Ross's Wedgwood CDT Club SE "Rosie" - progress thread

[Ross R75]

No photo updates as yet, I've been so busy with work and have been away for the last 3 weeks.

Rosie passed her MOT yesterday with no advisories

[MG Tom]

Always good to get a clean sheet on the MOT! Well done mate.

[Ross R75]

Originally Posted by MG Tom

Always good to get a clean sheet on the MOT! Well done mate.

Thanks Tom, I've done a fair bit of work for that clean sheet so it makes it all the sweeter.

[Jim Jamieson]

Rosie looks very tidy indeed for the age and mileage.

One point I've noted and it seems to be a common thing these days.
Lots of you guys spend lots of money on additives, oil, filters and the like but fail to REPLACE the brake fluid.

Oil will certainly keep your engine running sweet but brake fluid is a safety related item and yet it seldom seems to get changed.

OK my rant is over so enjoy Rosie and keep posting

[Tim_Burgess]

That's a very nice example; and I'm not a Wedgewood Blue fan. Nice spec too, just add leather

You're certainly cracking on through the jobs there, keep up the good work.

[Ross R75]

After appeasing SWMBOs wrath by giving the garden a good clear up, I had some free time this afternoon to get some work done on “Rosie”, my Wedgwood R75 Club SE CDT 160. I usually like to get these jobs out of the way as soon as I buy a car but I’ve been working away from home and when I’ve been back, I’ve been so busy that I haven’t got round to doing them.
The paint on the horizontal surfaces, namely the bonnet, boot and roof, had faded very slightly and felt like sandpaper to the touch. Armed with the equipment below, Rosie was prepared for some minor cosmetic surgery:




Half of the bonnet has been polished in this photo:



...... and here is the other half prepped for polishing:




The bonnet polished but not washed:




Next job was to sort another another niggling problem. There has been a very small water leak into the boot since I bought the car. I tracked this down to a cracked foam gasket on the NSR tail lamp cluster. Now repaired with Jeremy’s excellent replacement rear lamp seals:





Next she got a good all-over wash down with Wolfs WS-1N “White Satin” shampoo. This product is the best shampoo I’ve ever used. Half a capful in a 20 litre bucket is all that’s needed:




The following photos are where the car stands as of this evening. She has been washed but there is no wax, sealant or glaxe products on the paint. I’ll apply sealant and wax after I’ve polished the remainder of the body panels and corrected a couple of scuffs with some more aggressive compound:

[myrover2013]

I see you are from bonnie Scotland , we are from Edinburgh , now living down in Norwich, your car is the dogs ********, can you give me some tips on what you use to clean then polish then wax

[Ross R75]

Originally Posted by myrover2013

I see you are from bonnie Scotland , we are from Edinburgh , now living down in Norwich, your car is the dogs ********, can you give me some tips on what you use to clean then polish then wax

Thanks David. When washing, I hose the car down to remove loose debris and wash using a noodle mitt with 2 buckets, one with a good quality car shampoo (Wolfs, poorboys, menzerna etc) and another with clean cold water for rinsing the mitt. Both buckets have grit guards in the bottom. I wash the car all over, apart from the wheels, then rinse again with the hose. I then move on to the wheels with a different wash mitt, brake dust is incredibly abrasive and you don't want it being rubbed over your paint. Once the wheels are clean, I dry the whole car with a waffle weave towel, it's really important to dry the car as this removes any left over dirt and stops the water from leaving spot marks on the paint.

I always condition the tyres with Poorboys bold and bright dressing, nothing worse than a clean car with dirty tyres.

For polishing, I use menzerna intensive polish or wolfs cutting polish, followed by poorboys professional polish to remove any holograms or imperfections left by the heavier polish. These are only worth the money if you're using a good quality machine polisher with good pads. If polishing by hand, you won't remove swirls or scratches anyway and someting like Auto Glym Super Resin Polish is as good as anything if hand polishing.

For sealing I use Carlack 68 nanotech sealant which lasts about 6 months and forms a tough protective layer over the paint and removes surface contamination. Wax over the top of this with a good quality carnauba wax, I use P21s concourse wax which is now called R222. This is easily the best quality wax in it's price range by a long long way, it's about £28 a tub but it will last you for many years and it blows anything from Halfords out of the water for ease of use and depth of shine.

That's it in a nutshell for the exterior.

[BaroqueMoon]

Excellent

[MG Tom]

Wow! An update worthy of its own thread really!

I'm yet to detail mine but looking forward to letting my DAS6 loose on it.

Going to have to give the Wolf shampoo a go