*Sorry for the poor quality photos, I don't have an SLR like all you pros on here 
A few months ago I purchased a 2009 Camry that had been poorly taken care of. There was a lot of oxidation in the paint, and nearly every crack and crevice of the car had built up dirt/gunk. The paint when washed/waxed never had a very good shine to it, but I got a good deal on it so I decided to purchase it with the intent to have a professional detail it. After watching a few videos I decided to give it a try myself, and I figured after I do two vehicles the equipment would pay for itself. So I bought a Porter Cable 7346SP (apparently the same as a 7424XP but marketed as a sander?), a hook'n'loop backing plate, a full set of Uber pads (two of each color so I could do some experimenting), Clay Magic clay bars, some ONR, and a butt-load of mf towels. I had read that the Meguiar's Ultimate line was easy to work with, so I decided to give that a try.
The first thing I had to do was wash and claybar the car. I used the ONR two-bucket technique, and some 1Z einszett Anti-Insekt Bug + Tar Remover on the front of the car. I then clayed the entire car. The side skirts, and bumpers had a lot of embedded gunk that came off pretty easily with the clay. Here is a picture of the side skirt:
You can see the gunk on the left side, and on the right is the area I had already clayed.
After I had washed and clayed the entire car I did a test spot for the following process: orange pad with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound> blue with Meguiar's Ultimate Polish > black with Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid Wax. Unfortunately the light was failing me, so I snapped a few crappy photos of the test spot. Despite the poor photo quality you can still get an idea of how bad the finish was beforehand:
Next time I will have to use some wider tape, because I actually went over the tape a little so you can see the tape line on both sides ... whoops
I did the work at a friend's house so I could make use of his garage to store the car at night. The next day I started the polishing process for the entire car. Afterwards I found a few spots that didn't polish up quiet 100%. Most of them were near edges or corners. A few I went ahead and hit again with the yellow pad and the UC, and that seemed to do the trick. Here are a few comparison photos that I took after just the first polish (orange + UC), but later I followed up with the green + UP:
Dirt that had accumulated behind the windblocker in front of the sunroof:
Front end all bugged up after 1400 mile road trip, this is after I sprayed the bug-remover on it and was waiting for it to do its thing:
On Sunday I finished up with a coat of wax using the black pads, and here is the finished product:
When I first got done, looking at the car it felt like the paint was brand new. All-in-all I am happy with the results, but I know that I could have done better in some areas. For my first time though I am just happy I didn't break anything that requires a professional to fix lol. From the few instructional videos I watched I felt like I knew enough to give this a try, but after doing it I definitely have a lot of questions on ways to improve my technique. I'll be searching the forums for more info, thanks for the great site!
A few months ago I purchased a 2009 Camry that had been poorly taken care of. There was a lot of oxidation in the paint, and nearly every crack and crevice of the car had built up dirt/gunk. The paint when washed/waxed never had a very good shine to it, but I got a good deal on it so I decided to purchase it with the intent to have a professional detail it. After watching a few videos I decided to give it a try myself, and I figured after I do two vehicles the equipment would pay for itself. So I bought a Porter Cable 7346SP (apparently the same as a 7424XP but marketed as a sander?), a hook'n'loop backing plate, a full set of Uber pads (two of each color so I could do some experimenting), Clay Magic clay bars, some ONR, and a butt-load of mf towels. I had read that the Meguiar's Ultimate line was easy to work with, so I decided to give that a try.
The first thing I had to do was wash and claybar the car. I used the ONR two-bucket technique, and some 1Z einszett Anti-Insekt Bug + Tar Remover on the front of the car. I then clayed the entire car. The side skirts, and bumpers had a lot of embedded gunk that came off pretty easily with the clay. Here is a picture of the side skirt:
You can see the gunk on the left side, and on the right is the area I had already clayed.
After I had washed and clayed the entire car I did a test spot for the following process: orange pad with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound> blue with Meguiar's Ultimate Polish > black with Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid Wax. Unfortunately the light was failing me, so I snapped a few crappy photos of the test spot. Despite the poor photo quality you can still get an idea of how bad the finish was beforehand:
Next time I will have to use some wider tape, because I actually went over the tape a little so you can see the tape line on both sides ... whoops
I did the work at a friend's house so I could make use of his garage to store the car at night. The next day I started the polishing process for the entire car. Afterwards I found a few spots that didn't polish up quiet 100%. Most of them were near edges or corners. A few I went ahead and hit again with the yellow pad and the UC, and that seemed to do the trick. Here are a few comparison photos that I took after just the first polish (orange + UC), but later I followed up with the green + UP:
Dirt that had accumulated behind the windblocker in front of the sunroof:
Front end all bugged up after 1400 mile road trip, this is after I sprayed the bug-remover on it and was waiting for it to do its thing:
On Sunday I finished up with a coat of wax using the black pads, and here is the finished product:
When I first got done, looking at the car it felt like the paint was brand new. All-in-all I am happy with the results, but I know that I could have done better in some areas. For my first time though I am just happy I didn't break anything that requires a professional to fix lol. From the few instructional videos I watched I felt like I knew enough to give this a try, but after doing it I definitely have a lot of questions on ways to improve my technique. I'll be searching the forums for more info, thanks for the great site!