UK Detail: Mr.Paul Dalton

[justin30513]

****Most of us has heard this gentleman's name by now. This is a detail accomplished by my good friend Paul Dalton. We have seen the youtube vids and heard of his 8000.00 details. After reading this, I can see why! This is what I'm striving to accomplish. Hope you all enjoy..........I sure did! I have his permission to post this here. In fact, he asked me too.****



vxr astra and zymol royale - 56k xxx warning...

FRIDAY



PICK UP FROM DEALERSHIP



Well after nearly six months of waiting my vxr astra finally arrived at Greens of Holborough my local Vauxhalldealership....



I knew from the start what i wanted from this car and had prearranged with the dealer principal to help me out while the car was in their care so they agreed to put the car on ramps for a week to enable me to have the wheels sent off .....



The car was then placed on vectra vxr 19" alloys...

SATURDAY



INTERIOR...

Next was a trip to Leicester to classic car services a professional leather re-trimmers and upholsters with whom i had discussed what i wanted from the interior of the vxr and had sent me samples as well as different ideas of what would suit the style and colour of the car....



I chose classic car services from a list of 7 due to the fact that they were a well established company who have produced interiors for show cars aswell as magazine shoots and they came highly recommended....



They agreed to let me replace my vxr recaros with like for like seats for a week which meant i could return in 1 week to pick my new seats up!!

The spec i had decided on with Steve was for a top quality Scottish Weir which had been dyed and matched the metallic Arden Blue paintwork

I also requested vxr embroiderry on the headrests...



2 hours later and i returned from Leicester ready to start the detail...



The car was nice and dirty ready for my detail..



FOAMBATH...

I decided to give the car a foam bath first using autobrites foam lance and supersnow foam....I also sprayed the arches with megs apc diluted 4:1

Before karchering the car i was surprised at how the foam was running down the sides of the car dirty so it was obviously eating in to the dirt nicely...

WASH



Next using zymol autowash and a natural sea sponge i used the 2 bucket method to wash the car before spraying off and pouring 100 litres of zero ppm r.o water over it...

DRYING...



I then put the car into the garage and using sonus ultimate drying towels and aquatouch towels proceeded to dry the car whilst using Megs last touch to aid with the drying...

I paid particular attention to door and boot shuts...

CLAYING...



Now the car was dry i decided to clay the car. The clay i used was zymols lehm clayjust simply because i have had good results with this before and it was a toss up between this and sonus green....

I made a mixture of claylube from zymol autowash and zero ppm r.o water...

Once i started to clay the car i noticed what i can only describe as a fine pitting and rough surface which felt like overspray but could not visibly see anything...

After a panel the clay was not actually to dirty so i proceeded to clay the whole car regularly turning the claybar and this was the worst it got

The paintwork felt silky smooth now and i was happy that i had no marring on the paintwork probably due to being over cautious with the clay lube on a new car!!!!



I then washed the car again , dryed and placed in the garage overnight ready for sunday and paintwork correction....



I asked Paul Dalton to give me some advice on this issue being a new car and how he felt about helping me to get the result that i was looking for and to give the car the best start with regards to its bodywork...We eventually went out for the night and thrashed out a deal we were both happy with over the space of 4 days to get the look i wanted!



SUNDAY



INSPECTION...



Paul arrived on the dot at 9am and saw the car for the first time.



Before he did anything he looked the car over and pointed out that to get the perfect result he would need to do some tests and paint gauge readings to accertain what he needed to do paintwork correction wise to rid the paintwork of the hills and valleys and to get a nice level surface for maximum reflection...



First he checked the car for blemishes with a 3m pps colour checklight ..

Straight away he found some scratches that must have come from factory (pray i didnt do them). I had instructed my dealership Greens of Holborough not to touch the car upon delivery off the transporter even to the point of leaving all window stickers on!!!! They did this perfectly for me.

 

[justin30513]

PAINT DEPTH READINGS...



Paul then explained to me that to get an accurate assesment of the Vauxhall paintwork he would need to take 25 individual readings from each panel to build up a 3d picture in his head of how he would tackle this....He also told me the data would be loaded into a laptop after all readings were taken..

