Mobile-Image: 219k km Alfa 145...

[Carn]

With an extended break from detailing under my belt, I decided this past long weekend was the perfect opportunity to dust off my pads and get cracking again!

The weekends subject was a rosso red Alfa 145 with a tad over 219k km on the ODO! The owner, a regular client of mine, tasked me with attend to everything from top to bottom.

The initial plan of attack was as follows:

Spend Friday afternoon removing the wheels for cleaning and sealing along with the arches. Saturday morning for cleaning the engine bay and exterior in preparation for the 2 to 3 stage paint correction which would follow. Sunday to complete the correction work, and hopefully attend to the interior incl roof lining, before finishing everything off on Monday.

As usual however, these things seldom go exactly according to plan and I ended up doing the following instead...


The car on arrival...



A quick shot of the wheels and arches (I planned on taking more with the wheels off)


And some paint defects clearly visible before cleaning



Having gotten all my gear out I was confronted with the 1st snag...I couldn't find the vehicles jack (I later learn't it was hidden below all the audio equipment installed in the boot) and my old mans trolley jack which I usually use was locked away at his place. No problem I thought, perfect excuse to buy my own trolley jack so off I went. After visiting 2 of the local hardware's as well as the local Checkers Hyper, I couldn't find a single one so I settled on a 4 ton bottle jack instead. Low and behold this didn't fit under the car so I was back to square with 2 hours lost!


At this point in time I decided it would be best to simply clean the wheels and arches on the car. First up a liberal dousing of Sonax Extreme rim cleaner on the wheels with 5:1 APC on the tires and in the arches.

Having gotten the majority of the dirt off the wheels and arches, I called it quits for Friday. Due to the lost time hunting for a jack I didn't bother taking any further pics. Needless to say it was clearly evident that the wheels and arches would require some further treatment come Saturday...


Saturday morning started with the wheels and arches again...

Once again Sonax was liberally applied and left to work while I prepared fresh wash solution and the brushes. Despite a solid cleaning the evening before there was clearly more dirt and muck that could be removed from the rims...



1st up the Polished Bliss wheel back brushes which did a terrific job of cleaning behind the spokes and between the calipers, hubs, etc






Next up the Raceglaze XL wheel brush whose short, stiff bristles removed almost all of the remaining deposits.


Finally the Ez-Detail brush was used to give the wheels a final once over...



With the inners of the wheels virtually spotless I turned my attention to the lug nut recesses...


These were cleaned with a small detail brush...


That's better


And all done





With the wheels completed I cleaned up the exhaust and tailpiece...For reasons unknown I neglected to take any befores!

The tailpipe came up pretty well except for some welding splatter and burnt plastic which I couldn't remove



Next up was the engine bay which was in pretty good shape considering the vehicles age! (After to follow near the end of the thread)





With the engine cleaned and dried it was time for the wash and prep stages...

1st up was a good foaming with CG's CWC and APC to remove as much grime from the paintwork as possible.




After leaving the foam to dwell the car was rinsed before being re-foamed to attend to all the small details including...

Plastic trim and emblems








Rubber trim




Panel gaps and mouldings






Unseen and overlooked areas





After cleaning all the odds and ends the car was washed using the 2BM, CG's CWC and my Raceglaze lambswool mitt prior to a final rinse in preparation for claying.

Clay used was Smartwax Smartclay along with Clay Magic's medium grade clay on the more stubborn areas. Sonax liquid tar remover was used on the lower doors and sills to remove some final tar spots.


With the paintwork now completely clean and dried I decided to get cracking and find a suitable correction process to follow. The paint thickness readings all averaged in the 200 to 300um mark with very few thinner areas, leaving me with plenty of scope for correction.


As usual I started with the bonnet and taped up a line down the center for some 50/50's

Even in the natural light the dullness of the pant was clearly evident


Some defects under the LED's


Left side of tape


Right side of tape



50/50 in natural light after a 3 stage polish


Corrected side in the late afternoon sunlight


And under the LED (pic taken a while later)


50/50's







Happy with the process I finished off the bonnet before the light ran out...

Bonnet fully corrected







Almost out of light and eager to test the sample of Raceglaze's latest Black Label Concours paste wax I decided to wipe down the bonnet and apply a layer to see how it looked and beaded. A departure from the norm but I figured what the hell!

Lovely wet finish


Beading was great as well...The droplets wouldn't stay put on the more curved surfaces and kept running straight off







With there still being a bit of light, I started on the drivers side fender

Befores




And after 2 stages of polishing



At this point and with the daylight almost completely gone I called it a day!

Sunday morning I slept in late (didn't want to disturb the neighbours with the machines too early) and got started around 9am.

First up I rechecked the bonnet and fender I corrected the evening before. Overall the correction levels were well within the 95-98% range. There were a few random scratches and deeper defects which I didn't chase, electing to rather leave some scope for future correction work that may be required.












Seeing alot of closed curtains and windows I decided to polish up and seal the wheels by hand before starting to make a noise with the buffer...

Wheels freshly Rimwax'd







Correction work then continued throughout the day...

