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Rolls Royce Ghost

Car  Audi A4 AVANT 1.9TDi
Hi all. Thought this was worth sharing...

Rolls Royce Ghost – Bodyshop neglect

After leaving the Rolls Royce approved bodyshop following some light repairs and arriving back at the owners house, it was noted the car seemed to lack clarity and whilst handing over the car, dull patches were spotted as it came off the covered transporter.

Not happy about the condition the car had been delivered in, the owner had Rolls pick the car up to take away and finish the job properly. Another four weeks later and its delivery day. (Take two!)

The owner of the Ghost is now furious. No excuses for the condition the car had been left in. It was bad the first time round but upon their second attempt, it was truly unforgiving. The delivery driver claiming it just needed a “quick wipe down” *whilst throwing a bit of AutoGlym around marring the panels even more*

Long story short, the car wasn’t going back to Rolls Royce. Que WhiteDetails.

Upon inspection:

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The bodyshop defects will be revealed a little later once the wash stage is out the way.

I was only asked to carry out repairs to the damaged areas left by the bodyshop’s doings. This included, the boot lid, N/S rear quarter, N/S rear door, N/S front door, N/S front wing, half the bonnet and the roofline.

Starting with the wheels, these were cleaned up with Megs APC and various brushes.

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Vehicle had to be moved forwards to allow me to clean the area that was being blocked by the enormous calipers.

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Front end was covered in bug splats. G101 applied and left to dwell for a minute or two…

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Snowfoam delivered to act as the pre-wash and help emulsify any surface dirt.

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Snowfoam rinsed off at high pressure – further snowfoam application was given to aid the ultra slick wash with Dodo Juice’s Born To Be Mild shampoo.

Washed via the two bucket system..

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The Ghost was clayed at this point to remove any bonded contaminants but only being 7 months old, and, with half the car having fresh paint, there was very little to remove.

Clay lube residues rinsed and vehicle dried with ultra plush towels and the Black Baron Vehicle Dryer.

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A priceless bit of kit, it really is. (Especially for the mammoth grille up front!)

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OK. So, after a quick jig, I leave the car in the sun to show the bodyshop horrors. (Please bear in mind this is a 7 month old £200k+ Rolls Royce)

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Paint thickness readings of the nearside were all over the place:

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This shot shows the point at where the rear quarter had been compounded down to (but not making it all the way to the bottom) You could clearly see every pass that the machine polisher had made.

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After some work on the boot lid and the rear quarter, we’re left with this 50/50:

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Night and Day difference and it shows how much the bodyshop defects were stealing the true colour and clarity hidden beneath.

On most of the panels I could get away with only using a mild finishing polish and polishing pad. Some areas suffered badly though from sanding marks and deeper niggles which required chasing a little further.

A 50/50 between the two doors:

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Smaller spot pad work:

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Outside to check my progress:

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Rear wing before:

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And after:

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This made me laugh; they obviously didn’t ‘polish’ the whole bonnet - they just did a little area on the left hand side lower quarter:

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Similarly, the boot lid only suffered in a small area but both panels were refined as one to give the finish that it should have been left with at the bodyshop.

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Before on the N/S front wing:

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After:

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Lower down on the sills lots of rough sanding marks were still present:

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To improve, this required stepping up to FastCut+ on a light cut pad and the refining later with Menz 203s.

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Readings:

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Door before and after:

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Look real closely and you’ll see we’re left with deep pig-tailing from the DA sanding stages.

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Bonnet refined nicely:

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Roof befores:

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Roof afters:

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Although not one of the areas of concern, the lip of the rear bumper had a couple of light nicks too it.

Before/After:

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And Before/After:

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Much improved.


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Once all the machine work had been completed the paintwork was wiped down to remove polishing oils and BlackFire’s “Wet Diamond” All Paint Protection was applied by DA.

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Glass cleaned. Tyres dressed. Exhausts polished.

9 hours later, a Rolls Royce Ghost looking like it should:

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What a car.

Thanks for reading.

Jim
 
wow, what a turnaround, body shop should be ashamed, 200k car and they let it go like that, twice!
 
That is amazing. How much do people charge to clean cars like that?
Not that I could afford it , it's just out of intrest?
 
That is amazing. How much do people charge to clean cars like that?
Not that I could afford it , it's just out of intrest?
For a pro like Jim i'd guess around £400+

Will obviously depend upon your car etc. Excellent work fella, love your threads :approve:
 
Excellent as always Jim, thanks for still bringing your write ups here.

Using a Chicago as your rotary?
 
Love reading these, amazing to think you can achieve a completely different standard of work to someone employed by RR being paid god knows what.

Perhaps you should offer them your services (at a greatly inflated rate ;))
 
Disgraceful, but not surprising (sadly). Excellent work, but it should not have been required in the first place my friend.

Still, lovely opportunity to work on a stunning piece of metal and chrome :)
 
Awesome job, Was truly in awe and shock at the 50/50 shots, just to see how badly they had left the car!

I bet the owner was one happy customer after you rectified the problems outlined.
 
Many thanks guys.

wow, what a turnaround, body shop should be ashamed, 200k car and they let it go like that, twice!

Twice, yeah I know... It's a funny story how it came about. The Groundsman of the Manor had spotted a friend of his comment on Facebook on something called "WhiteDetails" (Me, obviously). He clicked through out of interest and was greeted by my FB 'fan page' to which he then went on to the main site. He was amazed.. At the time the Ghost owner was having the troubles, he suggested contacting me to see if I could help at all but the owner was adamant it was going to go back to Rolls. Second time round however, "what was the name of that kid who did the polishing John?" :approve: Facebook is an amazing place.


