TTBear
Allan F
I have been really lucky this past while, and have had several weekends free! This past weekend, I worked on a 2014 Range Rover Evoque that belongs to a couple who belongs to our driving group. They purchased it used - at first, I thought it was in pretty damn good condition - NO door dings, no curb rash on the wheels, windows pristine clean.... but then I noticed the rocker panels, and especially, the lower rear bumper! The scratches were unbelievable. On the lower rear bumper, I couldn’t think of how one could even get it that bad - it looked like matte black/grey paint - you couldn’t even see any of the metallic flake through the trashed CC. Thankfully, the rest of the car wasn’t too terribly bad, and the front end had a new clear bra on it (partial coverage on the hood and entire front bumper), so that was going to save me some time - I have this nasty habit of offering three levels of “service” (I do it more or less as a favour to friends), but I can’t seem to ignore defects, and end up doing the multi-stage correction, or wet sanding, regardless…. I need my head examined, haha. Knowing this, I really only had Friday night, and most of Saturday and Sunday to get it done. I don’t work fast - that would take the enjoyment out of it for me, so I like to take a full weekend at the very least, for most of the cars that I do.
This was the first project in which I used a microfibre pad - Lake Country 5.5” polishing pad. I LOVE IT! I was very pleasantly surprised at how fast it corrected, and the way it finished. Using Menzerna SIP, it was almost LSP-ready, using a Flex 3401. The ease may have been because the last car I did was an absolute bear, so it was a joy to put polisher to paint, and have everything go smoothly from the get-go!!
Quick run down of products:
-Iron-X snow foam wash
-Nanoskin fine mitt, ONR lubricant
-Initial correction with LC microfibre polishing pad, Flex 3401, SIP
-Finished with PC on a LC blue pad and Menzerna Micro Polish.
-LSP - CQuartz UK.
-Wheels - due to time constraints, I didn`t have time to address the wheels correctly, which was a pity, because the barrels had tons of balancing weight adhesive on them.
-Wheel wells scrubbed and dressed (no time to do a wheels-off, unfortunately - this had my OCD meter pegged, but I fought it hard,
)
-Windshield PBL glass coating.
I had to basically block wet sand the entire rear bumper, below the level of the licence plate
. After that, even, there were still some leftover deep scratches that just would not budge, on the part of the rear bumper just behind the rear tires.
One cool thing about this car/SUV, was the roof - the WHOLE thing is one giant piece of glass! Pretty cool, although I shudder to think how much weight that added to the car. Would be cool to be in the back seat looking upwards, at a starry night.
I didn’t have much time to take pics, but here are a few:
Before:
After:
Rear bumper, before:
Rear bumper, after (and after I pulled it outside):
And a few randoms:
Just a quick post this time (FOR ONCE!) - thanks again for ALL of your help, you guys. Appreciate the help, and the time you guys take, to impart your knowledge to others - especially me hahaha.
Have a great weekend, and Happy fourth of July to you guys south of the border!!
This was the first project in which I used a microfibre pad - Lake Country 5.5” polishing pad. I LOVE IT! I was very pleasantly surprised at how fast it corrected, and the way it finished. Using Menzerna SIP, it was almost LSP-ready, using a Flex 3401. The ease may have been because the last car I did was an absolute bear, so it was a joy to put polisher to paint, and have everything go smoothly from the get-go!!
Quick run down of products:
-Iron-X snow foam wash
-Nanoskin fine mitt, ONR lubricant
-Initial correction with LC microfibre polishing pad, Flex 3401, SIP
-Finished with PC on a LC blue pad and Menzerna Micro Polish.
-LSP - CQuartz UK.
-Wheels - due to time constraints, I didn`t have time to address the wheels correctly, which was a pity, because the barrels had tons of balancing weight adhesive on them.
-Wheel wells scrubbed and dressed (no time to do a wheels-off, unfortunately - this had my OCD meter pegged, but I fought it hard,
)-Windshield PBL glass coating.
I had to basically block wet sand the entire rear bumper, below the level of the licence plate
. After that, even, there were still some leftover deep scratches that just would not budge, on the part of the rear bumper just behind the rear tires. One cool thing about this car/SUV, was the roof - the WHOLE thing is one giant piece of glass! Pretty cool, although I shudder to think how much weight that added to the car. Would be cool to be in the back seat looking upwards, at a starry night.
I didn’t have much time to take pics, but here are a few:
Before:
After:
Rear bumper, before:
Rear bumper, after (and after I pulled it outside):
And a few randoms:
Just a quick post this time (FOR ONCE!) - thanks again for ALL of your help, you guys. Appreciate the help, and the time you guys take, to impart your knowledge to others - especially me hahaha.
Have a great weekend, and Happy fourth of July to you guys south of the border!!
