This is my ten year old ST200 bought to replace my silver mondeo St24 back in Dec,
I've always been fond of these cars and been searching for a good example for a couple of years, finaly during my daily pistonheads search I came across this, 50,000 miles on the clock, fsh, no dings, no rust, no major scratchs, obviously well looked after by its 2 previous owners.

As I already own a zafira and will soon have my work van to run around in, this spends most of its time tucked away safely in the garage only coming out on dry days for some enjoyment and shows later on this year.
The paintwork already looked fantastic, although did suffer from a fair bit of swirling, wash marring and rds, which i was keen to remove as well as bring out the best of the Imperial Blue

I have been working on the car over the last two months in my spare time and around 30 hours in total has been put in.



Products used
ph neutral snowfoam
Autosmart G101
meguiars Gold class shampoo
meguiars sheepskin wash mitt
two buckets/ grit guards
Autosmart Smartwheels
Ez Detail brush
Vikan wheel brush
Various detailing brushes
Ultra plush drying towel
Autosmart tardis
Sonus green clay
water/ shampoo mix for lube
Meguiars 205 Finishing polish
Dodo Juice Lime prime
Sonus sfx 2 polishing pad
Sonus sfx 3 finishing pad
kestral Sim180 Rotary polisher
Dodo juice purple haze Pro
FK1000p
lots of microfibres
Autoglym Glass polish
Autoglym Bumper Gel
Autosmart highstyle tyre dressing



To start with a couple days worth of road salt build up









swirls evident in this shot





Full car snowfoamed left to dwell then powerwashed, full wash 2bm then all nooks and crannies, inc door shuts cleaned with G101 and various soft brushes, car re rinsed and clayed, lower areas treated with AS tardis, and rinsed again








Wheel arches cleaned with G101 mixed 10 :1 and Halfords wheel brush, due another deep clean and repaint in a couple of months when I tackle the full underbody!






Wheels cleaned with AS Smart wheels mixed 5 : 1 and Large EZ Detail brush, yellow staining removed using megs 83 on a microfibre, all for wheels are due a refurb due to some kerbing.




Now cleaned and dried ready to inspect condition of the paintwork, few swirl marks evident under sunlight







Just some light swirling all over with a few RDS, various paint readings showed a consistant 112 – 120 um all over,
the paintwork corrected very nicely using Megs 205 with Sonus SFX2 Polishing pad with the Kestral Rotary, few RDS on the door panels required a second hit to fully correct.

50/50 on the front wing



Fully corrected





Door before



After



Rear quarter panel before



After



Bottom of doors before



After



Continued this procedure round the whole car then cleansed ready for wax application using Dodo juice lime prime Lite on a Sonus SFX3 finishing pad via Rotary, this left a nice deep wet finish
Wax of choice was Dodo Juice Purple Haze Pro, this went on and buffed off very easily,
Tyres dressed with AS Highstyle, wheels waxed with FK 1000p, all trim dressed with Autoglym Bumper Gel, windows with Autoglym Glass polish

Finished results, taken some 6 weeks after first starting this detail 









































Some interior shots










any comments welcome, thanks for reading

Richard

 

that looks great, top work mate

 

As i said on SMF Chizzy, looks awesome mate.

 

Thats well nice.I love these cars.Top work fella,did you not get bored.

 

Nice turn around mate

 

job well done mate..

 

Thanks for the comments fellas


Cheers, not at all mate, very sataisfying seeing the turnaround, I do Detailing for a living too.

 

Good work mate. How do you find the EZ wheel brush? I'm looking at getting something along those lines for my multi-spoke rims.

 

The Ez brush is pretty good for removing light soiling on multispoke wheels, the bristles are quite soft though, so a stiffer brush is needed for more stubburn marks, ideal if you clean your car regulary however.

 

Bloody good job done pal, you should be proud.

Wish I could get someone to do my black beast........

 

That looks stunning!

Love the reflections

 

well done mate you should be proud of youself that is one of the best i have seen
its a credit to you well done again

 

Id love to treat myself to a machine polisher and all the jazz that goes with it, but i would be to worried about fucking up my paint.

 

Top quality and sparkle, you can't beat a gleaming ST.

 

very sweet car there! i'm torn between giving mine a machine polish (i've never tried it) or bunging someone some cash to do it.

 

Excellent job

 

More amazing work in the CDE section.
Pre and post swirl removal - its like a different car.

One thing strikes me more than anything else though.... Are these things really 10 years old?
Fuck that makes me feel old.

 

Looks great, You must be well chuffed!