Following my recent detail on Lotus Midlands Owners Club member Harvey's Lotus Exige S a few months ago, I received a call from Steve who had heard about the detail and had contacted Harvey about Hotwaxxx and the service I offered. Happy with the correction work carried out on Harvey's Exige S, Steve booked his Lotus Elise S1 in for a Gold Waxxx Detail.

Steve arrived on Saturday morning at 8.30am and I was greeted with a 1998 Lotus Elise S1 in Azure Blue which looked fantastic. Steve explained that he had spent some money in kitting out the interior with brand new biscuit-coloured leather seats and door cards and a brand new carpet set and was just awaiting a new steering wheel to complete the new look. And all that was left to do was to get the exterior bodywork up to scratch and that is where I came in. Steve explained that the car was suffering from severe swirl marks, scratches and stonechips due to poor wash technique and using an automated car wash on more than one occasion. Steve's father, who had also come along, went on that Steve was a little OCD when it came to cleaning but was after a machine polish to correct the Elise S1's paintwork and to bring it up to scratch (excuse the pun!). Steve and I then went around the Elise S1 and although extremely clean, swirl marks were noticable even under the dull clouds. Steve pointed out a scuff on the wing where he had caught the car on his garage wall and was aware this would not come out and was also aware the stonechips would remain and understood 100% correction was out of the question. Steve's father explained they were simply astounded with the before and afters of Harvey's Exige S and anything remotely close to that level of correction would be fantastic. Steve, just before leaving, opted for a premium wax as he was planning to attend the Midlands Breakfast Club the following weekend and wanted the car looking its absolute best for the meet. Steve then left with his father and would await my call when the detail was complete.

I began the detail by rinsing the already clean looking wheels and applied Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner diluted 4:1 before working the same with a range of wheelbrushes. The arches were treated to the same APC cut 4:1 but took a little more effort to clean due to the little space between the wheels and bodywork. Overall, the wheels and arches were effortless to clean and took around 30 minutes to complete all four corners.

As with the wheels, the bodywork was extremely clean to look at as Steve was an enthusiast when it came to cleaning his car. The car was washed using the two bucket method with Meguiars Shampoo Plus together with a capful of Meguiars APC and rinsed clean. The car was then clayed using a new bar of CYC Yellow Poly Clay with Meguiars Last Touch diluted 1:1 acting as lubricant. And with the bonnet completed, it was evident that the car had never seen clay before as it was extremely rough to the touch and was covered in embedded contaminants. The car was then rewashed using the two bucket method with Meguiars Shampoo Plus, rinsed and dried with the Miracle Dryer before being wheeled into the garage for the next stage of the detail.

Under the halogens and the true extent of the paintwork was revealed in all its glory. The car was covered with swirl marks and RDS with stonechipping to the front of the bonnet and bumper. Onto polishing, and I was ecstatic that Steve had very kindly removed the front light cluster covers beforehand which meant taping up was a whole lot easier than usual when dealing with Lotus cars. A small area was then marked and taped up on the bonnet which would act as the test area and following the success with the Porter Cable 7424 on the Lotus Exige S, the same polisher was to be used on the Elise S1. The benefit of using an orbital polisher as opposed to rotary on cars like the Elise, Exige and VX220 is purely based on safety. The bodypanels of these cars are made of plastic composite which tend to heat up extremely quickly and to avoid the potential of melting or burning, the PC7424 is a far safer bet than the rotary.

Today, the choice of pad and polish was a 3M Compound Pad sporting Menzerna Intensive Polish PO85RD 3.02. The test area was hit using speed 5 and this was followed up with a 3M Polishing Pad sporting Menzerna Final Finish PO85RD to refine the finish. This was quite a timely process compared to using a rotary as it takes far long for the polish to break down with an orbital polisher. However, correction results were great and exceeded my initial expectations achieving 90% correction with just RDS remaining. The rest of the car was polished using the same pad and polish combinations and I was delighted with the correction. Looking at how bad the swirls were to begin with along with the normally tough Lotus paint, correction went extremely well with the Menzerna behaving itself impeccably throughout. Overall, the machine polishing stage took just over 6 hours which was understandable since I was dealing with a small but very curvaceous bodywork.

The Elise S1 was then wheeled back out for a wash to remove dust residue and splatter and this was carried out with Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II and the two bucket method, rinsed and dried with the Miracle Dryer. With the rain still falling, the car was taken back into the garage for finishing.

With Steve opting for a highend wax finish, I decided to go for a Zymol finish. The Elise S1 was firstly cleansed with Zymol HD-Cleanse and this was followed with a coat of Zymol Concours which was buffed panel by panel as it can be troublesome to remove if left to cure longer than 10 minutes. A coat of the same was also applied to the interior door sills. The Elise S1 was then wiped over with Zymol Field Glaze to remove any wax residue and to prevent holograms. Onto the wheels and the alloys received a coat of Chemical Guys Wheel Guard, the tyrewalls Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel and the arches Meguiars All Season Dressing. The tailpipe was cleaned and polished with Meguiars NXT Metal Polish. Finally, the windows were polished inside and out with AutoGlym Fast Glass and the detail was complete.

Steve arrived with his mother and father at around 6.00pm and they were led to the garage as it was still spitting outside. The whole family were absolutely amazed at the outcome as Steve looked over the car under the halogens whilst his father had his camera out and was taking snaps from all sorts of angles. Steve was delighted with the correction albeit a few RDS remained and was happy at how well the wing scuff had been cut back. His father commented on the finish achieved through the wax and the way the flake had been brought out of the paintwork and that this had exceeded all expectations. Steve's father went on and said he had not expected such a correction would be achievable from just a machine polish and it looked as though the car had received a full respray. Steve then asked for me to stand next to the car for some photos and asked that I hand him some flyers and business cards so he could forward my services to friends and relatives and fellow Lotus Midlands Owners Club members which was warmly apreciated.



The photos - click thumbnails to enlarge