While I'm making confessions, I'll let you in on a secret about the photos.. No I didn't photoshop them! Those lens flares are the real thing! But readers should know that valeter's working hours tend to fit in with the hours of the day the it is best and worst to take photos.
The car arrived at about 10am when the sun was fairly high and very harsh, this is the worst time to take photos of a car because the light shows up all the imperfections - which was exactly what I was trying to do when I took the 'before shots'. The car was being finished nearer 6pm - there is a time before sunset that photographers call the 'golden hour', the lighting at this time is so good that it's hard to take bad photos! The lighting is very soft and kind.

However, I did actually try to take some photos which showed up the imperfections (but the ones I have understate it), on most cars it's not possible to remove 100% of the scratches. Some will be too deep to remove, and the older the car, the more of these there are likely to be. Nor will buffing remove stone chips, rust blisters, deep acid etching from bird droppings or deep stains. And the more you make good the rest of the paintwork, the more these imperfections stand out - they become highlighted! So on certain cars its best not to take the buffing process to the nth degree. Hopefully my next article on a TVR will illustrate this.

Buffing is a process that cannot be rushed, it takes time. But time is expensive, so there is a scale of economy to this kind of work. Willy Spent about 10 hours in total buffing this car and got the car to about 90% of what he believed was achievable. However, if he had spend another 10 hours, he would only have got the car to 95% of what is achievable. Note that we talk about 'what is achievable' and not about making your car look like a new car. You cannot make a old car into a new car.

However, I hope you agree that this Mercedes didn't turn out too bad at all, the overall appearance gives a very good impression.

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After photos