What keeps your Veyron company? A Skyline of course!
Keeping the Bugatti Veyron company in it’s heated and dehumidified garage is this striking 2001 Nissan Skyline R34 GTR Vpec-II, a very rare model and was one of the first examples in Europe. Having been owned from just a couple of months old, the owner of the car absolutely adores it, the way it looks, the way it handles and the way it performs. The only thing that needed improving was the way it looked, a good number of years living parked on the street in Central London not having been particularly kind to the paintwork.
The Bayside Blue paintwork lacked any real gloss or depth, and was extremely rough to the touch. The roof and boot lid were showing signs of deeply etched watermarks as a result of extended periods being sat with wet leaves having fallen on it.
After moving the Veyron back to it’s garage, the owner kindly manoeuvred the Skyline into the wash bay for me, the pictures below are not great, but show the car at the start.
No pictures of the wash stage, but the usual routine followed. Citrus pre-wash, wheels soaked in a non-acidic wheel cleaner. Arches and door shuts sprayed with an APC dilution, all given a good rinse off then a proper wash with a lambswool mitt. The paint was so rough I could actually feel the mitt dragging across the panels!
To rectify this, yellow polyclay was used to remove contaminants from the paint. Whilst not hard to remove, it was very extensive contamination so the claying did take a fair while longer than usual. Once finished, all the surfaces felt as smooth as glass.
Time was getting on, light was fading (I only got started early afternoon after completing the Veyron protection detail), so I wanted to get prepared for the machine polishing the next day. I inspected the whole car with the Positector 200 paint depth gauge, thanks to a mix of metal, plastic and carbon fibre panels. It was immediately obvious that a lot of areas would need a very careful approach. Whilst the factory standard carbon bonnet showed plenty of paint, the rest of the car was quite variable and generally thin (although apparently all original). The roof and boot in particular were of concern, a couple of peaks of 85-90 mics were good, but mostly reading a total thickness of 60-70 mics. I knew this would rule out a heavy approach to remove the water etching that whilst was visible, couldn’t be felt in the paint.
Before leaving for the day I grabbed the rotary to try a test panel and get a feel for what I might be dealing with. Menzerna 106FA on a polishing pad to the wing provided a brilliant result, gloss and clarity being immediately returned to the panel.
Next morning I carried on with the car exactly where I left off. It was rather cold and access to the garage wasn’t available at that time, so I continued to work in the wash bay until mid-morning when I could actually get the car into the warm.
I didn’t go mad with pictures, but here are some shots of the correction I was achieving. Thanks to the soft paint, most of this was being achieved with one set of passes, although bad areas needed two or even three hits. I could have used a more aggressive polish, but with the paint depth readings in mind, gently progressing with a finer polish was a better way forward.
In the garage, even without a direct light source from the halogen lamp, the difference in the paint was very clear where it had been polished, the untouched half looking a completely different shade.
Pushing on to get finished in the timeframe laid out, I completed the machine polishing stage which left a few bits to do by hand that the machine pad couldn’t reach effectively. Underneath the rear spoiler for example (I would have preferred to remove it altogether, but it wasn’t appropriate on this occasion).
A trip around the car with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid removed any remain debris from the paint and left it looking shiny and wet all on its own. Following this, Swissvax Divine was applied using a foam applicator, making sure every square inch of the car was covered. It’s not an easy wax to apply, thanks to being very hard in the pot, but the results speak for themselves in terms of the gloss achieved and it’s durability. But at the price you shouldn’t expect anything less!
With wax curing, the annoyingly fiddly wheels did their best to remove the skin from my fingers whilst I cleaned them first with Cleaner Fluid, and then coated them in Autobahn wheel wax. Tyres were dressing with Pneu which gives a lovely satin ‘brand new’ look to them. Glass was cleaned with Crystal, and exterior rubber treated to Swissvax Seal Feed to keep them supple.
With all that done, and wax buffed from both paint and wheels, I just had time to take a few shots of the car. Apologies they are not great, photo’s without good light isn’t my strong area. Come next summer it will be good to get some pictures in the sunlight.
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!)”