He then proceeded to take all relavent readings and downloaded them

Next Paul explained to me that everypanel had a batch number which were as follows:



Batch 1.1 = roof

Batch 1.2 = bonnet

Batch 1.3 = nearside front wing

Batch 1.4 = nearside front door

Batch 1.5 = nearside rear quarter panel

Batch 1.6 = offside front wing

Batch 1.7 = offside front door

Batch 1.8 = offside rear quarter panel

Batch 1.9 = boot



This is a graph representing the roof panel of the vxr...

This showed that the roof panel was 155 microns at the thickest point compared to 120 at the lowest.....



I asked Paul why this was so important and he explained that for maximum reflection you needed to take away the peaks in the clearcoat to a maximum point of the lowest trough microscopically which should flatten the clearcoat to a reading of + or - 2 microns across the board and take no more than 8 microns from the clearcoat for fear of clearcoat failure in the future....



I had had the same discussion recently with a guy from BASF whom i deal with at work and he explained to me exactly the same that clearcoats are desighed to protect the paintwork provided that they maintain an average layer of no more than 8 to 10 microns being removed...He explained that with regards to paintwork you could happily do this 3 to 4 times to take to the 8 micron barrier!



Now that the readings were taken Paul was surprised at how good he felt the Vauxhall paint was in comparison to some other marques. He agreed with me though that the clearcoat finish had a very fine pin pricked effect of which he said he would remove and inspected it and showed me it under a magnified illuminated linen tester...

PAINTWORK CORRECTION



Paul then set about paintwork correction on the car and using his rotary started to work on the panels then taking paintwork readings..

He then changed to smaller pads for more intricate areas...

 

[justin30513]

He explained how he was looking for changes in the polishes he was using and from time to time mixed up some additives and polishes before applying to new pads and starting again..



With Paul now finishing the paintwork correction he was taking readings again and restarting again until he was happy...

He then pointed out to me that he had noticed a slight imperfection to do with glass distortion which he proceeded to show me on the headlights....I have to be honest i thought they were fine but he said he would do glass correction on them and make them perfect and he proceeded to skim what he said was approxumatly 1 micron off with a diamond polish until they were crystal clear....I was quite surprised at the result...



He then machine polished them to get a perfect shine and clarity in the glass...

The result was superb



BEFORE

AFTER

MICROSCOPIC MACHINE POLISHING



Now with the paintwork correction finished Paul set to work m/c polishing the paintwork in preparation for the hd cleanse stage and waxing....

Paul used many products at this stage including 3m and Menzerna and used some additives and oils of his own which he refused to talk about...he just smiled!!

He explained to me how he worked in chequer boards and looked for changes in oil and composition of polish before deciding when to stop at maximum point of breakdown...



DECISIONS



The next stage was really to decide what we both felt would be best for the paintwork and to choose which wax to use out of Pauls massive collection...

Owning Zymol titanium , Concours and Destiny i felt it only right to keep it in the family as i love their products so much we decided on Zymol Royale.....It seemed rude not to...

We decided to apply Royale over 4 days to get multiple layers on and decided on 4 layers.....



HD-CLEANSE



I then set about hd cleansing the paintwork...

I told Paul that i wanted to go over the paintwork twice which he agreed with...and then i proceeded to wipe it off...

 

[justin30513]

This was my favourite stage throughout the day....

I was quite surprised at how lumpy the royale seemed compared to my Destiny and other zymol waxes and it was definetly not as easy to apply which now makes me understand posts when people state that the high end glazes are not easy to work with....



We both applied the wax one side each ...

After the wax had taken on the bodywork after about 5 minutes we proceeded to gently buff off.....

 

[justin30513]

THE RESULTS



Well let me say that before and after shots are taken at different times of day and lighting etc changed so can only try and get best balance possible setting lighting to tungsten to get fairest result.......



BONNET BEFORE

BONNET AFTER

REFLECTION SHOTS

That was sunday finished...



MONDAY



WHEELS



Today was all about the wheels ...



When i ordered the car i knew i wanted a look away from the standard silver but didnt want to go to bling s looked into pure chrome but was advised against it due to poor rim protection and £500 per wheel cost....



So spoke to a few wheel guys and decided on an american chromium finish with diamond tipped faces witha double clear laquer to protect the bare ally in the event of stone chippage...



Clayed the wheels first..

Then hd cleansed...

