zmcgovern45
New member
This car belongs to another local forum that I sponsor. The car was in need of some cleaning, both inside and out. The paint did not appear too bad upon initial inspection (that is one of the perks of owning a light colored vehicle) but once it was thoroughly cleaned and placed under the unforgiving halogen lights - all was revealed. The car had your typical swirls and scratches throughout the entire surface, but a one-step correction did wonders to restore the gloss and clarity back to this worn out paint. The engine was not terrible, but it had a nice layer of dirt and dust that had built up overtime. It was carefully cleaned and dressed (SORRY, I forgot to get an after pic... but I will be honest, it was nothing spectacular to look at. Just a clean engine. No nicely painted engine covers or anything like that which can be found on most luxury vehicles that clean up so nicely.) The interior had also seen it's fair share of use, but it was nothing that a thorough vacuuming, wipe down, and dressing couldn't cure... again, sorry, no interior pics.
Process
Exterior
- Wheels: CG Diablo Gel (4:1) agitated with various brushes and wheel woolies
- Tires: Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner and Tuf Shine Tire Brush
- Foam Pre-Soak: CG Citrus Wash and Gloss
- Bug Removal: CG Bug Bugger & Tar Remover
- Tar Removal: Stoner's Tarminator
- Wash: CG Citrus Wash and Gloss with Sheep Skin Wash Mitt (2 bucket method w/ grit guards)
- Iron Removal: Iron X
- Dry: Waffle Weave Drying Towels & Leaf Blower
- Clay: Medium Grade Clay with NanoSkin Glide for Lube (7:1)
- Paint Thickness Readings Taken: CM8801FN Paint Thickness Gauge
- Tape: 3M Blue Painters Tape
- Polish: Meguiar's M205 on LC White 5.5: Polishing Pad via Rupes LHR21ES & PC7424XP for 3" and 4" Pads
- Glaze: CG EZ Creme Glaze on LC Black Pad via PC7424XP
- Sealant: Menzerna Power Lock on LC Blue Pad via PC7424XP
- Tire Dressing: Optimum Opti-Bond (2 Coats)
- Exhaust: CG Metal Shine (Polish + Protection) by hand with microfiber towel
- Glass: Stoner's Invisible Glass
- Final Wipe Down: CG Hybrid V7 (done just before customer pickup)
Interior
- Vacuum: Vacmaster Wall Mounted Shop Vac
- Cleaning: Wipe down with Meguiar's D103 APC (10:1)
- Dressing/Protection: 303
- Glass: Stoner's Invisible Glass
- Lightly Scented with CG Stripper Scent
Engine
- Clean: Meguiar's D103 APC (10:1) agitated with various brushes and microfiber mitt
- Carefully rinsed
- Plastic Trim: Dressed with 303
- Metal: Polished with CG Metal Shine
- Rubber Hoses: CG Black on Black
Total Time: Approximately 10 Hours
Before
Some sap spots on the paint
Mud flaps doing their job... but they get quite dirty. You can also see how dirty the brake calipers were.
Wheels were VERY dirty. Performance brakes and daily driving lead to a lot of build up on your wheels. Front wheels were very heavily covered in brake dust and rear wheels were covered with a nice layer of dirt. Calipers were filthy as well.
There were small tar deposits around the car.
The trim had some weird staining/discoloration.
Engine was not in bad shape. Just a layer of dust and dirt covering everything.
During
As always, I began with the wheels and tires. There was some nasty stuff coming off of them.
After the car was foamed, bugs and tar were removed, next the car was washed with a heavy dilution of Citrus Wash, and then I treated it with Iron X to remove any bonded Iron contaminates from the surface. You can see the Iron X reacting with iron particles. Iron X is a clear chemical, but turns purple when it begins to dissolve away the iron deposits.
The car was then rinsed and dried and put away for the night. The next day I began by further decontaminating the paint with detailing clay. It is important to remove all surface contaminates prior to machine polishing to ensure the best results. Here you can see the contamination that the clay was removing from the surface. I believe this picture was taken after I had completed the hood. *Note: I used NanoSkin Glide (7:1) as clay lube. I typically use ONR for clay lube and have never considered trying anything else, but for some reason I decided to give Glide a shot... the difference was noticeable. I really liked it!
After the paint was perfectly clean, I was able to properly inspect the condition. There were swirls and scratches throughout the entire surface.
Before proceeding with the paint correction, I began by performing a test spot on the hood. Here is the test spot prior to correction.
After correction (top polished, bottom original)
A 50/50 look without the tape.
Taking a step back, you can clearly see the enhancement in gloss and clarity on the area that has been polished. Even lighter colored vehicles benefit greatly from properly polished paint!
