JLs Detailing: Buick Riviera

I had a co-worker that had a Buick Riviera that he had loaned to his son who lived out of state. Well he finally got the car back and it was "hammered" to say the least. I had seen this car before it was loaned out and it looked pretty good for it's age and my co-worker loved this car. When he got it back I swear it looked like it had been washed with a brick and dried with a brillo pad. The wheels were ungodly filthy and there was some clear coat failure and old tree sap on it. The owner was just sick about the car and asked if there was anything I could do for it because he really couldn't afford to repaint it just now before Christmas and with tax time right around the corner.

He did put new tires and wheels on it which helped the car a lot. He wanted full correction done on it but as this story unfolds that just wasn't really possible. Anyway I got the car for a weekend and went to work on it.

First up I washed just the paint, not messing with the engine bay or wheels at this point. I wanted it clean so I could start on correction and knew I would re-wash anyway after polishing. Here's how the weekend and the detail unfolded:

Pre Polish Wash: For the bugs and tree sap I used the CGs Strong Wash and a Majestic Solutions Bug Brick. The owner had tried to "help" me out by trying to remove some of the sap from the trunk by using some sand paper he found at work!! Needless to say he made a bad situation worse. The gas filler area and all badges and emblems were soaked down with MS SGS, agitated with a Swissvax Wheel brush, and rinsed before beginning the wash routine.

You could tell while doing the initial rinse with the PW that this thing had not seen an LSP in quite some time. I needed a good cleaning wash and went with my favorite LSP stripping formula and loaded up the foam cannon with 2 oz. of MS Super Foam and 1 oz. of MS Power Prep. Man this combo foams like crazy and cleans even better. Like I said in another post this combo stripped everything but the paint off and heck it might have been better if it had stripped the paint! I used my CR Spotless and the 2 bucket method. In one bucket I used Tropi Care Citrus wash (to ensure everything came off) and the other was a rinse bucket, both with grit guards. I used my grout sponge on this wash. Car was dried with a leaf blower and Tropi Care WW (the best WW I've ever used).

Paint Correction: Well I started by taking paint gauge readings with my Highline and was diappointed right away. I was getting good readings on the roof, boot lid, and hood. I was getting readings of 120-130 microns so I was good to go there! Then when checking the vertical panels which were destroyed, I was getting readings in the 70-80 micron range. This really limited me on what I thought I could safely do.

I started with trying to see what a one-step would do for the vertical panels and was really disappointed. The driver's front quarter panel was really scratched up horribly and he really wanted it improved so I began there and it looked tremendously better but no where near what I had hoped to accomplish. I had to wet sand the panel with 2500 grit and then 3000 grit and then polish with Scholl S17 on a white 3M pad and finish with S40 on a black 3M pad with the Metabo and Scholl Concepts backing plate. After doing this I checked with my Highline and I was at 69 and 70 microns on that panel and I was uneasy about being that aggressive anymore. I then did just the driver's door with only S17 on the 3M white pad. I decided to take it back to him and show him what we were up against. I told him if he wanted the entire car done like the front quarter panel then he would be better off having it repainted as it wouldn't be very cost effective to pay me for the time it would take. He was really pleased with just the one step on the door and wanted me to do a one step to the rest of the car. I was disappointed and he was happy, I guess we really are our own worst critics.

So I went back and did the rest of the car with a one step of S17 on several 3M white pads and the Metabo. I was thrilled with what S17 was able to do on such a hammered car and although it was no where near perfect it looked a lot better. Here are some correction pics:

Test spot before:



Test spot afters:





Front quater panel before:



Wet sanded:


After:


Before and afters of trunk: (You can see the owner's sanding efforts!)













Random before and afters: (You can see it's still far from perfect but better)





Well with correction finished as well as it could be for the amount of money the owner was willing to spend I set forth on my normal routine of wash and protection:

Wheels/Tires/Wells: Since the wheels were relatively new they weren't too bad and I used my favorite wheel cleaner, Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner on them. I used a variety of brushes including: my favorite wheel brush of all time the Raceglaze XL wheel brush, my Black Magic wheel brush bent to 90 degrees to get behind the spokes, lug nut brush, and green foam finger pocket.

For the tires and wells they got the ol' standby Majestic Solutions Super Green Stuff at 2:1 in a Gilmour 2 gallon pressurized sprayer (I use so much of the SGS that I needed to go to a bigger sprayer), and some of the brushes I got from Home Depot. The tires were first dressed with Megs Hyper Dressing @ 3:1 with a MSs tire applicator. I then dressed them with the same method with a TW tire applicator and my Tropi-Care tire dressing. Every other dressing that I had used is just inferior in looks from what I get with the Tropi-Care. I'll tell you the stuff is very durable as well. Wells were dressed with Adams Undercarriage Spray. I then coated the wheels with MS Enviro Shield and rinsed off. I used DI water from my CR Spotless for the entire detail, not just the final rinse. Finally the wheels were sealed with Zaino Clear Seal.

