This car was a new acquisition by its owner who only collected it from the previous owner “up country” two days earlier. With only 20000 miles on the clock the owner wanted to ensure that his new pride and joy would be in the best condition possible.
He searched the internet, found Motomotion and gave us a call. We arranged for him to visit us with his car so we could discuss his requirements.
A few days later the car was delivered to us and we began work, after taking some photo’s. You know the kind, before and after.


The first job we did was to wash the whole exterior, we applied a non caustic degreaser to the lower half of the body and let it do its’ work while we got on with removing massive amounts of tar from the side panels, front grille area, and wings. While there, a good strong cleaner was applied to the wheels. After this it was pressure washed to remove the dirt and grime from the exterior, not forgetting the rear diffusers. We then rewashed using the two bucket method and a lambswool mitt, rinsed off and dried the car.




Next we removed the bonnet fillet panels which allowed access to the vents in the bonnet as these were very grubby and access was difficult, also the radiator grilles. These areas were then cleaned with a mild degreaser and a selection of brushes, rinsed and dried.

We then turned our attention to the engine and engine compartment, although this area was dry and oil free it was very dirty and dusty. As a mid engined vehicle it was difficult to access this area but after a couple of hours with various cleaners, brushes and a little water it looked great.

Now the bodywork. Although initially it looked ok from a distance, there were a lot of scratches and dull areas. We first clayed the whole of the bodywork ensuring we got all the contaminants removed from the paintwork, especially around the bonnet and rear panels where it was especially heavy. We then rinsed the car off again and dried it before masking up.


Time to get the Polishing Mop out – We started on the bonnet using a medium cutting grade compound with a hard pad as we needed to get down to good paint (Laquer) and through the scratches. After a few passes with the mop we changed to a medium head, continued over the same areas and were very pleased with the results – a good surface, clean and bright. We then continued over the rest of the panels in the same manner, not forgetting the bonnet fillets that were removed earlier. Approximately 10 hours later the machining was finished.




After removing all the masking tape we applied a body wash to clean the paint prior to polishing. The polish we decided on was DoDo Juice, which was applied by hand and left to dry before buffing off. The results were great, the whole body now had a deep shine, glass like, and the metallics in the paint really stood out. It looked fantastic.

All that was left to do was the interior. To be fair it wasn’t nasty, but it did need a refresh. We hoovered and cleaned the plastics with a good cleaner and spent a lot of time around the vents with swabs and small brushes. The leather seats were then cleaned and treated with a leather feed restorer, the same attention was then focused on the door cards. Just the interior of the windows to do now, there is not a lot of room in a Lotus Elise to clean windows but eventually this was done.


Finally, the bonnet fillets were refitted, the exterior windows were cleaned, the external plastics and tyres were dressed, also the exhaust was polished. The paintwork received another coat of DoDo juice.
We then inspected the whole of the vehicle – well pleased.
We started taking some “after” photo’s, which were looking very impressive, suddenly the skies opened and you can see the results in the final photo’s.















