OK, time to explain the FQ550 reference, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work it out
This car belongs to a guy that has come from high power Cosworths in the past and when he bought this he got Gary at APT to put one of his forged engines in, tuned with a Power FC and now pushing out a very healthy 550hp! With K-Sports all around and uprated springs on standard dampers, the owner reckons that it's the perfect road car package!
With the car inspected, areas of note discussed with the owner and a schedule agreed it was time to get a wiggle on as I had around 6-7 hours worth of work to do.
The wheels, tyres and arches were first followed by the exhaust so they were all degreased, cleaned and rinsed thoroughly before the rest of the bodywork, shuts and glass were thoroughly shampoo'd and rinsed again. I used three buckets for this; two for the bodywork to rinse and wash, and another for the wheels with a washmitt for each one.
Time to get started with the removal of tar and iron fallout on the paintwork. I always use properly formulated chemicals to do this first before going onto clay if it's necessary as it is just so much safer.
With the obvious surface contaminants dealt with it was time to use the clay on all panels. The roof, lower door panels and skirts were pretty bad but even the roof and A-pillars showed significant roughness to touch. This was the state of two pieces of clay after some of the work
The dark marks in it are embedded contaminants that were still present after over two hours of careful cleaning!
So with the claying complete, the bodywork needed to be shampoo'd again and rinsed before it could be towel dried ready for further inspection. The inspection showed a couple of areas that needed scratches removing or blemishes taken out.
An example of one of the scratches
After using a polishing compound with a sponge this was the result
Not perfect but certainly a big improvement and safe too.
The inspection and spot polishing completed, it was time to polish all of the exterior panels, door shuts, bonnet underside and all of the carbon fibre trim as this is prone to delamination. The tyres and arches were treated, the exhaust and metalwork under the bonnet was cleaned as well as all of the silicone hoses.
The next post will show the finished shots and explain the processes leading up this
Fortunately this one wasn't that bad but I still had a few gremlins to safely remove
