This was a fun challenge...
This car's a daily driver and it's been owned by the same person since new. Very high mileage car... getting close the quarter million mark.
The car is garaged, with two cats for companionship. It's only ever been to the tunnel wash for clean ups. The owner stated that she has never seen the wheels anything but black, even after a trip to the car wash. When asked about the wheels, the workers at the wash place would tell her, "We can't do anything about those wheels."
Unfortunately the clearcoat's failed on the hood, as it's covered with "crows feet", there a few more areas here and there that have the clear pulling apart as well.
The car was uniformly well swirled and marked from one end to the other with cat scratches.
Since she was looking at a repaint, very soon for the hood, and some time down the line for the rest of the car, the idea was to do "the best you can" to make the car look better, she just wanted to see a "nicer looking car" in the garage each morning. In other words, I didn't jewel it.
Products used:
Foam: Meguiar's Hyper-Wash and APC 50/50 mix.
Wash: Two bucket method Meguiar's Gold Class with APC added. Lambs wool mits.
Clay: Meguiar's clay was used extensively with ONR, 8oz/gal for lube.
Wheels:
All wheels were totally etched with brake dust. The dust had been on there so long that the dust was bonded to the wheels.
Started with Chemical Guys Diablo and let that sit for an hour after agitating it a bit... didn't do much at all.
P21S Wheel Gel:
I let that sit for almost two hours and it helped quite a bit. Agitated with various brushes. A lot of scrubbing with various brushes, used clay, tried some Tarminator, 4:1 APC, (too bad I didn't have a sandblaster handy :banghead::banghead
offered up prayers to the wheel gods, various dances employed, incantations spoken, oaths sworn... loudly! Got about a 75% result after over an hour with each wheel.
Ugh...
Wheel wells:
Meguiar's APC at 4:1 here and various brushes with a nice result.
Drying:
Used compressed air and a couple of the drying towels offered from PAC.
Tape: 3m "Delicate Surfaces" blue tape.
Polishing:
I used a paint thickness gauge all over the car. The average readings were between 125 microns up to around 150 microns, the car was rather evenly painted. The drivers side door had been repainted due to a brick throwing incident/robbery and the paint there measured over 250 microns. That was the only spot on the car that had been repainted.
Compounding stage:
Meguiar's 105, wool pad and a Hitachi rotary.
Final stage:
Meguiar's 205, Flex DA and white Lake Country flat pads.
The areas under the door handles were hand polished with the 105/205 combo the best I could. That's a tough area to do and they were very deeply scratched.
Numerous IPA wipedowns were done after each panel to insure I was getting a good result. The hood, with it's clear coat problems, is scheduled for a repaint so I figured the best thing to do with that was only do a final stage polishing in that area. Prepsol was used after polishing to remove the polish in the cracks of the clear coat.
Lighting for Polish phase:
Handheld Brinkman Zenon light and two Halogen lights on a stand. I find I like the Brinkman the best for keeping track of how I'm doing, it's a great "instant reference" tool.
The car was wiped down with 3 additional IPA passes after polishing and then washed with ONR.
P21S Paintwork Cleansing Lotion was then hand applied and removed to insure the finish was clean and ready for the LSP's.
Last Step Products:
Blackfire Wet Diamond:
two coats, via a PC with a blue pad, with an 12 hour cure time between coats.
Collinite #845 "Insulator Wax":
Single coat. I picked some of this up the day Angelo announced that PAC was selling Collinite products. This is a liquid carnuba wax with an additive that I believe is another type of sealant.
The Collinite spread very thinly and was easy to apply and remove after hazing. The wax left a nice, warm glow that really looked good with the black color. I hear this wax lasts a long time and that'll be a plus for this car.
Wheels were polished with 105, by hand. 2 coats of Poorboy's World Wheel sealant was then applied.
Optimum Metal Polish was used for the large amount of trim work on the car.
Aerospace 303 Protectant was used for all the rubber trim and seals throughout.
Engine:
I wasn't asked to the do the motor but after lifting the hood... something had to be done.
P21S Total Auto Wash, various brushes and a 1,500psi power washer were employed to a good, quick result.
Meguiar's Hyper-Dressing was used at 3:1 to dress the motor and engine bay.
Interior:
Compressed air followed by a thorough vacuuming with a Metro Vac'NBlo vacuum. I love all the great attachments Metro provides with their products... almost makes doing interiors fun!
APC 10:1 was used to clean the dash and all vinyl.
APC 4:1 for the carpets and mats, brushed, wet-vac'd and fans used to dry.
Leather seats: Zaino leather cleaner and treament were used to a good result.
The headliner and sun visors were very dirty/stained and APC at 10:1 with a microfiber towel cleaned them up like new.
Glass:
Stoner Invisible Glass with Dragon Fiber glass cleaning cloths. These are just great glass towels.
303 Protectant for the vinyl bits and Blackfire Interior one step was used on the faux wood trim.
Tires: were dressed with Hyper-Dressing at 3:1, two coats.
This is my first "detail" posting here on TID... be kind! I'm not a master at posting this stuff, (or detailing either:wizard
or photography, like Todd, David or the other excellent craftsman here... but I'll get there.
Thanks for your time... I've learned a lot here and realize I have a lot more to learn... This is a GREAT place for that!
Here's the beginning pics:
Starting off...
Some looks at the paint before getting started:
Trunk deck:
Paw prints/scratches:
Every horizontal surface that the cats could get to looked like this..
The trunk, under the Brinkman Zenon light, the roof and hood looked the same:
Rear quarter panel, some serious scratches, marring and cat tracks:
A representitive door panel:
The hood:
Engine:
Interior:
Foaming the car:
One 2'x2' panels worth of claying:
50/50 shot during 105/wool/rotary compounding:
After 205/White LC pad with the Flex:
Some post pics:
The lights were very bad, I tried to correct but they're hazed up inside the lens as well as outside.
Dressing's just been applied to the motor... I cleaned the underhood pad with Luster's method of using AA Tire Foam... worked great, thanks Bill!!:clap:
When I gave the car back to my client, her first words were, "You swapped my car for a new one?" She was one very happy lady. That definitely made the work worth it.:smile:
"Man, I'd hate to see what they have to say for really bad shape." But I knew it was something to really sink my teeth into and have fun with.
