We have with us today a very special, 99% full factory condition Mark 2 Toyota Soarer, we didn’t even know it was a mark 2 until we saw the vin number and refereed to Mr. Google. The owner of this sweet ride had arranged with us to have the car fully restored and coated for a long term protection, thats right, a 30 year old car, virgin stock is here for an ultimate pamper session. Read on to know more.
Well, The car already looks rather good and clean for a start but 9 out of 10 white cars has suffered the acid rain stains which is the blackish looking stuff on the paint that no matter how much you wash or wax the car, it just would not go off. Same goes to this ride.
The owner of the car left us with full access to the car for a few days to slowly restore every inch of the car to 30 years ago.
So we looked into every inch of the car looking for any contamination or stains. Here we can see that someone polished the headlights and leftover some residue.
The typical build on up areas like these.
The very special door hinge style on the Soarer was rather filthy too.
Some random stains probably from tree sap.
The Pegasus logo that is the symbol for the Soarer was everywhere on the car. This section as usual was covered in sand
The standard exhaust was probably also 30 years old, rusty, oxidation and no longer has any bling to it.
Moving onto the bumper areas, we found more wax or polish residue on the tight edges.
Most detailers would probably miss this spot but we search every inch of the car for things to clean.
On the roof, which is pretty normal for a car of this age, we found some oxidation starting to spread from the edges.
Stains build up on the rubber trims.
The fuel door area was surprisingly not that dirty for a 30 year old car.
Some paint transfer was spotted on the doors probably from a motorbike passing through and accidentally hitting the car.
The fear of water leaking into the car was real, but the silicone application skill was a little poor hence we see the unevenness.
The bumper areas were no doubt full oxidized.
Combo-ed with some unknown stains that looks like oil spills.
Looking closer on the bumper we can actually see micro cracking on the clear coat which indicated that the clear coat had already failed.
Side signal markers are made of plastic, and over the years of UV exposure, its a common sight to see faded amber markers.
As we spend a full day just on cleaning, night came, using the street light we were able to spot some visible scratches on the paint.
On a LED, the scratches looks not too bad.
Swirls on a different section
As we spent many hours cleaning, check out the smaller detailed in cleaning.
Pegasus logo has some cleaning done too.
As we were polishing we also spotted some bird dropping stains. This had probably been there for a very long time.
We were able to polish and reduce the stain mark.
Some stains were just too etched to remove.
Coming back to how the paint looked after much detailing. Swirl free.
More swirl free examples.
Just to double confirm on the spot light as night fell, swirl free.
Some areas on the boot could not be fully restored hence you still see a small amount of swirl. Like in this photo the top left at the light, you can see that 1 little line.
The next day we continue on with polishing and we attempted to clear off the oxidized bumper. Although we were able to gain reflection, but what really happened was the clear coat got fully removed. In the photo you can see the area we polished has a better reflection but the metallic flakes from the clear coat is no longer there, causing the surface to become a “solid white” surface instead of the pearl white. We adviced the owner and it seems like the area will be scheduled to be repainted.
Remember the sad looking exhaust, after hours of manual hand polishing, we got it back to a bling condition.
So you remember how was the dull side marker looking like?
Here is how it looked after restoration.
As we finalized the finishing, we gave the engine bay a dash of cleaning and look at how virgin in this!
The vintage looking wheels had definately seen better days. Looking at its condition, we guessed that the wheel might had been restored before.
A closer look on the brake dust build up.
More brake dust stains on the little lip of the wheels.
We sprayed on some pH neutral brake dust dissolving agent to break down years of build up.
This chemical although pH neutral, it comes with a very awful smell. But it works and when comes in contact with brake dust will turn purple.
After a triple soaking session on the wheels, check out how much it has dissolved and leaked onto the porch.
After about 5 days of restoration this is the ultimate results of a fine fine restoration.
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