Hi everybody,

It's been a long time since my last write up here https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-show-shine-26/wes_r-x-gt-r-120-pics-181202/ in this section. I hope you don't mind that it is non Mazda but I do feel it is an art of work that I would like to share.

The opportunity to work on this Testarossa presented itself to me when the owners co worker saw some of my work on the GTR and referred me to him. I got a call near the end of November from the owner saying that he wanted to get his car detailed for storage.



First off a walk around the bella macchina.








lol yes that is a dog biscuit


In defense of the owner he said it was a while since it was detailed and the last time it was just a quick job




So starting off with the interior I dusted the car down to get in the tight areas. At the time I was using a Meguiars Slide Lock Brush but it gave out on me and I had to take what was left and wrap it in a rubber band, but it still did the job










I then vacuumed the entire car with my Metro Vac n Blo and various attachments to get in the tighter areas




Then gave everything a wipe down with Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner cut 50/50 with water to have a clean surface to work with




At the same time I used my foam stick to get in the tight areas that my fingers couldn't reach






Got in the tight areas of the prancing horse on the hood and trunk latch and here are some before and afters

Before


After


Before


After




Got in the even tighter areas with a q-tip










Had to scrub a few areas with the fine side of my Meguiars Triple Duty Brush like...

The cassette tape holder buttons


And the "PRESS" on the seat belt

Before


After

 

Scrubbed the door sill


And the pedals, no dressing was applied after the clean up as common sense is I don't want the pedals slippery

Before


After




Pretty much everything in the interior is leather. So I leather cleaned and conditioned everything... the seats, dash, doors, and roof

Gliptone Leather Cleaner & Conditioner was what I used


Scrubbing away with my leather brush


Leather conditioned by hand and massaged in to the leather


Doors


Seats


Roof


I let it soak in for a bit then wiped off the remainder for a nice natural finish.



Did I mention it was cold!!!



Brought the tool bag, owners manual, and jack inside for a cleaning.

Tool bag was dirty and disorganized


Cleaned up the bag with some APC and the tools as well


Clean and organized (yes I realized afterwards... one of them is backwards. I'm such a hack!!!!)


Leather cleaned and conditioned the owners manual bag


Cleaned the bag that held the jack etc and wiped down the jack and tools

And here they are ready to go back in the car




I took these pics at the final end of the detail but felt it was appropriate to put them here. These are the finished pics of the interior.






















Now getting started on the exterior I begin with the wheels.

P21s Wheel Gel was used to clean the rims which is non acidic. I could leave this cleaner on the rims all night and no damage to the rim. Acid based wheel cleaners you can't say the same for and even a light application of them to ceramic brakes, anodized rims, etc and a beautiful rim or brake system is ruined. So no acid based wheel cleaners....ever!


Let the rims soak while I attended to the engine bay




I didn't get to aggressive on the engine bay but still did the best I could. I wiped down with Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner and then dressed it with Meguiars Hyper Dressing cut 20/80 with water for a nice natural finish.

Here is a before and after pic

Before


After (still a little wet from the dressing)

 

Artsy Fartsy




Moving on to the rims

Getting in the inner barrel with my handleless EZ brush


Behind the rim


Cleaned the rim face with a micro fibre mitt


And used a foam stick to get in the lug nut area




Rinsed down the car


And sprayed on Prep Wash to strip off any silicones, which will, if left on hinder the paint correction process because the silicones fill scratches and if not removed the polish will not cut out the swirl but just glide over them


Then washed the car using the 2 bucket method and a natural sea sponge.

The reason for 2 buckets when washing is simple, 1 bucket is only water, and the 2nd bucket is soap water only. After washing every panel or even half a panel you rinse off the dirt from your mitt in the water only bucket before putting it in the soap bucket, there by keeping your soapy water dirt free. Most people use only 1 bucket to wash their car and this one bucket ends up with dirt in it and this same dirt filled soap water is what is rubbed all over the car and in time a perfect paint finish gets all swirled up.




Rinsed my sponge off in the water only bucket after every panel or a half a panel


Dryed the car off and brought it in to clay bar it.



Riccardo Clay was used. The reason for clay barring your paint is it basically sheers out contaminants embedded in the paint. This can be raildust, fallout, or even just tiny dirt debris. If you wash your car and run your hands along the paint you will probably find that it is still pretty rough. What you are feeling is the surface contaminants.



Pretty contaminated




Measured the paint to see what I was dealing with and look out for any low spots. The owner had told me that the whole car had been repainted so I was dealing with fairly thick paint. Measurements were taken in microns which are a thousanth of millimeter.
















Masked off the rubber trimmings




And here is what I was up against under 500w halogen lighting


Did a quick test spot to find a combination that worked and here are the results of a wool pad and Menzerna Super Intensive Polish which is a medium cutting polish.


Now for a few before and afters of the body panels

Before


After


Before


After


Before


After

 

Before


After


Before


After


And a 50/50 shot


Single stage paint really clogs my pads up so I had to change them frequently


All the tight areas my rotary couldn't reach I did by hand with on orange lake country pad and Meguiars M105 then a white pad with Meguiars M205. They did not end up perfect but still a huge improvement to how they were before




This was a full paint correction so the few deeper scratched I wetsanded with Micro Mesh sand paper 2400 grit and then 4000 grit to refine and then finally polish out the sanding marks. Results were either to round off the edges of the scratch to make it less apparent or to completely remove the scratch.

After all the compounding and wetsanding I finally jeweled the paint with a white Lake Country pad and Menzerna P085rd. Here is a shot of me jeweling the paint.


And finally the results of my work










Unmasked the car




Dusted it down and got in the tight crevices.

Gave it an alcohol wipe down to clean off the polishing oils




Then double checked my work with my 3M Sun Gun which omits the same color spectrum light as the sun. So basically what I see with this light is how it will look in natural daylight.

 

Perfect




Applied Swissvax Concorso




While the wax was curing I attended to some other areas

Sealed the rim with Poorboys Wheel Sealant to protect against brake dust


Dressed the tires with Blackfire Long Lasting Tyre Gel which after being left on for awhile then wiped off leaves a beautiful finish


Here is an after pic of the tires and rim


I couldn't get the exhaust perfect but still made an improvement.

Before


After







Now finally after 50+ hrs of work, -10 weather, and the first snowfall of winter here are the finished pictures.

First up some shots of the sun on the paint




































And my last 3 favorite pics.







I hope you enjoyed reading the write up .

Wes

 

AWESOME
Sweet ride, what a lot of work.

 

very nice work!

How do you like the P21S WC? I have used Sonax and IronX in the past and loved the results from both (albeit they both had an absolutely terrible smell).

 

This has nothing to do with an RX-8 but I think we should let this thread slide due to awesomeness. I wish I knew of a professional with your skills. I had a full detail done once a few years ago and the guy did a half assed job and so I refused to pay him the full $200.00 he was demanding.

 

perfection!

Here's a man that takes pride in his work

 

Great job dude! Hope you posted this in the "Click and Brag" section on Autopia.

 

Thanks!

To be honest I like the stinky Sonax better.

lol Thank you for letting this pass. Check out Autopia I'm sure there is someone good in your area.



I'm on Autopia once in awhile mainly on DetailingBliss.

 

AWWWWEEESOME! you sir are my hero. i love the attention to detail

 

Thanks! I'm going to change my user name to Super Detailer lol.