Leadfootluke
New member
I had absolutely no intention of doing a review on HD SPEED this weekend. I had a few other projects where I thought this would fit in quite well, but I had the perfect opportunity fall into my lap on Thursday. This is a small write up with a story behind it. [Edit, after hitting submit, I realized there is nothing short about this post, sorry!]
It started about a week ago when my boss asked that if he could buy a small portion of wax from me so he could quick wax his conversion van before he let his brother-in-law and sister take it on vacation. The problem with that is one, I won't charge him for that because he is a great friend [not to mention I have a lifetime supply of wax]; and two, he and I are in the busiest part of the season right now [greenhouse] and there isn't much time free time to eat or sleep, let-alone to wax a vehicle.
I repeatedly asked when he wanted to wax his vehicle, and as soon as we set a time, we got too busy at work and had to work late. All he wanted was for his van to look nice for his family as they took it on vacation. I had Opti-seal in mind, as it is as quick as it gets, but since we never had the time of day, we started to assume it was not going to happen. This past Thursday he was going to prep it for the vacation but he had something come up and had to work late. I was able to leave on time, but figured instead of having him buy wax from me, I would take the van home with me, prep it for him, and return it in the morning when I returned to work. He has always been hesitant to allow me to work on his vehicles as he is someone who gives 110% and is always doing things for others and never asking for anything in return. However, he was in a predicament, as he really wanted the van to be nice for his family, which outweighed allowing me to work on it.
I took the vehicle home, ate dinner, and started on it around 7pm. I *wish* I had before pictures. The van is used a few times a year for big trips and had not been washed since probably last year, it was parked under trees and had plenty of tar/sap/bird bombs on it as well as spider's nests under the trim and the moldings. The wheels were caked with brake dust, the wheel wells caked with year old mud and tar, and there were tree leaves and seeds in all of the moldings. The interior had been essentially used to live in while on the road, and therefor had a lot of wrappers, games, and misc items [I filled a box with 24 pounds of small stones, coins, games, etc that were found under seats, compartments, etc]. The van was also used to haul straw in, so there was a large amount of straw left on the floor [and of course the carpet in those vans is super plush].
I started with Megs D103 on the wheels, tires, and wheel wells. I also presoaked fiberglass running boards and the gas cap area. I also washed the door jambs [a lot of spider webs and nests] and washed the seals and plastic foot boards. I then used Optimum Car Wash and thoroughly washed the vehicle. I dried the vehicle and opened the doors to get a better look at the interior. I did call my boss and ask him if I had permission to removed all of the belongings from the vehicle and clean it, even though he had not asked for that. I felt as though I would be going through their personal lives if I had decided to clean everything without their permission. I took the shop vac and removed most of the straw and debris from the van [there was also about 15 pieces of carpet used to cover the floor, but the plastic backing had disintegrated and lodged itself into the fibers of the carpet.] It took roughly 2 hours with a shop vac and a wall mount cannister vac to remove the straw, plastic debris and other contamination from the interior. It was about 10 pm when I was wrapping up on the interior and had just finished the glass when I realized time was ticking as far as applying a wax/sealant. I took all of the 'stuff' from inside of his vehicle and organized it in the back alongside an neat stack of carpet remnants. I pulled his van into the poorly lit garage and prepared to hit it quick with OS. I had already spent 3 hours more than he had asked me too and thought spending 30 minutes sealing it and finishing up the vehicle would be a nice cap to the night. The finish, not polish after 13 years and 130,000 miles, and probably never waxed let-alone washed, left a lot to be desired. At that point I remembered HD SPEED was also a form of protection and I could clean the paint, provide minor correction, and seal the paint. I took a small amount on an CCS LC blue finishing pad in the palm of my hand and rubbed the paint for about 10 seconds. When I buffed off the HD SPEED I was astonished. The paint went from pink to red, with just my hand and a blue pad with essentially no cut [Per LC: The blue pad has soft composition for applying glazes, sealants, and liquid waxes. The finessing pad provides full contact with paint surface to minimize the pressure applied by the user].
Now I am not one to use a machine to apply a wax or sealant, but a light-bulb went off in my head that was accompanied by the voice of reason telling me to grab my PC7424XP. I also grabbed a Hydrotech Tangerine pad as I thought I could at least get a touch of correction.
After taping off a portion of the hood I applied 3 dots of polish to the pad, turned on speed 1 and spead the HD SPEED. I then went to speed 5 and made 2 passes. I went left and right, overlapping like usual, and then up and down, doing the same. It took maybe 20 seconds to do the test section. After removing HD SPEED I was blown away. THIS is when I grabbed an old camera, [as my camera was in my car, left at work], and immediately regretted not documenting the whole process. Maybe I was so surprised because I was on the tail end of a long day, or because I am simple and easily entertained, or because this is an AIO and not many AIOs correct paint well. Regardless, I was happy and I knew my boss would be thrilled [or pissed that I spend my own time doing this].
