Premier Auto Detailing by Evan: Lotus V6 Cup Car Huge Project! (Photo Heavy)

Evan.J

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I was contacted by the owner of this Lotus V6 Cup Car and my buddy Adam with Prestige Auto Armor to tackle this vehicle along side with him. This job came in as a track car that needed to be prepped and wrapped with new clear bra. The owner of this car travels across the country and takes part in a large amount of racing with it. After his last track run he slid off the track and into the grass where there was plenty of mud and grass that added to the typical tar and rubber already found on this car from normal racing abuse.

The car was brought in on the owners personal racing trailer and delivered to our location. Once the vehicle was in the garage Adam got right to work on removing all the old clear bra and decals from the car using a steamer. This process only took a little over an hour to complete.

The following day I had arrived to begin the task of cleaning up this beast of a vehicle. I started out by pulling the front panel on the hood to expose the fuse box and covered it with a plastic bag to keep any water from causing any damage to the electrical components. Next came the aggressive wash process to remove as much dirt, tar, and rubber as possible. I gave the car a good soak with my foam gun to loosen any dirt then washed the car with the 2 bucket wash method. I used a wheel woolie boar hair brush to clean out all the tight areas. For the tar and rubber on the car I used Xenit, sprayed it on, and let it dwell, then agitated. 80 percent of the marks were removed. After the vehicle wash was completed I was able to see the true condition of the paint that was very rough to the touch and had plenty of swirls and scratches.

The car was then pulled into the garage and jacked up. The wheels where then pulled to give them a full deep cleaning along with the wheel wells. There was plenty to clean off the wheels and wheel wells. Adam then took off the front spoiler as well.

I did my test spot on the roof as this was a flat easy spot and I found that Wolfgang Uber Compound on a hybrid cutting pad with the Flex was the best combo for this car. Then it was time to tape this beast off :dblthumb2:

After, I went to town on the paint with the combo of the flex and the Uber Compound. This process took me the rest of the day and I finished the compounding at 10:00pm.

The next day I took to polishing the paint using the Griots Garage 6" polisher with HD Polish on a foam finishing pad to amp up the gloss and make the paint pop as much as possible.

Before completing the car I took to the engine bay to steam clean wipe down and coat all the plastic with Ultima Trim Guard Plus.

All of the exterior trim was dressed with Ultima Trim Guard Plus as well.

The final step was to apply Opti-Coat to the entire vehicle. Pinnacle Black Label was applied to the glass and the 3 sets of wheels.

Here are photos of the car being delivered and Adam With Prestige Auto Armor removing the old film from the vehicle:




















Now its time for the washing process:










 
Washing continued:

















This is a 50/50 of the cleaning power that Xenit does:




The condition of the paint:






Pulling the wheels and checking the barrels and wheel wells:





Adam is pulling off the lower wing of the front bumper:

 
After doing my test spot here is what I was starting out with:


The car all taped off ready to go:


After a long day the car was finally finished with the compounding:


Gloss shot of Wolfgang Uber Compound



The next day I was back to finish the car and to polish out the paint HD Polish with a foam finishing pad offered great gloss and pop:


The engine bay was in need of some love and cleaning so steam to the rescue. Some before and afters:





After applying Opti-coat here is the end results:



















 
Final photos continued:





Adam is up to do his magic with Xpel Ultimate Film:















Adam with a finished job!



Thanks for looking guys! :props:
 
Thanks Guys!

I apologize for the first thread it was the old one from this morning before I changed it and proof read it.
 
Great work indeed, neat car to work on. Nice documentation to go along too.
 
What are you using as a foam gun?

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using AG Online
 
Wow, Evan... Just wow! Epic job, man! I enjoyed it and you did fantastic work. What a turnaround... Any Opti-Coat on top of the new clear bra or no?
 
Dang that car went from beat to show car finish. Amazing work.
 
Outstanding work Gentlemen! That Lotus looks better than new now!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading through this well documented thread! :props:
 
Awesome post and an awesome job. Id love to work on something like this one day.
 
Amazing transformation!!! You guys do awesome work!
Thank You very much
Great work indeed, neat car to work on. Nice documentation to go along too.
Thank you very much!
One of my favorite cars! Well done gents.
Thanks!
Beautiful work buddy. Amazing results you guys achieved. How much time total invested?
Thanks Chris! I had a total of 17 hours in on the car just on my end. Adam had 10 hours in on his side so a total of 27 hours on the car.
Wow, Evan... Just wow! Epic job, man! I enjoyed it and you did fantastic work. What a turnaround... Any Opti-Coat on top of the new clear bra or no?
Thanks! No Opti-coat on any of the areas that was going to get the PPF.
Dang that car went from beat to show car finish. Amazing work.
Thanks!
Outstanding work Gentlemen! That Lotus looks better than new now!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading through this well documented thread! :props:
Thanks Mike
Awesome post and an awesome job. Id love to work on something like this one day.
Thank you!
 
The lotus looks amazing!

How long did it take in total?
 
Would like to know as well. All that rubber and dirt and grime must have taken forever.
 
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