Just a 3 1/4 hour drive over to Huntsville, AL to polish out these three cars for a few new clients. I was there for 3 nights and 4 days. The clients where great to work for. I was provided with whatever I needed (food/drinks) so that I did not have to run out myself.
First up was a 2005 Black BMW 745li. The client just bought it 3 weeks ago and it has just over 50k miles. He purchased it from a used car dealer up in Chicago. My job on this one was to get the paint as close to perfect as possible. The black interior only needed a minor cleanup, so I did not bother with pics of the interior.
I started by foaming the car down with my foam lance, mixing 2oz of CG citrus wash clear and 1 oz of zaino Z7 car wash, I then filled the rest of my 32 oz bottle with water. I did a 2 bucket wash w/ a medium sheepskin mitt from excel detail.
The wheels where just purchased and installed last week. So just a foam and wash with a MF mitt was needed. I cleaned the tires and wells with AM red hot APC 1:6 and a few brushes.
The glass and paint where clayed with zaino Z-18 clay and Z6 50/50 water as a lube. The paint had very little bonded contaminants. I then removed the Z6 residue with a pakshak ww drying towel.
Post wash and clay shots:
Polishing process:
I checked the thickness of the paint, most of the car was in the 6 mil area, except for the hood that was in the 4-5mil area. A max of 0.1mil of CC was removed from a few small areas.
M105/edge yellow wool/Hitachi 1500x2, x3 in some areas.
3M Ultrafina/3M 8" blue foam pad/Metabo 1700
During polishing:
After polishing I refoamed the car with Z7 (3oz and the 32oz bottle filled with water)
In this pic you can see how Z7 will start to "float" the polishing oils off of the surface:
I again washed the car with the 2 bucket method with Z7 as my washing soap and the same sheepskin mit as above. I let the nozzleless hose run a slow stream of water over the car to remove the excess water. I also made sure that I rinsed out around the trunk/hood very well to ensure that all the foam was rinsed out. I dried the car with a pakshak WW drying towel.
I then applied 2x of Z5pro to the paint and glass and followed that with an application of Z8.
Tires got Z-16 and wheels got ZAIO.
Interior got:
Vac
IZ Cockpit Premium wipedown on all hard surfaces.
Zaino Z9/10 on leather.
IG on glass.
Mats where extracted with my Mytee HP60.
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Next up was the 2004 black Lexus LS430 with 70k miles. This one was in bad condition paint wise. It has some very deep RIDS and deep water etching. The interior just needed a light cleanup so due to time constraints, no interior pics where taken.
Inteiror got:
Vac
IZ Cockpit Premium wipedown on all hard surfaces.
Zaino Z9/10 on leather.
IG on glass.
Following the same exterior wash and clay process as the 745li. I found this paint to have a good amount of bonded contaminants.
Before polishing:
I made 4-5 passes with M105/yellow edge wool/hitachi 1700. The M105 combo was just not getting out the deep RIDS and water etching spots. I had thoughts of wetsanding all of the etched horz surfaces, but in the end this would of taken me longer.
Again 0.1mil was the max CC removed on this car as well.
Here is a poor attempt at a before and after when using the M105 x4-5, folllowed by the 3M ultra fina combo. You can still see the deeper RIDS.
When attempting to use the same combo on the water etching, I was getting nowhere fast.
So I stepped it up to Black Edge wool/Strada 1000/Hitachi 1800x2. The Strada 1000 is a totally different polish vs the M105. The S1000 seems to have alot of oils in it and a longer working time. Is its a better compound? I like using M105 overall, but I needed more cut and the S1000 worked better for me in this extreme case.
The S1000 is very gritty and sounds like "liquid sand paper" when you spread it onto the paint with the rotary off. Ryan refers to it as "Rocks in a bottle"
This is what the paint looked like out in the sun after2x of the S1000:
There will be no 2 stepping this car. A middle polishing step was required with Edge green wool/presta 1500/Flex 3403 rotary at 1500.
It was then finished out with 3M ultrafina/ 3M blue foam 8" pad/ Metabo 1700:
Sorry that its not the same side of the car, but taking alot of pics was not on my mind when I was getting my ashe kicked.
I was not 100% happy with the way that the hood came out. But I was intent on keeping my CC removal at 0.1mil or less. I had 15 hours into this Lexus. Some of you may recall the 04 black LS430 that I did in Altanta. With the deep water etching that this car had on the horz surfaces, those areas required more work on this car.
After all the compounding/polishing, I refoamed the car with Z7 and did a 2 bucket wash.