Looks stunning! Hope the dealer picked up the bill

Before the job went ahead it was confirmed with the Dealers that they would cover the costs. (Rightly so!)


For a pro like Jim i'd guess around £400+

Will obviously depend upon your car etc. Excellent work fella, love your threads :approve:

Thanks. RE the costings, yes, depends on vehicle size/condition and the job spec required. It's difficult sometimes... The Ghost was completed in a single day so was no where near the £400 mark. (if it were the whole car however then yes, it'd have to be somewhere around there)


Excellent as always Jim, thanks for still bringing your write ups here.

Using a Chicago as your rotary?

Thanks Gally.

It's a Chiacgo, yep. In the 'slow-death' stages that my Kestral SIM180 went through, I brought the all singing all dancing Makita to use as a primary. However. Said Makita is still boxed and i haven't even plugged it in!! The day before the new unit arrived on courier, I was completing a job on a Disco 3 and the owner said "here, have this (dusty) box of bits, they might not be any good, but, the're no good to me anymore!!" Contained within said box was scabby bottles of Super Resin Polish, some Turtle Wax, degreaser, "cockpit shine" and old skool 3M compound, but, right at the bottem, there was an old, filthy and what looked to be a worthless machine polisher. After cleaning it up and a few trial runs, hell, this machine is pretty awesome after all! I love it because it's so light and 'nimble'. Agile? Sounds silly, but, looking back compared to the Kestral, it is effortless to use. (the only downside to it is the head gets pretty hot so thats why I'm wearing the glove on my left hand all the time :rasp:)


Love reading these, amazing to think you can achieve a completely different standard of work to someone employed by RR being paid god knows what.

Perhaps you should offer them your services (at a greatly inflated rate ;))

I'm hoping the report was sent over to the Dealers at the time the owner requested payment. It's obvious they haven't got anyone in house to do the job properly so it'd be great to get the work out-sourced to me!


Disgraceful, but not surprising (sadly). Excellent work, but it should not have been required in the first place my friend.

Still, lovely opportunity to work on a stunning piece of metal and chrome :)

This is true. The O/S of the car wasn't bad. Although it is valeted once a week the swirls were minimal and only one or two rough marred areas caught your attention. Give it another 6 months maybe and who knows, it may come back to full correction all round. (I'm looking forward to all the britework and interior details!)


Awesome job, Was truly in awe and shock at the 50/50 shots, just to see how badly they had left the car!

I bet the owner was one happy customer after you rectified the problems outlined.

Very happy. I will be chasing him today to see if the Dealer has been given the photos.. As soon as I hear more, and, hopefully with a testimonial, I will be back on.

Thanks again all.

Have a nice weekend! :)
 
Whts the CP like? Im hugely tempted to buy one. S1M is a little bulky and im using it for most of my correction now my DA is broken, getting used to rotary for everything now.
 
I saw this on your site the other day mate. Absolutely stunning work! Such a beautiful machine, what a bunch of eejits.

I used to work in a bodyshop and let me tell you, I wouldn't even let a Micra out in that state!
 
Cracking work as ever Jim, what a lovely car to work on!

I need to get me some anti vibration gloves, after using the cp for 5 hours my hands were screwed :( Where did u get them? Do they do extra small? ;)
 
Brilliant read mate, the condition of that RR was truly disgusting when you did your 50/50's. Top work.
 
What a mess :dapprove: I hope you're providing them with the photos so they can take that to the bodyshop and make them hang their heads in shame !!

Clean black cars look good. That looks tremendous !

Gotta love a Roller... Good work that man !
 
lol Mag - they're nothing special the gloves.. They're just, gloves! Builders gloves that I only wear on the left hand as the head of the polisher gets a little too hot to touch sometimes :rasp:

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I've been in touch with the owner and hopefully should have a few lines from them later this afternoon. (testimonial)
 
Awesome car and awesome work as always. Digusting the state RR left it in!

Out of couriosity, what kind of brushes do you use on wheels? I'm in desperate need of a decent brush as I'm using a sponge for the wheels atm :dapprove:
 
Leeds, all sorts of brushes/mitts. Mainly, its the EZ Detail brush that is a life saver.. Reaches right back to the inner rims and the mini one is also handy to get around the front/sides of calipers! :)

Been meaning to get this up for a while, but, here's a wee vid of the Ghost whilst in direct sun:

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The second picture down, picture of the calliper, are there letters missing off the Rolls Royce branding on the calliper?
 
It's a very good spot that Danny - I'd noticed that too... It was the same on the driver's side aswel.
 
Bloody hell! Whoever the dealership is, they need to stir up a sh*tstorm with that bodyshop. If they are Rolls Royce approved then that is truly awful!

I work for a Aston Martin approved bodyshop and we currently do bodywork for the local Rolls dealer. If a car left our place in that state we'd get crucified!

Any idea who did the orignal work? Hats off to you for the rectification work by the way. Looks stunning now.
 
The am bodyshop in Birmingham are a shower of s**t. The amv8 went in for a front end respray (some lovely person reversed into it and drive off). Came back with the front 3 different shades of silver.
 
It's a very good spot that Danny - I'd noticed that too... It was the same on the driver's side aswel.

Wasnt sure if i was just seeing things! Does the owners know? Id be pretty pissed i reckon, such a boss's car, the pads superb aswell!

Always a pleasure to read your work Jim!
 
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