130 hour restoration detail - Bentley GT

http://ls1tech.com/forums/appearance-detailing/1532645-130-hour-restoration-detail-bentley-gt.html

Cross posted the first 2 posts.
Pretty impressive work but I wouldn’t want to drive it after.

This Bentley required extensive work and an extreme number of hours to get it looking as it should, flawless jet black. I did my best to document the entire process that ended up being right around 130 hours. This was far beyond detailing, this was in restoration territory.

When the new owner took delivery of the car, he took it straight to the bodyshop to have the front bumper license plate holes filled in and then repainted. Once they were done with it, we got to work. There was a lot to do.

Swirls, RIDS (random isolated deep scratches), holograms/buffer trails, overspray, and just about any defect you could ask for… This was the initial condition, before removing the previous wax to find even more defects.

We did a Dawn wash to strip the previous wax. You can see a total lack of beading on the trunk where we had stripped it off.

After getting it into the shop, we clayed it and I started to document the issues now showing in their full glory.

Under the lights the car didn’t even look black. Yes it looked rough under direct light…but how does it look under INDIRECT light? You be the judge…

This was where I started the correction as it was one of the worst areas on the car.

Decided to do a different take on the usual 50/50 shot. How about a diamond?

Remember that INDIRECT light picture? Well this was shot under the exact same lighting conditions.

After compounding steps were completed and medium polishing was carried out… (final polishing to be carried out later)

Carefully polishing the fuel door with the Griots 3" DA

“Issues” on the passenger door.

Experimented with another variation on the classic 50/50 shot.

Bob working some heavy compounding to sort out the issues on the door.

Making progress… The compounding leaves a more leveled surface but its lacking in gloss. Multiple polishing steps would follow to restore a deep gloss to the paint.

Time to work the other side…

Dry, lifeless paint…

After compounding

After medium polishing

At this point we pulled it out in the sun (or what little sun there was…) to take a look at the progress.

Wheels were removed for a thorough cleaning.

Looking much better

Next up was the wheel wells and brake calipers. Some parts needed refinishing/replacing, but we did what we could within the time-frame we had to work on the car.

Here I am polishing the centercaps…

Reinstalling…

The start of MANY hours jeweling the finish to as brilliant a shine as possible.

After all the paintwork was done, I took some reflection shots inside the shop before we took it out for copious sun pics.

[COLOR=“Silver”][COLOR=“Silver”]

More in the orginal post on LS1 Tech.
I’m tired of linking shit.

Woooooooow
Great job!
What did you use to clean the rims that well

Maybe Muratic acid? Thats what I have used and it works awesome.

wtf happend to the car in the first place

Black is the most beautiful color when it’s clean and detailed. The other 98% of the time it’s the worst color ever.

Holy shit, baller car for a baller detailer. Looks friggin new, you do some amazing work.

Half an hour after completion the owner drove up next to two young women, decided to impress them, floored it at the change of the light, lost control and rolled it down an embankment.

This^

Jeff and Bob allll the way out in NorCal, another couple of guys doing it before quality detailing was the “in” thing.

Unfortunately I will have the privilege of doing the same. I may ask permission to post again in here as well if people are interested in some of the stuff I see during the week though I may have to just sponsor it to be able to even do a workflow for entertainment purposes…


Yuck - too many people have no right to even touch some vehicles let alone call themselves a detailer…

Yeah I’ve seen a lot of the stuff that guy has done on tech over the years, it’s always impressive.

:bigtup:

I think he was going for the brushed aluminum look.

So wait, you’re not supposed to have your servants use steel wool and scotchbrite pads to wash your Bentley?

Why not just go for a new paint job?

I would assume that “All Original” keeps the value higher on the vehicle.

ROFL.

I’ve got nothing but respect for you guys that do great detail work, I’m way too pussy to get at my car with a buffer.

That transformation is stunning. It looked like the PO washed the thing in barbed wire and harsh language.

What this guy said. You can afford a Bentley…

Just buy a new Bentley durh

I doubt there are many places outside the Bentley factory that can re-paint the car to the quality it was originally painted.

This.

And a real paint restoration by a skilled individual is nothing short of astonishing when completed.