I finally accumulated all the products I needed to attempt a full detail with a Porter Cable for the very first time. I tested the PC on my dad's 93 Legend and learned the basics. Now its game-time.
So I started Friday night by washing the car with Dawn soap and Poorboy's Bug and Tar Remover on the Lowers and the bumpers. I used a Microfiber wash mit and cleaned the exterior. I then used some ClayMagic clay bar and clayed the entire car (starting from the top of course). I used Poorboy's Spray and White as lubricant (as well as water). The car was already looking better but as I was running short on day-time, I wasn't taking any pictures. After claying, I washed one more time and dried with a waffle-weave microfiber towel and then pulled into the garage. The sun had just set so I timed it perfect. I had bought the Craftsman 2-light work-light earlier on Friday so I set that up and start doing more fine drying (door jams, trunk, hood, etc). At this point, this is how the car looked:
So as you can see, the car was very barely marred and swirled. This is most likely due to my stupidity and not doing proper washing during the winter. Using quickly detailer with salt on the car (stupid stupid :wallbang
. Anyways, I was set out to fix all of that. So I pull out the Porter Cable and my orange Lake Country pad. I pull out the Menzerna Intensive Polish and got the pad lubed up and ready to go. I set it to 3 and smear it onto the trunk. Before I go on, I should remind everyone that I had some really bad hard-water spots on my trunk.
I definitely wanted to make sure I removed these. So I went to work with the PC and the Orange Pad....I did only the trunk and the roof on Friday night but it took me awhile because I was going back and forth between the orange and the white LC pads. After doing both trunk with the orange LC pad and IP combo, I went to it with the white LC pad and Menzerna Final Polish II. After finishing this and was happy with the results, I took some pictures:
I also did the roof with the same process but I didn't get any worthy pictures of it until the next morning:
So at this point, it was Saturday morning so I started working the rest of the car. Mostly with the same process. Orange LC Pad with Menzerna Intensive Polish all around and then the White LC Pad with the Final Polish II. I took breaks to get some pictures:
First some of the swirls on the hood (pre-polish)
I also did a test on the driver's side door with just the White LC pad and FPII, as you can see, it took out some of the swirls, but I figured the Orange LC Pad and IP would be worth it to remove all of the imperfections. Here are the pics:
And here is an after-polishing on the hood:
There's still some minor scratches, but the IP just wasn't strong enough (or I didn't work it enough) get them out...I was satisfied with the result though.
So I started Friday night by washing the car with Dawn soap and Poorboy's Bug and Tar Remover on the Lowers and the bumpers. I used a Microfiber wash mit and cleaned the exterior. I then used some ClayMagic clay bar and clayed the entire car (starting from the top of course). I used Poorboy's Spray and White as lubricant (as well as water). The car was already looking better but as I was running short on day-time, I wasn't taking any pictures. After claying, I washed one more time and dried with a waffle-weave microfiber towel and then pulled into the garage. The sun had just set so I timed it perfect. I had bought the Craftsman 2-light work-light earlier on Friday so I set that up and start doing more fine drying (door jams, trunk, hood, etc). At this point, this is how the car looked:
So as you can see, the car was very barely marred and swirled. This is most likely due to my stupidity and not doing proper washing during the winter. Using quickly detailer with salt on the car (stupid stupid :wallbang
. Anyways, I was set out to fix all of that. So I pull out the Porter Cable and my orange Lake Country pad. I pull out the Menzerna Intensive Polish and got the pad lubed up and ready to go. I set it to 3 and smear it onto the trunk. Before I go on, I should remind everyone that I had some really bad hard-water spots on my trunk.
I definitely wanted to make sure I removed these. So I went to work with the PC and the Orange Pad....I did only the trunk and the roof on Friday night but it took me awhile because I was going back and forth between the orange and the white LC pads. After doing both trunk with the orange LC pad and IP combo, I went to it with the white LC pad and Menzerna Final Polish II. After finishing this and was happy with the results, I took some pictures:
I also did the roof with the same process but I didn't get any worthy pictures of it until the next morning:
So at this point, it was Saturday morning so I started working the rest of the car. Mostly with the same process. Orange LC Pad with Menzerna Intensive Polish all around and then the White LC Pad with the Final Polish II. I took breaks to get some pictures:
First some of the swirls on the hood (pre-polish)
I also did a test on the driver's side door with just the White LC pad and FPII, as you can see, it took out some of the swirls, but I figured the Orange LC Pad and IP would be worth it to remove all of the imperfections. Here are the pics:
And here is an after-polishing on the hood:
There's still some minor scratches, but the IP just wasn't strong enough (or I didn't work it enough) get them out...I was satisfied with the result though.
