Vauxhall Astra SRi - At Vauxhall Open Day

Today was the Vauxhall Family Open Fun Day at Ellesmere Port, home of the Astra and what better car to be detailing there than one of the AstraH's that was built at the plant some two years ago... This detail was done as a show for the day, and attracted quite a lot of attention as we were working away. The detail was carried out by myself, John (Epoch from Detailing World) and Scott (Engine_Swap from Detailing World).

Before kicking off with the detail - big thanks must be said to Daniel for sorting out this part of the day, and to all at Vauxhall for a fantastic day - I really enjoyed myself. :thumb: Big thanks also Clean & Shiny for supplying the products for the detail to be carried out. :thumb: And to John (Epoch) and Scott (Engine_Swap) for working throughout the day with me on this car to bring it up looking its best. Great day lads, cheers. :thumb:

So - to business. Here's the car on arrival:





General grime, and some tree sap present on the car but nothing ultimately too serious.... The wheels though, were baked in brake dust:



The wheels were first cleaned using both Carlack Wheel Cleaner and P21S gel before being hosed down with the warm water karcher D so nice to have a warm water pressure washer). The car was then washed with Meguiars Gold Class, and rinsed - absolutely no protection was present on the paintwork, the water just sat there in a large flat plane. Spraying Last Touch on the paint made a big difference though... On the bonnet, the right half was treated to Last Touch, the left not, and rinsed again: check out teh difference in water repulsion:



Anyway, back to the detail. The car was then clayed using Last Touch and Final Inspection as a lube, rinsed and dried off and then taken to the show area ready for machining.

The paintwork before:







Medium swirls, some heavier ones in places across the car - but being soft Vauxhall paint, we suspected that by rotary, Menzerna PO106FF Final Finish on a polishing pad would do the trick and it did in one set across the whole car. Once machined, the car was treated to Megs #7 and then Dodo Banana Armour which I found really easy to apply and remove by applicator and it complimented the wettness of the black very nicely. While Scott and I were machining, John did a sterling job on the wheels, applying the #7 and the wax to the bonnet and roof.

Here's us happily workin away:









The end results on the paint finish:







The wheels, once covered in brake dust, now looking very sharp indeed:



And finally, the afters: