[Palmnuts]

Devastated and done over. :sad:

Thats was how I felt after I set eyes on my car an hour after I first washed it (about a week into ownership).

I thought I'd bought my car carefully - I inspected the paintwork under florescent lights and under bright sunlight (both of which are notorious for showing up swirls and paint defects), the car had a VERY low mileage and came with hundreds of pounds worth of invoices for Swissvax detailing from Maranello. So, I had visually checked the paintwork and the car came with what should have been good 'detailing' history.....what else could I have done to make sure I bought a car with pristine bodywork?

However, it appears the previous owner and/or the dealer I bought it from had used some kind of filling polish to hide the multitude of sins including various scratches and widespread coverage of swirls and holograms. As soon as I'd washed it, whatever was used to hide these defects came off which was when I first saw the disgraceful paintwork that has blighted my aesthetic enjoyment of the car since I've had it.

After being quoted some ridiculous prices for paint correction (some people want to charge sums into 4-figures) I finally found a local guy called Ben Griffiths from Demon Detailing www.demondetails.co.uk (who's based just outside Loughborough and as you'll see from the pics, I thoroughly recommend this guy to anyone based in the East Mid's). Ben came out to look at the car and quoted a very reasonable £275 for a days work to correct the paint. His credentials looked good...he does work for Graypaul and other dealers, he is super-car club Ecurie-25's detailer and his gallery of previous work looked impressive.

He did the car at Graypaul when it was in for the suspension work although he wasn't too impressed to begin with as the car had just been to Rockingham a the wet handling day and was in significantly worse condition than when he quoted to do the work (he had to spend a couple of hours polishing out the stains caused by the baked-on limescale from that day).

Despite this, the end result was stunning after he washed, clayed, polished, corrected and waxed the paintwork. Unfortunately, it appears someone at Graypaul then wiped section of the front of the car between him finishing and me collecting it a couple of days later so he came out to me again this afternoon to re-correct some of it. This evening before it started to rain, the car looked incredible

Here's some pictures of what he did last week...enjoy!



Before (checkout the limescale on the first pics!):










Prep work:

























Paint Correction (check out how many swirls before and after!):







It didn't look THIS bad until I saw how good it could be....













The types of wax used....







The finished results:

[rich1068]

It looks superb. The swirl contrast shots are an eye opener.

And worth knowing about him too. The East Midlands aren't too far from me should I need his services.

[XDEEDUBBX]

I gotta try swiss vax one day

[rogerxp]

It's amazing how bad the paint can be on a 58 plated car of this class with low mileage. Did this really only cost under £300; that sounds brilliant value for money.

Feel sorry for the poor Fezza getting splashed with all the shite off your car .

[Palmnuts]

Originally Posted by XDEEDUBBX

I gotta try swiss vax one day

It's not the Swissvax...it's the prep work under it that matters! You could probably get similar results with a £20 polish as long as the paintwork you're applying it to is good!

Still, the Swissvax is very easy to use, lasts well and does give a great shine!

Originally Posted by rogerxp

It's amazing how bad the paint can be on a 58 plated car of this class with low mileage. Did this really only cost under £300; that sounds brilliant value for money.

Feel sorry for the poor Fezza getting splashed with all the shite off your car .

Yep, it's a disgrace how some people treat their cars...they just don't give a shit.

Although this may be a bit unfair on the previous owner of my car given he spent a fortune on supposedly 'professional' Swissvax detailing at Maranello. It's just a shame that it was either applied in a poor manner (and the owner didn't realise he was paying top-dollar for a crap job)....or he really didn't look after it and just thought that paying a main dealer to wax it every few months with expensive wax was 'good enough'?

Pah...forget the Fezza. Mine is far prettier







As I slowly remove my rose tinted specs

[rogerxp]

Which Fezza is that, the exhausts are suggesting to me it's an Italia but it's got a look of the new GTO to it (with the black roof).

[Palmnuts]

It's a 458 Italia....you can get them with a black roof.

[rogerxp]

Thought it was the Italia; never seen one with a black roof though.

[Kerr]

Nice. The paintwork did look tired though.

Is there any reason he has not put tyre shine on? I think that makes a great difference to how clean a car looks.

[Palmnuts]

Originally Posted by Kerr

Nice. The paintwork did look tired though.

Is there any reason he has not put tyre shine on? I think that makes a great difference to how clean a car looks.

I only requested paint correction....it's normally a 1.5 day job which he got into 1 and worked solidly just on the paint. I didn't even want it waxed as I can do that and tyre shine myself...I dont want to pay someone else for something I can do (although to be fair he did put Swissvax on it in the price).

The tyres are now suitably shined by me though

[Dave_3]

Ah ... use Swissöl Shield Wax myself. VERY good stuff. Been using it for the last 10 years. Swissöl factory not far from me.

Just lent my tub to my Swiss neighbour who is OCD and uses Meguiars top of the line wax. He waxed his car at his friends coachworks this morning, and brought it back - they both say it is the best wax they have tried yet. So it does help.

D.

[peterg1965]

Are the pictures up on Detailing World Andrew? It looks fabulous and £275 is a steal.

[JLR1969]

Demon Detail are also listed on the Swissvax web site as an approved detailer.

http://www.swissvax.co.uk/detailing

[Gibbo]

Car looks stunning after the detail. Which colour Stradale wheels are you going to put on the car?

[dxb335d]

Absolutely stunning!!

[PhilL]

Looks like he did an awesome job, especially for the money.

Very interested in using him soon; currently spending every waking second on a new business venture but when the first invoice arrives the car will be getting some long-overdue TLC.

Does he usually work from premises in Wysall? Did he come to Lboro to quote you?

[ab2pcs]

What a stunning job ...and well worth every penny at that .

[briers]

I love this car, massive wow factor and the guy has done a superb job and for just £275!

Hope it makes it to a meet sometime this year

[Alpina_B3_Lux]

Looking good Andrew!

Alpina_B3_Lux

[M3-FAST]

Originally Posted by briers

I love this car, massive wow factor and the guy has done a superb job and for just £275!

Hope it makes it to a meet sometime this year

Stafford meet again Ben?

Will have to see if you can climb into my exhaust pipes again Andrew along the A518

The car looks stunning matey, and that detail is awesome value for money - you always seem to drop on don't ya

[rogerxp]

Originally Posted by M3-FAST

Stafford meet again Ben?

Sounds interesting especially as I cant make NM4 anymore .

[ibanezking]

hi

unless i've missed something - you've only mentioned the wax

but what did he use to polish out the swirl - a polish(andwhich one?) by hand OR a machine/buffer with a compound on it...?????

Max