Detailing a Tank (Land Rover D3 content)

[PaulVW]

As mentioned in my thread about the Polo, the owner was so impressed that he asked me to also detail his other car. Now on weekends this bra rolls in a fairly new Land Rover Discovery V8 HSE, while listening to Jack Parow...

This was the most expensive car I have detailed to date and I must admit, trying my hand on a R650k vehicle was a bit intimidating...

I did this detail towards the mid of March, while I was battling to finish off my work at my previous employer before moving to Cape Town. In hind sight, I did not really have the time to do this job, but I promised the owner and I had to do it before I left JHB. I also did not realise how big this car really was – specially compared to a 2 door Polo!

As always, advice, feedback or comments very welcome.

IIRC, the vehicle had about 25k km’s on the clock when I got it, which meant it was still very new, but was nicely run in (including a few off road trips and rally spectating excursion which I also attended) and could therefore do with a nice clean.

The biggest problems were on the bonnet and driver door. The former was scratched by the dealership during a service (looked like they rubbed it down with some 400 grit paper) and the latter was “attacked” by a very friendly dog which left some serious scratches on the paint work. (Unfortunately my photographic skills are still lacking and these scratches are not shown clearly.)

Firstly some random before pics

Exterior
Nothing serious apart from some road grime and the mentioned scratches...










The engine bay showed signs of going off road...




Interior
The interior did not look too bad for an 8 month old car and the only real dirt was at the front seating positions.





Detailing:
1. Chassis & Wheels
And so the fun starts. While jacking the front of the vehicle up I could feel my 2.5 ton trolley jack was struggling. I decided to just do 2 wheels at a time on this car as I did not want to risk it falling down (on my newly tarred driveway). This is one heavy mother of a car...

I first removed the front wheels and cleaned and waxed them and the wheel arches (similar process as with the Polo) and then repeated this step for the rear.












This step took much longer than planned and I had to call it a day.


2. 1st Wash Down

The next day I gave the car a complete was down using a diluted APC solution and Meg Gold Class Shampoo - again still using the Karcher Foaming Lance...





3. Interior Clean
The next day, I first vacuumed the complete car, where after I cleaned the carpets with Adams Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner and the trim panels and seats with Adams Leather Cleaner. I finished them off with CG - Leather Conditioner Restore. I also cleaned the loose rubber carpets.

4. Polishing & Waxing
The day after, I inspected the paint work under some fluorescent lights. Not too bad apart for the scratches on the door and bonnet...






After taping the car up with some blue tape, I followed a similar 4 step process as on the Polo: I first clayed the complete car using a clay bar and lube. Thereafter I applied two Menz products (SIP & Final Finish) using the Megs G220 DA polisher and LC pads. Finally, I gave it a good layer of Collonite wax by hand.

5. Final touches
I again used Megs Gold Class Trim Detailer, Megs Plasti-X and Mothers® Glass Cleaner for the final touches.

Final condition of the D3 - before it left my house...





















Thank you for looking!