Mini Cooper S detail with Rasky

[Phishy4]

Rasky and I teamed up again for this job, a Mini Cooper S that was in decent shape but definitely in need of some help. It was a basic 1 step/protect but we wound up doing some extra decon and polishing steps to make it really pop and send it out the door in a manner that was satisfactory to both of us. Once again, like with all light color metallics we had some issues getting the paint condition to translate to pictures well (we tried 2 different DSLRs, 3 different lenses, multiple exposure settings, etc). The silver/gray metallic paint was very hard, very contaminated and good at hiding defects, which made having 2 sets of eyes a very good thing. The process was:



- Wash w/ONR

- Tar-x and Iron-x on various body panels

- Clayed with Blackfire Poly Clay and Griots Speedshine as lube

- D300 on a MF Cutting disc via GGDA

- Blackfire to seal, Opti-Guard on plastic trim

- Wheels got everything under the sun (more later in write up)

- Stainless Trim cleaned w/Optimum Metal Polish

- Chrome Cleaned with Mothers Chrome Polish (love this stuff)

- Tires dressed w/Megs Hyper @ 4:1

- Interior vacuumed and wiped down with Megs QID



On to the pics. Like I said, we had a very hard time capturing the condition before, but the trim panels and stripes here give a pretty good indication what we were faced with.

Crop of paint attempting to show swirls.

Stainless trim before:

After Optimum Metal

Iron X Working away on the white roof:

Tar-X having it's way with the lower panels:

Clay after 1/2 a panel:

Thrashed tips before:

After a lot of elbow grease, Optimum Metal and 0000 steel wool:

All chrome polished with Mothers Chrome Polish

The wheels had the worst brake dust contamination/build up/etching I've ever seen. This is after a Round with Sonax Full Effect (barely touched it)

Meg's Wheel Brightener helped considerably:

Decided to see if straight Iron-X would even do anything after all that, and the answer was yes it would:

Decontamination complete (or as complete as it was going to get); now time to do some correction............

 

[Phishy4]

Paint Measured Healthy on all panels:

It's fine as long as the buffers don't touch.......right?

D300/MF doing its job effectively:

3" Mirka plate and MF pad for the tight spots

Trim pieces before and after D300 (they got a final polish with Menz 106 as well, just for reference):

Taillights before and after:

Rasky Opti-Guarding the wheel arch trim:

Wrapped up, sealed and ready to deliver:

Chad says "Thanks for looking!"

 

[someidiot]

Great job, guys.



Those wheels were awful. You said you wanted to see if "straight iron-x" would work... do you usually dilute iron-x?

 

[RaskyR1]

LOL! I think I'll let you do the write up's from now on Justin!

 

[Thomas Dekany]

Awesome thread! You guys are funny! Nice detail!



PS: I am usually wrong but I found if I turn all lights off and take pictures with the flash or a flashlight, the swirls will show.

 

[RaskyR1]

Great job, guys.



Those wheels were awful. You said you wanted to see if "straight iron-x" would work... do you usually dilute iron-x?

Thanks! No, it's supposed to be used undiluted, I think he meant we just wanted to see what it would do on it's own after Sonax and Wheel Brightner.

Awesome thread! You guys are funny! Nice detail!



PS: I am usually wrong but I found if I turn all lights off and take pictures with the flash or a flashlight, the swirls will show.

Thanks Thomas, we'll give that a try next time. The ambient light from the windows may have made it harder too.



I also really enjoy working with Justin as we keep each other focused and motivated....some occasional joking around makes for a fun day too.

 

[Jokeman]

I also really enjoy working with Justin as we keep each other focused and motivated....some occasional joking around makes for a fun day too.

Nice work! It is way more fun doing jobs with other people. Rick and I spend more time laughing than we do working some days.

 

[Phishy4]

Awesome thread! You guys are funny! Nice detail!



PS: I am usually wrong but I found if I turn all lights off and take pictures with the flash or a flashlight, the swirls will show.

That's a great idea. I've done that in the past to evaluate cars (kill all the lights and just use a halogen or brinkman to see swirls better), for some reason it never even occurred to me to try that with a camera.