Then the wheels were royaled fronts and titaniumed backs....



OLD WHEEL

NEW WHEEL

 

[justin30513]

MODERN ART OR TECHNOLOGICAL MASTERPIECE?

EYES IN THE NIGHT!

NO RUSH!

 

[steelwind101]

Hello



Now its posted there too!! Some discussion here: http://autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/86974-zymol-royal-vectra.html#post885475



What i think is so ironic is this does highlight a bit of British mentality. ALOT of detailers are now feel that they need to compete with each other over Zymol, Swissol etc. Which forces UK prices up and keeps people consumers (nearly always lay to detailing) in mental state where they think they have to have these expensive big brand waxes on there cars.



Most of them would probably have a pretty bad heart stop if Justin or Scottwax or any of you other guys opened UK shop using more modest products getting better or as good results (in real life and in there not very good seeing eyes) for less cash!!



Still it it a choice of who you pay and what you pay and it its is good job.



Geoff

 

[757motoring]

Wow that was a real inspiring write up hopefully one day I'll be half as good as that. What is the HD cleanse they use on the wheels and paintwork before they applied the wax. Found his website how you you convert prises to USD ?

 

[steelwind101]

Hi



£1 = $1.90 (around), now you know why we are buying all those homes in Florida!!



HD cleanse is paintwork cleaner with oils (??).



Geoff

 

[mr.ikon]

reading that was incredible. i thought the befores on the headlights were good, and then the afters were absolutely stunning. his work is simply genius.

 

[silvergray]

What an impressive detail! Absolutely perfect!



How much do those cars cost? And that detail?

 

[sneek]

dammm, i misjudged Paul Dalton. He looks like an amazing detailer.

 

[imported_rydawg1]

I guess we are all just under payed.

 

[Overtaker]

I really don't see this write up adding much credibility to Mr. Dalton. There are really no before shots of the exterior in sunlight and there is only one after picture with artificial light on it. I can't see a dramatic before and after picture. I find the details of Autopia board members much more accomplishing and they do not require a laptop to do so.

 

[BigHonu]

I guess we are all just under payed.

Just spit up some coffee on that one! :lol

 

[Spilchy]

Do we have to go through this again? We've all seen the YouTube video, it has been posted here ad nauseum.



His detailing skills are excellent, but I'm more impressed with is marketing skills to get some sap to pay that kind of coin for a detail. I think I threw up in my mouth a bit when I saw what he charges. What did PT Barnum once say?! A sucker born every minute?



I see nothing outside the ordinary with his methods besides maybe using a paint gauge with uploaded results to a laptop and slathering by hand an over priced wax.



I think I'll save a bunch of mortgage payments, ship my car to Tennessee and let good ol' Autopian ebpcivicsi (Joe) take a crack at it. Or to California to let Superior Shine or Mike Phillips buff away.



That kind of price is utterly asinine and proves that you don't have to be smart to have a lot of money.



Just my $0.02. But props to him for finding folks to pay for it. Nice photos too.

 

[imported_rydawg1]

It's true! I am very sure most of us would give him a run for his money if we spent that much time on a vehicle. The only thing that makes him special is that expensive wax that he uses. But his correction products are the same as most use here.



I know he has excellent skill, but what makes him special is that he can get away charging that much and he has that high expense image and the internet is boosting it for him and for the people with money that have their noses high in the air just fall into it! So they pay him the highest dollar showing off they got the best. I do give him credit though! He has us all beat!

 

[imported_rydawg1]

True...that laptop is just something that I will just have nightmares about. If the people fall for it, then they deserve to give there money away for something foolish. I can see the paint guage as something cute on a newer car with perfect paint, but then to anylize it on the laptop...He has more skill on finding suckers then detailing! But hey, he is the only detailer with a laptop to analyze paint and now he is the master and king of detailing. I am not scared!



If he was that good then his eyes could do the analyzing and not need a laptop.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

It seems to me that y'all are just beating up on the bloke because he is Justin's good friend...stop the persecution!

 

[imported_rydawg1]

I am not beating up on anyone. I think the guy is a genious for doing it personally and if I could do it myself in the states I would. But I don't think many people around here would fall for it or pay for it. So I am back to my small $200 to $500 dollar details and loving it. I wish he was my friend!