Black Mitsubishi AirtrekT (18 hours of machine polishing)

[imported_fishbonezken]

Hello everyone, the car today is a Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo in metallic black, with the colour of the flakes similar to Honda’s Nighthawk black.



Here is the car upon arrival. The swirls were more evident after a wash and clay.

Wheel wells and tires scrubbed with Meguiar’s Super Degreaser (4:1).

Wheels cleaned with Meguiar’s Wheel Brightener (4:1)

Then K.Y from Osren (A local detailing supply brand) came to deliver me some products and at the same time demonstrated a new-ish product they have. One that I haven’t seen or heard of before, a clay cloth! It is really easy to use, the downside is it’s rather large and you have to fold it to get into tight areas but it removes contaminants very quickly and covers a large area, so claying was a breeze on a big car like this. =)

He helped me mask off the engine bay for demonstrating on the hood.

Before

Spurring his wool pad and compounding with Osren Perfect Cut 2.2 and a Lake Country 4ply twisted wool pad attached to a Lake Country Easy Grip flexible backing plate.



This is then followed by another Osren polish (forgot it’s name) on a white Lake Country polishing pad.



It didn’t needed anymore after this but we gave it another hit with Menzerna 106FF with a Meguiar’s Finishing pad and finally followed by Osren’s Radiant Polish with a black Lake Country finishing pad.

After a few hours on the big hood,

The rest of the paintwork got compounded with Meguiar’s #85 Diamond Cut 2.0 on a Lake Country 4 ply twisted wool, followed by Menzerna 106FF on a Meguiar’s Polishing pad.



Front fender before,

Front fender after,

Front bumper before,

This area got compounded with a Lake Country 3.5� Purple Foamed Wool pad and M85 and followed by Menzerna 106FF on a Lake Country 4� White CCS pad.

Front bumper after,

Before,

After,

Front fender 50/50

Fully polished,

Front door before,

 

[imported_fishbonezken]

After polishing every panel, the paint is wiped down with M6000 Wax and Grease remover to remove any polishing oils that might fill and hide defects in the finish.

After,

Before,

After,

Rear door before,

Rear door after,

Rear quarter before,

Rear quarter after,

On the passenger side, there were defects that were under the clearcoat (any pros here please correct me if I am wrong on this). So this suggested that the passenger side doors and rear quarter has been repainted.

The swirling on the front door wasn’t too bad

Using a 3.5� wool pad near the door handles, and a behind the scene shot from the box office hit, Crouching Detailer, Hidden Scratches! xD

 

[imported_fishbonezken]

Passenger side front door after,

Passenger side rear door before,

After compounding,

After compounding and polishing,

Sorry as I forgot to take any halogen afters.

Then the sun revealed to me some spots that miss on the front door,

So out with the 3.5� wool pad again and that area got sorted.

On the passenger side rear quarter panel, I notice there was some touch up paint on the edge of the fuel filler lid area. So I suspect the paint must be thin around the edges.

So the edges got taped up and compounded with 3.5� purple foam wool/M85 followed by 4� White CCS/106FF



Before

The thick foam pad allows it to contour nicely with the slightly curved fuel filler lid.

After,

Then the fuel filler lid itself is taped and the rear quarter panel is compounded and polished. Forgot to take before pictures on this panel.

And the touch up paint is still in-tact

Boot before,

 

[imported_fishbonezken]

I placed an old wool pad under the boot so the edges are raised to make polishing easier.

Camera flash was used to show the afters because the ambient lighting is too bright for the halogens to show any difference. =)

The top of the rear bumper before,

The rubber seal is taped with a tackier masking tape because the less tacky ones used on the paint wouldn’t stick to the rubber, this is to prevent the sides of the foam pad from abrading the rubber.



A 4� Lake Country Orange CCS pad and Meguiar’s #85 Diamond Cut Compound 2.0 was used.

And then, a bad thing happened. Because of my carelessness, I tried to buff the corner of the number plate area with the 4� pad, it is slightly larger than the curved area so as I try to push the pad in to the corner, I upped the speed and immediately there was a slight smoking and black residue shooting out of the edge of the pad.



And this is what I saw when I lift the buffer!

I quickly went out to buy some touch up paint and this delayed me for an hour. The touch up paint is left overnight and sanded and polished the next day.

I had a very strong urge to not tell the owner about it because I’m afraid of how he would react. But I told him anyway and decided before hand that I wouldn’t charge for this detail because the cost of respraying the bumper would cost more than that.



But to my relief, the owner was very calm about it and said it wasn’t very obvious and paid me for the detail in the end!



