*Warning! Rated OMG!* 2004 Black 350z Full detail + touch up

[Tru_Shine]

This 2004 350z was a very special job because it belongs to a family that is very dear to me. This car was purchased back in 08 as a suprise for the Father of the Family, who has now passed away. The 350Z was the fathers Dream car and he only had the car 4 months before his passing.

here is a video of the family giving him the 350z.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEhnq7gpGTg]YouTube - Surprising Dad With 350Z[/ame]



Now this car had been severely neglected, and needed A LOT of attention. This job took over 15 hours non stop to complete. This is what I pulled up to. (*Warning images may not be subtable for children under the age of 18*)

So my Weapons of Choice for Washing

5 gal bucket

Dawn soap (Highly concentrated)

Grit gaurd

100% sheep skin wash mitt

Ez Detail brush

misc brush

lugnut brush

Chemical Guys Diablo Wheel Gel 3:1 ratio

Automagic Fine blue clay

Clay lube used was the soapy water.

I began washing the car with Highly concentrated Dawn soap to strip off ALL wax (if there was any), haha j/k. (kinda) anyways. here are a few shot of me washing, cleaning the wheels and claying.

Continued below...... Dont Post until im done thanks!

 

[Tru_Shine]

After the rinse there was no beading of the water and none of it was rolling off! that's what you are looking for!

So now the Tru Surface was revealed!

I used P21s polishing Soap on the exhaust tips with some #0000 steel wool.

Some of the black soot stains wouldn't come off, thats what the steel wool was for

Now for the paint correction.



I took my paint thickness measurements

pretty low. but this Z had been buffed on before. So I knew to be extra careful



I done a few test spots and ended up going with the Good Ol' Rotary w/ Megs W66 backing plate with LC purple foamed wool pad and Meguiars M105 compound.

Here is a before

Here is a after

here is Mr. TruShine himself in action!



(TruShine Apron Shot)

Does that Motorcycle look familiar?

Now for some touch-up



The Front fender had a rock chip that was starting to Rust, I first began by taking a razor blade and flaking away all of the paint that was flaking off and then I scraped all of the rust away as much as I could. Just try to scrape off as much as you can until you dont see any more.

Then it turned into this ( bare shiny metal)

Then I dabbed some of the Dupli-Color 2in1 touch up paint into the chip letting it dry for about 10-15 until it hardened.

After the paint dries it seeps into the chip and settles down. Somtimes you only have to apply paint once but in this case I had to put down 2 layers.



I taped arround this so I have a clean wetsand area, you can tell in the pics how much it settled into the chip

I worked on the panel while the touch up was drying.

after the second coat of touch up It turned out like this

Then After it was Fully Dried I wet sanded with 2000 grit paper and here is what it looked like

Continued below.......

 

[Tru_Shine]

After that I buffed it out with my flex and here is the Final Outcome (not %100 but close)

and Walaaaaa!!





So back to the Paint Correction

And here are the pillar pieces

Here was another Deep scratch that Needed to be Wet sanded on.



look closely in the wetsanded area

I took during PTG readings to see how many microns I wetsanded off



I started with a little over 107 microns and after Sanding the scratch away completely i ended up with only 100 microns

But no more scratches

OK so after 9 hours into it, I finished the Driver side. I wanted some good Sun Shots but I knew It would be Dark before I got completly finished So here are some Wet and Succulent Sun Shots of the Driver Side. I didn't finish the car until Midnight.



The Final Sealant was Black Fire Wet Diamond

A quick cleaning of the interior was done too.



Before:

After:

Thank you for Viewing and don't forget to check out that video of their father recieving his dream car. thanks

 

[MrCLRider]

That was nasty! Was that a HF rotary? How do you like it?



The video was actually quite sad knowing that the dad had passed since it was taken.

 

[Mindflux]

That was nasty! Was that a HF rotary? How do you like it?

Looks like a Makita to me with the bail handle.

 

[RaskyR1]

Great work Eric!





Sorry to here about the loss of a friend.





Maybe I missed it but what did you follow up with after the M105 PFW?

 

[vtec92civic]

wow that's sad man. Nice job on the car . . . . . . pretty heart breaking to see something like that.

