Hi Guys,
This RX8 was bought new back in 05 by Higgy. It has lived outside for much of its life and he brought it by to have some new life breathed into it.
There was a lot of oxidation on the car. The wash and decontamination process took around three hours to get it to the point I was happy with moving to the next stage.
It included two laps of the car claying with the prep towel and a heap of clay lube. This level of physical decontamination did put some marring into the paint which is par for the course, but as the car was to undergo a full paint correction, and the fact that as you'll see from the inspection pics there were a lot of pre-existing swirling and scratches, the marring from the prep towel was of very little concern in the grand scheme of things and would be easily dealt with.
Sometimes you have to put things in in order to take the larger stuff out. It's just a fact of detailing life. As long as you're aware of it and make allowances to deal with it then it isn't generally an issue.
With the paint inspection there was several years worth of swirling underneath the oxidation. Whilst it was pretty bad in some areas, overall considering the age of the car it isn't unexpected. Paint levels were all over the place due to some areas that were repainted several years ago. Factory paint was in the low 60 micron range, so I had to tread extremely carefully. Some things were just not able to be taken out due to the depth of the scratching and the lack of paint on the car. Again, just a fact of life unfortunately. Higgy was well aware of this though as he had previously brought the car around for an assessment and we discussed and set the level of expectation during this process.
Here are some before and after pics. This was a two stage paint correction. The first stage was to remove the swirling and scratching (or minimise where complete removal wasn't feasable). The second, follow-up correction stage was to hone the paint and amp up the gloss. In the same sort of way you would use different grades of sandpaper on wood to shape and then lighter grades to achieve a smooth finish, removing sanding marks as you go until you're left with an extremely smooth surface.
Before
After
Before
After
Before. You can see some of the light marring that the prep towel left as a result of having to shift all that oxidation. The pre-existing swirling was much worse though
After
Before. Apologies for the blurriness of this pic. It is still just clear enough to be able to see the damage
Closer (clearer) pic
After
Before
After
Before
After. Some scratches could only be minimised unfortunately
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Some 50/50s
- - - Updated - - -
The plastics were also quite faded. These were treated with long-term trim restorer
Before
During
After
Before
After
The exhaust surrounds were typically very badly faded due to exposure to hot RX8 exhaust pipes for years. A quirk which is common with RX8s
After, slightly better. Exhaust tips also got a long-overdue polish
Before
After
The centre part of the lower plastic valance wasn't that old, having been recently replaced
This was still treated with DLUX to give it a nicer dark look
50/50
Treating the underside of the plastic trim also. An often forgotten area but quite visible when looking at the back of the car from a distance
Some final pics
Overall time around 18hrs. Thanks
Dan
This RX8 was bought new back in 05 by Higgy. It has lived outside for much of its life and he brought it by to have some new life breathed into it.
There was a lot of oxidation on the car. The wash and decontamination process took around three hours to get it to the point I was happy with moving to the next stage.
It included two laps of the car claying with the prep towel and a heap of clay lube. This level of physical decontamination did put some marring into the paint which is par for the course, but as the car was to undergo a full paint correction, and the fact that as you'll see from the inspection pics there were a lot of pre-existing swirling and scratches, the marring from the prep towel was of very little concern in the grand scheme of things and would be easily dealt with.
Sometimes you have to put things in in order to take the larger stuff out. It's just a fact of detailing life. As long as you're aware of it and make allowances to deal with it then it isn't generally an issue.
With the paint inspection there was several years worth of swirling underneath the oxidation. Whilst it was pretty bad in some areas, overall considering the age of the car it isn't unexpected. Paint levels were all over the place due to some areas that were repainted several years ago. Factory paint was in the low 60 micron range, so I had to tread extremely carefully. Some things were just not able to be taken out due to the depth of the scratching and the lack of paint on the car. Again, just a fact of life unfortunately. Higgy was well aware of this though as he had previously brought the car around for an assessment and we discussed and set the level of expectation during this process.
Here are some before and after pics. This was a two stage paint correction. The first stage was to remove the swirling and scratching (or minimise where complete removal wasn't feasable). The second, follow-up correction stage was to hone the paint and amp up the gloss. In the same sort of way you would use different grades of sandpaper on wood to shape and then lighter grades to achieve a smooth finish, removing sanding marks as you go until you're left with an extremely smooth surface.
Before
After
Before
After
Before. You can see some of the light marring that the prep towel left as a result of having to shift all that oxidation. The pre-existing swirling was much worse though
After
Before. Apologies for the blurriness of this pic. It is still just clear enough to be able to see the damage
Closer (clearer) pic
After
Before
After
Before
After. Some scratches could only be minimised unfortunately
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Some 50/50s
- - - Updated - - -
The plastics were also quite faded. These were treated with long-term trim restorer
Before
During
After
Before
After
The exhaust surrounds were typically very badly faded due to exposure to hot RX8 exhaust pipes for years. A quirk which is common with RX8s
After, slightly better. Exhaust tips also got a long-overdue polish
Before
After
The centre part of the lower plastic valance wasn't that old, having been recently replaced
This was still treated with DLUX to give it a nicer dark look
50/50
Treating the underside of the plastic trim also. An often forgotten area but quite visible when looking at the back of the car from a distance
Some final pics
Overall time around 18hrs. Thanks
Dan
