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[MarkC]

*More of a detailing thread, but here goes*

Picked up my new daily driver on Saturday, A 2.2 Omega GLS estate on an X plate.

Drove it up from Birmingham (to Derby) and it drove beautifully, (I have some querys on the car which I will post in the relevant topic sections) but apart from that I'm happy with the car.

The car was relatively clean when I picked it up, but not to the standard I like to keep, so work commenced on bringing it up to scratch with a little detailing and deep cleaning.

First on the agenda was to simply wash the car outside before I moved it into the garage for the real work to start. 

Ready to start.



Washed and dried...


1

And parked in the garage:





Engine bay, reasonably clean....but could be better.



So after some detailing it looked like this...



Before:



After:











Time to get out the clay bar to freshen up the paintwork.



The roof goes on forever!!!! It would be easier if I were 7ft tall....but I'm not so I'll stand on the door sill...



Coming up a treat:



A few years' worth of contamination there then...



cleaning all those nooks and crannies....and door handles!



Nasty tidemark under rear qtr screen rubber...



...gone.



Moved onto the interior: - Drivers' footwell.



And Drivers' seat:



Cleaned:





Rear of drivers' seat:



Onto the dashboard/radio with a dry paintbrush....



Centre console/transmission....



Lookng better (passenger side yet to be done).



I wanted to modify the door trim so I got some vinyl from a friend in the signmaking trade, heated it up to activate the glue and help make it supple so I could form it around the shape of the trim...



Sharp scalpal to cut the vinyl...



Another blast of heat for good measure...



...and et voila.



Rear door done too 



That's all for now folks, will update as I progress further with the work. 

[b4ndit]

Very nice

[jonny2112]

Lovely work. Looking forward to the updates 

[x25dt]

Awesome job

[pete220]

nice one very clean can i bring mine around   

[gstylebaby]

Nice mate ....are you on detailing world mate and have you not long hadyour man cave done....Only im sure i have seen the build some place.

[Terbs]

Blow the car.....what about that garage ....its cleaner than my lounge

You must have the patience of a saint.....it looks fantastic 
One day, my car will look like that

[MarkC]

Very nice

Lovely work. Looking forward to the updates 

Awesome job

Thanks guys 

nice one very clean can i bring mine around   

Need time to recover from this one mate, give me a coupe of years 

Nice mate ....are you on detailing world mate and have you not long hadyour man cave done....Only im sure i have seen the build some place.

Yes mate, I joined DW when I finished the Carlton. Great site, picked up a lot of tips which I put to use on this car. And yes, I posted a thread on the garage build too 

Blow the car.....what about that garage ....its cleaner than my lounge

You must have the patience of a saint.....it looks fantastic 
One day, my car will look like that

Thanks Terbert. I built the garage myself to store my other car in (Carlton Gsi) so I want to keep it as clean as the car if I can  . My patience does run out sometimes, that's the time to call it a day and come inside for a nice cold beer 

[omega3000]

You have become MR Detailer  Nice man cave and nice cars 

[grain.ben]

Looking nice  , wanna do mine? 

Also, what do you use to clean up the engine bay?

[tunnie]

new coolant bottle does wonders for engine bay 

[grain.ben]

Hey, that does look good tunnie 

[MarkC]

You have become MR Detailer  Nice man cave and nice cars 

Thanks EMD, Mr Detailer I like it, sounds better than Mr OCD 

Looking nice  , wanna do mine? 

Also, what do you use to clean up the engine bay?

I went 'budget' with the cleaning product, instead of using expensive degreasers I simply used white spirit on a rag and toothbrush/paintbrush to clean the 'scum' off the pipes, tops of wing, scuttle etc... Finished the plastic/rubber work with Autoglym erm...Plastic & Rubber cleaner 

new coolant bottle does wonders for engine bay 

I agree mate, a brand spanking expansion tank transforms an engine bay, that missing decal on the plastic fan cover/slam panel would drive me mad.....I can help you with that if you'd like, I'm in the graphics industry and can get things like that printed on vinyl, I did all mine on the Carlton. Just need to know what decal was there originally

[MarkC]

Well, after four 12 hour days... I've finished the Omega, my fingertips are as sore as hell and every time I shut my eyes all I see is that car....but I'm happy with the results 

Anyway, final photos of the deep clean:

Plant life growing in the boot lid shut...



...not any more.



Exhaust tailpipe was BLACK!!!



A bit of spit & polish (okay, Autoglym Metal polish) and I have a shiny pipe 



More claying, the bonnet this time....

More contamination on this panel than the whole car!!!



The nearside rear bumper had a nasty gouge down the side where the previous owner had obviously not been very careful with their parking...



So I decided to have a go at fixing it...
Flatted the scuff out with a medium grit paper/water...





Ready for primer...





Not a bad match, just need to wait for the lacquer to dry properly before I can machine polish it up to a shine.



Horrible tar spots and grime at the front wheel arch...



No more...



Front passenger seat=ditched!!



Front passenger seat=clean 



A more welcoming sight for passengers now.



Polishing paying off.





Just arrived at work to take these shots of the car...

















Thanks for looking 

[henryd]

Looking very nice Mark