another 'unloved car' recovery (pic heavy)

[Niblick]

ok, so this is a little project that i took on a while back. the owner, who's a good friend of mine was away for 6 weeks, so i brought it home and worked on it evenings and weekends when the weather allowed. as you can probably tell, maintenance was not high on his list of priorities! the car was being traded in when he got back, so i thought i'd see what i could do with it whilst he was away.
before

so she was a mess

work was carried out over a 5 week period when time and weather allowed. products used were

scholls s17+
scholls S3 Gold
Chemical guys V34
Megs Ultimate compound
Dodo Juice Lime Prime
Dodo Juice SN Merino wool pad
Festool orange, white and Black pads
3M Yellow pad
Megs wet and dry 1500, 2500 and 4000 grit
Hammerite Kurust
Dodo Juice Total wipe out
Auto Finesse citrus power spray
Dodo Juice BTBM shampoo
Auto Finesse Advanced neutral SF
Dodo Juice Born Slippy lube and SN mild clay
Auto Finesse Iron Out
Autosmart Tardis
Autosmart Smart Wheels
Smartwax Blue-B-Gone
Megs PlastX
Dodo Juice SN Glass polish
Dodo Juice Clearly Menthol
Auto finesse Hide leather cleaner
Wolfs leather conditioner
Aerospace 303 protectant
Auto Finesse Total Interior cleaner
Auto Finesse Revive trim dressing
Dodo Juice SN Hybrid
Dodo Juice Blue Velvet Pro
Dodo Juice Orange Crush
Dodo Juice SN Tyre dressing

i think that was everything :grin: . you all know the process, so i'm just gonna let the photos do the talking

Each wheel took multiple hits with Smartwheels and Iron out. wheel centre caps were removed and replace with new ones, and the wheels were given two coats of SN Hybrid

the stone damage to the bonnet was treated with Kurust and then touched in, as was the damage to the bumpers and wheel arches. (taking during progress)

the engine bay was cleaned with total wipe out and dressed with AF Revive

tyres were dressed with two coats of SN tyre dressing

and here she is...

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m540/niblick2/lans%20car/ians%20car%20correcting/DSC03695_zps112134b2.jpg[/img

[img]http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m540/niblick2/lans%20car/finished%20photos/DSC03789_zps0b81521a.jpg

delivered back all wrapped up as a nice surprise.

thanks very much for looking, i hope you've enjoyed it.

.

 

[sproketser]

Gee , it s the worst ride I ve seen you fixed up to now ! Great turnaround on this one !

 

[TuxedoTaurus]

HOLY SMOKES!! When I worked in construction our flat bed F-350/450's were in better shape, and they saw the worst of the worst on job sites. That is remarkable!

 

[MrCleanit]

I hope the owner's golf swing was better than the handling of the car! lol

I applaud you for the hard work. It REALLY paid off. Amazing job to say the least!

 

[CleanSlate]

Looks awesome,congrats on an excellent job

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using AG Online

 

[Paul Mitchell]

Looks great! I hope he trades it in right away and gets his new car on a maintenance program with you. My riding lawn mower is cleaner than his car.

 

[Tato]

Looks like the best word that resumes your work was already said: Remarkable.

Congratulations on this amazing turnaround,

Looking forward to be your friend and let my car near you with the keys on lol

Kind Regards.

 

[javip2k]

Outstanding job :dblthumb2:

 

[kevin_1981]

That's AMAZING! Good job!

 

[Calendyr]

Night and day! Great job. Those are the kind of cars I actually like. The difference between the before and after are always mind blowing.

Would have loved to see after pictures of the interior, did you take any?

 

[Pureshine]

Nice Save!

 

[Niblick]

Night and day! Great job. Those are the kind of cars I actually like. The difference between the before and after are always mind blowing.

Would have loved to see after pictures of the interior, did you take any?

Thanks everyone. I'd actually posted a few interior photos, but they haven't shown up for some reason. I'll repost them later :xyxthumbs:

 

[aztec1987]

Great job....did you get any pics of the interior?

 

[Niblick]

here you go, not sure why they didn't show up in the original thread.

I removed the old GB sticker and rear number plate, both of which later replaced with a new ones
once the polishing was as good as i could get it, she was wiped down with panel wipe. i then applied lime prime on a Festool black pad and topped off with two coats of Blue Velvet Pro and a coat of Orange Crush to finish. interior was hoovered, steam cleaned and dressed with 303 aerospace protectant. The steering wheel and handbrake were cleaned and dressed with the hide cleaner and leather conditioner. i also replaced the worn gator on the gearstick as it was beyond salvaging.

leaving this

incase you were worried about that rear bumper, don't be, i got to it ;-)

im gonna post up some before and afters of the really nasty bits separately. got a feeling they were modded out of the initial post, though i can't really imagine why that would be. you'll want to hang onto your lunch when viewing lol

 

[sproketser]

lol , the owner must think it s not his/her car !

 

[Niblick]

when i applied the cleaner, ten years worth of sweat came oozing out of the leather

After

Sun visors before

and after

i really hope you've enjoyed the photo's, thanks for looking

 

[sproketser]

Must have taken lots of time in order to detail thst Volks !

 

[hammy1983]

great job... must be golfers car with all the grass in the trunk and the few premium balls in the door.

 

[Niblick]

it certainly took a while. the paint was incredibly hard, even by German standards, 10 years of UV damage had really baked it. most compounds just wouldn't touch it, so polishing was a bit of a nightmare tbh. if i had to guess, id say the whole job took me between 30 and 35 hours. in part due to the fact that i wasn't working on it full time, which always makes things take longer. interestingly, he got close on £1000 (around $1600) more than he was originally quoted in part exchange.

 

[Niblick]

Thanks Hammy, and yes he is. he's also an avid ammunition collector, which made cleaning the interior interesting. there was more than one antique live round knocking about amongst the rubbish, and you really don't want those going up the hoover! ;-)