99 Jaguar XJ8 Exterior Correction

FinalTouchAuto

New member
This cars paint was in rough shape from a LOT of improper washing over the last 11 years. It hadn't been washed in quite a while and was incredibly dirty and had a massive amount of brake-dust buildup to the point that I was worried I wouldn't be able to remove it all.



When I set up with my halogens this is what I was working with. The ENTIRE CAR looked like this:



9437160_orig.jpg








2835683_orig.jpg








8409677_orig.jpg






The wheels, like I said, were looking rough to the point that I really had no idea what they'd like when I was done with them:



9259699_orig.jpg




3310897_orig.jpg








There was a lot of water-spotting going on all over the chrome trim on the car:



546280_orig.jpg








I dont think the exhaust had been polished/cleaned in....ever:



1912375_orig.jpg








And some other pictures of the car as I found it:



1309586_orig.jpg




1178736_orig.jpg




1939156_orig.jpg








So on to the cleaning.



6922731_orig.jpg




And the finished product:



3120644_orig.jpg






I started off foaming the entire car down with an Autogeek branded Foam Gun and DP extreme foam soap.



3878582_orig.jpg








Then went over the entire car with a claymagic blue claybar. Surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I still got some contaminant up from the hood, roof and trunk. I also clayed the front window for good measure.



7555477_orig.jpg






So at this point I was told that if I stopped now the car would look better than it had looked in YEARS, ha ha. They couldn't believe the swirls when I showed them the pictures. I guess it's true that until you know what you're looking for on a white/silver car most people really don't see how bad the damage really is. They certainly could see the difference when I took before/after photos of the same location though



This is after a pass of Menzerna SIP on an Orange Pad working at Speed 6 on my Porter Cable.



9517486_orig.jpg






8238856_orig.jpg








So now time to take care of the entire car....



I worked the SIP over the entire vehicle and followed up with Chemical Guys P40 Finishing Polish on a white pad at speed 5-6



So after 7ish hours on the car here were my results. The depth of this paint and clarity was beyond what I thought I could do with just a two-stage polish. There were still some LIGHT scratches remaining but they were so light that I could not capture them in a photo and I don't think any normal person would ever see them on a white car unless they knew what to look for.

If I was doing it again and the owner wanted to step up to a 3 stage polish I would've done a pass with 105, SIP and then the P40 Finishing Polish.



I finished up sealing the car with Chemical Guys M-Seal



So on to the results...



3365243_orig.jpg




8016848_orig.jpg




3283163_orig.jpg




3161434_orig.jpg




5974259_orig.jpg




7305434_orig.jpg




5794030_orig.jpg
 
someidiot said:
That cleaned up real nice.



You used the SIP on the metal trim also?



Thanks.



I applied mothers polish by hand on all of the chrome trim on the car as well as the exhaust tips. Cleaned it right up :)
 
snoboarder8232 said:
Oh now that's class. Great work.



I wish I could've taken the car somewhere more scenic for a photo-shoot! I did the best I could with the driveway, haha.



A friend of mine is a professional photographer and we're considering offering a detail/photoshoot package for owners in the future which we think some will be interested in and will be fun to do.
 
Back
Top