A dealership here in Ohio gave my number to a guy that they had just sold a car to so I could take care of his cars for him. He called me up and wanted to meet to go over his cars and see what he needed done. I spent a lot of time with this guy because he was extremely particular about his cars. He had never let anyone else wash or touch them before because he was well aware that you can easily damage a car's paint if you didn't wash it correctly. This guy has been awesome ever since, he was very interested in the procedures and the products that I used. He really kept me on my toes when he was asking questions. Once you do something so many times you know why you do it but it really takes the right person digging for answers to make you rethink why you do it. That is exactly what this guy did to me, he asked me question after question about detailing. I love clients like this, I love when they are truly interested in what you do and how you do it. He wanted me to start off by fixing all the swirls that were in his Jaguar XK-R. This car was only 3 weeks old but as you will see it definitely needed some help. Even his wife who drives the car said that she could see the swirls in the paint.
He asked me how the car was so bad even though it was new. I told him that often the dealership or whoever will wash the cars when they first get in or while they are on the lot and that they are often washed improperly. This is a very common problem. After I inspected the car I noticed that there were just a ton of swirls and only a few deeper scratches. There were no wool pad marks or really deep compounding marks like we all see on a new Ferrari or Lambo. So the factory did a pretty good job finishing down the car but it was still destroyed by someone after that. Here are a few before pictures.
I started out with my normal 2x2 grit guard wash with Chemical Guys Citrus Wash. After washing I sprayed down the car once again and got straight to claying. I used Chemical Guys Medium Duty clay bar along with some DODO Juice Born Slippery for my lubricant.
Once claying was done I dried that car off and started polishing. While testing pads and products i found that this paint is extremely soft, as in just as soft if not softer than Porsche paint. The combo that seemed to work the best was a Tangerine pad with some 205. There were some deeper scratches so when I was polishing I actually slowed down my arm speed and used a little bit of pressure to try and get as many of the deeper ones out that I could while only doing a one-step polish. Since I wasn't compounding and knew I wasn't going to be using a ton of pressure I decided to use my PC machine. I put on some music and got to taping up all my edges to prevent burn through. Even though I was just polishing I knew the paint was soft so wanted to be careful.
Here is a 50/50 shot of the door while i was working on it.
Once i was done with the bigger areas i switched to a 4 inch pad and began working all the small areas.
Once i was done I still noticed there were still some deeper scratches that the one-step didn't take out. The owner and I had only discussed a one-step polish but I went back over the hood and took out some of the deeper scratches just because it was bothering me. For this I used a 4 inch cyan pad with some D300 which really finished down nice.
After I was done I went back over the whole car with some Chemical Guys Black Light to bring some more gloss out and to protect the car from the elements. After that was done I moved on to clean up and polish the exhaust tips.
Before
After
Finally I cleaned up all the cracks and crevices from the dust while polishing. Once the outside was done I cleaned up the interior a little bit and cleaned the windows. Here is what it looked like when I was done!!!
After working on this car I can tell we are going to have some problems with it since the paint is so soft. I was thinking about trying opti-coat on it to give it a little bit of a harder shell, what do you guys think????
He was really happy with the car and now I am working on the rest of his to get them back to tip-top shape. Another car brought back to life and another great client who has really been what I call a "raging fan". He has been trying to get me more business and hook me up with a huge client. I think the thing I like most about my job is the great people that I meet along the way.
Thanks for reading!!!!
He asked me how the car was so bad even though it was new. I told him that often the dealership or whoever will wash the cars when they first get in or while they are on the lot and that they are often washed improperly. This is a very common problem. After I inspected the car I noticed that there were just a ton of swirls and only a few deeper scratches. There were no wool pad marks or really deep compounding marks like we all see on a new Ferrari or Lambo. So the factory did a pretty good job finishing down the car but it was still destroyed by someone after that. Here are a few before pictures.
I started out with my normal 2x2 grit guard wash with Chemical Guys Citrus Wash. After washing I sprayed down the car once again and got straight to claying. I used Chemical Guys Medium Duty clay bar along with some DODO Juice Born Slippery for my lubricant.
Once claying was done I dried that car off and started polishing. While testing pads and products i found that this paint is extremely soft, as in just as soft if not softer than Porsche paint. The combo that seemed to work the best was a Tangerine pad with some 205. There were some deeper scratches so when I was polishing I actually slowed down my arm speed and used a little bit of pressure to try and get as many of the deeper ones out that I could while only doing a one-step polish. Since I wasn't compounding and knew I wasn't going to be using a ton of pressure I decided to use my PC machine. I put on some music and got to taping up all my edges to prevent burn through. Even though I was just polishing I knew the paint was soft so wanted to be careful.
Here is a 50/50 shot of the door while i was working on it.
Once i was done with the bigger areas i switched to a 4 inch pad and began working all the small areas.
Once i was done I still noticed there were still some deeper scratches that the one-step didn't take out. The owner and I had only discussed a one-step polish but I went back over the hood and took out some of the deeper scratches just because it was bothering me. For this I used a 4 inch cyan pad with some D300 which really finished down nice.
After I was done I went back over the whole car with some Chemical Guys Black Light to bring some more gloss out and to protect the car from the elements. After that was done I moved on to clean up and polish the exhaust tips.
Before
After
Finally I cleaned up all the cracks and crevices from the dust while polishing. Once the outside was done I cleaned up the interior a little bit and cleaned the windows. Here is what it looked like when I was done!!!
After working on this car I can tell we are going to have some problems with it since the paint is so soft. I was thinking about trying opti-coat on it to give it a little bit of a harder shell, what do you guys think????
He was really happy with the car and now I am working on the rest of his to get them back to tip-top shape. Another car brought back to life and another great client who has really been what I call a "raging fan". He has been trying to get me more business and hook me up with a huge client. I think the thing I like most about my job is the great people that I meet along the way.
Thanks for reading!!!!
