Trophy #444 Correction Detail

[Lawro]

Few photos for you guys of the Trophy I was working on late last week.

A previous customer of mine bought it recently. 1 owner from new, 65K on the clock. Lovely history, just a bit tired looking so we had it in for wheels off correction to restore some of that Trophy flair.

Was a hard one for me, felt a bit like déjà vu but was good fun none the less.

Around 35 hours in total, corrected with KochChemie Heavy Cut and refined with Anti-Hologramm via the Flex 3401. All original paint reading between 170-200 across all panels other than the OS rear quarter which has had a smart repair at some point and was reading around 310um.

Paint finished up with Auto Finesse Desire and topped with Illusion. Zaino Z6 between coats and a final wipedown with Z8.

Arches and Sachs Dampers protected with GTechniq C2V3, plastics with Koch Chemie NanoTrim.

Interior cleaned with Gtechniq W5 and treated with GTechniq I1 and C6.

Glass coated with G1 Clear Vision.

Sorry the photos aren't in any particular order.

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

Trophy Correction Detail by Lawro1988, on Flickr

 

[Stefan.]

Wow

That is properly nice!

Great work

 

[aucky]

Top work! Looks great!

 

[Mr Plums]

Looks great good work mate.

 

[Coby.]

Looking minty fresh, Great work as always.

 

[Smiffyboy1990]

Looks great!

 

[markoc]

Quality! The Trophy is looking good!

 

[Knuckles]

Ace, it really looks brilliant. Is this James' trophy?

Are you full time with detailing now? And how long did you spend on this?

 

[Martin.]

Very nice.

Would you mind PMing me with how much you charged for that, if you don't want to say in here x

 

[Adam93]

Another great job Lawro.

 

[Chapppers11]

Looks lovely that mate, great work!

Braver man than me though taking those indicators out to clean, they snapped on me when I did it on my 172.

 

[Lawro]

Ace, it really looks brilliant. Is this James' trophy?

Are you full time with detailing now? And how long did you spend on this?

Yeah Scott it's James' car.

As above, I put around 35 hours into this one. The arches took a while to sort out lol!

No, still only part time mate. I have a fixed term contract with my day job for another 18 months so I'm stuck as I am for a while. Doing 3 days at work and 4 days detailing generally so it's not too bad.

 

[Lawro]

Very nice.

Would you mind PMing me with how much you charged for that, if you don't want to say in here x

No problem Martin, give me a few hours and I will PM you.

 

[Lawro]

Looks lovely that mate, great work!

Braver man than me though taking those indicators out to clean, they snapped on me when I did it on my 172. 😧

Cheers Andy! Haha, yeah I was a little nervous because they snapped on my 182 too lol! Couldn't leave them dirty though haha.

 

[Richy182.]

Great work as always

 

[Knuckles]

Ah that's not too bad then! Is the plan to eventually go full time?

I can see you having absolutely no trouble taking off if/when you do go full time

Yeah Scott it's James' car.

As above, I put around 35 hours into this one. The arches took a while to sort out lol!

No, still only part time mate. I have a fixed term contract with my day job for another 18 months so I'm stuck as I am for a while. Doing 3 days at work and 4 days detailing generally so it's not too bad.

 

[Lawro]

Ah that's not too bad then! Is the plan to eventually go full time?

I can see you having absolutely no trouble taking off if/when you do go full time :smile:

Thanks man, I appreciate that!

At the moment, I'm just trying to build a good client base really. Trouble is, working part time you get booked up really quickly and the last thing I want to do is start turning people away.. I currently have bookings well into June!

It's also nice to maintain cars you have previously detailed which I'm finding a lot more difficult to fit in of late which isn't good from a customers point of view.

My main concern is my health though. I had a series of spinal operations in both 2006 and 2013 and a fair amount of my back is now synthetic material so I'm not sure how well I'm going to hold up with intensive manual work on a full time basis.

Only time will tell I guess but to answer the question, yes, I would love to go full time at some point.

 

[V6Dan]

Looks lovely! I wish I had the patience, time and skill to get my car looking that good.

 

[_Tom]

Nice work matey.

 

[Knuckles]

Thanks man, I appreciate that!

At the moment, I'm just trying to build a good client base really. Trouble is, working part time you get booked up really quickly and the last thing I want to do is start turning people away.. I currently have bookings well into June!

It's also nice to maintain cars you have previously detailed which I'm finding a lot more difficult to fit in of late which isn't good from a customers point of view.

My main concern is my health though. I had a series of spinal operations in both 2006 and 2013 and a fair amount of my back is now synthetic material so I'm not sure how well I'm going to hold up with intensive manual work on a full time basis.

Only time will tell I guess but to answer the question, yes, I would love to go full time at some point.

