Megane R26
Wow, I'm in love!
Today's car was a rather sexy RenaultSport Megane 250 Cup, in Oyster Grey, with optional Recaro's and 19" Speedline wheels. What a car! The build quality of this thing is incredible for a French hatch, it just feels so solid! I want one...
Anyway... you may recognise the location for this one; I have a detailed a number of cars here for the owner of this 250. He has recently bought this 250, and asked me to take a look at it for him to give it a good spruce up. I went armed with heavy duty correction on the cards, but was happily greeted with little more than minor hazing and swirling in the clearcoat. Otherwise, the car just needed a damn good clean and some protection.
The process was as follows:
- Arches and Tyres scrubbed with various brushes and Autosmart G101
- Wheels cleaned with Envy brushes and Autosmart Smart Wheels (and what a pain they were!!)
- Car snow foamed with Autosmart Autowash:
This was left to soak for 10 minutes or so, whilst I went around the car with another Envy brush, working the formula into the various shuts, sills and grilles.
From here, I:
- Hand washed the car using my Zymol Caddy, a Zymol sponge and Dodo BTBM
- Rinsed the shampoo solution off
- I then proceeded to deal with the surprisingly high amount of tar, which Autosmart Tardis made very short work of.
Pic of the MF after removing the tar:
The next step was to decide whether or not to clay the car. As I rubbed my hand over the lower panels, I was shocked to feel just how many bonded contaminents were present - I feared I'd be claying this for a while, which is surprising for a Feb 10 car!
So, out came Dodo Born Slippy and Swissvax Paint Rubber:
Quite a bit on there, but it came straight off!!
(That's after just 1 door!!!!)
Next up, I assessed the paint to see what level of correction was required. It was slightly swirly, with a couple of deeper scratches, but they were so light, I was unable to pick them up with my camera. I decided to test an area with Dodo Juice Lime Prime (a great correctional paint cleanser!), to see whether or not I could correct just using this.
I started off with a Sonus SFX3 pad and Lime Prime, but this combo didn't have quite enough cut, so I changed to an SFX2 pad and was amazed at how well it corrected the paintwork. I then proceeded to machine polish the rest of the car with this combo, stepping up to Menzerna 203S and SFX1 pad for some more troublesome areas, which I then refined with Lime Prime.
The only issue I wasn't able to fully remedy was what appeared to be bird poo etching on the rear spoiler, which somebody had tried to remove with something a bit too aggressive, so I had a combination of clearcoat etching and RDS's, but being on a plastic spoiler I decided against correcting this. The owner is going to speak to Renault to see if they can sort this for him.
Wax wise I went for Swissvax Onyx today:
This was applied to the entire car and left to cure, whilst I:
- Wiped down interior plastics with 303 Protectant
- Vacuum'd with Henry
- Interior and Exterior Glass with Swissvax Crystal
- Wheels protected with Swissvax Autobahn
- Tyres dressed with Pinnacle Onyx Gel (LOOOOVE this stuff!)
- Plastic exhaust trim hand corrected with Dodo Lime Prime
- External rubbers and plastics treated with 303
The wax was then removed, and I used Zymol Field Glaze for a final wipedown.
Some afters... it cleared MUCH better in the flesh, I need to really learn how to get the best from this indoor lighting!
I'm on love and now want one...
Thanks for reading
Russ.
Today's car was a rather sexy RenaultSport Megane 250 Cup, in Oyster Grey, with optional Recaro's and 19" Speedline wheels. What a car! The build quality of this thing is incredible for a French hatch, it just feels so solid! I want one...
Anyway... you may recognise the location for this one; I have a detailed a number of cars here for the owner of this 250. He has recently bought this 250, and asked me to take a look at it for him to give it a good spruce up. I went armed with heavy duty correction on the cards, but was happily greeted with little more than minor hazing and swirling in the clearcoat. Otherwise, the car just needed a damn good clean and some protection.
The process was as follows:
- Arches and Tyres scrubbed with various brushes and Autosmart G101
- Wheels cleaned with Envy brushes and Autosmart Smart Wheels (and what a pain they were!!)
- Car snow foamed with Autosmart Autowash:
This was left to soak for 10 minutes or so, whilst I went around the car with another Envy brush, working the formula into the various shuts, sills and grilles.
From here, I:
- Hand washed the car using my Zymol Caddy, a Zymol sponge and Dodo BTBM
- Rinsed the shampoo solution off
- I then proceeded to deal with the surprisingly high amount of tar, which Autosmart Tardis made very short work of.
Pic of the MF after removing the tar:
The next step was to decide whether or not to clay the car. As I rubbed my hand over the lower panels, I was shocked to feel just how many bonded contaminents were present - I feared I'd be claying this for a while, which is surprising for a Feb 10 car!
So, out came Dodo Born Slippy and Swissvax Paint Rubber:
Quite a bit on there, but it came straight off!!
(That's after just 1 door!!!!)
Next up, I assessed the paint to see what level of correction was required. It was slightly swirly, with a couple of deeper scratches, but they were so light, I was unable to pick them up with my camera. I decided to test an area with Dodo Juice Lime Prime (a great correctional paint cleanser!), to see whether or not I could correct just using this.
I started off with a Sonus SFX3 pad and Lime Prime, but this combo didn't have quite enough cut, so I changed to an SFX2 pad and was amazed at how well it corrected the paintwork. I then proceeded to machine polish the rest of the car with this combo, stepping up to Menzerna 203S and SFX1 pad for some more troublesome areas, which I then refined with Lime Prime.
The only issue I wasn't able to fully remedy was what appeared to be bird poo etching on the rear spoiler, which somebody had tried to remove with something a bit too aggressive, so I had a combination of clearcoat etching and RDS's, but being on a plastic spoiler I decided against correcting this. The owner is going to speak to Renault to see if they can sort this for him.
Wax wise I went for Swissvax Onyx today:
This was applied to the entire car and left to cure, whilst I:
- Wiped down interior plastics with 303 Protectant
- Vacuum'd with Henry
- Interior and Exterior Glass with Swissvax Crystal
- Wheels protected with Swissvax Autobahn
- Tyres dressed with Pinnacle Onyx Gel (LOOOOVE this stuff!)
- Plastic exhaust trim hand corrected with Dodo Lime Prime
- External rubbers and plastics treated with 303
The wax was then removed, and I used Zymol Field Glaze for a final wipedown.
Some afters... it cleared MUCH better in the flesh, I need to really learn how to get the best from this indoor lighting!
I'm on love and now want one...
Thanks for reading
Russ.
