I have been planning for this spring detail for six months. I've haunted the detailing forums. I have asked silly question after silly question. I have spent way too much money on tools and products. But I wanted to improve the look and shine of my Honda S2000, Luthien (100 points if you recognize the name; 500 points if you can tell us the meaning of my license plate), and to take the finish to a higher level. And so when the weather man declared that the weather would be warming up on Wednesday, April 8th, I grabbed the chance. I would spend two days detailing my roadster. I was confident that I would have her all polished and waxed by late Thursday afternoon. But the gods had other things in mind. Pre-Polishing Detailing In the two weeks preceding my polishing session, I did the following: 1) Detailed the engine. 2) Cleaned the original rims. Back in November I switched off my original rims for my winter rims. A month ago I cleaned the original wheels, including the barrels, sealed them with Meguiar's NXT, and treated the tires with Meguiar's Hot Shine Tire Gel. I had the original rims put back on the car a few days preceding the polishing session. 3) Cleaned the interior leather with Leather Master cleaner and protectant. 4) Cleaned the convertible top with Raggtopp Convertible Top Cleaner and then applied Raggtopp Vinyl Protectant. Wednesday 1) Detached the exhaust tips, antenna, license plates and holders. The exhaust tips I would later polish with Meguiar's Hot Rims Mag & Aluminum polish; the antenna and license plate holders I would clean with Meguiar's M40; the license plates with APC+. 2) Carefully washed the car with Turtle Wax Ice Car Wash. I washed each panel twice. I gently brushed the medallions, lettering, and crevices with my Swissvax detailing brush. 3) After drying the car, I pulled it back into the garage. As you can see, parts of the car were badly swirled: It was now noon, so I broke for lunch. 4) At 1:00 I proceeded to clay the car using Meguiar's consumer line claybar with Quik Detailer as lubricant. 5) At 2:00 I taped up the car in preparation for polishing. As you can see, my garage ain't nothing like Tim Lingor's ultimate garage. 6) Before taking an Earl Grey break, I sprayed the wheel wells with CD-2. Given the narrow space between tire and fender, I wasn't sure how well the spray would cover the wells; but the aerosol spray in fact shoots out a goodly distance with narrow, focused dispersion. The CD-2 adhered to the wells wonderfully, though I doubt anyone who isn't on their hands and knees intently peering into the wheel well darkness will notice the difference. 7) After my cup of tea I broke out my new Flex 3401 Dual Action Polisher, which was given to me by a generous relative. I did a test spot on the hood. The hood and front side panels were repainted last May after an accident. I begin with SwirlX with the yellow polishing pad--four passes (two horizontal, two vertical). As far as I could see, there was no improvement. I then tried Ultimate Compound--a little improvement but not much really. I have a sampler of M105, but was hesitant to use it, knowing that it is a powerful compound. I decide to take a tea break and gave Rasky a phone call to ask for his advice. He encouraged me to take the plunge and employ the M105. So I returned to the garage and opened up my bottle of Ultra Cut Compound. The results were much better. Some swirls still remained, as did some random scratches, but the finish was significantly improved. I was nervous, though, about making another set of passes with M105. I wish I had an experienced detailer at my side to assess the condition of the paint and to advice how to proceed further. As I was intending to follow up with M205 anyway, I decided to err on the side of caution. After all, I know I will be back polishing the car again sometime in the fall. I swirl my black car just by looking at her. So I proceeded to buff the the rest of the hood and front end. It was about 7:30 when I finished. My arms, shoulders, and knees (heck, my entire body!) ached. I was exhausted, but was also pleased with how the polishing had progressed. Not only had I not damaged the paint by compounding it, but I appear to have improved its condition. It was time for dinner, a glass of wine, and an episode of "Life" (one of my favorite shows). 