A friend of ours is the second owner of this 1980 MGB with only 39.550 miles. It lives in his garage and he rarely drives it. In fact, until recently it didn’t run!
I told him I wanted to detail it for him as a fun project. He thought I was nuts and said you don’t need to wash it, its fine the way it is just drive it around and have fun. Well, my fun is detailing!
At first glace the outside did not seem all that dirty. It didn’t have globs of mud or dirt, but as it turned out it had layers of grime. I doubt the car has ever been waxed, certainly not in many years. The paint didn’t look dirty but it felt rough and was dull looking in places.
There were not enough hours in the weekend or strength enough in me to detail this car as good as I would like it. Plus it was near 100 degrees on Saturday. So I focused on the exterior paint to get the biggest wow factor. This car is not in pristine shape. There are lots of scratches, some badly repainted areas, rust, and years of grime. The top has a couple of rips and the gasket that meets the windshield has gaps. You would not want to drive this in a downpour unless you had a wetsuit!
I thought seriously about using DP 4 in 1 to wash the car so I could avoid rinsing it, but I was afraid it would not clean it well enough. Probably would have, but that was the choice I made.
Before Pictures:
Wheels:
The wheels are dirty and rusty. I could not get the baked on brake dust off without spending hours on each wheel. Plus, I would not have been able to remove the rust.
The wheels have what I thought was a chrome rim, but now I think it may be a chrome looking plastic rim. I was afraid to use PB Spray & Rinse due to the chrome/ plastic rim. So I opted for 1 Z.
Wheels:
1Z Einszett Wheel Cleaner “Feigen Reiniger”
Amazing Roll Off (ARO) on the wheels and wheel wells. I did not scrub the wheel wells due to some rust and loose paint. The amount of dirt that ARO took off the tires was amazing (no pun intended). Take a look at the dirt on the drive way.
The tires were topped with Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel. I tried as best I could to polish the rims with PB Pro polish and then applied some Aqua Wax.
Wheels After:
Wash Process:
2 bucket method of course (no foam gun due to the top)
Chem Guys Citrus Wash & Gloss
Schmitt (white/yellow) & Black for the top
Clay with PB Clay. Just look at the pictures of the clay! That piece of clay is toast now! I’m getting low on PB Spray and Wipe so I used PB Spray & Gloss because I have a huge bottle of it. It worked really well as clay lube.
Second wash:
PB Super Slick and Suds
Dried with a leaf blower
Exterior:
Products used:
Poorboy’s World (PB) Clay
XMT 2 & 3
Wolfgang Paint Work Polish Enhancer
Wolfgang Finishing Glaze
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Spritz
Poorboy World’s Trim and Restore (bumpers and trim)
Semichrome on the chome
Surf City Glass Cleaner of the windshield
The paint was faded looking and very rough feeling (better feeling after the clay, but still rough). There were tons of swirls in the paint. The hood seemed to have a good layer of paint so I carefully tried different products to get the oxidized paint and swirls out. I finally ended up using XMT 3 with an orange pad followed by Wolfgang Finishing Glaze on a green pad. My orange pad is now yellow! I was able to diminish the swirls but not completely remove them.
I was afraid to use the UDM on the rest of the car so I did the rest by hand using the Wolfgang Paint Work Polish Enhancer followed by Wolfgang Finishing Glaze. Except for a bit on the side where some paint was splattered (probably lane strip paint).
I was amazed at the difference these products made. The Paint Work Polish Enhancer made the paint so smooth and wet looking. The finishing glaze enhanced it even more, and this is by hand too!
After that was done, I applied a coat of Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant. That left such a nice slick feeling to the paint. What a huge difference from when I started. I let the sealant cure overnight. The next day I applied a coat of Wolfgang Deep Gloss Spritz Sealant. When I was done for the day I went back over with a quick wipe down of Wolfgang Instant Detail Spritz to get rid of any fingerprints and drips from the trim.
Interior:
DP Interior Cleaner
PB Natural Look
I did a fairly light job of the interior. I did remove the rubber mats and scrubbed them down and applied a coat of PB NL. All of the door trim got a coat of PB Trim Restore. I had wanted to really clean up the door jambs but I ended up just wiping them down with DP Interior Cleaner. I would have liked to have polished and protected them.
I didn’t touch the engine or the trunk. This car has a painted metal trunk so it would be hours to clean and seal it.
I spent about 8 hours on it. Easily could use another 8, but I’m just too tired and it’s too damn hot! It was great fun detailing this classic British auto. I wish the before and after pictures did justice to the dramatic change. The photos can’t pick up on the feel of the paint or really show the good results that came of the work. Even my wife noticed! She never notices a difference in my details but this one she was surprised at how much better the paint looked after.
Some before & after pictures:
Dirty Door Jamb
Cleaner door Jamb
Dirty Windshield Track
Cleaner Track:
Clay after the only front Quarter Panel:
Clay after the upper portion of the passenger door panel:
Rag after cleaning half of the top's weather seal (I applied PR TR after cleaning):
After shots:
Paul
Let's hope, anyway. I would show this to a friend of mine who is a real MGB aficionado, but he would weep openly after seeing the "before" pictures. 
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