My first attempt at paint correction - mk1 focus RS

[Hodgins]

The paint on the focus has bugged me since i
bought it (few days before christmas just gone)

car has been looked after mechanically but looks like its seen some car washes and what i think may be wash brush marks

so with the weather breaking and show season coming up i best get cracking

Following on from this thread http://www.cliosport.net/forum/show...de-swirl-my-RS-another-recommend-me-thread%85

being a novice, thought id best get some
advice and just want to say cheers to 'Detail Chris' for recommending the products and advice
helped massively, and hoping to get into detailing a bit more

Poor pictures
plus photobucket has killed the quality which doesnt help
heres what we started with;

Got my order off i4detailing, can see how this can become expensive.

Washed the car 2 bucket method, then attacked the large amounts of tar with tardis
rinsed the car back off
then clayed using 3M clay and AG rapid detailer as a lube (had a halfords voucher so needed spending lol)

wheels didnt get touched as theyre being refurbed this week

car was dried and put back in the garage on the ramp, handy to have, didnt have to bend so had good access to lower parts of the car

Was hard to see what i was doing so out came the halogens

and all taped up

time to start polishing:
heres the door after one hit with yellow pad and S17, found this combo worked best

major difference, but the car was covered in, what i believe theyre called RDS?

deep scratches on the car, almost every panel, as said earlier, maybe from washing with a brush or just poor method lol

Lots of deeper ones remain:

decided 2 hits all round would do the trick

Door done, sort of a 50/50

Rear quarter, 50/50 (deeper scratch remaining)

this was done over a week, few hours after work each nite

this is how i left it midweek:

continued on, and got it all finally polished, then i gave it a coat of dodo juice purple haze to finish

was really impressed by that stuff,

heres some rubbish pictures of the end result, didnt take many as i didnt plan to do a thread lol

If im honest, the uploaded pics make it look s**te lol
but its definatley loads better

really glad its been sorted, and its even better that i did it myself, considering i paid to have my clio done previously

wheels being refurbed to original silver this week with new centre caps
ready for her first show, RS day @castle combe next saturday

comments and critisism welcome

 

[MatthewR]

Looking good mate, really special car and its nice to see you've tried it yourself instead of paying to get it done!

 

[Scrooge]

You've made a good effort mate

 

[VIICarCare]

Great effort, much better to do it yourself, don't you think?

 

[.GAZ.]

Awesome motor!

 

[m4tt274]

You can tell its better, dont be so hard on the pictures lol.
Its one of those things that makes a car look so much better. Im a bit of a 'mint freak' and if i was buying a car the paintwork would plecebo me into thinking the car was better looked after. lol

 

[Gally]

Great job mate. Even Pros can't always correct cars 100% due the clearcoat issues, depth etc.

You've done a great job mate although the photo quality has died!

Don't worry about the deeper marks. People forget how much of a life these cars have had before someone who wants to detail owns one. Ford paint is also a dream to work on.

 

[Hodgins]

Cheers for all the comments,
glad that i had a go at doing it myself, really chuffed how it came out,

the deeper marks can only be seen under the halogens in the garage, and if you really look for them in the sun, so im not going to attack them further, plus visible scratches around door handles, fuel cap etc now cannot be seen so happy with that

scrubs up well for a 10 year old car

only thing left to do is give it a good wash to get the polish dust out of the door shuts etc
but that will have to wait as the car is currently on axle stands

Question i have, currently the stone chips on the front bumper are now filled 'white' with polish, will a post polish wash get rid of these?

​cheers

 

[Richyy182]

Love these motors - how much are they now ?

 

[Hodgins]

Theyve gone up a bit again in the last few months,

vary a lot in price £6-£10k+ mileage etc as with all cars
but usually 60k miles ones are about 7.5k to £8.5k in good nick

This set me back £8k with 62k in the spec i wanted, buy on conditoon and not miles as theyre pretty much bomb proof

 

[Matt W]

Will have to have a look at it

 

[Poopensharten]

ST170 xenons are a nice addition, love these things though.

 

[chris_p]

Good job mate. Some of the deeper marks could be attacked with wet and dry but I'd recommend a PDG for that, youtube videos will help for technique. Some sort of filler product could also take the eye of them if you value your clearcoat! SRP etc.

For the stonechips, get rid of them! http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=217520
Ill be trying out these techniques on me shortly.

Love these cars. Seriously considering one ATM, you'd recommend? I know petrol heads think they're great, but do you find 'normal' people look twice at these or would you consider it a little bit of a sleeper in that aspect?

 

[JD]

Good job mate. Some of the deeper marks could be attacked with wet and dry but I'd recommend a PDG for that, youtube videos will help for technique. Some sort of filler product could also take the eye of them if you value your clearcoat! SRP etc.

For the stonechips, get rid of them! http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=217520
Ill be trying out these techniques on me shortly.

Love these cars. Seriously considering one ATM, you'd recommend? I know petrol heads think they're great, but do you find 'normal' people look twice at these or would you consider it a little bit of a sleeper in that aspect?

My other half asked what one of these was in John Lewis car park over the weekend. She hates cars. I said I'd considered one before the Panzer. She asked why I didn't go with the Foci, purely on the colour...!

OP, great results - echo the remarks made about loving these cars. Just hate the interior!

 

[terryc101]

Great results for your first time, car looks very good.

 

[Leeshez]

Wow. Spot on is that .