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Mr T Supra Detail


Stonkin

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Hi,

 

I was contacted by Andy (Mr T) to see if i could help improve the finish of his already stunning white twin turbo. I haven’t seen much of this car on the forum, and it seems a case of yet another gorgeous car hidden away on here. Andy very kindly dropped the car to me at 7am Saturday. After having a supra chat and a walk around the car together, we jumped into my supra and dropped him off home. Shame the roads weren’t a bit dryer to show him what the car was like :)

 

I haven’t taken loads of pictures, especially during the polishing stages but i will explain that along the way.

 

So, this was his car on arrival...

 

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Told you it was nice. Prime example of how stock, with a lip, really works well :)

 

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First off, the wheels were jetwashed and sprayed in Bilberry. Then agitated with a selection of brushes, including the insides which with their design were nice and easy to get to.

 

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The car was then jetwashed and snowfoamed to loosen the dirt prior to washing.

 

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After being left to dwell for 5 mins, it was jetwashed off. Then washed by hand using the 2 bucket method with Shampoo Plus. All door / boot shuts and fuel cap were degreased with APC and agitated with brushes.

 

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The supra was then clayed using Last Touch as lube. Minimal contamination with the doors and lower halfs being worst off as expected.

 

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It was then snowfoamed again, dried and taken inside to be inspected under halogen and led lighting. Now on first appearance the paint was in good condition with only light swirls. But it also had quite a hazy, flat appearance, some panels were worse than others. Andy wanted more depth and gloss to be created. As im sure lots are aware its never easy creating depth with such a light colour.

 

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Paint readings were taken and was pleased, at the time, to find factory paint.

 

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So, the machine polishing started. I used the Makita rotary with a 3M polishing pad and Menzerna 106fa. This is generally my go to polish for a stage 1, especially on fairly soft paint such as this, as it offers adequate cut but also refines to a lovely finish using the correct technique.

 

Not this time :( I machined the left hand hump of the bonnet, removed the residue and wiped it down with Top Inspection. The finish was awful, the middle untouched section of the bonnet had more gloss and was a far more slick finish to look at and touch. I tried a light 3M polish on the same area which produced the same results. I then tried the Menzerna again by hand and was still awful. Possibly me being slightly over cautious (but i would far prefer that) i contacted Andy and explained the situation and ended up collecting him to come down and have a look as he was so near to me. Andy then agreed for me to machine the front wing and produce a 50/50 for comparison just incase anything was reacting on the bonnet. This was done and it looked 'better' than the bonnet, the paint was certainly whiter but wasn’t really what i wanted. He agreed for me to continue on the car and do what i could with the bonnet. I finished the wing, drivers door and to be honest by now i was getting peed off. These 2 polishes were awful to use and i didn’t feel the finish was to the usual standard. Was time for a cup of tea and to evaluate. The Menzerna can be known to play up, especially in colder weather, but theres no way i would consider it cold over the w'end. When it does it goes clumpy and generally not nice to use, this was different.

 

So, as a test i switched to a Meguiars polishing pad and Meguiars #80 polish and started again on the bonnet. Wow! :) the paint loved it. It is a much more oily polish and it seems thats what was needed in this case. It was now 3 pm and originally the car was going to be ready for collection lunchtime Sunday so i needed to crack on, hence the lack of polishing pics.

 

The finish was now going from this

 

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To this

 

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Once polishing was complete it was wiped down to remove any polishing oils. I then applied Lime Prime Lite pre wax cleanser and Glaze. This enhances the wet look and also prepares the paint to receive a wax to increase bonding and therefore durability. For the wax i chose to use Victoria Concourse, 1 application. Andy is looking forward to applying further layers himself :)

 

The wheels had an application of Poorboys Wheel sealant to protect them, tyres dressed with Meguiars Endurance tyre gel. The Nur Spec exhaust was polished with NXT metal polish. The windows were polished inside and out. Andy did not want the interior doing but i wanted to at least hoover it and dust it down ready for collection.

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The car was collected at 6pm, these were the final pictures i took. You will have to forgive how the barn currently looks :) Its about to have a big makeover from this w'end with new concrete floor and chequered tiles over the top, fresh paint everywhere after a good jetwash!, new doors, lighting etc. Should look very different next time you see it.

 

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Andy was an absolute pleasure to deal with. A txt from him after he left saying he'd stopped to get petrol and under the garage lighting took one look and thought, wow! Made everything worthwhile :)

 

Thanks for reading

 

Christian

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Light colours will always be trickier to get depth into, but saying that, seeing this car in person, the finish looked stunning. Kevs on here was also silver and that also came up very well. After doing this i would love to have a white Supra, looked so modern and fresh. But, when mine gets painted its still going to have to be dark

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Your cars seem to look better than new ones. Wonderful job. If/when I get another Supra I'll be bringing it to you first thing. I quite like black cars, do they come up nice, or are they harder to get looking right? I have to say though that this white one is stunning.

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