Such is the case that I get asked to do mates cars from time to time and my first ‘Major’ detail was on my mates Nissan 200SX S13, I spent 5 whole days on the car over a 3 week period (pics here: Part 1 & Part 2 for those that can be bothered!) – that was back in ’07. And since then I just maintained my car and did other peoples for a bit of cash when I had the time.
The ironic thing is that I still haven’t had chance to properly machine the VX! Since getting it in April 09 I’ve been either driving it or fixing other issues or busy with other things – then I was hit in Aug so figured I’d wait until the car was tip top before spending a weekend on it – still haven’t got round to it!
ANYWAY – my mate with the S13 was singing my praises one day on the SXOC forum when a member asked if I’d be willing to take look at his car to see what I could do – his car was no ordinary car though! It’s the only known ‘VIP style’ car in the country! The scene is big in the US but yet to really take off else where. The car itself is an imported Toyota Aristo (Lexus GS300/400) So the car is not to everyone's taste, but hey, some people don’t like our little cars. Variety is the spice of life right!?
It’s had extensive body mods to conform to the VIP style including proper fabricated steel arches to fit the HUGE wheels, Audi A8 side repeaters, lots of smoothing and flushing and then a whole re-spray. The interior has curtains, passenger table and cushions and of course tints for that VIP look. It also has 10 individual puddle lights in the side skirts. The 3L straight 6 has also been tickled with a single turbo conversion and once he gets some new injectors, a new map and some other little bits it should be on the wrong side of 600HP! (it’s about 400HP at the mo)
Lam, the owner explained that he wanted the swirls gone and a bit of shine added as he had a show coming up.
So he delivered the car and I set to work on it each night after work and on Saturday ready for the Modified national show on Sunday.
Here is what I did over the 6 days and 25 hours in total that I spent on the car:
1. Snow foam to remove loose grime – dwell for 5 mins
2. Pressure wash off
3. Re-snow foam with strong APC solution to remove any existing layers of wax – dwell for 5 mins
4. Rinse off
5. Wash with two bucket method using Dodo Supernatural shampoo and Dodo “Wookies fist” wash mitt
6. APC’d the engine bay and all shuts and filler cap
7. Rinse off
8. Clay car using Sonus green mild clay (this wasn’t necessary being that paint was only 6 months old, but I wanted to make sure the paint was totally free of debris)
9. re-washed and rinsed off
10. Dried using megs last touch as a drying aid and waffle weave drying towel
11. taped off a test area and experimented with different pads & polishes to find the right combo for the best results
12. Masked up the car with 3M low tack tape.
13. Began the correction of the swirls – started with the roof and worked my way down leaving the bumpers and skirts to the end
14. More polishing!
15. Polished bumpers and skirts
16. Went round the car with a finishing pad and polish to refine
17. Re-foamed the car to remove polishing dust
18. Rinsed off with pressure washer
19. Dried car with waffle weave towel
20. Applied Dodo lime prime lite in prep for the wax
21. Applied a layer of Dodo Juice Supernatural Wax by hand to the entire car and let it cure for 20 mins
22. Buffed off the wax by hand
23. left paintwork for 24hrs
24. Removed all four wheels in turn and cleaned & polished them (with some help!)
25. Gave the car a wipe down with last touch and applied a second layer of Dodo Juice supernatural wax by hand and left it to cure
26. buffed off the wax by hand
27. dressed the engine bay and tyres
28. polished the exhaust tips
29. tidied and vacuumed the interior
Lam turned up at the house just as I was literally giving it a final wipe down! He was well chuffed with my work.
The next day he informed me that he won ‘best in class’ and narrowly missed out on car of the show! Although the modified nationals show is not quite my scene I was still pretty chuffed that my effort wasn’t in vain.
I’ve been asked to give my mates S13 another doing over ready for the SXOC’s Weekender (The equivalent of our National) so will post some pics of that when done.
Here are a few taster pics and then a link to the entire album for anyone that wants a look! Cheers all, now I just need to find the time to do the VX!
Before
After
Here is a LINK to the whole album of pics
Cheers for reading my little tale!
good work by the way
Surprise to see it here. 
