Vauxhall Vectra-B GSi

Today's visitor to the-detailer.com was waiting for us at just after 7.00 this morning as we arrived at the shop. Wanting his Vectra's paintwork professionally machine polished, the vehicles owner felt that he had gone as far as he could, caring for his car by hand with only Autoglym Super Resin Polish.

The Vectra as it arrived, in a detailers favourite colour - Black.-

At first inspection, the vehicle looking ok, apart from a layer of dust-

The dust was rinsed from the vehicle, as always, prior to any washing taking place.

Taking care of the wheels and tyres, using a dilution of Chemical Guy's Premium Blue Alloy Wheel Cleaner. This is a strong detergent based solution, safe for clearcoated wheels. A selection of wheel and tyre brushes were used to agitate the cleaner. Inner arches and plastic trim were also treated with Meguiar's All Purpose Cleaner, at a safe dilution.

We then mixed up 2gallons of warm water with the correct ratio of Meguiar's Shampoo Plus in one of our clear buckets.

Starting with a clean and checked Eurow wash mitt, the hand washing of the vehicle commenced. Using our careful wash technique -

1.)Check the wash mitt Load the wash mitt with a good quantity of the shampoo mix.

2.)Lightly wipe the mitt over a section of the vehicle, starting from roof down.

3.)After covering a section the size of ¼ of the roof, rinse out the wash mitt in the second bucket.

4.)Check the wash mitt for any contamination.

5.)Reload the wash mitt with shampoo mix.

6.)With a little more pressure on the wash mitt, wash the area a 2nd time.

7.)Start this procedure on the next section, working down and around the vehicle as you work. We normally go around the vehicle at least 4 or 5 times, before reaching the sills.

We have found that by using the above method, that we can keep any wash inflicted marring to a minimum, After washing the GSi, the bucket of clean water used for rinsing the wash mitt was heavily discoloured.

This dirt, grit and contamination would have been dragged across the paintwork causing scratching if we had not used this two bucket method. The bucket used for rinsing the wash mitt looked like this-

We took the now washed Vectra into the shop, to dry. Any surface water was spritzed with Meguiar's Last Touch quick detail spray. This breaks down the surface tension of any beads of water remaining after a careful rinsing, making the Meguiar's Water Magnet just that little more effective. It also leaves behind a super slick finish. Once dried, the harsh gas halogen lighting in the shop highlighting ever swirl, scratch and defect on this black Vectra GSi.

A close up of above.

The light showing the swirls effect of the many random light scratches. A close up of the random scratches, showing some signs of previous poor wash technique.

More worryingly, the white spots visible in the picture is overspray, the whole car was covered in a mixture of overspray, and industrial fallout-

Using Opti Elasti clay, and Meguiar's bodyshop aggressive clay where needed, we successfully removed over 95% of the fallout, with only the minimum of marring caused. After claying, we got out 2 of our Porter Cable polishers. Using Lake County Orange light cut pads, and Menzerna Intensive polish we started to polish out the defects from the paintwork.

We found that by doing 2 sets of passes on each section, we could not only remove the defects visible, but also almost leave a finish ready for wax. Tommy did the first set on each section. Using a lot of polish, but light pressure. I followed with the 2nd PC, using the same pad type and polish, only for my pass I used a lot of QD to wet the polish, extending it's work time. Once the polish had started to break down on the 2nd set, we were able to apply a little more pressure.

To deal with the bumpers, we swapped over to the 4" PC spot pad kits. Tommy scouring the bumpers swirl free, using a slow cut technique, yellow LC cut pads and Menzerna Power Gloss Compound. I restored gloss with Menzerna Intensive Polish using 4" Orange Lake County pads. The finish after Menzerna Intensive Polish-

To remove any light haze left after using a polish as coarse as Menzerna IP, and also darken the paint, we went round the vehicle for a third set, only this time using Meguiar's #9 Swirl Remover on a White Lake County polishing pad. The finish after Meguiar's #9 Swirl Remover -

To protect the vehicles paint in the future from any further contamination, we applied a long life acrylic sealant. Our favourite long life sealant being Chemical Guy's M Tech Nano Seal. This utilises particles 1/75,000th of a human hair, to fully bond to the paintwork for long term protection. The manufacturers state that any excess can be removed after a matter of minutes, but we prefer to leave it for 30 minutes, to maximise protection.

While the M-Tech had chance to cure, the glass was cleaned with Meguiar's Glass Cleaner Concentrate. We then wiped down the CG's M Tech, with some new Pakshak ultrplushes from Clean and Shiny, then let the vehicles owner apply a coat of Chemical Guys XXX Hardcore Wax. This wax having the highest % of white carnauba (the best type) content of any wax I've found. Not only does the XXX Hardcore wax offer just that little more protection to the sealant beneath it, it also makes the paint look almost wet, with a glossy depth of shine. After a final careful buff, using Ultra Plush MF's to remove the waxes residue, the GSi had taken on a whole new look, that the owner had wanted -