Le Mans Sunset, Satin Silver, Magnetic Black, and so on

G35stilez

G35stilez

Ari Gold
I *should* be studying for my exams and working on projects, but I had the itch to post these, plus a little encouragement from mgm2003 :).


The past few days have been very busy. This beautiful weather has filled up my schedule with vehicle after vehicle. This weekend, I got some real gems to work on...



First up, a Le Mans Sunset Z. This puppy looked a bit 'dim' and generally filthy from the winter :(. My finals were:

Engine
-Amazing Roll Off (full strength)
-Hyperwash and brushes/MFs to agitate
-CG VRT cut 2.5:1 to dress

Interior
-Steam Clean entire interior
-CG VRT to dress
-Z8 for jams/glass

Exterior
-Hyper Wash
-Z18 Clay
-Optimum Car Polish via rotary and LC Cutting Pad @ 1200 rpm
-Menzerna FPII via rotary and LC Finishing Pad @ 1500 rpm
-Z6 wipedown
-Z5 by hand
-Z8

-Z16 on tires
-CG VRT cut 2.5:1 in wells


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Before
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After
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Before
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After
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Next up, an Acura TSX. Kyle is a regular customer and always has his car in nice shape. Minor swirling and a sandy interior was the hardest I had to cope with here.

Interior
-Steam Clean entire interior
-Zaino Z16 to dress
-Z8 for jams/glass

Exterior
-Hyper Wash
-Z18 Clay
-Optimum Car Polish via rotary and LC Polishing Pad @ 1200 rpm
-Z6 wipedown
-Z2 Pro by hand
-Z8

-Z16 on tires
-CG VRT cut 2.5:1 in wells


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Next up, a month old 350Z! It sat on the dealer lot for a year and was washed by baboons!


Exterior
-Hyper Wash
-Z18 Clay
-Hi-Temp Extreme Cut via rotary and LC Cutting Pad @ 1500 rpm x 2
-Menzerna FPII via rotary and LC Finishing Pad @ 1500 rpm
-Z6 wipedown
-Z5 by hand
-Z8

-Z16 on tires
-CG VRT cut 2.5:1 in wells

Before
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After
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Last up, a Jeep Cherokee with 180k on the clock, never detailed. It had it's fair share of swirls, contaminants, and etching. My finals were:


Interior
-Steam Clean entire interior
-CG VRT to dress
-Z12 for glass
-S+W for jams

Exterior
-Hyper Wash
-Z18 Clay
-Optimum Car Polish via rotary and LC Cutting Pad @ 1200 rpm x 2
-Menzerna FPII/CK RMG (50/50) via rotary and LC Finishing Pad @ 1500 rpm
-FK1 Pink Wax by hand

-Meguiar's Extreme Shine on tires
-CG VRT cut 2.5:1 in wells/on trim

Before
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During
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After
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Questions/Comments, feel free.


Enjoy!
 
WICKED work it looks amazing. I love the 2 350Z's but i especially love the burst orange one. (im a little impartial to Nissan's) but its nice work i love the colour. Very nice
 
Love the sun burst orange 350Z the most, its close to the color of my Murano....The dog looks comfortable....:) .....now get back to studying!:D :D
 
Holy Mother of Wood! The Z's are out of this world!!!!

Dude, I'm sending you $$ for new shoes. Is some homeless guy going barefoot because of you? Even Buckley is sporting a 'What-in-the-Hell' look on his mug. The back of your Z T-Shirt should say 'Need $$ for Shoes - Spent it all on Zaino'.

How did you use Amazing Roll Off on the engine? Full Cut... dwell time? Did you have to agitate the entire area with brushes, or did you spray on-spray off? The bay area on the Z looks immaculate!

p.s. -Are you going to share the 'Nightmare Project' with the boards?
 
Dude, I'm sending you $$ for new shoes. Is some homeless guy going barefoot because of you? Even Buckley is sporting a 'What-in-the-Hell' look on his mug. The back of your Z T-Shirt should say 'Need $$ for Shoes - Spent it all on Zaino'.
Click to expand...