I then applied 2x of Z5pro with ZFX and followed with an application of Z8. Tires got Z16 and the wheels where left as they are getting replaced soon.
First up was a 2005 Black BMW 745li. The client just bought it 3 weeks ago and it has just over 50k miles. He purchased it from a used car dealer up in Chicago. My job on this one was to get the paint as close to perfect as possible. The black interior only needed a minor cleanup, so I did not bother with pics of the interior.
I started by foaming the car down with my foam lance, mixing 2oz of CG citrus wash clear and 1 oz of zaino Z7 car wash, I then filled the rest of my 32 oz bottle with water. I did a 2 bucket wash w/ a medium sheepskin mitt from excel detail.
The wheels where just purchased and installed last week. So just a foam and wash with a MF mitt was needed. I cleaned the tires and wells with AM red hot APC 1:6 and a few brushes.
The glass and paint where clayed with zaino Z-18 clay and Z6 50/50 water as a lube. The paint had very little bonded contaminants. I then removed the Z6 residue with a pakshak ww drying towel.
Post wash and clay shots:
Polishing process:
I checked the thickness of the paint, most of the car was in the 6 mil area, except for the hood that was in the 4-5mil area. A max of 0.1mil of CC was removed from a few small areas.
M105/edge yellow wool/Hitachi 1500x2, x3 in some areas.
3M Ultrafina/3M 8" blue foam pad/Metabo 1700
During polishing:
After polishing I refoamed the car with Z7 (3oz and the 32oz bottle filled with water)
In this pic you can see how Z7 will start to "float" the polishing oils off of the surface:
I again washed the car with the 2 bucket method with Z7 as my washing soap and the same sheepskin mit as above. I let the nozzleless hose run a slow stream of water over the car to remove the excess water. I also made sure that I rinsed out around the trunk/hood very well to ensure that all the foam was rinsed out. I dried the car with a pakshak WW drying towel.
I then applied 2x of Z5pro to the paint and glass and followed that with an application of Z8.
Tires got Z-16 and wheels got ZAIO.
Interior got:
Vac
IZ Cockpit Premium wipedown on all hard surfaces.
Zaino Z9/10 on leather.
IG on glass.
Mats where extracted with my Mytee HP60.
Next up was the 2004 black Lexus LS430 with 70k miles. This one was in bad condition paint wise. It has some very deep RIDS and deep water etching. The interior just needed a light cleanup so due to time constraints, no interior pics where taken.
Inteiror got:
Vac
IZ Cockpit Premium wipedown on all hard surfaces.
Zaino Z9/10 on leather.
IG on glass.
Following the same exterior wash and clay process as the 745li. I found this paint to have a good amount of bonded contaminants.
Before polishing:
I made 4-5 passes with M105/yellow edge wool/hitachi 1700. The M105 combo was just not getting out the deep RIDS and water etching spots. I had thoughts of wetsanding all of the etched horz surfaces, but in the end this would of taken me longer.
Again 0.1mil was the max CC removed on this car as well.
Here is a poor attempt at a before and after when using the M105 x4-5, folllowed by the 3M ultra fina combo. You can still see the deeper RIDS.
When attempting to use the same combo on the water etching, I was getting nowhere fast.
So I stepped it up to Black Edge wool/Strada 1000/Hitachi 1800x2. The Strada 1000 is a totally different polish vs the M105. The S1000 seems to have alot of oils in it and a longer working time. Is its a better compound? I like using M105 overall, but I needed more cut and the S1000 worked better for me in this extreme case.
The S1000 is very gritty and sounds like "liquid sand paper" when you spread it onto the paint with the rotary off. Ryan refers to it as "Rocks in a bottle"
This is what the paint looked like out in the sun after2x of the S1000:
There will be no 2 stepping this car. A middle polishing step was required with Edge green wool/presta 1500/Flex 3403 rotary at 1500.
It was then finished out with 3M ultrafina/ 3M blue foam 8" pad/ Metabo 1700:
Sorry that its not the same side of the car, but taking alot of pics was not on my mind when I was getting my ashe kicked.
I was not 100% happy with the way that the hood came out. But I was intent on keeping my CC removal at 0.1mil or less. I had 15 hours into this Lexus. Some of you may recall the 04 black LS430 that I did in Altanta. With the deep water etching that this car had on the horz surfaces, those areas required more work on this car.
After all the compounding/polishing, I refoamed the car with Z7 and did a 2 bucket wash.
I then applied 2x of Z5pro with ZFX and followed with an application of Z8. Tires got Z16 and the wheels where left as they are getting replaced soon.
