This particular car came to me through a friend who I have done work for before. He told me he knows a guy that has some interesting cars and that I needed to contact him. We met up and decided to give it a shot. There is a show coming up in a week and he wanted to get it cleaned up as best as possible. Working with what I had briefly seen and been told, I knew it was going to be a challenge. However, I still underestimated it lol. This car was imported to SC from London and it's quite a story on getting it over here. But to sum it up, it sat outside, in the elements, for three months before it finally boarded a ship for a long trip over here. Unfortunately, it still doesn't have space in the garage at the moment. Hence the rather harsh appearance and difficulty in restoring it to the potential we knew it had. The car was originally green and was repainted red with a single stage job (not sure how long ago). I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story but total time spent on it was 24 hours over three days. Exterior: Foam wash Clay bar More clay bar Finally got to the surface of the paint after some more clay bar Dried Masked Griot's DA 6" with Uber green, orange, yellow pads Menzerna SF4000, FG400 Menzerna Powerlock Interior: Wipe down Vacuum Griot's 3" with brush attachment and 1Z DPC on the leather seats As it arrived... This wheel just needs to be refinished. I got the rust looking stuff to start to come off with a small wire brush just to see what it would do. Let's get started! This was after half of the hood: Condition of CF hood: This was the first pass on about a 7" section under the left tail light (above the exhaust): Walking around the car taking in the sights: The roof had no clarity what-so-ever (more on that later): This one blew my mind! Two hours on the hood and it was looking good: Working around the car now: The roof. Wasn't really sure what to expect on this one as it was so dull you could look at it and not see one bit of reflection. So I started light and went up from there. Glad it got some clarity back. Slapped some Powerlock on and started working on the interior... Decided to just pull the seats so it would be much easier to work on them and get access to the rears. Touched up under the hood a bit. Nothing crazy. Okay, back to the seats. 50/50 working on the fronts: Left seat untouched, right seat done: Working on the backsides and headrests: Putting it to sleep for the end of day 2 Up again bright and early to get to work on the 3rd day...... Finishing up the back seats! Top half done, bottom half still to do: Finally finished. Rolled it out to see how it looked. Another cloudy day, of course. Hanging out with the wife's car. Still beading up nicely Tucked back in, hidden from the coming rain, waiting for its proud owner to come and get her...... Thanks for looking. Lots and lots of work in this one but it was enjoyable and something different to work on
That is some amazing work. Well done sire. I love that turn around. What did the customer have to say about it?
He was very happy. Unfortunately, as I had the thought in the back of my mind, the hood and roof (the two worst areas) have already started hazing again. I was told the hood had been re-cleared before but I also know CF can be finicky. Not sure why it started hazing back up two days later after being polished out and then immediately sealed. The roof must just not have anything left on it. We were both hoping they would stay looking good but know there isn't much that can be done without respray, etc.
Thats awesome work. Not all that uncommon to see the CF hoods fade and haze up. Often time the resin is infact the issue and not just the surface. I have had some luck with sanding them down to the point its almost at the carbon and then re-resin the whole thing. It takes a lot of time and patience but it can be done. Was there any paint transfer from the roof when you did that section?
Not really that I remember. He made it sound like it faded just a little bit but nothing like the hood. I haven't seen the car again yet though. I would like to.
