JasonD
New member
Okay guys, as some of you already know, this weekend was my test weekend for my new Cyclo. Unfortunately, things did not go so well with the Cyclo, so my review of the machine has been put on hold until I can get some better pads for it. If you'd like to see my partial review of the Cyclo, you can see it here: Cyclo Review
The vehicle I was testing the Cyclo out on is my "beater car" 97' Explorer that has some pretty major clearcoat failure on all of the horizontal surfaces. I didn't plan on really putting any emphasis on the detail itself, but after polishing my butt off this weekend (four hours saturday and three more hours today), it actually came out WAY better than I thought it ever would and thought I'd share it with everyone.
This is a perfect example of what a PC is capable of while at the same time showing it's limits. I started off by compounding the entire vehicle with a 7.5" LC VC yellow cutting pad and 3M PI II RC. I spent all four hours yesterday compounding all the defects out as best as I could. Today, I started off by polishing with 1Z PP and a green Sonus pad then moved to VM with a blue Sonus pad, and finally EX with a grey Sonus pad.
Like I said, this car has been plagued with clearcoat failure (lacquer checking) on all the horizontal surfaces and I knew going into this that it could not be corrected, even with a rotary but I still wanted to try to make it less noticeable and also wanted to try to bring back some depth and shine that it has been lost over the years. In addition to the cc failure, I also had a lot of scrapes, scratches, and scuffs to deal with all over the place.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any full size pics of the car before I started because I never planned on posting any of this, but I did get some close ups of some of the really bad defects that I was going to try to get out with the cyclo, and ended up getting them out with the PC instead.
I will try to place a caption for each picture to explain what you are looking at. The car ended up so shiny that it was messing with my autofocus camera really bad, so there are some weird things that popped up in some of the pics but I will point them out.
Here is a couple shots of the hood before the detail but after being washed and dried to show you how bad the cc failure is:
Now, here's the hood after being detailed as best as I could. As you can see, it's still there but it's been knocked down quite a bit. You can actually stand at certain angles and not even see it at all.
Scratched door before and after: The funny white spot in the after pic is something the camera picked up, not a defect.
Rear fender lip before and after. Again, another funny spot the camera picked up in the after pic:
Rear door before and after: Some more glare the camera picked up in the after pic:
The vehicle I was testing the Cyclo out on is my "beater car" 97' Explorer that has some pretty major clearcoat failure on all of the horizontal surfaces. I didn't plan on really putting any emphasis on the detail itself, but after polishing my butt off this weekend (four hours saturday and three more hours today), it actually came out WAY better than I thought it ever would and thought I'd share it with everyone.
This is a perfect example of what a PC is capable of while at the same time showing it's limits. I started off by compounding the entire vehicle with a 7.5" LC VC yellow cutting pad and 3M PI II RC. I spent all four hours yesterday compounding all the defects out as best as I could. Today, I started off by polishing with 1Z PP and a green Sonus pad then moved to VM with a blue Sonus pad, and finally EX with a grey Sonus pad.
Like I said, this car has been plagued with clearcoat failure (lacquer checking) on all the horizontal surfaces and I knew going into this that it could not be corrected, even with a rotary but I still wanted to try to make it less noticeable and also wanted to try to bring back some depth and shine that it has been lost over the years. In addition to the cc failure, I also had a lot of scrapes, scratches, and scuffs to deal with all over the place.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any full size pics of the car before I started because I never planned on posting any of this, but I did get some close ups of some of the really bad defects that I was going to try to get out with the cyclo, and ended up getting them out with the PC instead.
I will try to place a caption for each picture to explain what you are looking at. The car ended up so shiny that it was messing with my autofocus camera really bad, so there are some weird things that popped up in some of the pics but I will point them out.
Here is a couple shots of the hood before the detail but after being washed and dried to show you how bad the cc failure is:
Now, here's the hood after being detailed as best as I could. As you can see, it's still there but it's been knocked down quite a bit. You can actually stand at certain angles and not even see it at all.
Scratched door before and after: The funny white spot in the after pic is something the camera picked up, not a defect.
Rear fender lip before and after. Again, another funny spot the camera picked up in the after pic:
Rear door before and after: Some more glare the camera picked up in the after pic:
Seriously, though, you are right. The color really did come right back and I can't believe how good the color looks either. The before and after pictures were taken at almost the exact same time of day and lighting. The paint really did look that different before I started. You couldn't even tell it was a metallic, and almost all of the scratches are gone now too. The only thing I am disappointed in is the hood. It's really an eye sore, but I'm hoping to have a rotary under the christmas tree and I'll tackle it with that to see if I can knock it down some more.
Its just plain frustrating!