 

[good guys]

Great job guys and very nice write up!!!! I am pretty amazed by the wheels.

 

[gmblack3]

Great work Chad and Justin!



That Mini has taking a beating, but you would not know it in the after pictures.

 

[Kevin Brown]

Gotta support the Click & Brags... :grouphug:



A compact & tidy write-up, good job on this one.

It must be fun to work with as a team.

A bit stressful wondering if the other guy is doing things "right", but it all works out somehow.



Perhaps on your next rust removal you can spray a little wheel acid onto the bristles of a toothbrush, horse hair brush, or paint brush, and agitate the license plate & bolts. Then use M105 or metal polish. Same for the exhaust.



Very good! :cheer2:

 

[maxepr1]

Nice work guy's! I'm it's none to soon with old man winter setting in up there!

 

[RaskyR1]

Thanks guys!

Gotta support the Click & Brags... :grouphug:



A compact & tidy write-up, good job on this one.

It must be fun to work with as a team.

A bit stressful wondering if the other guy is doing things "right", but it all works out somehow.



Perhaps on your next rust removal you can spray a little wheel acid onto the bristles of a toothbrush, horse hair brush, or paint brush, and agitate the license plate & bolts. Then use M105 or metal polish. Same for the exhaust.



Very good! :cheer2:

Thanks Kevin!



We did spray on some Car Brite wire wheel cleaner but the plating was already gone and we decided at that point we had already invested enough time into making them look better.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kevin Brown]

Thanks guys!







Thanks Kevin!



We did spray on some Car Brite wire wheel cleaner but the plating was already gone and we decided at that point we had already invested enough time into making them look better.

:redface1:​

 

[RaskyR1]

:redface1:​

Lol. To be fair it wasn't listed in the process...that stuff has sat on the shelf untouched for years too! Justin says he loves the smell of that product! :b





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Junebug]

Not a Mini fan as I would look like 10 pounds of sh!t in a 5 pound bucket, but if I could lose 50 - 60 pounds, I'd love that car! After ya'll detailed it of course!

 

[E300Diesel]

Great job guys! :rockon:

 

[VR8]

Nice job you two. I agree about the nice change of pace to work as a team. Especially if you can bounce ideas off of each other. Looks like you all make a nice duo.



Just curious, I did a Mini not too long ago where the body color paint under the hood would literally wipe off with a rag if sprayed with Meg's Super Degreaser (my usual engine cleaner). Did you notice anything similar on this one? I didn't see where you did any engine cleaning but just thought I'd ask. I was so HUGELY suprised by the paint coming off like it was a water color paint. Thought maybe by some fluke it was a common Mini problem? I've never seen any other car do that.

 

[RaskyR1]

Not a Mini fan as I would look like 10 pounds of sh!t in a 5 pound bucket, but if I could lose 50 - 60 pounds, I'd love that car! After ya'll detailed it of course!

LOL! Thanks JuneBug!

Great job guys! :rockon:

Thanks Chris

Nice job you two. I agree about the nice change of pace to work as a team. Especially if you can bounce ideas off of each other. Looks like you all make a nice duo.



Just curious, I did a Mini not too long ago where the body color paint under the hood would literally wipe off with a rag if sprayed with Meg's Super Degreaser (my usual engine cleaner). Did you notice anything similar on this one? I didn't see where you did any engine cleaning but just thought I'd ask. I was so HUGELY suprised by the paint coming off like it was a water color paint. Thought maybe by some fluke it was a common Mini problem? I've never seen any other car do that.

Thanks John!



We didn't do anything with the engine bay on this one. I had the hood up in order to coat the plastic trim but other than that it was left untouched (though it needed a cleaning!)



I wonder if it had over spray on it or maybe no clear coat? It does seem odd...if I do another I'll be sure to check on it.

 

[RaskyR1]

I should add that we actually went over the black trim with 2 steps. I think the pics above were after D300. The ones below are after 106fa with tangerine LC pads. Some deeper scratched remained, especially close to the edge, but still a huge improvement.

Also, here is the after pic on that one white stripe which was etched/stained and it even looked like the material itself was failing. Not 100% but a big improvement.