So I picked up my brand new Shadow Black ST3 apporoximately 4 weeks ago. I'm a bit of a clean freak with my car (but then again who isn't on here right?!?) 

I toyed endlessly with the idea of not allowing ford to clean my car before picking it up, to avoid the dreaded dealer swirls. But in the end I decided against the idea and let Ford prepare it their way. 

Well it turned out to be a mistake! When I collected the car it had dried in birds *****, the transportation stickers were only half ripped off, door shuts were caked in green sap and the paint had a few swirls. So I grumbled to the salesman who agreed it was no fit state to be handed over. 

He swiftly got the dealer cleaners to get it spruced up, my car got whisked away for half an hour, where they must've taken sand paper to the car. It came back looking even worse than before. 

I was not happy! So kindly asked to speak to the manager, in which time he couldn't apologise enough and we came to an agreement that I could take the car to a detailer of my choice who would correct the paintwork damage and Ford would cover the costs :) 

I then booked the car in to Specialie Detailing in Cwmbran. Emilio is a great guy, very knowledgeable and eager to get started on my car. It was booked in for a 2 day enhancement detail costing an eye watering £400. 

Ford gave me an eco sport diesel whilst my car was in the garage for 5 days which was a nice gesture. Not a bad car overall but a million miles away from my ST. 

Speciale detailing ended up keeping my car in for 4 days to completely restore the paintwork as a pose to just enhancing it. They weren't overly busy and I had the courtesy car so made perfect sense to me. 

Anyway here are the pictures of the car:

And a video of the reflections:

http://rs1286.pbsrc.com/albums/a610/Marcr11/B94D91FB-1EFC-4BE0-ACA6-FEC8F1E617F7_zps5j4l0ftv.mp4?w=160&h=160&fit=clip

Overall so happy with how the car is looking now, especially considering it cost me nothing!

just shows how cars can look with a bit of care and attention. unfortunatly the dealers havent the time or staff to do a brand new car justice. even so it shoukd have been better prepared before handing over to you.

I got mine detailed too. Same colour and three doors also. It was then treated to a coating of Crystal Serum. Looked the mutts nuts. The detailer put a gallery on his website because he mostly got £100k+ cars going in and mine made a change   By the time I made Ford take it back, the bodywork was the only decent part of that car!

Yours is looking good by the way   Did you get any protective coatings applied?

Very nice :)

NIce  a lot of work went into that  but with respect the minute that you go down the road and it rains  and picks up all the crud of the road and diesel droplets of the lorries good by to all that hard work

Is that rust or grease on your disks? 

Hopefully will just come off with some use and the disks are OK otherwise. 

34 minutes ago, jbell said:

Is that rust or grease on your disks? 

Hopefully will just come off with some use and the disks are OK otherwise. 

im hoping its not grease!!!!! lol

5 hours ago, GaryPL said:

I got mine detailed too. Same colour and three doors also. It was then treated to a coating of Crystal Serum. Looked the mutts nuts. The detailer put a gallery on his website because he mostly got £100k+ cars going in and mine made a change   By the time I made Ford take it back, the bodywork was the only decent part of that car!

Yours is looking good by the way   Did you get any protective coatings applied?

They're such a stunning colour when clean but dirty so easily! 

 

I tried to push for a nano coating but I was riding my luck a bit at £400 lol. So it's had two coats of swissvax best of show. 

Im big into detailing myself so once this wears off I'll look at doing some nano coating myself 

1 hour ago, Gizza11 said:

NIce  a lot of work went into that  but with respect the minute that you go down the road and it rains  and picks up all the crud of the road and diesel droplets of the lorries good by to all that hard work

Defo! There was a big thunderstorm the next day lol and the roads were filthy. Just gives me an excuse to keep washing it hey! 

36 minutes ago, jbell said:

Is that rust or grease on your disks? 

Hopefully will just come off with some use and the disks are OK otherwise. 

It's just rust, it always happens when you wash your car if you notice or if it rains then dries out. 

As you drive off and lightly touch the brakes it rubs off 

totally normal :) 

1 hour ago, iantt said:

im hoping its not grease!!!!! lol

I've noticed once you've greased where needed after some rather heavy braking you get a light coating of copperslip on the disks ; nowhere near as much as (the rust) visible in these pics.  

Makes the brakes a little lumpy but goes away by itself through normal use 

 

the car looks better than show room new