2007 Camry on a very hot day

[Phishy4]

I'll start off by saying that I wasn't nearly as good about taking pictures as I wanted to be through the process. We had sort of a time constraint and it wound up getting oppressively hot and humid about halfway through. My buddy wanted to get his black 07 camry worked over and wanted to learn about the process and products as well. I've been using optimum's compounds and polishes for a long time, but my buddy raskyr1 hooked me up with some of the megs mf system and 105/205 to try out on my wifes car previously, and I was immediately hooked (and subsequently ordered more). He then goated me into buying a GGDA by sending me the link to the amazon gold box deal the other day knowing full well I have no self control :razz:, so I had to try it out as well. This gave me a chance to really try out some of the new to me products (yea I know I'm late to the party). Process was:



- Initial rinse with AR118 Pressure washer

- Bugs/Tar treated with OPC cut 3:1 and Tarminator where necessary

- Wheels got Griots Garage wheel cleaner

- Tires cleaned with OPC 3:1 and dressed with Optimum Tire Shine

- Foamed with CG Citrus Wash via Gilmour Foamaster II

- Washed via 2bm with CGCW

- D300/M105 mix on Megs MF cutting disc via Griots DA

- M205 on LC black pad via PC7424

- Blackfire on lc Blue pad via PC7424



Some test panel shots

My buddy took to the buffer very quickly. I corrected with d300/m105/mf cutting disc on the GG and he followed me with the m205/black lc/7424.

Before

after a pass with one drop each of m105 and d300 on the mf cutting disc

50/50 on the trunk (bad pics I know, but it was in rough shape)

Trunk before

Trunk After compounding

Some shots as we finished up

It's definitely not perfect, but I'd say we got about 75-80% correction, which he was really happy with for the amount of time we had. One thing that helped me a lot this time was actually having some light in the garage. My garage sucks bad for detailing (4 overhead fixtures with 100 watt cfls, no drywall to reflect light, etc) but while I was at Costco the other day, I noticed they had some shop lights for $15. Upon closer inspection these shop lights were t8's and had electronic -20 degree ballasts. I figured what the heck, bought 4 and rigged them up in the middle of the garage. I know its sort of ghetto, but we're actually trying to sell our house and I wanted something cheap and that I could take with me. It made a HUGE difference.



Basically what it was like before (only cfl's running)

With the new t8 shop lights on

Thanks for looking!

 

[Dan]

Nice work, car looks great. Any more detail on the Costco lights?

 

[Phishy4]

Nice work, car looks great. Any more detail on the Costco lights?

Thanks. The lights were in the tools section, and are branded "Lights of America" and were listed as "High performance T8" which I'm not sure actually means anything (like I don't think they're actually high output t8s). What really turned me on about them was the electronic ballasts which were cold weather start up rated which I've only seen in much more expensive lights. They're dead silent with absolutely no hum and came with very decent sylvania 4100k bulbs which was nice because I was planning on having to change out the bulbs to something usable, but they were great. Like I said, for something quick and cheap ($60 total for 4 fixtures) that I can unhook and take with me, not bad at all.

 

[Dan]

Those lights look great. My new years resolution was no detailing related buys for '11. These will have to go under as workshop related!

 

[RaskyR1]

Great work Justin! I'm glad to hear you like the new MF system as well as the M105/M205....and any time you need help spending money just let me know!







BTW, how well does that new pressure washer work?







Cheers,

Rasky

 

[Phishy4]

Great work Justin! I'm glad to hear you like the new MF system as well as the M105/M205....and any time you need help spending money just let me know!







BTW, how well does that new pressure washer work?







Cheers,

Rasky

Thanks Rasky. I'm totally in love with the mf system, at least for compounding. I think I gotta get the 3" setup as well. The AR118 pressure washer is ok, you can tell the pump/triplex is much higher quality than most units that size/price range. It's built very well. 1500psi out of such a small unit is nice, but it's fairly limited flow wise (like 1.5gpm I think) so I'm not sold on using it for everything as far as washing goes (I'm not sure I'd really be into any pressure washer for that I guess). It was great on my floormats and great for bugs and stuff right away. The one thing that does suck about it is that AR's bayonet is proprietary and not widely used, so the only way to get a "real" foam cannon on it is to buy a Karcher gun/hose and retrofit it. That said, you'd still be looking at the same price for that with the karcher gun vs buying a new, small karcher and I think this is a better unit. My $.02 anyway.