Yeah, I know what you mean. You become fairly inflexible while having other commitments. I only have two and a half days off and still it's hard to do it as a hobby for people.

That sounds serious! Do you have any creepers or anything to help you get around? Fingers crossed it doesn't cause you any trouble in the future!

 

[Lawro]

Yeah, I know what you mean. You become fairly inflexible while having other commitments. I only have two and a half days off and still it's hard to do it as a hobby for people.

That sounds serious! Do you have any creepers or anything to help you get around? Fingers crossed it doesn't cause you any trouble in the future!

It's not ideal mate, after a days detailing I can barely move during the evening but I just work through it.

Yeah I have a couple of creepers and recently got any myself a stool from slims detailing which is pretty good.

 

[brucey106]

Why can't you be local to me! I need mine doing. I paid someone last year ok only to paint correct it but still clean it for me, he got 80% of swirls out, he left all my blacks with compound on, dust in the recaro harness holes, sills still dirty. Wheels were still dirty. £300 I paid, and he wanted me to ring and say how impressed I was! Jog on. ( local detailing company in Norwich) no good

I have to say mate you done a fine job on this trophy.

 

[Coby.]

I can see how your back plays up, If I get my DA out too much I'll be buying a stool of some sort, My back was aching a bit just from doing my own car the other day.

@brucey106 - @Scrooge is your man, Down south a bit but going by what I've seen worth the drive to 'The Unit'

 

[Lawro]

Why can't you be local to me! I need mine doing. I paid someone last year ok only to paint correct it but still clean it for me, he got 80% of swirls out, he left all my blacks with compound on, dust in the recaro harness holes, sills still dirty. Wheels were still dirty. £300 I paid, and he wanted me to ring and say how impressed I was! Jog on. ( local detailing company in Norwich) no good

I have to say mate you done a fine job on this trophy.

Thanks mate, appropriate the comments.

As Coby stated, there are a handfull of us on here so I'm sure somebody will be local(ish).

 

[Mr Plums]

Lawro could you pm me prices for something like this doing please.

I just havnt got the energy anymore due to working nights lol.

 

[imprezaworks]

Great work as always

 

[Jay_A]

That looks stunning mate. Makes me miss my Trophy #433 even more.

 

[Typhoon]

Sterling job! Spot on!

 

[GavC]

Fantastic work as always :smiley: Can't wait to get a day soon to focus on correcting the paint of my BG 182! I'll be giving the Auto Finesse Revitalise system a whirl. @Lawro have you used it by any chance?

 

[Lawro]

Fantastic work as always :smiley: Can't wait to get a day soon to focus on correcting the paint of my BG 182! I'll be giving the Auto Finesse Revitalise system a whirl. @Lawro have you used it by any chance?

Yes, I've used it a fair few times.

It's a decent kit, makes correction nice and simple. Not a huge fan of the AF pads but as an all in one solution, you can't complain!

 

[JakeyCUK]

Brilliant work as always Lawro! I know my lower back can start to ache after doing the pots so this must be brutal for someone with actual issues! Did you damage your back or has it just got worse over time?

 

[Gally]

Hi Lawro, taken me a while to actually sit down and look at this one, been looking forward to it after seeing the Instagram shots.

First up, stunning work. I know how hard Clio paint is, i've done multiple 172s,182s and my Trophy and they are scary hard. The finish is superb andit's not the easiest car to show the Red on due to the Orange coming from it!

How is the Plastic coating? Sounds interesting mate, I use seal feed, Nanolex and dlux for the 3 different tasks.

Oh on another note, great to hear you're booked up. I think the hobbyist gets a bad name but guys like you and Russ when he started and even Andy at ABC were hobbyists, good hobbyists! Clarke at PB was cleaning people's cars on a driveway yet a lot are happy to preach nowadays. Kinda sad and probably an indication of what the industry has become. PB, Russ etc never have time for even small write ups on DW anymore, they simply don't need to, but it was places like that that launched them.
I must get asked at least once a month why I never did it more full time or part time, it's simply not for me, i'd lose the love for detailing rapidly if I did it full time, it's been too long since I had to do serious manual labour all week! :O

Nice to see guys like you show doubters that you don't have to have premises worth a hundred grand to do a good job, detailing can be done in a gazebo, the talent is in the work. If you do decide to go full time or even 5 days kinda thing I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Lawro]

Brilliant work as always Lawro! I know my lower back can start to ache after doing the pots so this must be brutal for someone with actual issues! Did you damage your back or has it just got worse over time?

Thanks Jake, much appreciated!