50/50 shot of polished door and unpolished fender.
50/50 shot of polished front door and unpolished rear door.
50/50 shot of polished front door and unpolished rear door.
This piece of carbon trim is meant to protect the paint from being burned and/or stained by exhaust, however it had taken a nice beating and was very dull and had a severe amount of buildup/staining around the bottom edge.
After polishing with M105 and M205 (by hand) the gloss was fully restored and it looked really good!
Process
Exterior
- Wheels: CG Diablo Gel (4:1) agitated with various brushes and wheel woolies
- Tires: Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner and Tuf Shine Tire Brush
- Foam Pre-Soak: CG Citrus Wash and Gloss
- Bug Removal: CG Bug Bugger & Tar Remover
- Tar Removal: Stoner's Tarminator
- Wash: CG Citrus Wash and Gloss with Sheep Skin Wash Mitt (2 bucket method w/ grit guards)
- Iron Removal: Iron X
- Dry: Waffle Weave Drying Towels & Leaf Blower
- Clay: Medium Grade Clay with NanoSkin Glide for Lube (7:1)
- Paint Thickness Readings Taken: CM8801FN Paint Thickness Gauge
- Tape: 3M Blue Painters Tape
- Polish: Meguiar's M205 on LC White 5.5: Polishing Pad via Rupes LHR21ES & PC7424XP for 3" and 4" Pads
- Glaze: CG EZ Creme Glaze on LC Black Pad via PC7424XP
- Sealant: Menzerna Power Lock on LC Blue Pad via PC7424XP
- Tire Dressing: Optimum Opti-Bond (2 Coats)
- Exhaust: CG Metal Shine (Polish + Protection) by hand with microfiber towel
- Glass: Stoner's Invisible Glass
- Final Wipe Down: CG Hybrid V7 (done just before customer pickup)
Interior
- Vacuum: Vacmaster Wall Mounted Shop Vac
- Cleaning: Wipe down with Meguiar's D103 APC (10:1)
- Dressing/Protection: 303
- Glass: Stoner's Invisible Glass
- Lightly Scented with CG Stripper Scent
Engine
- Clean: Meguiar's D103 APC (10:1) agitated with various brushes and microfiber mitt
- Carefully rinsed
- Plastic Trim: Dressed with 303
- Metal: Polished with CG Metal Shine
- Rubber Hoses: CG Black on Black
Total Time: Approximately 10 Hours
Before
Some sap spots on the paint
Mud flaps doing their job... but they get quite dirty. You can also see how dirty the brake calipers were.
Wheels were VERY dirty. Performance brakes and daily driving lead to a lot of build up on your wheels. Front wheels were very heavily covered in brake dust and rear wheels were covered with a nice layer of dirt. Calipers were filthy as well.
There were small tar deposits around the car.
The trim had some weird staining/discoloration.
Engine was not in bad shape. Just a layer of dust and dirt covering everything.
During
As always, I began with the wheels and tires. There was some nasty stuff coming off of them.
After the car was foamed, bugs and tar were removed, next the car was washed with a heavy dilution of Citrus Wash, and then I treated it with Iron X to remove any bonded Iron contaminates from the surface. You can see the Iron X reacting with iron particles. Iron X is a clear chemical, but turns purple when it begins to dissolve away the iron deposits.
The car was then rinsed and dried and put away for the night. The next day I began by further decontaminating the paint with detailing clay. It is important to remove all surface contaminates prior to machine polishing to ensure the best results. Here you can see the contamination that the clay was removing from the surface. I believe this picture was taken after I had completed the hood. *Note: I used NanoSkin Glide (7:1) as clay lube. I typically use ONR for clay lube and have never considered trying anything else, but for some reason I decided to give Glide a shot... the difference was noticeable. I really liked it!
After the paint was perfectly clean, I was able to properly inspect the condition. There were swirls and scratches throughout the entire surface.
Before proceeding with the paint correction, I began by performing a test spot on the hood. Here is the test spot prior to correction.
After correction (top polished, bottom original)
A 50/50 look without the tape.
Taking a step back, you can clearly see the enhancement in gloss and clarity on the area that has been polished. Even lighter colored vehicles benefit greatly from properly polished paint!
50/50 shot of polished door and unpolished fender.
50/50 shot of polished front door and unpolished rear door.
50/50 shot of polished front door and unpolished rear door.
This piece of carbon trim is meant to protect the paint from being burned and/or stained by exhaust, however it had taken a nice beating and was very dull and had a severe amount of buildup/staining around the bottom edge.
After polishing with M105 and M205 (by hand) the gloss was fully restored and it looked really good!
