I received a telephone call on a Wednesday evening and Paul, the owner of a Chrysler Limousine, requested a Gold Waxxx Detail as he planned to sell the car the forthcoming Sunday and wanted it looking its absolute best. With some luck, I was off work this week and agreed to book the limousine in for the Thursday and Friday. Paul then asked whether I would be able to detail the limousine on site. Although this is something I do not normally do, I agreed to do so on this occasion since the car was based in Birmingham plus Paul had a large unit so I need not worry if the weather took a turn for the worse.

I turned up the following day at 10.00am and was greeted with a huge Chrysler Limousine in Ice White. Paul and I proceeded to go around the limousine with Paul pinpointing scratches and areas of particular concern including two small areas where someone had decided to egg the limousine for fun. One of the wing mirrors were damaged and a chrome wheel was going to be replaced which meant I could leave these out of the detail. An added bonus was the roof being vinyl which meant I did not have to polish this area of the limousine. Paul and I then had a lengthy chat and he knew quite a bit about detailing as he had done the basics of washing with a wash mitt and two buckets, claying, hand polishing and waxing and was looking to buy a UDM as soon as it comes out in the UK. Paul then pulled the limousine out into the road and setup his Karcher Power Wash and said he would return in a couple of hours and left me to my own devices.

I began the wash process by rinsing the limousine and washed the wheels with Meguiars Shampoo Plus and a soft-bristle wheelbrush being careful not to scratch the chrome. I then shampooed the rest of the car with Shampoo Plus and rinsed clean. For claying, I used a new block of Fine Poly Clay with the aid of Meguiars Quik Detailer. One block of clay bar was enough as the limousine had been clayed around 6 months ago by Paul. The car was then rinsed and dried ready for the next stage of the detail. Paul arrived on cue and drove the limousine back into the unit so I could begin polishing away from the hot sunshine outside.

I taped up a test area on the bonnet and proceeded to hit the spot with a Sonus SFX-2 Polishing Pad sporting Menzerna Intensive Polish PO85RD 3.02 with the Porter Cable 7424 on speed setting 5 and was happy with the correction. After a further hit using the same combination there was a slight improvement although it caused a little marring. I then hit the area again with a Sonus SFX-3 Finishing Pad and Menzerna Finishing Polish PO106FA with the PC7424 on speed setting 5 which got rid of the marring and refined the finish. I decided to use the same combination of Intensive Polish PO85RD followed by Finishing Polish PO106FA on the remainder of the bonnet and was delighted with the results. I then proceeded to use the same combination on the rest of the limousine. I managed to finish the polishing stage at around 8.30pm and was absolutely exhausted having polished for almost 8 hours flat. Paul was delighted with the results as he looked over the limousine in close detail. All surface scratches, swirl marks and mild oxidation were corrected and around 95% correction was achieved all round. Paul and I then had a brief chat about LSP and we finally chose to go for Swissvax Best of Show which just pipped Victoria Concours. Paul then locked up the unit and we left for the evening.

The following morning, I arrived at the unit at 9.30am and it was another swelteringly hot day. I immediately got down to work and began by applying Swissvax Best of Show to the bonnet with an applicator pad. I continued alongside the driver’s side and worked my way around the limousine until I reached the bonnet again. It took around an hour to apply the wax so I began buffing almost straightaway as the wax had been left to cure for an hour. I used the Sonus Der Wunder Buffing Towel and have to say this is the best buffing towel I have used. The one side is ideal for removing wax residue whilst the other is perfect for buffing to a finish.

The chrome wheels and window strips were then treated to a fine coat of Chemical Guys EZ Creme II with an applicator pad and buffed. Further, I applied a coat of Chemical Guys Wheel Guard to the wheels and Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel to the tyrewalls. Onto the glasswork, and I polished using AutoGlym Fast Glass and the detail was complete.

Paul was absolutely delighted with the outcome and commented on the fantastic finish on the bodywork and chrome. I outlined that I had achieved around 95% correction although was unable to fully remove the deep scratches and marks from the eggsheels but took them down as far as possible without compromising the paint. Paul added that he would find it hard to depart with the limousine since it looked so good and he gave me a guided tour of the inside as promised (which was great fun as he had an XBox, large LCD and a superb sound system).



The photos - click thumbnails to enlarge