clean.
So my car has just had a four day detailing, working afternoons after work. He probably spent somewhere between 15 to 20 hours on it. He started on the interior, and this was a little embarrassing: it’s phenomenal how much black gunk came out of the magnolia leather and vinyl. I may choose to get a full restoration done on the seats.
His attention to prep was meticulous: the car was rinsed with a jet washer, foamed, then washed 3 or 4 times, clayed, degreased, decontaminated, etc etc.
Then the polishing started, which is when the transformation really began. I was relieved that the sap damage 90% disappeared. To my eyes it looks perfect. Minor scratches totally disappeared, and deeper scratches (such as where someone in the office car park scraped down the side) were vastly improved.
The work has, sadly, revealed that the respray I had on the bonnet is s
te. I knew it was covered with loads of small horseshoe shaped marks (“pigtails” he called them), which are due to poor prep and bad sanding before painting - and there was nothing that could be done. The bonnet looks very shiny, but the paintwork is poor. The south Oxfordshire TVR specialist that looks after the car normally outsource their paint work to Surface & Design, but on this occasion used a local firm - I may have to tell them not to use them again and get the bonnet re-done by S&D.If you’re interested, there are more pictures in the write-up on this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MADdetailz/
Anyway, some pictures:
Bonnet selfie! This picture shows the “pigtail” marks from poor prep of the bonnet respray. Look around my shoulders and elbows and you’ll see the issue...
A 50:50 picture showing the extent to which the interior cleaned up...
Here’s a 50:50 showing the tree sap damage on the boot lid. I won’t be parking so close to this tree any more!
This shot shows how amazing the result is, but also highlights how bad the bonnet paintwork is...
Fabulous results worth posting up on the chim Facebook page for any other interested parties.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/232321070204977?ref=...
https://m.facebook.com/groups/232321070204977?ref=...
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