2005 Mustang GT Convertible - New Car, New Detail

J

JayC

Member
Well, my Subaru WRX is no more. I sold it last week and picked up my replacement on Saturday. It's a 2005 model and had been sitting on a dealer lot for over a year, unwanted :(. Fortunately I rescued it!



The paint originally had a fair amount of swirls, I guess from the dealer flunkies washing it repeatedly. I took delivery and asked for no prep work to be done. The car was pretty nasty when I picked it up. I managed to get most of them out to where they are only slightly visible under flourescent lights. Here's the procedure!



I started off by washing the car with Meguiars Gold Class Car Wash in my trusty foam gun. I cleaned the rims with something off the shelf, I forget what it was.. Black Magic Wheel Cleaner maybe.



After washing the car and cleaning the tires/rims, I pulled it into the garage and went to work. First up was claying the horizontal surfaces with a Mother's Clay Bar kit. LOTS of contamination on the hood and trunk. I also did the front fenders since they bow out slightly. The rest of the car felt okay. Next up, I broke out the PC and went over the hood with some ZPC using an orange LC pad. I wasn't real happy with the results I got from that so I went inside and called Sal and talked to him about what else I could do. End result, I switched to a yellow LC pad and things went much better from there. No hazing and the ZPC got most of the swirls out.



After doing the entire car with ZPC (The hood 3 times), I went over the car with Z-6. Next up, Z2 Pro with ZFX. I did the maximum recomended coats of Z2Pro, 3, with 30 minutes of cure time in between. After finishing up the Z2, I went over the entire car with Z8 and put Meguiars Insane Tire Shine on the tires. I'm not really crazy about that tire dressing but I didnt really have anything else to choose from that I thought was any better. The stuff looks great but it tends to sling a little and doesn't last that long.



Anyway, here's some photos.



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After seeing the results, I'm really happy with my decision to literally THROW AWAY all the other detailing products I had. I've fought the temptation to order more stuff like AJ, etc but I've got my arsenal down to Optimum and Zaino and I'm really happy with these two product lines.
 
Congrats on the new car! Nice "rescue." It looks great :2thumbs:



Without divulging what you paid, were you able to negotiate the price given that is sat for a year? With all of Ford's woes in selling cars, I'm curious to know if there is any wiggle room with the new Mustangs given their favorable reviews.



Do you have any performance mods planned? Ther are plenty out there now for the 05 Mustangs.
 
Spilchy said:
Congrats on the new car! Nice "rescue." It looks great :2thumbs:



Without divulging what you paid, were you able to negotiate the price given that is sat for a year? With all of Ford's woes in selling cars, I'm curious to know if there is any wiggle room with the new Mustangs given their favorable reviews.



Do you have any performance mods planned? Ther are plenty out there now for the 05 Mustangs.
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Im actually quite proud of the negotiations. Due to sources that *I* wont divulge, I knew EXACTLY, down to the penny what the dealership paid for the car. I managed to get the car $4500.00 off sticker (Sticker was $34,700) and my main motivation for going with an '05 model was I discovered they had special financing available on them. I ended up getting 60 months at 1.9% :D
 
roadmaster_Tx said:
nice job! :xyxthumbs

how long did the whole swril process take you?
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The hood and the trunk were the most time consuming parts of the swirl process. Probably about 90 minutes to do the whole car. I kept going over the hood trying to get the swirls out.. I did manage to get them down to where you have to hold your head just right in the light to see them under flourescents. In daylight, I couldn't see them.
 
JayC said:
Im actually quite proud of the negotiations. Due to sources that *I* wont divulge, I knew EXACTLY, down to the penny what the dealership paid for the car. I managed to get the car $4500.00 off sticker (Sticker was $34,700) and my main motivation for going with an '05 model was I discovered they had special financing available on them. I ended up getting 60 months at 1.9% :D
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Thanks! Once I move to a place that has a garage, it's my next car. I have all the mods planned out too! :rofl



Best of luck with it :wavey
 
Spilchy said:
Thanks! Once I move to a place that has a garage, it's my next car. I have all the mods planned out too! :rofl



Best of luck with it :wavey
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If you need help in locating a car or negotiating a price, drop me a PM :)
 
good luck man, my cousins has a coupe and he just put some FlowMaster muffler (only the rear section) and it sounds sweet. No power gain though cause its not a full cat back. Once again congrats
 
Nice ride! Up here around Detroit you cant find one of those on a lot for anything. They are all on an orderd basis, who wants to wait that long for a car though?
 
I love those new Mustangs, just beautiful!



Looks like you did a fine job working the paint, crisp reflections and a deep wet shine! :up
 
ceiol said:
congrats on a sweet ride. don't forget the raggtop for the convertible roof
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Not really sure what to put on that that's not going to run all over the paint when it rains. Any suggestions? I know 303 makes something for convertible tops but I dont know of anything else.
 
love that colour,, you'll fall in love with carnauba all over again with that burgundy.



also, love that burgundy leather!!
 
:buffing: CONGRATS! :wavey



But i hate those fog lights, & the stock gt rims. Im sure you will mod it to the way you desire. :cool: I saw a beautiful SALEEN this weekend & im in love :bounce But i have to tell you that your STANG looks SWEEEEEET!
 
Truthfully, Ill probably just drive it. Apparently Ford is getting really anal with warranty work and almost every car Ive owned over the last 20ish years has had the crap modded out of it to the point where I spent as much time working on it as I did driving it. I tend to get carried away with mods and at some point you have to draw the line.
 
NIce Job!! Any mods in the works?



I like how you are sticking with the optimum and Z. I too try to stick to my favorites instead of buying the flavor of the month.



Greg
 
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