UKSaabs

Hi all,

I have a little mini-project on the go at the moment that I started yesterday. The paintwork on my Anni-Aero has suffered from years of washing, road grime and contamination. All of the horizontal surfaces are quite rough to the touch and there are swirls and fine scratches on the doors, wings and quarters. I’m not a huge fan of the “SAAB” decals on the side skirts or the mini one on the rear of the car either so I’ll take this as an opportunity to get rid of them.

I used to own a Meguiars G220 Dual Action machine polisher but sold it a while back along with the Menzerna products I used with it. Hand polishing just doesn’t cut it when it comes to swirl marks and scratches. You can make them appear better by using a polish containing fillers but that’s a half baked way of doing things and not the way I like to care for my car. The long and short of it, another machine polisher was required.

So now, roughly £170 lighter I’m armed with a basic rotary Polisher, namely a Silverline “Silverstorm”, Lake Country polishing pads ranging from a 6” heavy cutting pad to a 4” finishing spot pad, Wolfs Chemicals WP-5N correcting compound, Poorboy’s Professional Polish, Poorboy’s Bold and Bright, a couple of Dodo Juice Basics of Bling polyclay bars and some Wolf’s Chemicals WS-1N Shampoo.

The plan is to clay all of the horizontal surfaces to remove the worst of the years of road grime and fallout that have bonded to the paint, correct the swirls and light scratches, polish and nourish the newly cleaned paintwork, seal the surface with Carlack 68 nanotech sealant and top with P21S concourse wax to promote some warmth and depth to the new found (hopefully) shiny clean swirl-free paintwork.

Yesterday, I clayed the bonnet, roof and bootlid and I compounded the bonnet, wings and the left hand side of the car as well as removing the hideous decal on the left side skirt.

Still to do: Compound the driver’s side of the car, the roof, the boot and both bumpers. Refine all painted surfaces with the less aggressive polish. Wash all of the polish powder residue (there will be lots)out of all the nooks and crannies. Seal and wax the whole car. Clay the wheels, polish, seal and wax them. Dress the tyres and exterior plastics.

I think this is a good 3 full days work. It was raining when I got up this morning and looks like it’ll carry on so today’s activity will need to be postponed. Here are some photos of the work so far:

The bonnet and wings after being polished down with the cutting compound, this is quite rough at this stage and will improve a lot after being polished with a finer polish:








The driver’s side rear quarter showing lots of swirls and not much Amethyst flake pop:



After compounding, less swirls and much more Amethyst metallic flake shine:






The horrendous stickers on the side skirts. I heated these with a hairdryer so that they came off in one go and without removing the paint or lacquer. I then compounded over the top of the adhesive residue to remove it:









Still lots of work to do but she’s getting there and should look unbeatable when finished.

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1993 C900 T16S
2007 Yamaha FZ6-SA

Nice work.

_________________
Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts.

Lovely work you have achieved.......just for future reference...Gtechniq make a polish called P1 which works just as well by machine as it does by hand. It is 'pad dependent' for it cut. So no need to get the rotary out each time you get a few swirls/scratches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u-QTCbOUW4

Something new to the market are semi-permanent coatings...these can be ceramic or resin based (not silicone) and can last 4 to 5 years. Products like Concours Care Care Ceramshiled (Silica) and Optimum Opticoat 2 (resin). The Opticoat can actually be polished, as it is very hard and is like applying another clearcoat to your paintwork.

So imagine locking in all your lovely polishing

Thanks for the comments guys. The Semi-permanent clear coat sounds like a good idea but I'd be reluctant to put it over 15 year old paint.

I got 9 hours work in on the car today and managed to get it to a good standard. Cutting and polishing finished off, car washed and dried thoroughly, sealant applied to paintwork and residue buffed off, exterior plastics dressed, wheels washed/dried/sealed/buffed, tyres lightly dressed. Here are a few (well, lots) more photos:

Masked up for polishing, this takes bl**dy ages to do properly:



Sealant Applied and curing:




The finished article:

_________________
1993 C900 T16S
2007 Yamaha FZ6-SA

A couple of arty black and white ones for good measure

_________________
1993 C900 T16S
2007 Yamaha FZ6-SA

Nice results. Gotta love a dark 9000

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......Gotta love a 9K..........

1996 9000 Aero
2001 9-3 Aero convertible

Great work and fabulous results, think I will have to get a machine polisher!

Thanks guys, machine polishing is the only way to remove swirls and contamination shy of respraying. You can cover them up with certain polishes and "waxes" but it's a temporary measure. I'm happy with the results, the clarity in the paintwork is a million times better now. A couple of coats of pure Carnauba will deepen the shine and bring some warmth into the reflections.

I must say that I prefer my old Meguiars G220 machine to the Silverline rotary. DA machines are just so much easier to use.

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1993 C900 T16S
2007 Yamaha FZ6-SA

Nice work, now go and clean the exhaust tip you naughty young man.......OH!!! and you have polish in yer crack, you need it furking out mate.

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" Have you come prepared ? Aye, I have a Stromberg Carb diaphragm in my pocket " ! !

Love the results what did you use on the plastic trim to get that looking so good?

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The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster. - David Hume

Thanks, the plastics were done with Poorboys Natural Look dressing. It's about £12 a bottle but can be used on exterior and interior trim and also tyres. The tyres were done with Poorboys Bold n Brite.

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1993 C900 T16S
2007 Yamaha FZ6-SA

Sorry Rob, just saw this one. Yep, guilty, polish residue is now gone The exhaust tip needs a good hour of elbow grease and Autosol, it will be done when time allows.

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1993 C900 T16S
2007 Yamaha FZ6-SA

Nice work, the scuffing on the rear offside corner, did you attempt that area ?

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Gtechniq, Dodo Juice & Permanon Authorised Detailer
www.prismdetailing.co.uk

I didn't touch that area of the bumper. I'll maybe give it a blast next time.

_________________
1993 C900 T16S
2007 Yamaha FZ6-SA

Potentially you could at least dull it down....good to give it a go

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Gtechniq, Dodo Juice & Permanon Authorised Detailer
www.prismdetailing.co.uk

I'll get it painted when I get the driver's door done, I know what you mean though, 5 minutes with the rotary would make a big difference to it.

_________________
1993 C900 T16S
2007 Yamaha FZ6-SA

Lovely job - but for the love of god do something about the headlamp wipers the only thing wrong with it from where I'm sitting!

Fixed, this morning.

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1993 C900 T16S
2007 Yamaha FZ6-SA

nice job, lovely colour, quite rare.
Julian

looks good mate on a car of that colour great results

if you do it again I would 2 stage machine polish

so 3m fast cut then ultra fine then poorboys then a finishing polish the top coat wax

I did this but it took the best part of 2 days

looking exellent tho mate can't fault it

I also use a da polisher easier to get on with