2001 Nissan Sentra 200k mile Makeover (56K No way!)

danponjican

danponjican

DetailingGurus.com
This is my wife's daily driver/used to be my dailer commuter for a 180 mile daily commute. I bought it new in November of 2000 and it has been a great car. Cheap payment, good on gas and reasonably comfortable. It has been good to us... on Friday to odometer flipped over to the whopping 200,000 mile mark. So I decided to give her a much needed makeover. This car hardly ever gets washed (literally) and is usually parked under a tree in our driveway that loves spitting crap on our cars! Needless to say, that paint had seen better days!



Process:

  • Wash with Turtle Wax soap (generic stuff from department store... almost empty now... any suggestions on a replacement?)

  • Mother's yellow claybar

  • Optimum Compound with yellow pad on a PC

  • SSR1 on black pad on a PC

  • Poorboy's EX



Here's what I started with:

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Results with before & after shots next...
 
Here is how much product I was using on the yellow pad. BTW, this was the first time I was using a PC. I've worked with a cheaper Ryobi DA and even worked a Chicago rotary. I have to say, the PC broke the compound down almost as fast as the rotary. I was very suprised that the PC handled like a rotary. I was expecting it to feel more like the very slow action of the Ryobi DA.



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And now the before and afters...



Hood before:

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Hood after:

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Trunk before:

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Trunk after:

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Roof before:

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Roof after:

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Some more reflective shots...

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Nice job. 200k miles in 7 years is extraordinary. I have a 96 Lexus that has not spent one day not driven and has only about 110k.
 
excellent work. car now looks a very bright white. 200k miles is crazy. i own a 91' and i've got 30k til my chassis hits that much.
 
Great job. Has the car held up mechanically well. We were looking at the Sentra, but ended up with a Corolla because of a better deal (both were used).
 
Thanks guys.

Sam, I still was struggeling with the PC. It was almost as difficult to use as my rotary. The motor was VERY hot and it seemed to bog almost to a halt if I put what I thought was 15 lbs of pressure. I also though that both the OC and the SSR1 seemed to break down too fast. I guess I'm still a rookie.
 
Excellent turn around!



IMO the reason why the PC broke down the polish almost as fast as the Chicago rotary, is the Chicago rotary does not have the torque/power of a "real" rotary. I too had a Chicago rotary for a while, used it twice and got rid of it for a hitachi.
 
Very different look there Dan! It's amazing what washing, claying and then polishing can do. I've read that EX looks great on white and your work proves it. Since you have used Poorboy's products you'd do well with the SS&S soap. For OTC try NXT, GC or some Duragloss 901.
 
gmblack3a said:
Excellent turn around!



IMO the reason why the PC broke down the polish almost as fast as the Chicago rotary, is the Chicago rotary does not have the torque/power of a "real" rotary. I too had a Chicago rotary for a while, used it twice and got rid of it for a hitachi.
Click to expand...



I'm definitely no expert but it seemed like my Chicago had too much power and that is why it was breaking the OC down too fast. It's hard to explain, but it's like the compound would almost gum up in areas and the pad would start to get hard to control. It would start skipping/bouncing around the surface. It wouldn't just slide over the surface smoothly (I'm talking both the PC and the Chicago now). It's not like I am applying too much pressure... I almost don't apply any pressure at all (just the weight of the unit).



I would love to watch someone on a rotary and/or PC and have someone give me some pointers on what I am doing wrong. Anyone in the NC Triad area?
 
danponjican said:
I'm definitely no expert but it seemed like my Chicago had too much power and that is why it was breaking the OC down too fast. It's hard to explain, but it's like the compound would almost gum up in areas and the pad would start to get hard to control. It would start skipping/bouncing around the surface. It wouldn't just slide over the surface smoothly (I'm talking both the PC and the Chicago now). It's not like I am applying too much pressure... I almost don't apply any pressure at all (just the weight of the unit).



I would love to watch someone on a rotary and/or PC and have someone give me some pointers on what I am doing wrong. Anyone in the NC Triad area?
Click to expand...

BTW, this is danponjican's brother. We were both having the same trouble. One thing I wanted to point out was the fact that we didn't use any pad conditioner. Would that help reduce gumming and the pad from jerking around and skipping and bouncing?
 
Great turnaround on that finish! :up :up Congrats on reaching 200K without any visible rust! Regular maintenance will keep a car running a long time, but up here in Michigan it's hard to control the rust if you drive much.



As far as car wash goes, I'm a believer in ONR (Optimum No Rinse)--do a search and you'll find many threads. It's faster than a regular wash. If you'd rather stay with conventional hose washes NXT car wash is available everywhere and does a fine job.



I also have the cheapo CE rotary. I bought it for one job, I wetsanded some terrible orange peel (applied by me) off my racecar that my PC just wouldn't touch. The rotary and Menz Power Gloss on a LC yellow pad did the job. I did not condition the pads, but that's not to say it wouldn't have helped (I just did not know any better).
 
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