*honesty is and will always be, the best policy*



Continuing with the detail,



All the door pillars corrected with M85/4� Orange CCS followed by 106FF/4� White CCS

 

[imported_fishbonezken]

Before,

After,

Before,

After,

The roof and spoiler received the same treatment.



Before,

After,

Spoiler before,

Spoiler after,

And finally after about 18 hours of machine polishing, tape is removed and whole car is pressure rinsed to remove polishing dust. Dried with a Meguiar’s Water Magnet using the blot technique to prevent marring as I found that this paint is *VERY* sensitive and is *EASILY* scratched.

Then a coat of Finish Kare 1 Pink Wax and some pictures under sunlight! The owner arrived shortly after to pick up the car.

 

[imported_fishbonezken]

Thanks for looking and feel free to ask if there are any questions =D



P.S My work isn’t perfect because under sunlight there are still some holograms in certain areas. Still have to hone my technique. And also to invest in another lighting source as halogens can’t really show holograms even after a solvent wipe down

 

[joyriiide1113]

Same thing happened to me on a black plastic bumper. I kept trying to hit a scratch, but before i knew it I warped and burned the paint. I literally fell to the floor gasping for air. I was about to die with fear of telling the customer. After a long shower, I calle dthe customer up, picked him up, immediately dropped his car off at a reputable bodyshop ( i paid $400 for the repaint of the entire bumper) and even gave him my car to drive until it was ready. When the car was ready (3 days later) I gave him a full detail (which he paid me for). In all, I made no money since my detail was a little more than half the cost of the repaint. After that I totally learned to respect the rotory to a totally different level and even stop trying to correct imperfections after 2 passes or so.

 

[pampos]

Great job and great writing...

 

[Evenflow]

Very good attention and detail. Car looks awesome :2thumbs:

 

[BuffMe]

I'd check out some of the paint chip repair DIY's on here in order to better fix something like that in the future. Great job overall, though. Very nice work and documentation!

 

[maesal]

Great write up and detail. I always recommend buffing plastic panels with wool or soft pads, it produces less hot and then there is less risk about buring the paint.

 

[rebelde33]

Good job on the detail! I really admire those honest people like you. I would've done the same thing.

 

[imported_shine]

Great writeup and detail!

 

[imported_fishbonezken]

Same thing happened to me on a black plastic bumper. I kept trying to hit a scratch, but before i knew it I warped and burned the paint. I literally fell to the floor gasping for air. I was about to die with fear of telling the customer. After a long shower, I calle dthe customer up, picked him up, immediately dropped his car off at a reputable bodyshop ( i paid $400 for the repaint of the entire bumper) and even gave him my car to drive until it was ready. When the car was ready (3 days later) I gave him a full detail (which he paid me for). In all, I made no money since my detail was a little more than half the cost of the repaint. After that I totally learned to respect the rotory to a totally different level and even stop trying to correct imperfections after 2 passes or so.

that is very good customer service and I'm sure your customer appreciated your honesty and effort! I felt the same way about the rotary too after that accident.

Great job and great writing...

thanks pampos!

Very good attention and detail. Car looks awesome

thank you

I'd check out some of the paint chip repair DIY's on here in order to better fix something like that in the future. Great job overall, though. Very nice work and documentation!

I should have, But was lacking of time and the anxiety was killing me...so I just went ahead with the touch-up. Thanks for your kind words though

Great write up and detail. I always recommend buffing plastic panels with wool or soft pads, it produces less hot and then there is less risk about buring the paint.

thanks for the tip, I'll practice that on my future details.

Good job on the detail! I really admire those honest people like you. I would've done the same thing.

Thank you. Untruthful words would be easier to say, but the consequences are always harder to bear.

Great writeup and detail!

thanks!

 

[porta]

Nice job mate and a very interesting write up!:goodjob

 

[imported_fishbonezken]

Nice job mate and a very interesting write up!

thank you porta!

 

[2000firebird]

how come the whole thing would need a repaint to fix it? theres no better method?

 

[Pats300zx]

Awesome job and fantastic write up...

 

[imported_fishbonezken]

how come the whole thing would need a repaint to fix it? theres no better method?

you mean the whole bumper?...well it was entirely my fault and if it wasn't for the mishap, the paint should be in it's original condition and I should provide the best option to return it to it's original state..which is to repaint. Thankfully the owner was really kind and didn't wanted to go for one.

Awesome job and fantastic write up...

thank you !

 

[abbeysdad]

Crouching Detailer - your Kung Fu is strong.



Excellent work and write up.