8) At 10:00, unable simply to wait until morning, I decided to do a test spot on the driver-side door. I begin with SwirlX. Unfortunately my Brinkman spotlight had by that time run out of juice, so I was unable to visually inspect the test spot as I would have liked; but it looked good (so I thought!). I then polished the rest of the door. By 11:30 I could hardly raise the Flex. My arms were useless. Time for some Ibuprofen and bed. Thursday I was back in the garage by 8:30. I examined the door with my newly charged Brinkman, and to my horror I discovered that the paint looked scoured. Egads! How could I have not noticed that! It was only one glass of wine--I swear! But I didn't panic. If SwirlX is too tough for these panels, I thought, I'll just step down to M205. So I re-polished a quarter of the door with M105 and polishing pad. Hmmm, still hazy. Try the finishing pad. Oh no, it's still not looking good. Now I was beginning to panic. But I had one more trick in my bag--a bottle of M80. So I tried a couple of passes with M80 and a polishing pad. It cleared up the paint a bit, but it still did not look good. Now it was time to panic! I rushed to my computer and sent out emergency emails to Mike Phillips and a couple of other experienced detailers. Unfortunately, most of them are on the West coast, three hours behind me. I knew it would take some time before I would hear back from my saviors, so I sat in my chair and stared at the computer. How could I ever have thought I could learn how to polish a car at the age of 57? I have never been practically inclined. I have never known how to wield a hammer or a screwdriver. Why should a dual action polisher be any different? Mike emailed me back, and I sent him some photos of the debacle. He suggested that I call him. I promptly accepted the invitation. I described to him the steps I had taken. Mike's first task was to calm me down and reassure me that this was not the end of the world, that together we would find a way to restore my S2K to some measure of her former glory. After lengthy discussion he advised that I temporarily give up on the Flex for the factory-painted panels and use the G110. And so I returned to the garage with my G110. I tried a test spot on the door with M205 and a polishing pad. Improvement! The hazing, though not the swirls, was largely removed. I then polished the rest of the door. It looked much, much better. All was not lost. There is hope after all. After dinner I polished a couple more panels, until exhaustion and soreness took over. I do not recall how late it was when I quit, but it was late. I had already invested over 24 hours to the detailing of my car, and I still was not through! Friday Good Friday. This is a day I had planned to spend in reading and prayer, but I knew I had to finish the car. I was back in the garage by 9:00 or so. I began to polish the remaining panels. My intention was to finish these panels and then to go over all the factory-painted panels with M205 and a finishing pad. I was tired and sore, so I paced myself. During a tea break, I checked my email and found that Kevin Brown had responded to my emergency email. I rang him back. He asked me to do a couple of things to give him a better idea of the condition of my paint. I confess that by this time I was tempted to tell him that it was too late for me to try anything new, but who knows the SMAT polishes better than Kevin Brown? I primed the pad according to his instruction. We tried M105 with with the G110 with a polishing pad. We tried M205 with a polishing pad. Haze ... haze ... haze. The paint looked cloudy. Finally, he had me apply M205 by hand, and the cloudiness disappeared. But under the harsh illumination of the Brinkman, I also could not fail to see that which I had hoped to remove two days earlier--swirls, lots and lots of swirls. "Don't feel bad, Al," Kevin told me. "You've got difficult paint. Even an experienced polisher might have found your car to be a challenge." I was encouraged to hear this. So I returned to the polishing--G110, M205, polishing pad. It was early afternoon. By that time I knew I did not have sufficient energy to go over the factory-painted panels with a finishing pad. That will have to wait until another session. As a recovering perfectionist, it was hard to admit that I had been defeated. I had reached my physical and emotional limits. I took a long break. My final decision was the choice of wax. Over the past nine months I have both purchased and received as gifts several nice waxes. I decided to go with the wax reputed to be one of the easiest to apply and remove--Wolfgang Fuzion. It smells of strawberries. I took my time. There was no need to hurry. Enjoy the wax. Enjoy the waxing. Relax. I may have lost this particular battle with soft Honda paint, but I knew that Luthien would still look great clothed in Fuzion. Fuzion is a wonderful wax to apply. Like all waxes, it needs to be applied thin. It seems to melt into the paint. Fuzion