Curvacious Beauty - 110 Photos of loveliness

My best friend’s father begrudgingly changing his Jaguar XK for an estate due to family commitments. Mike’s an enthusiast owner, washes the car weekly and hand applies AutoGlym Super Resin Polish every few months, so the car was in good condition to start, but I was asked to lend a hand putting some finishing touches to prepare the car for its next owner.
Here was the car as I found her on Sunday morning backed out of the garage:
First job was giving the engine a little degrease to remove any dust and grime:


Tools for the job: a microfiber pad, detail brush, long brush and Meguiars Super Degreaser:

Super Degreaser sprayed liberally and agitated with the brushes:



And then rinsed on a ‘rain’ setting of the hose. Next job before the main wash is the wheels using the following array of kit:

Cleaning from back to front of the wheel, firstly using a long handle titan brush:

Meguiars All Wheel Cleaner sprayed on with each stage:

Next a Megs Wheel brush for the front of the dish:

A Detail brush for the nut recesses:

And a common or garden bog brush and APC to clean out the arches:

I normally use a bendy brush for behind the spokes but due to the massive size of these 20” beasties it was easy to get in there with a mitt:

A stiffer brush wash needed to really get into the nuts on the rim:

All then rinsed with the Pressure Washer, especially thoroughly up around the arches:

Mike asked me to take a look at a scratch on the boot.

It needed paint so I filled it using a cocktail stick (perfect to get a fine nib to direct the paint into a scratch). This was left to dry for a while, then accelerated with a hair dryer, a second coat applied and warmed with the dryer for around 10 minutes.

Chemical Guys Citrus Degreaser applied as a pre-wash to the lower panels:

Rinsed:

A strong snow foam mix applied:




And rinsed:

Re-foamed ready for the main hand wash. Details cleaned with a brush and APC firstly:


Onto the main wash. Meguiars HyperWash in a wash bucket, a rinse bucket and a sheepskin wash mitt:



And rinsed off:

The next stage was a clay bar treatment to remove bonded contaminants. Two balls of clay prepared:

Megs Last Touch sprayed liberally as lubricant:

A piece of clay then rubbed over the roof first:

Not much contamination there as you’d expect:

Lower panels then showing a lot more contamination being removed:



The lower sections of the doors being the worst:

Car re-rinsed and then dried:


I took a break from washing the body and did the footmatts. Here they are before:

CG Fabric Clean sprayed evenly:

Worked in with a stiff brush:

Extracted with a Vax Wet Vac:


Stripes added:

CG Fabric Guard applied to protect them:


Interior vacuum cleaned:

Glass cleaned:

Aerospace 303 Protectant applied to interior trim:


A new product to me – a Simonez air freshener and odour eliminator applied to the carpets:

Time for the polishing stage. I set up the Makita rotary polisher with a small 4” pad and some Megs #83 polish:

Only a few small areas needed this stage. One was a patch of small scratches on the ‘a’ pillar which have built up from passing admirers leaning on the car to take a look at the interior. Mike says he regularly comes back to the car in a car park with someone peeking in!


The whole of the car was then prepared by polishing with the UDM random orbital polisher, a Megs polishing pad and Zymol HD-Cleanser fluid:





Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?..............

The wheels were waxed with CG Wheel Guard:


Tailpipes polished with wire wool and autosol, then Megs Metal Polish and a foam pad to refine:




Tyres dressed:

HD cleanse buffed off with a microfibre and body wiped down with Last Touch. It was then all ready for waxing. The XK was being treated to a coat of Zymol Concours Wax to be applied by hand:

A pea sized amount warmed in the palms of my hands to aid spreading and bonding to the paint:



Buffed after curing for about 15 minutes:

Left for a while for the wax to fully cure then buffed again with Zymol Field Glaze :

And that was the process just about finished. Here’s the finished photos:












Leather treated with Zymol Leather Conditioner:









Engine Bay plastics treated with Megs Hyper Dressing to finish it:





Thanks for reading. Any comments welcomed as usual.