Another recent detail from Gordon and I – this time carried out over a pair of night shifts as the car was to be prepped ready to go to a show in Northern Ireland. A midnight blue TVR Tuscan, the car was in good condition with moderate swirling that the owner wanted sorted out before going to the show. This car was detailed in conjunction with David G of Carwashnwax who carried out the pre-polishing prep work (washing and claying), Gordon and I then took over for the paintwork correction and protection aspects. At the start of night one, Gordon and I were greeted with a clean looking TVR Tuscan, and a good gloss to the paint was already present... Under closer inspection however it was clear there was a degree of moderate swirling across the car – the good old 3M Sun Gun highlighting it nicely. So we begin this writeup at the massive bonnet of the car where the Sun Gun was used to assess the swirls present in the paintwork... The body of a TVR Tuscan, like many TVRs, is made from fibre glass which necessitates care when using the rotary polisher as the fibre glass cannot dissipate the heat as effectively as a metal panel. Greater care must therefore be taken to assure the panel temperatures remained sensible with no localised hot spots that could cause paint damage. After assessing the paint finish from the least abrasive combination first as per usual, it was decided that the appropriate combination of pad and polish for the correction work on this car was Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish on a 3M yellow polishing pad using a standard Zenith Point technique as follows... 1) Spread the polish at 600rpm 2) Begin working the polish at 1200rpm, light pressure until residue evenly spread and a little heat built in the panel (heat helps the residue spread smoothly and evenly rather than clumping) 3) Work at 1500rpm with moderate pressure until the residue goes clear, making steady sweeping motions with the polisher and ensuring the panel does not get any warmer than hand hot. Working speed here slightly reduced over my typical IP sets (1800rpm), but compensated for by an increase in set length to ensure the polish fully worked 4) Refine the finish at 1200rpm for a couple of passes with light pressure. The finish was then refined using Menzerna PO85RD Final Finish on a 3M blue finishing pad, applied using a standard Zenith Point technique as follows... 1) Spread the polish at 600rpm 2) Begin working the polish at 1200rpm, light pressure until residue evenly spread and a little heat built in the panel 3) Work at 1500rpm with moderate pressure until the residue goes clear, making steady sweeping motions with the polisher and ensuring the panel does not get any warmer than hand hot. 4) Refine the finish at 1200rpm for a couple of passes with light pressure. 5) Burnish the finish at 900rpm, supporting the weight of the machine for very light pressure and slow machine movements for a few passes The end results on the bonnet an increase in the depth of the finish, brought about by an improvement to the clarity from machine polishing... Under the Sun Gun we can now see a swirl free finish... Moving on to the passenger side of the car, we can see the swirls on the front wing... Correction here was as above for the bonnet – Intensive Polish followed by Final Finish to give the following... Moving on to the door we can see some slightly deeper marks – these types of marks are generally not evident under the Sun Gun and are best highlighted with a dimmer light source such as a strip light or in this case the halogen heater (to keep me warm!) was doing a good job too: Also, more generally, swirl marks on the panel too... The deeper marks were corrected using a single hit of 3M Fast Cut Plus, applied as follows using a Chemical Guys Yellow Hexlogic Compounding Pad: 1) Spread at 600rpm 2) Begin working at 1200rpm to get residue evenly spread 3) Work at 1500 – 1800rpm with moderate pressure monitoring the panel temperatures This was followed with Intensive Polish and Final Finish as described above... The additional compounding stage helped greatly in dealing with the deeper marks, only the very deep RDS remaining in the panel following this correction stage which were partly rounded using the Intensive Polish stage. Results of correction... And the end results of refining under the Sun Gun: Rear three quarter before... And after correction and refining with Intensive Polish and Final Finish respectively... The bootlid before: And after correction and refining... Driver’s side before... And after... Following machine polishing, the paintwork was treated to Chemical Guys EZ Creme Glaze followed by Chemical Guys 50/50 wax for protection. Glass was cleaned using 3D Glass Cleaner. Tyres and arches dressed with Espuma RD-50 and the wheels sealed using FK1000P. Exhaust tips polished using Zeppelin Custom Metal Polish, applied by hand and worked in using a microfibre cloth before residue being removed. The end results following the paint correction and protection stage of the detail which Gordon and I worked on... we’d have loved to get outdoor after shots of this car but alas as we were working night shifts on the car, it was dark outside (as per usual for us at this time of year alas – roll on the summer!!), so indoor only afters for this detail I’m afraid... And to round off, a little fun with our indoor lighting and the curves of the bonnet :