It's a very long story but put briefly, in 2006 I suffered 4 fractured vertebra following a speedboat accident. I was left pretty much paralysed from the waist down and ended up having surgery to replace 3 of the 4 damaged vertebra with prosthetic items with a full titanium support structure around my spine. After a long, long recovery I regained pretty much 99% movement with near enough zero pain.

Unfortunately in 2013, one of the prosthetic replacements failed and caused my spine to be loaded up with pressure causing severe back pain and sciatica to the point where the soles of my feet were completely black from bruising caused my constant pins and needles. Ended up having another 3 lots of surgery following a lot of complications and spent 6 months in and out of hospital. Basically, I now only technically have half a spinal structure following a Laminectomy and most of that is made up of prosthetics and titanium. Bit of a car crash in there really lol!

Thankfully, I seem to have recovered well. Generally zero pain in everyday life, it's only really extreme activity such as detailing that seems to effect it.

Generally not ideal but I try not to let it effect me. Detailing is what I love and it's my passion, I take pride in my work and I don't think anything could stop me from doing that. Others out there have been through worse than me and still continue to do what they love so I will too.

 

[Lawro]

Hi Lawro, taken me a while to actually sit down and look at this one, been looking forward to it after seeing the Instagram shots.

First up, stunning work. I know how hard Clio paint is, i've done multiple 172s,182s and my Trophy and they are scary hard. The finish is superb andit's not the easiest car to show the Red on due to the Orange coming from it!

How is the Plastic coating? Sounds interesting mate, I use seal feed, Nanolex and dlux for the 3 different tasks.

Oh on another note, great to hear you're booked up. I think the hobbyist gets a bad name but guys like you and Russ when he started and even Andy at ABC were hobbyists, good hobbyists! Clarke at PB was cleaning people's cars on a driveway yet a lot are happy to preach nowadays. Kinda sad and probably an indication of what the industry has become. PB, Russ etc never have time for even small write ups on DW anymore, they simply don't need to, but it was places like that that launched them.
I must get asked at least once a month why I never did it more full time or part time, it's simply not for me, i'd lose the love for detailing rapidly if I did it full time, it's been too long since I had to do serious manual labour all week! :O

Nice to see guys like you show doubters that you don't have to have premises worth a hundred grand to do a good job, detailing can be done in a gazebo, the talent is in the work. If you do decide to go full time or even 5 days kinda thing I wish you the best of luck.

Thanks Gally, really appreciate the kind words!

I was actually very surprised how hard the paint was but it did seem to respond well to the KC Heavy Cut. I didn't do too much correction on my titanium as the majority was painted so generally only the usual bodyshop marring and buffer trails to remove.

The plastic coating is very similar to Nanolex IMO. It's liquid based and features nano-tech so responds similar to C4 but is non-permanent. I generally find durability is around 2-3 months, gives an OEM finish and offers good water behaviour. Extremely good value for money too.

They really are producing some great products Koch Chemie, can't fault any of them.

I agree with everything you have said there! Even during the short time I have been detailing on this sort of scale it's been tough at times battling the critics. Snide comments, the usual rubbish really!

It's a shame to see because surely we all have the same passion.. or at least did at one stage! I think it all falls down to money at the end of the day. Some become blinded, the work quality deteriorates and they then feel threatened by others in the market.

We all started somewhere, some are lucky enough to have all the equipment and premises thrust upon them, others have to invest everything they earn back into it but it all boils down to the quality of your work and attention to detail.

I think, or would like to think I have proven that but of course, I will continue to learn and improve over the years to come. Whether that means I take the plunge or not we will see but I'm keen to stay passionate about my work.

 

[JakeyCUK]

Jees, amazing to think of the mobility you have now with all the damage your back suffered! Glad all is well (for the most part!) now though buddy :up:

 

[Adam93]

Hope your client base continues to increase Lawro, it's clearly something you enjoy and you're very passionate about.

 

[Lawro]

Jees, amazing to think of the mobility you have now with all the damage your back suffered! Glad all is well (for the most part!) now though buddy :up:

This is why I'm a big fan of you RNLI boys, saved my life!

 

[JakeyCUK]

We had a horrific Jet Ski accident in Blackpool some time back (I wasn't on the crew back then). Sadly the husband lost his life but the crew kept the wife going until she reached the shore and they get her to hospital. She still writes us yearly thanking us for saving her life.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/2985660.stm

 

[Lawro]

We had a horrific Jet Ski accident in Blackpool some time back (I wasn't on the crew back then). Sadly the husband lost his life but the crew kept the wife going until she reached the shore and they get her to hospital. She still writes us yearly thanking us for saving her life.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/2985660.stm

Fair play! You guys do a great job, thankfully I had a life jacket on but with such extreme pain and being able to move I was just floating about in a shipping lane.. Lol! Crazy when you think back!

Ended up getting the chopper out to come and pick me up.