richy
New member
This gentleman found my via my website and wanted the Finest for his baby. He`s been wanting a convertible Mustang for years and finally indulged. He wanted it to look as good as possible and have the best protection available for it as well. I had that covered! This was going to be a wheels off job too. Luckily he was able to bring it to me a day early which was great as I spent two very late nights working on it as it was.
Here it is as it arrived:
The front of this car had a serious appetite for bugs!!
Hmmmm..yummy!!!
There were some serious tar issues on the barrels which weren`t readily visible from the outside:
I was looking forward to polishing these babies!
I see some Dlux in your future...
I started with the wheels. The barrels were cleaned with Tarminator followed by Zep Citrus. The tires were cleaned with Zep 505 and the faces were cleaned with Zep Citrus and Megs HW. The wells were cleaned with LATA.
The car was then washed with 3D Pink soap which was followed by a decontamination wash of IronX paste. It was brought inside and clayed and was then blown off with my Master Blaster.
Here`s what the hood looked like...boy, did it turn out to be a terrible challenge!!
Lots of chips to fill too:
There were other chips too, but you get the point. First up was to remove the wheels. The barrels had a lot of tar chunks that were stuck to the surface like with super glue. It took Tarminator and a plastic eraser to break them free. Each wheel had wheel weight rubber on it too. After an intensive cleaning, I polished the barrel with my Megs DA and a 4" B/S yellow pad + Perfect Finish. That did a beautiful job. I then chemically cleaned it with DG Squeaky Clean before coating it with Finest. These wheels took a lot longer than normal due to the PITA tar.
The faces were hand polished with Essence and then was double coated with Finest just like the barrels. The calipers, although not a glossy paint, still said Brembo on them and were coated as well. The plastic wells were also coated with a DG trim coating. Here is a wheel in progress:
Guess who was too lazy to get out his tripod??
Once the wheels were re-installed and torqued to spec, it was time to play with some paint. I tried my 3D black wool pad with the 3401 + M100 and it did very little. The swirls were very deep and that was combined with a rock hard paint. It laughed at that combo. I even tried my rotary with it. Nada. I then tried going very aggressive using Menzerna Power Gloss, but it left its own marks and still did not remove everything. I ended up using M101 straight (cutting it didn`t work) with my black wool pad + 3401. It needed several passes (sometimes 3 or 4) but it seemed to be the best compromise. Even with that many passes, I wasn`t getting everything. I spent a ridiculous 4 hours on the hood and got it pretty damned good, but not perfect. The deck lid was a similar challenge. Even the sides took M101 for the top parts to remove most scratches. I don`t like using it straight as it gums up the pad far worse than M100 or 105 do, but it was the best option. I ended up having to wash out the wool pad after about every panel. That was followed by M205 + CarPro Gloss pad + 3401. Here is the back part after M100 + M205. I was liking the fun house mirror effect:
The car was then double coated with CQuartz Finest. The trim at the back got Dlux. The windshield got Fly By Forte. The exhaust tips were polished with 0000 steel wool + M205 and were coated with Dlux too. The convertible top was treated with DG 341 for waterproofing. It also seemed to darken it up a bit too. The remaining glass was also coated with Finest. After a ridiculous 27 hours, here it is:
Ya baby!!!
Polished pony
Thanks for looking!
Here it is as it arrived:
The front of this car had a serious appetite for bugs!!
Hmmmm..yummy!!!
There were some serious tar issues on the barrels which weren`t readily visible from the outside:
I was looking forward to polishing these babies!
I see some Dlux in your future...
I started with the wheels. The barrels were cleaned with Tarminator followed by Zep Citrus. The tires were cleaned with Zep 505 and the faces were cleaned with Zep Citrus and Megs HW. The wells were cleaned with LATA.
The car was then washed with 3D Pink soap which was followed by a decontamination wash of IronX paste. It was brought inside and clayed and was then blown off with my Master Blaster.
Here`s what the hood looked like...boy, did it turn out to be a terrible challenge!!
Lots of chips to fill too:
There were other chips too, but you get the point. First up was to remove the wheels. The barrels had a lot of tar chunks that were stuck to the surface like with super glue. It took Tarminator and a plastic eraser to break them free. Each wheel had wheel weight rubber on it too. After an intensive cleaning, I polished the barrel with my Megs DA and a 4" B/S yellow pad + Perfect Finish. That did a beautiful job. I then chemically cleaned it with DG Squeaky Clean before coating it with Finest. These wheels took a lot longer than normal due to the PITA tar.
The faces were hand polished with Essence and then was double coated with Finest just like the barrels. The calipers, although not a glossy paint, still said Brembo on them and were coated as well. The plastic wells were also coated with a DG trim coating. Here is a wheel in progress:
Guess who was too lazy to get out his tripod??
Once the wheels were re-installed and torqued to spec, it was time to play with some paint. I tried my 3D black wool pad with the 3401 + M100 and it did very little. The swirls were very deep and that was combined with a rock hard paint. It laughed at that combo. I even tried my rotary with it. Nada. I then tried going very aggressive using Menzerna Power Gloss, but it left its own marks and still did not remove everything. I ended up using M101 straight (cutting it didn`t work) with my black wool pad + 3401. It needed several passes (sometimes 3 or 4) but it seemed to be the best compromise. Even with that many passes, I wasn`t getting everything. I spent a ridiculous 4 hours on the hood and got it pretty damned good, but not perfect. The deck lid was a similar challenge. Even the sides took M101 for the top parts to remove most scratches. I don`t like using it straight as it gums up the pad far worse than M100 or 105 do, but it was the best option. I ended up having to wash out the wool pad after about every panel. That was followed by M205 + CarPro Gloss pad + 3401. Here is the back part after M100 + M205. I was liking the fun house mirror effect:
The car was then double coated with CQuartz Finest. The trim at the back got Dlux. The windshield got Fly By Forte. The exhaust tips were polished with 0000 steel wool + M205 and were coated with Dlux too. The convertible top was treated with DG 341 for waterproofing. It also seemed to darken it up a bit too. The remaining glass was also coated with Finest. After a ridiculous 27 hours, here it is:
Ya baby!!!
Polished pony
Thanks for looking!
(That kinda dates me.... :wacko: )