Thats too funny! I thought those were some special detailing shoes.lol. After seeing his work I would let him detail my ride barefoot!
 
Thanks folks:


Dave: I love that color...It looks amazing when detailed.

John: Those shoes were $100...lol.

For the engine, warm it for 10 minutes with hood closed, pressure wash, saturate in Amazing Roll Off - full strength, agitate the bad areas with old mf, pressure wash clean, run engine for 15 minutes with hood closed, saturate with CG VRT cut 2.5:1, shut hood...touch up after an hour.

Still contemplating on the "nightmare project" :/.


mrecktid: Canon A610. I used a .45 wideangle lense and UV filter for these shots. It allows a closer up shot while still getting a large portion of the vehicle in the photo as well as cutting down on sun-ray glare.
 
GSRstilez said:
Thanks folks:
John: Those shoes were $100...lol.

Then I have about $1500 worth waiting on you in my garage. Let me know when you're stopping over.

Thanks for the additional info. on ARO. I think I'm going to give it a try at some point. They sell it locally.
Click to expand...
 
Hey, the entire family had a peek at your details tonight. Consensus is..... I need more practice (LOL).

Seeing your work in person validates the insane pictures in this post!!!

'-Hi-Temp Extreme Cut via rotary and LC Cutting Pad @ 1500 rpm x 2' -still boggles my mind, but you did it.

You don't see black paint that deep and reflective very often. It must be the shoes :)
 
And you said I was setting the bar! That black 350Z is insane - you can just keep finding more and more things to look at in the reflections - stunning. I normally just look, but today I had to say something - amazing work, I just want to go and do a detail now! :D
 
Very nice! I love the TSX and the Lemans Sunset Z is nice too. That black Z looked horrible, I think your dog could have done alot better job on that.:)I work at a car dealer detailing cars and we detail cars that are repaired at our bodyshop and everytime a Cherokee comes in I dread it because I know it is going to be bad, most of them are black and are in horrible shape.
 
Awesome work!

I want my engine compartment to look like that one on the first Z....think that approach would work for a medium condition engine bay on a Lexus LS-400?

again, awesome work. I'm inspired.

blue skies,
Andrew
 
Andrew: Yep, absolutely. Anything in moderate or better condition has a good chance of coming back purrrrty.
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Ok, so then my question is: are there any OTC cleaners that would work as well, and what substitutes for the CG VRT to dress? I don't have VRT or Amazing Roll Off - if there aren't any decent OTC alternatives I'll mail order, but then I have to wait ;)

thanks!
Andrew
 
hook: Go to Home Depot and get some Briggs&Stratton Heavy Degreaser. PepBoys and get Armor All to dress.


Thanks.
 
GSRstilez said:
hook: Go to Home Depot and get some Briggs&Stratton Heavy Degreaser. PepBoys and get Armor All to dress.


Thanks.
Click to expand...

Ok, saw that too late, but I did get some generic cleaner/degreaser from Wal-mart (Purple something, I think? For some reason I seemed to remember people sayign not to use Simple Green, so I didn't get it) and went ahead and used 303 for the dressing. I used the last bit of Armor All I had (been trying to get rid of it) to do some of the "slicker" looking rubber boots/covers near the firewall - I was afraid to get it too near the belts, and figured the 303 couldn't hurt anything.

I used your method but without the pressure washer (don't have one): rinse/soak with water, spray with cleaner/degreaser, let set, agitate, rinse, sprayed entire compartment, closed the hood and let set with engine running for 10 minutes.

Anyway, the engine looks awesome - only thing noticable is that the white raised letters on the black plastic shield over the radiator fan have lost some of their whiteness - it's not dull, the white paints just rubbing off.

While I had everything out, I did my wifes engine as well...her didn't turn out quite as well, parts of the aluminum engine are somewhat splotchy from the heat, but it looks pretty good.

Will post some pictures tomorrow.

thanks!
Andrew
 
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