Here are a few pictures showing the condition of the paint. For what it's worth, it was after 10pm when I started, the camera is an old one, I don't have good lighting in the garage and didn't haul out the halogens.
The paint was intensely faded and swirled. After the quick passes of HD SPEED, this is what the end results were [lighting provided by the camera flash, not the dull incandescent lights].
This is to the left of the 50/50 line:
And this is to the right:
Obviously the RIDs, and scratched woulds still be there, but the swirls were no where to be found. Likewise the paint looked rejuvenated.
I did one more test area to give you an idea of how well the paint came out.
After the 2nd pass I took this picture before I removed the HD SPEED from the hood:
Although these pictures weren't taken from the exact same angle I had the decals as a point of reference, which is enough to be able to see the difference.
After I polished the paint it was around 11:20 PM [and I was sure my neighbors were hating me]. I gave the finish a wipe down with OID to ensure I was able to remove everything from the paint [it was late and I couldn't see much].
Due to being in a full garage I only took a few shots, and without flash as that washed the images out:
I finished putting stuff away and the finial wipe-downs around midnight. I woke up before work and pulled it outside as the sun was peeking out. The finish came out great and it looked brand new, comparatively. I had used QID on the inside plastics and trim, an ONR mixture for windows, and 303 for the tires as I wanted them to look dark black without being glossy or looking dressed. When I arrived at work my boss and his wife were stunned and thanked me for everything. I spent about 6 hours on it but most of that was due to the interior. I would have never used HD SPEED until I saw what improvements it could make on paint by hand. And once I saw that I knew I could use my DA and do one better. I look forward to using HD SPEED many more times in the future.
If my boss allows me to, him and I will be washing his van when it gets back and I will report on durability.
Finishing thoughts:
- Smells great!
- Very thick, goes a long way, I was able to do a lot of paint before buffing it off.
- The cap kinda sucks, but every detailer has alternate bottles/tops/dispensers/etc. No big deal.
- Durability? I will be sure to report back!
Thank you to Ben, Tunch, Thomas and everyone else involved in HD's development and distribution. And also to David F as he has been very helpful in recommending products and giving us the opportunity to try out free products.
Thank you!
It started about a week ago when my boss asked that if he could buy a small portion of wax from me so he could quick wax his conversion van before he let his brother-in-law and sister take it on vacation. The problem with that is one, I won't charge him for that because he is a great friend [not to mention I have a lifetime supply of wax]; and two, he and I are in the busiest part of the season right now [greenhouse] and there isn't much time free time to eat or sleep, let-alone to wax a vehicle.
I repeatedly asked when he wanted to wax his vehicle, and as soon as we set a time, we got too busy at work and had to work late. All he wanted was for his van to look nice for his family as they took it on vacation. I had Opti-seal in mind, as it is as quick as it gets, but since we never had the time of day, we started to assume it was not going to happen. This past Thursday he was going to prep it for the vacation but he had something come up and had to work late. I was able to leave on time, but figured instead of having him buy wax from me, I would take the van home with me, prep it for him, and return it in the morning when I returned to work. He has always been hesitant to allow me to work on his vehicles as he is someone who gives 110% and is always doing things for others and never asking for anything in return. However, he was in a predicament, as he really wanted the van to be nice for his family, which outweighed allowing me to work on it.
I took the vehicle home, ate dinner, and started on it around 7pm. I *wish* I had before pictures. The van is used a few times a year for big trips and had not been washed since probably last year, it was parked under trees and had plenty of tar/sap/bird bombs on it as well as spider's nests under the trim and the moldings. The wheels were caked with brake dust, the wheel wells caked with year old mud and tar, and there were tree leaves and seeds in all of the moldings. The interior had been essentially used to live in while on the road, and therefor had a lot of wrappers, games, and misc items [I filled a box with 24 pounds of small stones, coins, games, etc that were found under seats, compartments, etc]. The van was also used to haul straw in, so there was a large amount of straw left on the floor [and of course the carpet in those vans is super plush].
