Pontiac Solstice 25hr Detail

mrclean81

mrclean81

New member
A friend of mine contacted me about detailing his wife's Solstice. It was a gift from him to her, and it is their baby. He wanted this thing CLEAN. He wasn't too concerned with the paint as much as the rest of the car. In fact, he told me he wasnt even worried about any sort of correction. Clean and protected..that was his goal. He gave me the keys and told me to take it home and not bring it back until it was perfect. This in itself is rare, because I actually got to work on this one in my bike shop as opposed to traveling to the job. Unfortunately for me, it rained off and on the entire time I had this car, and since I live in the country, the roads and area in front of my shop was very muddy. This was a huge pain and the biggest obstacle of the entire job. The car was in surprisingly good condition and had been cared for very well.

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I started with the interior on this one since it was almost dark when I got home with it. Using a combination of Griots Interior Cleaner, 5 different brushes, Car Brite Xtra Duty for the tight spots, and a small steamer, everything from top to bottom was cleaned meticulously. All plastic and rubber was dressed with Car Brite Inside Out aerosol dressing and Poorboys Natural Look dressing. The leather seats were thoroughly cleaned with Griots Interior Cleaner, and given 2 treatments with Griots Leather Care. Glass was cleaned with Sprayway aerosol, and after a good vacuuming the carpet was cleaned with Griots Interior Cleaner and steamed before being treated with Scotch-Gard Fabric Protectant.

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I then moved on to the engine. Using the same method that I use on most interiors, the entire engine was soaked with Car Brite Xtra Duty and I used a jumbo vent brush to brush the foam into every nook and cranny of the engine before blasting it with steam and spending over an hour wiping it dry. The painted areas under the hood was washed with ONR, and the entire engine was dressed with Poorboys Bold n Bright.

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The plastic under the rear bumper was cleaned the same way

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The exhaust tip was polished by hand using Poorboys Pro Polish

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Tags were removed to clean and polish behind them.
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I finally got a break in the weather, and got it outside and gave it a simple bath with Blackfire Bodywork Shampoo and a Griots wash pad. Once back inside, I then moved on to the convertible top, which to my knowledge had never undergone any sort of proper cleaning or protection. Rag Top fabric top cleaner really brought the life back into it, inside and out. I then applied 3 coats of Rag Top protectant, giving it about an hour in between coats.

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The wheels were pulled one by one, and all suspension and brake components alone with the back side of the wheels and tires were cleaned.

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(yeah I know theres a streak on the fender well. It was just Xtra Duty drying lol)
 
The night before the final day, I masked everything up and got ready for a full day of polishing and putting the finishing touches on what had became a very long weekend.

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The paint really wasnt bad at all. The usual RIDS and light holograms from hand washing and wiping, but nothing serious. The owner wasnt even expecting me to do anything other than wax it, but I wanted to see this thing all the way through. I had clayed the entire car, including the door jams and painted areas behind the seats the night before with Griots Clay and Speed Shine, so it was ready to go as soon as I got in the shop.

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I used the GG3 with Poorboys Polish w Carnuba on the headlights, fog lights, and tail lights, and all of the tight places, then switched to the GG6 and a white Poorboys VC pad with PwC on speed 6, then followed with Poorboys Black Hole on a grey LC CCS pad on speed 4.5
I then switched to a gold CCS pad and applied a coat of Blackfire Wet Diamond. After lunch and spending another hour or so on other aspects of the car, another coat of BFWD was applied by hand. Glass was cleaned, tires were given 2 coats of Poorboys Bold n Bright, wheels were sealed with Poorboys Wheel Sealant, and just for fun I went back around the car with Griots Speed Shine. The next trick was to back this car out of my garage, through a mud puddle, into a wet driveway...not an easy task :wall

And the afters

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The front end was pretty beat up. It really needed a few spots touched up and 1 fairly big scratch repaired, but the owner insisted in not bothering with it since its a 90,000 mile daily driver.
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Thanks for looking :autopia:
 
That looks great! Nice work as always.

I can't even fit into one of those cars, I'm too tall and my head ends up sticking up above the windshield :lol:
 
Thanks you guys. Charlie, I know what you mean. I'm only 5'6 and I could barely get in with the top up. I'll stick with my Tahoe :)
 
Great job Nathan. :bigups This must be the job you got tied up on, it looks outstanding for a 90,000 mile DD. I think I may have spoke too soon on the Poorboys Polish w Carnuba.
 
Thank you very much guys.

rzatch said:
Great job Nathan. :bigups This must be the job you got tied up on, it looks outstanding for a 90,000 mile DD. I think I may have spoke too soon on the Poorboys Polish w Carnuba.
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Yeah, this was it. PwC is one of my favorite polishes, and Black Hole is hands down my favorite glaze. I had actually planned on using Menzerna Power Finish on this car, but I got better results from PwC.
 
All I can say it's one thing to do a great job and get paid for all of it. It's a whole other to "donate" the time it takes to do the same thing. I commend you on the extra effort. To me that's where passion to do a better job trumps only doing the job. It's not always profitable but does pay in the end with word of mouth and when people see it. The vehicle looks great!!
 
nice work. i like how you took the extra time to mask everythig off & cover the top with plastic. i love plastic body wrap. good stuff =)
 
Concours.John said:
All I can say it's one thing to do a great job and get paid for all of it. It's a whole other to "donate" the time it takes to do the same thing. I commend you on the extra effort. To me that's where passion to do a better job trumps only doing the job. It's not always profitable but does pay in the end with word of mouth and when people see it. The vehicle looks great!!
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Thank you John. I would much rather spend some extra time and give the customer more than what they were expecting than blasting over one just to turn a quick profit. Your right about the word of mouth too. Its still the best advertisement one can get :cool:
 
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