spent an excellent day with Mark at Karlsson Collins recently...
background:i picked up my mk3 8v about a year back and throughout the summer tried in vain to detail it to a point where i was getting decent results from the washing and waxing process... after many weekends and summer evenings spent either washing or researching I had reached a stage where I needed to call upon a professional
nooks, crannies and the trim all returned good results... a switch to the two bucket method, waffle weaves, decent shampoos and waxes and a couple of clayings returned even better results but it still wasn't right... this was about the best it got:
the problem:previous poor washing technique from the previous owner had left the car with heavy swirl marks, the previous owner had also had a fit of 'paint stick rage' and got a bit over enthusiastic and put paint stick on every panel... this left the car looking somewhat flat, dull and unsightly even when it was clean... i was either looking at mismatched paint stick or more scratches than a flea infested mutt
had been to several paint shops and asked every poor sod in the car industry that I met for advice and was quoted between £750-£4000 to solve the problem
i decided to leave it and then saw Mark's offer for work on the forum... was in like Flynn... and after a few PM's to work out what was needed and a while to find a mutual space in our diaries here is what happened....
the process:joined Mark on a cold late December morning... had washed the car the day before but it got dirty and muddy on the journey over to Mark so we had to give it a quick clean before we kicked off with the paintwork correction...
Car pre rinsed with Citrus pre wash / non caustic traffic film remover solution applied using a hand held sprayer - smells great and you can visibly see it working
Wheels cleaned with Auto Smart Smart wheels (no pictures of this)
Car foamed with combination of Auto brite Supa snow foam / Raceglaze Aqua bath Ph neutral shampoo - produces a fantastic foam!
rinsed off and then dried using RaceGlaze drying towels... I normally use a Megs Waffle Weave and RaceGlaze towels are much better!
a virtually touchless wash - brilliant!
the car was then moved inside where Mark has a brilliant Halogen light set-up so that the paintwork can be inspected fully...
Mark then proceeded to take paint depth measurements - 95 in total!!
You can also clearly see the swirl marks in this photo...
Mark was able to detect that although the paintwork quality was fairly even the car had at some point been involved in an altercation needing a drivers side door repair.. which returned uneven depth measurements (I have since conferred with the previous owner and this was the case... someone had reversed into the door in a car park!)
the car was then masked off and we set about removing the paint stick with thinners....
paint stick removed - revealed some light scratching underneath where someone had used an abrasive cleaning pad to remove some type of stain...
more example of paint stick... this time on rear passenger door... (more on this one later)
Mark then set about wet sanding some of the worst affected areas... specifically the top of the bonnet where there were some deeper scratches...
Mark then set me to work on a test panel on the front quarter of the bonnet... he taught me how to handle my new Meguiars G220 DA and we (Mark) worked out what pad and polish combinations we would be using starting with a less aggressive pad and compound and then working with more aggressive combinations to get the desired result...
proof I did some work!
i had brought with me Meguiars Mirror Glaze - Dual Action Cleaner/Polish #83 and all three Meguiars pads... decided that we were able to use the Meguiars Soft Buff 6.5" Foam Cutting Pad W7006 for maximum effect...
the test panel returned these results...
before:
after:
before:
after:
Mark worked on areas that needed heavy correction.... he used Poor Boys world SSR3 polishing compound applied via rotary and Porter Cable
One of the main things that I learned is that you will not get instant results... it takes time... the cutting/polishing process took two of us about 4 hours so you need to give yourself plenty of time and have lots of patience!
once we had been over the bonnet and roof of the car and Mark had addressed the worst affected areas we went over the rest of the panels with Menzerna Pro line Intensive polish applied via PC and Megs polisher
Menzerna I found to be an excellent polish to work with... it not only is easy but I found it virtually 'tells' you when it has done its work...
once this was complete we went over the car Menzerna Pro line final finish polish applied via PC and Megs polisher and a lighter polishing pad - in my case Meguiars Soft Buff 6.5" Foam Finishing Pad W9006 - this was a really enjoyable part of the process as the results really started to shine through! (sorry for the pun)
we experimented with some waxes and polishes and Mark suggested that we use Mark V Glisten sealant - this we applied using foam applicator pads and was left to dry and wiped off using microfibres
Mark then dressed the exterior plastics and tyres with Auto Smart Highstyle using a paint brush application process... noticed it was much easier than cloths creams squirting from bottles all over paintwork!
so... the results....
the bonnet Mark was wet sanding which had the swirls shown in the Paint Depth Measurement picture...
remember this....
before:
after:
paint stick was removed from this original spot:
after thinners showing evidence of abrasive cleaning methods:
after cutting and polishing:
remember this little blighter right in the middle of a door panel?:
now look!!: (my favourite picture!)
wet sanded area:
general shots:
there are still some surface imperfections but Mark has shown me how to address these and when there are spare weekends in the coming months I will be carrying on the good work that has been started... it has to be remembered that this is a daily driver that has had 13 years of use 12 of which were by people that really didn't care about the paintwork.
I would like to publicly thank Mark (Cornish Pixie) for his time, generosity and his excellent hospitality. Mark is such a detailed professional with a great work ethic and is really genuine - my advice to anyone umming and erring about needing help with paintwork correction or wanting to kick off their car detailing process is to use him... I am sure you will agree that the results achieved were astounding!
I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I did... I have ended up absolutely delighted with the results!