I started with Megs D103 on the wheels, tires, and wheel wells. I also presoaked fiberglass running boards and the gas cap area. I also washed the door jambs [a lot of spider webs and nests] and washed the seals and plastic foot boards. I then used Optimum Car Wash and thoroughly washed the vehicle. I dried the vehicle and opened the doors to get a better look at the interior. I did call my boss and ask him if I had permission to removed all of the belongings from the vehicle and clean it, even though he had not asked for that. I felt as though I would be going through their personal lives if I had decided to clean everything without their permission. I took the shop vac and removed most of the straw and debris from the van [there was also about 15 pieces of carpet used to cover the floor, but the plastic backing had disintegrated and lodged itself into the fibers of the carpet.] It took roughly 2 hours with a shop vac and a wall mount cannister vac to remove the straw, plastic debris and other contamination from the interior. It was about 10 pm when I was wrapping up on the interior and had just finished the glass when I realized time was ticking as far as applying a wax/sealant. I took all of the 'stuff' from inside of his vehicle and organized it in the back alongside an neat stack of carpet remnants. I pulled his van into the poorly lit garage and prepared to hit it quick with OS. I had already spent 3 hours more than he had asked me too and thought spending 30 minutes sealing it and finishing up the vehicle would be a nice cap to the night. The finish, not polish after 13 years and 130,000 miles, and probably never waxed let-alone washed, left a lot to be desired. At that point I remembered HD SPEED was also a form of protection and I could clean the paint, provide minor correction, and seal the paint. I took a small amount on an CCS LC blue finishing pad in the palm of my hand and rubbed the paint for about 10 seconds. When I buffed off the HD SPEED I was astonished. The paint went from pink to red, with just my hand and a blue pad with essentially no cut [Per LC: The blue pad has soft composition for applying glazes, sealants, and liquid waxes. The finessing pad provides full contact with paint surface to minimize the pressure applied by the user].
Now I am not one to use a machine to apply a wax or sealant, but a light-bulb went off in my head that was accompanied by the voice of reason telling me to grab my PC7424XP. I also grabbed a Hydrotech Tangerine pad as I thought I could at least get a touch of correction.
After taping off a portion of the hood I applied 3 dots of polish to the pad, turned on speed 1 and spead the HD SPEED. I then went to speed 5 and made 2 passes. I went left and right, overlapping like usual, and then up and down, doing the same. It took maybe 20 seconds to do the test section. After removing HD SPEED I was blown away. THIS is when I grabbed an old camera, [as my camera was in my car, left at work], and immediately regretted not documenting the whole process. Maybe I was so surprised because I was on the tail end of a long day, or because I am simple and easily entertained, or because this is an AIO and not many AIOs correct paint well. Regardless, I was happy and I knew my boss would be thrilled [or pissed that I spend my own time doing this].
Here are a few pictures showing the condition of the paint. For what it's worth, it was after 10pm when I started, the camera is an old one, I don't have good lighting in the garage and didn't haul out the halogens.
The paint was intensely faded and swirled. After the quick passes of HD SPEED, this is what the end results were [lighting provided by the camera flash, not the dull incandescent lights].
This is to the left of the 50/50 line:
And this is to the right:
Obviously the RIDs, and scratched woulds still be there, but the swirls were no where to be found. Likewise the paint looked rejuvenated.
I did one more test area to give you an idea of how well the paint came out.
After the 2nd pass I took this picture before I removed the HD SPEED from the hood:
Although these pictures weren't taken from the exact same angle I had the decals as a point of reference, which is enough to be able to see the difference.
After I polished the paint it was around 11:20 PM [and I was sure my neighbors were hating me]. I gave the finish a wipe down with OID to ensure I was able to remove everything from the paint [it was late and I couldn't see much].
Due to being in a full garage I only took a few shots, and without flash as that washed the images out:
I finished putting stuff away and the finial wipe-downs around midnight. I woke up before work and pulled it outside as the sun was peeking out. The finish came out great and it looked brand new, comparatively. I had used QID on the inside plastics and trim, an ONR mixture for windows, and 303 for the tires as I wanted them to look dark black without being glossy or looking dressed. When I arrived at work my boss and his wife were stunned and thanked me for everything. I spent about 6 hours on it but most of that was due to the interior. I would have never used HD SPEED until I saw what improvements it could make on paint by hand. And once I saw that I knew I could use my DA and do one better. I look forward to using HD SPEED many more times in the future.
If my boss allows me to, him and I will be washing his van when it gets back and I will report on durability.
Finishing thoughts:
- Smells great!
- Very thick, goes a long way, I was able to do a lot of paint before buffing it off.
- The cap kinda sucks, but every detailer has alternate bottles/tops/dispensers/etc. No big deal.
- Durability? I will be sure to report back!
Thank you to Ben, Tunch, Thomas and everyone else involved in HD's development and distribution. And also to David F as he has been very helpful in recommending products and giving us the opportunity to try out free products.
Thank you!
