
This is a 3 year old, neglected, mostly parked outdoor, next to no maintenance Mini Countryman. It looks pretty glossy at first glance but you will be shocked to find out how severely damage the car is. Read on.

Upon arrival, we did the routine walk around to spot extremely visible damages. The paint looks surprisingly glossy but we know its fake!

We spotted the typical scratches as we investigate closer.

Aged dirt and road grime.

Faded rubber lining that had been collecting dirt from Day 1.

Extremely clustered watermark issues.

100% faded racing stripes decal.

A closer look on the oxidation build up.

A very dirty and neglected area.

Deep swirls on the paint.

Or should we say, deep swirls with a combination of watermark stains.

More extremely visible swirls.

So, we conclude the paint is “F**ked Up”.

And when we thought that is the last of the damage? There is more.


We gave the car a detailed wash, cleaning all the window rubber lining, giving the entire car the clay treatment. Here is the clay before.

After claying 1 panel. You can obviously see dirt spots.

And finally a tar removal step.

Remember the faded black racing stripe?

After restoration.

Before

Fancy a cool 50/50?

Here is general view of the restored decal.

We proceed to correcting half the hood. Check out the difference.

The door pillars before restoration.

Door pillar after restoration.

Because the paint was quite bad in shape, we only manage to restore this much.

If you didn’t get what we meant, the paint had some leftover damages that could not be restored.


After losing count of how many hours we worked on this car, we finally came to the finale of protecting the final finishing with Opti-Coat ™Pro. Check it out.

detail
All posts tagged detail

Without further delays, we would like to present to you how we revived this Volkswagen Polo that had only 1 job. Its what we Malaysians call “Kete Pi Pasar” (Go to Market Cars). 5 years of age and less than 100k clocked on the ODO, imagine how mint it is?

First, we checked out how clean the car is.

Failed our first cleanliness test.

Drainage areas were stained.

Emblems were stained as well. We wouldn’t blame the owner as most people don’t know how to clean this area.

Pop the trunk and there is more stains.

The door handle cups are usually scratched as well

And of course, all doors looks the same.

Along the window trims, all stains were rather visible.


There were no rubber roof lining but there is definitely a ditch for rain water to flow down. Yes, its stained as well.

Hidden areas like this were of course neglected over the years.


Bumper trims were stained as well.

At this point, we would say, the whole car is stained.


Moving on to how bad the paint is. Swirls were spotted.

The paint had some light watermarks.

But severe paint damage caused by the Good Morning towel washing mitt.

Some areas had deep scratches.

Some areas had lighter scratches.

Taillights are made from plastic, they are most probably scratched too.

And lightly stained with watermarks too.


Alright, correction and cleaning. We scrubbed the whole car with a brand new 0.01mm soft bristle Systema toothbrush.

But yet, we fail to remove some rusty spots.

Most of the areas that were badly stained were restored.

Window trim areas.

Below the side mirror areas.

The gap between the fender and the bumper.

The signal side marker’s gap.


and of course the Volkswagen chrome emblems.





Sneaky areas like these are not neglected anymore

Hidden area under the Volkswagen logo had no chance of escaping this round.

Lastly, bumper trims and details were cleaned.

We polished the paint with a aggressive compound to remove most of the swirl damages.

But there were some damages that could not be restore due to the severity.

This is a 50/50 colour comparison. On the left, the true colour of the white. On the right, the stained white.

Likewise on the roof, 50/50 colour difference. Left: Restored, Right: Stained.

The taillights were given a light polish to remove the plastic scratches.


Restoring the glossy and colour of the taillights. You’ll see how bling it comes out later.


The wheels on first impression looked rather clean but when we looked closer.

Silver can be deceiving as well.

Lugnut areas were stained.

Colour difference on the spokes.

After cleaning the wheels.


Coming Soon on the next post.

As for the final finishing after topping up with a layer of premium quality wax. Check it out.



We have a pretty rare car on our hands this round. Its a vintage Lotus Esprit fully restored to factory standard. It was briefed by the owner himself that it was repainted by a very skillful painter and also the colour chosen was from the Aston Martin Vanquish! This is the 4th car the owner had us worked on. Well, lets begin.

Upon arrival, the car was parked in a semi covered area, whereby tree leaves, tree sap, and bird droppings were visible.

Without wasting time, we proceed to inspecting the paint. Its was almost mint but with some coarse finishing from the painters.

Some light contamination and also haziness on the clear coat.

The paint was not at its best state but its nothing major.

Zoom in and we spotted some keep swirls on the frontal part of the car.

Some minor uneven clear coat.

a deep scratch.

Another visible deep swirled area.

From far, these swirls are not very visible, but it doesn’t mean we skip it.


We gave the car a wash, clay and immediately started on the paint correction.

So after the paint correction, we restored the colour and also removed all of the swirls.
|
A closer zoom in look on the paint condition.


The wheels were also repainted and it was a pain in the a** to clean. We manage to clean up all of them and got them coated.


As for the results.

