Mini Cooper S detail with Rasky

[RaskyR1]

This job was posted on another forum by Justin and I thought I'd share it here too.

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:

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............

 

[RaskyR1]

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:

Taillights before and after:

Rasky Opti-Guarding the wheel arch trim:

Wrapped up, sealed and ready to deliver:

Chad says "Thanks for looking!"

 

[mjlinane]

Great work!! Turned out spectacular. Nice having a partner to make short(er) work of a detail.

 

[classofshine]

Nice turn around! Any before shots of the wheels? They looked nasty! Was that Iron-x spray or paste that you used on the wheels after Megs WB?

 

[RaskyR1]

Great work!! Turned out spectacular. Nice having a partner to make short(er) work of a detail.

Thank you! Not only does it make the job go faster, but we joke around a lot too and it just makes the job more enjoyable.

Nice turn around! Any before shots of the wheels? They looked nasty! Was that Iron-x spray or paste that you used on the wheels after Megs WB?

Thanks!

Here is one shortly after I sprayed Sonax on them. We used the Iron-X Spray.

A couple others that I had which I feel are worth sharing...

trim was hit with D300 and followed with 106fa. The after pics Justin posted were after D300 I think. After 106fa they had a lot more gloss and the light hazing was removed.

Taillight after with direct light.

Stripe after. Passenger side stripe was stained and etched with something...we hit it a few times with D300 and while it looked much better, it was not 100%.

 

[Rocket]

Chad that thing was nasty. Looks like some of damage wasn't reparable on the trim and the exhaust tips. Sad that the car was allowed to get that bad. The both of you did a great job turning it around. Looks great after the work you and Justin put into it

 

[TLMitchell]

Coouhl, a mini-detail!

Although I've considered Opti Coat/Guard on trim for longevity I'm hesitant to apply it to anything I can't compound in event I want or need to remove it. Thoughts?

TL

 

[Old Pirate]

That's what winter does to ones ride, great work guys! :bigups

 

[CT3]

Nice job, that was a great turn around. I don't like tiny cars, but if I was going to drive one it would be a mini. Some of the newer ones have style.

 

[Crodad1]

Great work Chad!

 

[broker99]

great job. Nice gloss on that grey paint.

 

[SS 07C70]

You're right, those wheels were trashed, and came out great, as did the rest of the Mini. Great work.

 

[RaskyR1]

Thanks again guys!

 

[Pats300zx]

Amazing work Chad !!! :drool::drool:

 

[RaskyR1]

Thanks Pat!

Coouhl, a mini-detail!

Although I've considered Opti Coat/Guard on trim for longevity I'm hesitant to apply it to anything I can't compound in event I want or need to remove it. Thoughts?

TL

Sorry TL. I meant to answer your question but must have spaced it out. Admittedly I am a little leery of the long term effects on plastic trim, but it's been on my personal car 18 months now and is still going strong. Some other people have shown positive testing even longer...so until I see a post with negative effects I'm gambling on it being ok.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[holland_patrick]

Iron-x this is the first time i heard of it... is there a nice shot of the wheel done.???

 

[TLMitchell]

Sorry TL. I meant to answer your question but must have spaced it out.

What a coinkydink, I find myself spaced out frequently. Since birth, I'm told...

Admittedly I am a little leery of the long term effects on plastic trim, but it's been on my personal car 18 months now and is still going strong. Some other people have shown positive testing even longer...so until I see a post with negative effects I'm gambling on it being ok.

I don't have any seriously problematic trim that needs attention often. I do have a friend with a PITA honeycombed grill that grays out pronto regardless of what's used on it. As soon as I round up an el cheapo, single-purpose air brush that grill is going to get Raskyized (izzat a word?)

TL

 

[RaskyR1]

Iron-x this is the first time i heard of it... is there a nice shot of the wheel done.???

It's been out for a while now.

This was the closest after pic of the wheels we took. As you can see they didn't come out 100%, but it was a huge improvement.

What a coinkydink, I find myself spaced out frequently. Since birth, I'm told...



I don't have any seriously problematic trim that needs attention often. I do have a friend with a PITA honeycombed grill that grays out pronto regardless of what's used on it. As soon as I round up an el cheapo, single-purpose air brush that grill is going to get Raskyized (izzat a word?)

TL

If you say it 3 times real fast, it's becomes a word!

 

[rzatch]

Man the wheels and trim were in pretty bad shape. Nice recovery the iron X really worked good.

 

[sc_S13]

did you use a wheel brush or were you able to simply use buffing towels/pads? great work!