 

[jaynick808]

at least u know hes smiling down looking at how great it looks.

 

[lasthope05]

Looks like a Makita to me with the bail handle.

^That thing is definitely a harbor freight rotary.





Great work on the fairlady! That car is stunning now.



Theres a little trick you can learn in getting the paint chips looking better and more flushed. Apply several layers of paint as you did, letting each coat dry properly and before you do any type of sanding take an old plastic credit cars and fold a shop towel around it. Take some lacquer thinner and wet one side of the card. Now what you do is lightly skim over the of the paint chip. The edge of the card will stay flush with the panel and the laquer thinner on th edge will lightly taking off the excess paint and level/even it out much better. Then sand to blend...etc. You know the rest.

 

[FirstRate]

Nice work!

^That thing is definitely a harbor freight rotary.





Great work on the fairlady! That car is stunning now.



Theres a little trick you can learn in getting the paint chips looking better and more flushed. Apply several layers of paint as you did, letting each coat dry properly and before you do any type of sanding take an old plastic credit cars and fold a shop towel around it. Take some lacquer thinner and wet one side of the card. Now what you do is lightly skim over the of the paint chip. The edge of the card will stay flush with the panel and the laquer thinner on th edge will lightly taking off the excess paint and level/even it out much better. Then sand to blend...etc. You know the rest.

When you say lightly skim over the paint: are you using the edge of the card or laying the card flat against the paint? Thanks!

 

[lasthope05]

You use the edge of the card, kind of like you're scraping it.

 

[JohnKleven]

Great work, that black paint looks dripping wet. Which polishes and LSP did you use?







John

 

[Pats300zx]

Awesome nice job on that black 350Z Eric....Pat approved...:woot2:

 

[Barry Theal]

well if its Pat Approved it must be a dog gone good job. lol Eric very nice work man!

 

[Greg Nichols]

I think its sad that you took out all the cool looking spiral galaxies in the paint, they added such a cosmic touch, now its just a plain black background with no character!



Cheers,

GREG

 

[GP guy]

Wow! thats amazing work.Great job.

 

[imported_d00t]

Wow that was bad! Great turn-around. Nice touch-up work, too!

 

[bridgersmith]

Awesome job! After seeing this i'm going to check out M105 and see if it works for me too. Thanks for sharing!

 

[whis9]

Nice Job, I love to Black shine like that

 

[Tru_Shine]

That was nasty! Was that a HF rotary? How do you like it?



The video was actually quite sad knowing that the dad had passed since it was taken.

I love my HF rotary, it has been working great every since christmas, and I have another one that Ive had about 5 years. still going strong.

Looks like a Makita to me with the bail handle.

nope sorry, this one came with the same type of bail handle though just a lot less expensive.

Great work Eric!





Sorry to here about the loss of a friend.





Maybe I missed it but what did you follow up with after the M105 PFW?

Opps sorry, I finished the whole car in M105/ cyan hydrotech pad. Ive began to learn if you work the m105 all the way until its clear when your polishing, then the final finish is AMAZING, Ive done the last three cars like this, but this one I had to knock out some bad stuff with the PFW first. and LSP was BFWD my Favorite!:getdown

at least u know hes smiling down looking at how great it looks.

Thats for sure! that was a nice comment to read thanks!

^That thing is definitely a harbor freight rotary.





Great work on the fairlady! That car is stunning now.



Theres a little trick you can learn in getting the paint chips looking better and more flushed. Apply several layers of paint as you did, letting each coat dry properly and before you do any type of sanding take an old plastic credit cars and fold a shop towel around it. Take some lacquer thinner and wet one side of the card. Now what you do is lightly skim over the of the paint chip. The edge of the card will stay flush with the panel and the laquer thinner on th edge will lightly taking off the excess paint and level/even it out much better. Then sand to blend...etc. You know the rest.

Thanks, I'll give that a shot, that chip was a little difficult being on the corner of that edge on the fender, but I'll try your method next time.

Great work, that black paint looks dripping wet. Which polishes and LSP did you use?







John

Final polish was done by working down m105 with a cyan lc pad. and LSP was black fire wet diamond