Detailing My Fiesta

[detailR]

I hadn't planned on making a thread of this as I only polished the car to get some durable protection on it for the easier upkeep in the future.
The paintwork isn't great on the car. There are a lot of deep scratches, chips, scrapes and things that I couldn't justify chasing out.
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The order of the detail,
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Wheels, tyres, arches and brake calipers cleaned - these were sealed a few weeks ago.
Full safe wash process with ODK Wax products.
Decontamination - tar removal, fallout removal, clay bar and an IPA wipe down.
Multi-stage machine polish.
System X Diamond ceramic coating.
Engine bay cleaned up and dressed.
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The car wasn't mega dirty to start with, I don't drive it all that often.
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20181126_100102 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181126_100112 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181126_100209 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181126_100212 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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Wheels cleaned with Auto Finesse Imperial,
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20181126_101421 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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Snow foamed with ODK Arctic.
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20181126_103636 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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The car received a two bucket method wash before tar and fallout removal.
It was then re foamed, rinsed and taken inside for clay.
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20181126_111719 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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I then dried all the water traps out with a car dryer, masked up any rubber and plastic trims and began machine polishing.
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Before and after the cutting stage.
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20181126_122031 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181126_122036 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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The soft-ish paint is left a bit hazy after the cutting set, but this will be refined afterwards.
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Before.
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20181126_122332 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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After cutting.
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20181126_122336 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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And refined.
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20181126_122349 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181126_123506 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181126_125409 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181126_135350 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181126_140322 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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Not wanting to spend too much time on my own car, I drew a line with some defects.
Usually bits like this would be chased out, but I chose to just remove the general swirling and hazing. Smoe marks were too deep to safely remove as well.
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20181126_152512 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181126_153308 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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The headlights were machine polished to tidy them up a bit. There's a lot of scratches inside the lenses, I'm guessing they were damaged when the lights were split and painted.
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20181126_192550 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181126_192600 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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Finger nail scratches behind the handles polished by hand.
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20181128_161143 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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Washer jets were coated while they were out.
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20181128_170922 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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Engine bay treated.
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20181128_171022 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_171029 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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System X Crystal ceramic coating applied to the paint work as a hard base layer.
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20181128_180153 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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I went with a few different top coats to see how they compared against each other.
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20181129_085606 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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And the finished car.
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20181128_180214 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180325 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180229 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180224 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180241 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181129_090332 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180714 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180236 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180333 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181129_090321 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180341 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180402 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180636 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180651 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180658 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180707 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180732 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180740 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181129_090316 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181129_090325 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181129_090844 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181129_102321 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181130_082524 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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20181128_180643 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr
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Thanks for reading
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20181129_090313 by Richard Lewin, on Flickr

	Auto Finesse Car Care and Detailing Products

[Jack R]

Very nice little run around, top work as always! Is the Nissan yours as well? Seems to always be in the background.

[detailR]

Thanks very much

No, the Nissan belongs to a customer. It lives there on a trickle charger. It worked out cheaper and safer than a council garage.

[Soul boy 68]

Very nice work fella, I can clearly see the difference.

[saul]

Nice turn around on this. Difference is remarkable.

[Christian6984]

Superb makes me miss mine that's for sure. When spring comes round its replacement needs a good going over and its black and rather swirly

[camerashy]

Looking much better after all your hard work

[Bill58]

That's a big improvement.

[dazzyb]

Awesome car mate.
Looks better in person I think

[rlmccarty2000]

Looks great! Any difference in the application of the top coats? I’ve used TacSystems Topcoat 1.0 over some of their coating products and I like it.

I remember when coatings were supposed to be stand alone products, now we put a layer of protection over them and use a maintenance spray on top of that. Then use a special wash to clean it. Manufacturers know we have an addiction.