Having recently part exchanged my BMW123 Diesel for an Audi TT for my wife I found myself for the first time in 35 years to be without a motor vehicle.
I spent some time sorting out a short list and it came down to Diesel Estate. yup. As simple as that. Oh and no more than £2000.
I then spent ages on all sorts of sites trying to find a deal. I had access to a works vehicle so there was no real rush. I had been looking for about a month when a friend of mine found an advert on Gumtree. An 06 plate VW Passat estate in black 140bhp and 135k. Decent service history and some bills. £2500 was more than I wanted to spend but 06 was a chunk newer than I had hoped to buy.
It was not too far away so we decided to go and have a look.
The car had been a lease car and had just come through auction. Other than the bill of sale it had every receipt for every service and every repair in its 7 years of life.
The injectors had been replaced. the electric hand brake had been replaced. Several seals around the turbo had been replaced and lots of other stuff serviced. I counted the bills and £5865 had been spent on it and that did not include the injectors which were replaced for free.
I had looked for a rerason not to buy it or at least to nibble a bit of the price but other than a scuff on the front rear side bumper, the fact it was quite scruffy and the alloys lacquer was lifting there was actually no reason not to pay the price.
A little bit of cheek got the price down to £2350.
I drove it home and popped down to the post office and purchased 6 months of tax.
Now I am a detailler by hobby and could not wait to get a couple of dry days so that I could bring the car up to spec.
The first thing I did was take a series of before pictures to give myself a base line.
Here are some inside and outside pictures showing a pretty average 7 year old car.
I got my trusty dyson out and attacked the inside and then got my upholstry cleaner out and wet vacc'ed all the seats and mats. The only mat that did not come up too well was the drivers footwell mat and that was pretty much goosed and needs replacing.
I was going to take the wheels to the local powder coaters who i have used many times in the past but thought I would have a go myself first.
The first wheel looks OK but some of the sanding marks still show so I will do it again when time permits. the second wheel came up much better but still has a few marks. This stands up unless you get real close but again will get done again later. It does however look 100% better than it did.
As you can see I refurbed the wheels with the tyres still on and so far it has cost me two tins of lacquer and one tin of black paint (the plastic wheel nut caps were goosed)
I will do the rear ones as soon as I can and I am sure that each wheel will look better.
I then got on to my passion.
The car was
Hosed. Washed. Hosed. Clay barred. Washed. hosed. De tarred. Washed. Hosed and dried
I then wet sanded a large scratch on the bonnet.
I spent 2 1/2 hrs just on the bonnet. The bonnet is always a problem as it gets hot, cold, hot, cold and in my opinon the paints seem to go grey. Anyhow. I used some heavy duty anti marring cream and a heavy duty bobbled pad over the whole bonnet then Poorboys 3, 2 and then 1 anti swirl polish with a DA polisher. I finished off with Poorboys blackhole and it looked pretty damn good.
I then used Poorboys 2, 1 and blackhole over the rest of the car using progressively softer polish pads. Some Autoglym plastic cleaner brought the trim up and I was pretty happy with the first proper 'go'.
There is lots more to do. I want to use some more blackhole and then get a couple of coats of wax on to the finished shine to give it a nice wet look. I want to do the two rear wheels and re do the front ones. There are the scratches on the front bumper to sort and i have just got the indicator lense for the busted one on the drivers door.
A lot of the little scratches will colour in and I have the engine bay to sort.
Plenty to keep me busy over the winter months.
The next morning a nice beading shot
Sorry if it is a little pic heavy.
Ming the Chuffed