After picking my Abarth 500 up last week, I decided it was time to take a day off work and get cracking with some detailing!
The car is in Campovolo Grey with red mirrors and stripes, red leather, xenon headlights, climate control and 17" petal alloys.
My plan was inspect the car in good light, but as soon as I stepped outside, it decided to cloud over! Oh well. So, I started by taking a few before pictures and deciding on my plan of action.
Straight away, I decided a good rinse and showfoam was needed before any sort of inspection could take place or any defects picked out.
It was soon evident there was a lot of contamination on the car, mainly rail dust and tar from transportation and the drive home.
You can pick out the rail dust and iron going orange on the side skirt here. A bit of Iron Cut and Citrus Tar and Glue Remover would take care of some of the looser spots, but Zaino Z18 Clay Bar would be needed to remove the finer spots which were mainly on the rear of the car.
Chemicals hard at work loosening the contaminants.
Next up was to loosen the clay as it was very hard and would likely mar the paintwork. Out came the old coffee cup with some hot water in it, and in went half of the clay.
Dodo Juice Born Slippy was to be used as a lubricant...when the spray head decided to work!
Hard at work with my clay!
After this, the rain really decided to come on so I decided to postpone the 3 stage machine polish until the weather improved a bit. Instead, I moved on to the wheels and arches. The plan here was to remove the wheels, clean all of the arches and suspension struts, shocks and springs, as well as the whole wheel. After that, I would seal the brake calipers and wheels with a few layers of Poorboys Wheel Sealant and treat the arches to some 303 Aerospace Sealant. Out came the jack and axle stands and off came the wheels.
The arches had the usual dirt and grime from the drive home which is understandable but I didn't want to go any further without sealing and protecting the arches and wheels.
They were cleaned using Meg's APC and numerous brushes then sealed with 303.
And the calipers were sealed
As well as the arch linings
Once the wheels had been cleaned and sealed, they were put back on the car where they were given another quick buff to make sure all excess sealant had been removed
Not only clean but protected from brake dust and road grime!
All back on.
With the weather being on and off, I decided it wasn't worth masking the whole car up ready for polishing if the heavens were going to open. Therefore, I attacked the interior. This was clean enough but just needed a quick hoover and the mats needed sealing with some 303 Fabric Guard.
Before I did this, however, I decided to protect the engine by applying some 303 Aerospace Sealant. This was simply sprayed on and and left to dry leaving great results. The pictures below are as it is drying.
Now on to that lovely interior
A bit dusty but nothing major!
Once it was hoovered, the carpets and mats were sealed and the car tucked away until the weather improves.
I won't be driving her until April now so I'm in no rush to get her finished as of yet. I will update the thread once I get some more work done!
Sorry about some of the pictures being poor, I was battling with changing light and only one hand to hold it at times! Hopefully I'll have a photographer next time
Thanks for reading,
David
Update: 21-03-2011
