I was asked by Ian aka Herc from Astra Owners Network to give his car some desperately needed tender loving care. As he works down in Milton Keynes during the week his black astra sri 1.9 150 was starting to look a little sad (partlicularly more so as he was making it just that extra little bit dirty for me before the detail).

So this is a few pictures of what the car looked like with the nice venom decals he added a while ago...

And this is how it arrived..... bonnet decals had been removed by Ian and he'd not had time to completely removed the roof and boot before I started



Been killing just a few bugs recently.....







I want these brakes.....



So before I could even get started on the detail I had to remove the rest of the decals.....originally managed to take them off but it was somebodies bright idea in the unit that it would be alot quicker with warm water. However after this was tried it did remove the decals but unfortunately left all the glue nice and thick on the paintwork of the roof.

Broke out the glue and tar remover and it was v e r y s l o w l y coming off



As there was quite a few bits of glue left and with the state of the car I decided to snow foam with the glue and tar removal in, plus it helped strip off any existing wax. The foam in the lance was a nice brown colour and not as thick as usual, plus the front end and wing mirrors were treated with Chemical Guys Bug and Tar Remover. Wheels cleaned with Chemical Guys Redberry and agitated with a Wheel & Detail Brush


Rinsed and then snow foamed


Rinsed again



The car was washed using 2BM, Dodo Juice Born To Be Mild Shampoo and Chemical Guys Lambswool Wash Mitt



The car was then brought inside the unit wet and I proceeded to clay the car using Juicy yellow fine poly clay and Juicy Lube..

Top half not too bad...



Bottom half ....



Once completed the car was rinsed, re-washed using same method above and brought in and dried using CG Miracle Drying Towel



The car was then assessed to see what I'd let myself in for

The wings....






The sides...




The bonnet..


It seems like the company Ian used to get the decals from actually cut them on the car and there are some nice straight cut marks down the bonnet, along the roof and some lovely deep ones on the top of the boot near the window

Oh and a cheeky one


Car all taped up and ready to go






That was the end of day one ...finished about 9pm

Day 2 ....the polishing begins

Test area conducted on the bonnet using a combination 3M polishes and hex logic pads, until I found a combination that I was happy with





50/50 on first pass on the bonnet



Needs refining more...the star marks the torch is showing up is micro maring from the polish and cutting pad


Bonnet after polishing...



Few more 50/50's as I worked around the car (first, second and third passes)





The passenger side of the car was proving to be rather difficult due to a respray around 8 months ago along the whole passenger side and rear quarter. The cloth just kept sticking when I wanted to wipe the polish residue/dust off.

Polishing continued for a further few days .....la de da, finishing Friday morning at 4am

Friday 8am....car taken outside for a snow foam down as it was quite dusty



Brought inside and dried off....treated with CG EZ Creme applied with a microfibre



The car was then given 2 coats of Celeste Dettaglio wax leaving for 30 minutes before buffing off and an hour before the next application. It was applied with a CG UFO applicator and buffed off with a Dri U Kwik Ultra Dense Cloth (sorry for pic quality - was quite tired).  The body work was also buffed off again an hour later.





Sills, Interior and leather where cleaned





Engine bay cleaned using CG Barebones





Well what a mammoth task this one seemed to be and I have to say I was absolutely shattered. I haven't achieve perfection which I was striving for and there are still quite a few scratches either those created by the company with the decals or just from the life it's had, however it is a vast improvement on what it was. So here are the end results......



















Outside shots...

























And after all that I thought I'd then get her wet



I bet your worn out from reading after all that

From the O' Great Juicy One