is wipe-on, wipe-off. No need to wait for it to haze. Wax a panel and then wipe-off with a clean microfiber towel. I pulled the car out of the garage into the late afternoon sun. Luthien looked beautiful. Just about this time my wife returned home from work. I asked her to look over the car closely. I wanted her to describe the look of this wax. "Wet," she replied. "It looks like a shallow pool of water." She also noticed what I can only describe as a shimmering on the hood. I don't recall the other waxes I have used producing this shimmering. The car looks lovely, but you will note from the photos that I did not achieve a swirl-free, show car finish. My detailing session concluded on a Fuzion high note; but the three-day marathon left me drained, disappointed, and frustrated. The car looks lovely. I was not able, however, to take the finish to a higher level, though I did succeed in removing some of the obvious defects. Clearly I have much to learn. And next time I'm going to break the polishing into stages and spread it out over a few weeks. No more marathons! I'd like to express my especial thanks to the four men who helped me recover from what I feared might be a detailing debacle--Mike Phillips, Tim Lingor, Kevin Brown, and Chad Raskovich. Cheers, Al
Soft paint can absolutely be a nightmare, getting a car to finish down when it doesnt want to is really frustrating but you stayed with it and the results speak for themselves. Excellent work and great shots in DIRECT SUNLIGHT, best way to prove the level of correction you achieved. :worship2:
Oh lordy lord, you have had quite the ordeal no doubt. Now let's hope you'll spend some time "grooming" yourself as well, to recover from the extensive workout you've had with the S2000. I see you have also searched for help in DW and got some pointers there. I can only try and point you in the direction of the 3M Ultrafina (dark blue cap) on a polishhing/finishing pad which leaves a sensational result and does have some minor abrasives which should be enough for your soft S2000 paint with swirls. Top it with Finish Kare 1000 or a Duragloss 111 and you should be good to go. Check THIS thread I just came across. Note that he used a Metabo rotary on this one. Other than this combo I'd say you'd just have to test and try whats best for your paint. I did a Porsche not long ago and the paint was really sticky so a different 1 step product then what I normally use were put to use. Other than that I only use a rotary myself so I cannot really comment on the use of the Flex itself. Take care !
Looks like we have a serious J.R. Tolkien fan here :detective: This is the first time I've seen a car named after an elf-maiden :thumb:
That's excellence right there, very nice work! I'm happy I don't have soft black paint like that though, I would have sold it a long time ago! Or pulled all of my hair out by now!
Dan Wendell has offered to work with me on a panel to see if we can find the right combination with my Flex. I know he has the full line of Menzerna polishes, and I have just placed an order for the Optimum Finish Polish. I'm confident we will find the right combination of polishes and pads. And of course, I simply have to become more proficient with the Flex. That just takes practice. I'm hoping I can find a way to finish down "perfectly" with the Flex on the original factory paint; but if I can't, then I can always fall back on the G110. The M105/M205 combination worked pretty good on the re-painted panels, as one can tell from the hood sun shots--not flawless (the Brinkmann reveals more than I want to see!) but pretty darn good. That too will improve as I become more proficient. If I work on a panel or two at a time, instead of tackling the entire car, I think I'll make better progress. Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions and compliments. Cheers, Al
I feel your pain man, my new BMW has the worst paint to work with. I alloted 2 1/2 days to just do a simple new car prep and couldn't achieve 100% correction no matter what I tried. I am going to try again with the gloss it line real soon as soon as I fell the swissvax wears off. Never the less your car looks amazing and you did a great job.
Al - looks great to me! And here I figured your username had something to do with building guitars (someone who does this is called, I believe, a luthier). Is Berlina Black even softer than Silverstone? I've now got a *massive* project coming soon - a Ford F250 diesel. It's going to test my abilities pretty well. The paint readings are all really good - but I'm going to have to WAIL on this truck to make it look like it should. At least it's black :thud:
