Houston trip: FRS, 5.0, G8, Explorer, CTS-V, SRT Cherokee + a Range Rover

S

Scottwax

New member
Several people in Houston have been trying to get me to come down for a few years now to detail cars. When a couple of them bought new vehicles and decided they wanted Opti-Coat on them, they got together to make sure there were enough cars for 3-4 days of work and a central location for us to work from. One of them graciously opened up his home to us, plus made us some of the best BBQ we've had. Awesome ribs, chicken and bacon wrapped, sausage stuffed jalapenos. Homemade fajitas at the home we did all the work at as well. :bow



2008 Pontiac G8 and 2013 Ford Explorer. We were doing full details in both, 2 steps on the G8 paint, Explorer was new and swirl free, so a light polish and then Opti-Coat. The owner intends to repaint the G8 completely in about a year (you'll see how bad the paint match is on the repainted bumper in the pics) so he wanted it to look as good as I could get it within reason.



Pillars were pretty bad...and as you can see by the clouds remaining the same in both shots, there wasn't much air moving that day...











Thought I got some before shots with my camera, guess it was just with my cell phone so sorry about the size, didn't resize it. Definitely swirled up but G8's are known for their soft paint so I didn't have to get particularly aggressive.



Before



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After



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ONR wash, Opti-Raser clay

Optimum Hyper Polish, Optimum MF cutting pad, Rupes 21 DA

Optimum G-P-S, Optimum MF cutting pad, Rupes 21 DA

ONR Wash and Wax @ 32:1 to clean glass

Armor All on tires/wheel wells



































ONR wash, Opti-Raser to clay

Optimum Hyper Polish, Optimum MF cutting pad, Rupes 21 DA

ONR wash

Optimum Coating

ONR Wash and Wax @ 32:1 to clean glass

Armor All on tires/wheel wells



Just a couple quick shots, the owner's wife needed to get their young son home and down for a nap. But she was thrilled with how the flake was so prominent after the detail.











Owner's picture:



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We also did a quick polish and seal on a 2009 Cadillac CTS-V. It really needs a full correction but the owner says he really doesn't have time to wash it himself and it might be up for sale in a month anyway. He needs a truck more than a 552 hp sedan.



ONR wash, Opti-Raser to clay

Optimum G-P-S, Optimum MF cutting pad, Rupes 21 DA

Optimum Opti-Seal

ONR Wash and Wax @32:1 to clean glass

Armor All on tires/wheel wells



















Oh yeah, all three on the same loooooong day.
 
2013 Toyota FRS. Lightly swirled, very stick paint. Took a while to figure out what would work. Optimum Hyper Polish and Meguiars M100 were pretty much impossible to wipe off the paint, even Optimum Hyper Polish was being finicky. Finally got 3D HD Polish to work, luckily the paint was soft enough I was able to get pretty close to a correction on it. Pretty sure the Rupes 21 DA was a huge help too. ;)



Customer provided before shots:



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ONR wash, Opti-Raser to clay

3D HD Polish, Optimum MF polishing pad, Rupes 21 DA

ONR wash

Optimum Coating

ONR Wash and wax @ 32:1 to clean glass

Armor All on tires/wheel wells







































Customer's picture. It literally looked like his license plate was floating inside the bumper!



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2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT. Only a few months old, owner declined dealer prep and has been washing it with ONR from day one. Paint was still swirl free so he's doing a great job washing it.



ONR wash, Opti-Raser to clay

Optimum Hyper Polish, Optimum MF cutting pad, Rupes 21 DA

ONR wash

Optimum Coating

ONR Wash and wax @ 32:1 to clean glass

Armor All on tires/wheel wells



Sun popped out for a few of the pictures...































2012 Ford Mustang 5.0. Really, really like the color on this one. Almost makes it a sleeper compared to a red or black one. Just gives it a more subdued look but in a good way. Paint had some nasty buffer trails, mostly on the front end, thanks to an employee at a car wash who hit the gas too hard (probably on purpose) and ran it into a truck. Needed a new hood and bumper. Color match was really good but the final polishing left a lot to be desired:











After











ONR wash, Opti-Raser to clay

Meguiars M100, Meguiars MF cutting pad, Rupes 21 DA

Optimum Hyper Polish, Optimum MF cutting pad, Rupes 21 DA

ONR wash

Optimum Coating

ONR Wash and wax @ 32:1 to clean glass

Armor All on tires/wheel wells



Sun was popping in and out on this one too, tried to get as many sun shots as possible.















































 
Last but not least, we detailed this 2013 Range Rover Luxury in the morning before we headed down to Houston. Owner had been in Afghanistan, is back for a two week leave and was going to Six Flags here in Arlington and since I live close by, he dropped it off for me. Other than the bugs on the front end, it was in great shape!



ONR wash, Opti-Raser to clay

Optimum Hyper Polish, Optimum MF cutting pad, Rupes 21 DA

Optimum Opti-Seal

ONR Wash and wax @ 32:1 to clean glass

Armor All on tires/wheel wells































 
Thanks Thomas! Agree on the SRT Jeep. Pretty amazing vehicle inside and out, even before you get to whats under the hood.



BTW, got this message from the owner of the SRT:



I loved watching the water bead and come off COMPLETELY during a rain shower yesterday. When we got to the restaurant and you couldn't even tell that the Mustang or the SRT had gone through rain - OC is amazing
Click to expand...
 
Nothing like fully corrected metal flake! You guys worked your a@@es off on this trip! I spent last week in Corpus, 96* and 95% humidity everyday, you can have it! SRT is badass! I can't believe a body shop would even let a customer even see a car roll out of a shop with that bad of a mismatch!!
 
Scottwax said:
Several people in Houston have been trying to get me to come down for a few years now to detail cars. When a couple of them bought new vehicles and decided they wanted Opti-Coat on them, they got together to make sure there were enough cars for 3-4 days of work and a central location for us to work from. One of them graciously opened up his home to us, plus made us some of the best BBQ we've had. Awesome ribs, chicken and bacon wrapped, sausage stuffed jalapenos. Homemade fajitas at the home we did all the work at as well. :bow.
Click to expand...





:flypig: you are the answer to my lonely prayer......Scott ..... we just do not understand how you do what you did and makes them wait for years ....and still desire your personal touch





:bow.....awesomely admiring your work!!!!!! :bigups:bigups:bigups
 
KC-Houston is about a 275 mile drive each way, having them wait wasn't for lack of wanting to go down there, but a lack of enough cars at once. Hopefully now we can make it a semi-regular thing. Arizona trips were similarly hard to get going, especially because that's 1050 miles each way.
 
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