Is this a good detail or not?

B

BradUF

New member
I did not have use of a PC. There were just some things on the car I could not remove with out a PC and a Polish. Everything was done by hand, mostly.



















 
Before, Before, After, After, After, Before, Before



After. I failed to remove the Bugs, I tried everything. The splats are over a year old.

 
Good job. That takes effort by hand. What's your process?



If you didn't already, might as well use a glaze to hide some of the things you can't get out by hand.
 
Well First I washed it with dawn because it was so dirty and to strip off any wax if there was any left. Then after that I went to work on the hood. I tried Tarminator to remove all the unknow stuff, then I used Vroom APC. Then a claybar and that got most of it off. I did the same for the front gril but with a bug cloth. I used a paint cleaner on the hoodd. After that I washed the rest of the car again with NXT and clayed the roof and trunk. I used Bleach White on the tires 3 times but the tires were stained. Then I used Magic Eraser on the rims. Then I used Black Magic, because it was the only thing I had at the time, on the tires to cover the stains I failed to get of with Bleach white. For up uner the tires and the trim near there I used Vroom APC to really cut the dirt, repeated twice. Then wiped off. Oh yeah, there is not glaze because I did not want to waste AIO on this car, I save it for my Camaro SS. There is NXT Wax because I heard its good at hiding stuff.



This car was not only dirty but had just about every hard to remove substance know. This car was a *****. Also it showed me what not taking care of a car over a few years really does. There are chips in the paint and on the rims and the trim is ruined but hopefully I can do something with Poor boys Trim Restore.



I want to get into detailing and I was doing this project for my website. Before and after but not really sure if this the car I should use. I mean yes its a ton cleaner then before but there are annoying defects I was unable to remove, mostly the bug stains and messed up trim. Do you think I should use it anyways? I feel its kinda pointless to take a super clean car and detail it. Then use it on my website. I wanted to show what I could do to a car thats been abused.
 
A very nice job Brad. It's beyond me how people can let a car get this bad, especially a nice Mitsubishi Eclipse! You have done a remarkable turnaround without using a PC. I'd suggest you borrow one and go over the car again. You'll be amazed at how much better it'll look. Keep us up to date on your progress. :bigups
 
BradUF- Sure that's a good detail :xyxthumbs



If you're gonna work by hand, you might look into more aggressive polishes that are still user-friendly even without a PC. 1Z comes to mind. Things like those etched-in bug marks are gonna take the same approach as nasty scratches, so it's good to have a suitable product on hand.
 
Do you think I should go with Sonus hand polish or is there something better?



http://www.autopia-carcare.com/sonhandpol.html



Also whats a good paint cleaner, I used Megauriers Deep Crystal Paint cleaner and I am looking for something stronger and easy to apply by hand. Thanks everyone, I am just making sure my work is up to par before I start detailing other peoples cars.
 
I can't comment on the Sonus as I haven't used it. IMO you oughta look for something with abrasives that a) cut pretty well and b) break down when used by hand. That's why the 1Z stuff came to mind.



The DC#1 is a good cleaner, but that's all it does- chemically clean the paint. FWIW, I hardly *ever* use paint cleaners, seems like I just reach for clay or a polish (abrasive) every time instead. Of course your AIO is a good cleaner too...
 
Also have you had any clients with cars worse then this? Not just dirty, but many things that have been stuck on the car for months, or even years. I just want to know because this car took me an entire day to do and I dont think I could do cars this bad on a daily basis, unless they drop there car off here.
 
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