Before


And after





50/50's on the side sills





Before's




And afters





Passenger side fender before under the LED


50/50 in natural light


50/50 under the LED




Un-corrected side


And corrected side



After completed






A few random shots near the end of the day







Once again time caught up with me and I had to call it a day with only the rear bumper and hatch still requiring correction. It was becoming clear that the interior would more than likely not be attended to, but considering it's almost pristine condition I felt it was a worthwhile sacrifice considering the state of the paintwork.


Monday started with me getting stuck into correcting the last remaining bits before finishing off.

The tailgate and rear bumper in the sun








After correction work on the bumper







Before under the LED again


After



Tail lights before




And after with around 90% correction achieved. I didn't want to risk damaging the old plastics!



Part of the bootlid before


And after



With the rear end completed that brought the paint correction to a close.

The majority of the paintwork received a 2 step correction of SIP on a green 3M pad followed by 85RE5 on a yellow 3M pad. Some of the worse affected areas got S100 on green, followed by P203S on yellow and finished with 85RE5 on yellow. 2 problem areas with soft, sticky paint (repaired panels I suspect) were corrected with a mix of P203S and M205, followed by 85RE5.

For whatever reason the M205 seemed to work alot more smoothly than the Menz on the sticky panels. The M205 on it's own wasn't delivering quite the same correction as the P203S, so I decided to try mixing a drop of 203 with the M205, which worked really well.


With the paintwork completed it was time for a final wash to remove the accumulated polishing dust and oils before finishing off.

LSP of choice was the remaining Raceglaze Black Label sample that Mark had sent me. As with the other Raceglaze waxes the Black Label is soft and goes on easily. Leave it on for too long however and it can be a bit stubborn in coming off. I followed Mark's advice of applying and removing panel for panel and didn't experience any other issues.

Tires got Wheelwax Extreme Black dressing, plastic and rubber trim got Satin prot while the engine bay was dressed with 303 and CG's Fade2Black on the hard to reach areas. Finally the glass was cleaned with Sonax glass cleaner and the car was given a final buff and dust.


The finished shots back at the owners place

Engine bay. The black plastic rain tray was too badly faded to be completely restored despite 4 layers of Satin Prot!


Wheel and tires



Some final shots in the fading light.

The owner said he will snap some daylight pics for me as we ran out of light.

















Nice and neat for a 219k km, 10 year old car!





As always thanks for looking

[calypso]

Nice work, that paint was really battered so the customer must be pleased about the turn around.

[Edlover]

Carn, its ridiculous how much attention to detail you have. Really impressive as always!

[flarkitwo]

(12-08-2010 03:17 AM)Edlover Wrote:  Carn, its ridiculous how much attention to detail you have. Really impressive as always!

Agreed! Right down to noticing that the neighbour's curtains were still closed and therefore waiting a bit longer with the machine!

[Jughead]

Awesome work as usual Dave .... Yep .. attention to detail ... even using surgical gloves !!!! ...

[AMD001]

Excellent work Dave!!!

[Woodie]

All that effort for an Alfa - showing your true dedication to detailing there Dave.

Jokes aside - excellent work as usual.

[PrevanP]

Absolutely stunning work David.

[springbok]

Lovely work as usual on a classic. The 145 is a real collectors piece. Three and a half days of work. Thanks for a comprehensive write up.

There's a big concours coming up soon in Jhb. Part of the Alfa Centenary Celebrations. He should enter.

[Lambchop]

Awesome Dave

[Wayno]

AWESOME awesome work Dave!!!! Great attention to detail and an awesome writeup!!!!

[onyx]

As usual... fantastic work Dave!

[Adi]

Once Again, I am literally astounded at what you can achieve. Unbelievable! Well Done!

[Carn]

Thanks gents, appreciate the comments

@ Springbok, I mentioned the show to the client...Will hear back from him in the coming week as to whether or not he is keen on attending. If so the car may be back in for some more work on the interior, as well as to get the wheels off for a more through cleaning of the undercarriage

[Vincent]

Wow man thats really awe inspring work that. You are way out in front of the rest of us dude... Way way out.

[Torres1]

Awesome! Brilliant! Fantastic! Amazing! These words fit your work David. Great work and something to aspire to...

[jagged]

(12-08-2010 03:17 AM)Edlover Wrote:  Carn, its ridiculous how much attention to detail you have. Really impressive as always!

I agree....awesome work Carn

[Starvekos]

Stunning Dave and a well documented piece of work. Love the pre-LSP pics under direct sunlight. Not easy taking pics of red cause the colour tends to pixilate in direct sunlight. However, you captured your work with great clarity.

[Gerlach]

Nice work Dave!!!! I need to start on my Red toyota conquest to. Just need to get same more stuff. Where can i get some chemical guys products in cape town?

[Carn]

(18-08-2010 10:20 AM)Gerlach Wrote:  Nice work Dave!!!! I need to start on my Red toyota conquest to. Just need to get same more stuff. Where can i get some chemical guys products in cape town?

Drop Naush on this forum a PM. He can advise you where you can buy the CG products down there