Marcos Mantula gets a Divine detail
Always a fan of cars with some heritage, it was with great pleasure I was asked to detail this amazing Marcos. After spending the last couple of years being passed from one workshop to another having various parts worked upon it was desperate for some TLC. Indeed, upon meeting Lewis, the owner, at Marcos Heritage near Devizes in Wiltshire, Lewis hadn’t even seen the car himself for 10 months.
This car was manufactured in 1991 and was the car Marcos used at the British Motorshow to display the Mantula model. Since then it has been heavily modified, including the more recent fitment of a 4.6 litre V8 engine of Rover origin, said to be good for 348bhp. In a fibreglass car weighing approx 900kg, that should make for some pretty epic performance!
During its workshop visits over the past months it has been resprayed, the new engine fitted, interior re-trimmed and most recently the brand new wheels fitted (just days prior to this detail). Sadly, whilst being stored it was only touched by oily hands and covered in a liberal helping of overspray. Running a hand across the car it felt very rough, the paintwork visually flat, dull and very heavily swirled. Inside dirty hands and overalls had marked the new leather, together with dust and grime that had settled from the air.
After sorting a corner of the yard where I wouldn’t be in anyone’s way, first job was to get the car washed and clayed to remove all that overspray. Here are a few pictures of it at the start.
In the beautiful May sunshine the swirls were very evident on every panel, particular the boot and the bonnet.
Thoroughly washed, the big task was to clay. Due to the nature of the contamination, aggressive clay was chosen to get the job done effectively. Compared to a car in ‘average’ condition, this took 3 times longer than normal. Once completed, the paint felt smooth once again but was now heavily marred by the clay. Not a problem in this case as a full machine polish was to follow, but something to consider should you try that yourself.
After taking extensive paint depth readings, I started polishing. Using the bootlid as a test area it was clear after several attempts with different products that the paint was hard and well cured. This meant that a heavy cutting compound would be necessary to effectively remove the defects and then a second trip around the car with a finishing polish to leave a sharp perfect reflective finish. Below are pictures showing the area before and after polishing, the swirls clearly visible in the picture on the left only.
Happy with this correction, I continued with the rest of the bootlid, then working along both rear wings and doors. The wing mirrors were removed from the car so that I was able to gain access to the area behind them with the rotary polisher.
All the paintwork from the doors backwards was given a final polish before being treated with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid, then given a coat of wax. Only the best would do as far as Lewis was concerned, so Swissvax Divine was the only choice. Applied by hand, left to cure and then buffed to a high gloss, it looked stunning. Before packing up I applied Swissvax Pneu dressing to the tyres, taking advantage of being able to leave them overnight and reapply the next day for a better effect.
The work so far had taken me to the end of day 1 and I was very pleased with the progress so far.
Day 2.
Correcting the bonnet took over 3 hours, a lot of careful manoeuvring being required to safely correct the intricate curvy shape. With final polishing finished, the paint was treated as the rest of the bodywork with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid then its first coat of Divine wax. Whilst this was curing I took the opportunity to remove the headlight covers and clean inside the recess.
With the wax nicely hazed, it was buffed off to a brilliant shine and the catches and badge re-fitted.
At this point, I applied another layer of wax to the whole car and left it to cure while I turned my attention to the interior.
Seat bases were removed from the car, this then allowed me to remove the carpet inserts which just needed a very thorough brush and vacuum, and a wipe over with a fabric cleaner. The biggest area of attention needed was the leather which has become very grimy. So, using a sponge pad, a soft brush and Swissvax Leather Cleaner, I worked my way around all the surfaces taking the dirt away. The picture below shows the improvement with one half of the transmission tunnel done!
This stage of the detail took some time to complete, many areas needing repeat applications of the leather cleaner to remove the oily finger marks and scuffs. Once done, Swissvax Leather Milk was used to condition and add protection. Interior glass, including the rear view mirror, was cleaned and the roll over hoop/roof support was treated to some metal polish. This didn’t come up as well as I’d hoped thanks to a lot of pitting in the surface.
By now the wax was well and truly cured, so the paintwork was once again buffed to a high shine. The exterior glass was cleaned (a compound was used to remove a little remaining overspray not removed during the claying stage), seals dressed, tyres dressed again to give a dark satin finish and the wheels meticulously covered with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid then Autobahn wheel wax to protect them (being brand new just a few days before they needed no additional preparation work).
A final wipe down of the bodywork, a quick blast with an airline to remove dust from panel gaps and it was time to move the car outside for some finished pictures. A lot of hard work went into this detail, and I was very pleased with the results. The preparation, and the quality of the wax means that it will stay looking like this for a long time with minimal effort from Lewis.
Thanks very much to Lewis for the opportunity to work on such an amazing car, and to Rory at Marcos Heritage for his hospitality and letting me use the facilities of his workshop. As the sole supplier in the world of genuine Marcos parts, including the ability to make new (and custom) body panels from original moulds, the knowledge and professionalism shown by everyone there explains why people from all over the world choose to use Marcos Heritage.
Testimonials
“I would definitely recommend anyone to use Shine On regardless of marque, Paul is a genuinely nice bloke who has the rare attributes of actually loving his job and doing it to the best of his ability (bordering on OCD). I personally plan to use this service at least every 8months to keep the cars looking at their best.
And to top it all off…..even my wife commented on how and I quote ‘amazing’ it looked, that testimony alone is worth its weight in gold!
Andy (M3 and Battle Bus!)”
