Frito Bandito
New member
I've been working on my sister's 03 Cavalier in my spare time and I'm finally starting to make some real progress. It's pretty trashed for an 03 model, lots of swirls, scratches, door dings and paint transfer. Not to mention the ton of tar and sap stuck to the paint. Today I got the last of the tar and sap off the paint as well as polished all the horizontal surfaces and the front fenders. The car looks a ton better than it did when I started but I still have quite a way to go. I should say up front that I'm a terrible photographer and I was in a hurry so I didn't get many pictures and some of the pics I did get were unusable. On to the process and pictures:
Washed with Mothers California Gold
Dried with Sonus Ultimate Drying Towel
Clayed with blue Clay Magic clay/Megs Quick Detailer as lube
Optimum Polish Via PC on white 5.25" LC pad at speed 6 for the paint
Optimum Compound via PC on orange 4" LC pad at speed 6 for the headlights
Armor All tire foam (x2) on tires
Mothers Back to Black on trim
DP Max Wax
All the horizontal surfaces were mostly covered in this weird haze:
And of course swirls:
Headlights looked pretty bad as well:
Half & Half on the trunk with OP:
Afters:
OP cleaned up this spot pretty well, other parts of the car were swirled more severely and will require OC to clean up
This pic turned out blurry but you can still see how reflective Max Wax is:
I decided to go over the car with OP because I didn't have enough time with the car to do a multi step process. Some parts of the car look great after just OP, others will require additional passes with OP or stepping up to compound to take care of the swirls. The headlights could use more attention as well. As a quick fix I wet sanded them with 1500 grit paper and cleaned up the haze with PlastX a few months ago to remove the failing coating on the lenses. Today I compounded them and they look pretty good but some more time with 2500 grit sand paper followed by OC and OP would help.
Thoughts/comments/suggestions welcome.
Washed with Mothers California Gold
Dried with Sonus Ultimate Drying Towel
Clayed with blue Clay Magic clay/Megs Quick Detailer as lube
Optimum Polish Via PC on white 5.25" LC pad at speed 6 for the paint
Optimum Compound via PC on orange 4" LC pad at speed 6 for the headlights
Armor All tire foam (x2) on tires
Mothers Back to Black on trim
DP Max Wax
All the horizontal surfaces were mostly covered in this weird haze:
And of course swirls:
Headlights looked pretty bad as well:
Half & Half on the trunk with OP:
Afters:
OP cleaned up this spot pretty well, other parts of the car were swirled more severely and will require OC to clean up
This pic turned out blurry but you can still see how reflective Max Wax is:
I decided to go over the car with OP because I didn't have enough time with the car to do a multi step process. Some parts of the car look great after just OP, others will require additional passes with OP or stepping up to compound to take care of the swirls. The headlights could use more attention as well. As a quick fix I wet sanded them with 1500 grit paper and cleaned up the haze with PlastX a few months ago to remove the failing coating on the lenses. Today I compounded them and they look pretty good but some more time with 2500 grit sand paper followed by OC and OP would help.
Thoughts/comments/suggestions welcome.