Engine: I gave the engine a quick rinse with the CR Spotless, and sprayed it down with MS SGS. There was a lot of dirt and dust in just about every crevice there was so I agitated it and re-rinsed. I dried most of the water with a leaf blower and then sprayed the engine bay down with Megs HD @ 3:1 in a Solo 418 handheld sprayer. I cranked the engine and let it run for about 20 minutes and voila it looks great again.

Post Polishing Wash: I went back with the same method as the pre-polish wash. Here is a pic of it all foamed up:


Clay: I know it sounds like a broken record from me but, my mainstay for clay has become and always will be the Bilt Hamber and this detail was going to be no different. I used the regular clay for this one. Of course as always the lube was water from the CR system.

Glass: Glass inside and out got Sprayway Glass Cleaner. I used a MS blue huck window towel to apply and a Walmart WW to buff off. The outside of the glass was treated with Zaino Clear Seal.

Interior: All plastic, vinyl and leather got a thourough cleaning with Majestic Solutions Leather and Plastic cleaner @ 1:1 with a splash of MS Lemon deodorizer in it. The interior got a very thorough vac and then everything was dressed with Jeffs Werkstatt Satin Prot. This stuff is great, and gives a nice matte finish. The leather was treated with Tropi Care leather conditioner.

All the stains throughout the car were cleaned with MS Extraction +. This stuff is nothing short of magic. I cleaned the door jambs with Megs Final Inspection and sealed them with DG 501. All the rubber weather stripping got a coat of my "Homemade" Gummi Pledge. I never did seem to order any and wanted to try it so I made my own.

Paint: I went with my ol' standby DG 501 to clean the paint. I used my Makita @ 600 rpms with a black 3M pad. I buffed it all off with a Super Fly MF from Justin at Obsessive Details.

LSP: I decided to go with maximum blackness and protection so I went with Bilt Hamber Auto Balm.

Well here are the before and afters:






























Random reflection shots:

 

Great write up JL! Thank you for taking the time to share this job with us. :thumb:

This turned out to be one of those jobs that could not be made perfect. However, you were honest and upfront with your customer and I'm sure he appreciated that. After the end of the day the customer was happy and you were compensated for your work financially. Maybe just not one of those jobs where you get the "warm fuzzy feeling". :shrug:

Good job!!! Keep them coming. :applause:

 

Very nice!

I have done mostly one steppers for people because that is all they are willing to spend, I have never had a person not super stoked after just a one stepper... I still see all the defects and they are just wowed by how much better it looks.

 

Thanks for posting JL. Its been awhile. That thing was just hammered!

 

I say its a double! haha nice to see you post again, it has been too long.

 

Great turn around JL.

 

Much improved, good to see another detail by you!

 

great work JL ...:applause:

I own an Aurora that was built at the same facility as the Riviera. My paint is extremely soft and it corrects well (minus RIDS) with only 85rd with a uber blue pad (finishing pad). How was the paint hardness on this specific vehicle?

 

You know I've only had a couple of these details since I started detailing for money and you described it perfectly. The customer is happy but I'm left just feeling a bit unsatisfied with the job as a whole.

Yep sometimes a one-stepper is all they can afford and they are really thrilled with it but we are just like "it's ok". Heck the owner was so happy he tipped me an extra $50.

Yeah the cars I've been doing lately are just maintenance jobs on cars I've already posted. Great money just not anything worth posting because I've posted them before when I did them the first time.

Glad to be posting again Micheal. Thanks!

Thanks Dana, much appreciated. Hey did you get that package I sent you?

Thanks Piet!

I wish this paint had been soft. It was pretty hard and that made it even more of a pain to correct.

 

Yes I did, thanks. You must have missed me telling you I got it when we talked the other day. Now I have to get back to a bunch of details people are waiting for me to do while my dad was in the hospital.

 

mind sharing your home made Gummi Pledge recipe?

 

Yeah sure. I got tired of seeing everyone use the stuff and raving about it, but I never seemed to have enough of an order to justify ordering it so I decided to make my own. I just went to the local dollar tree and got a thing of shoe polish in the dispenser that has the little foam tip at the top. Came home and popped the foam tip out and poured out the shoe polish. Since it's from the dollar tree it wasn't the best stuff in the world and really watery so it came out really easily. I then cleaned out the bottle really well. After that I just mixed up some Megs Hyper Dressing @ 4:1 and put the foam tip back in. It works perfectly as the foam tip is the perfect size for the rubber seals.

 

It was totally destroyed, what was his son thinking anyway? Great job, JL, and yes, in this case he might consider a respray on it...

 

JL...man it is great to see some of your work again...I've missed it buddy! Hope all is well with you and your family. You made a silk purse out of a sow's ear...sometimes the limitations of the paint are severe...it's still making the car look great in spite of those limitations that shows your skill level. Thanks for taking the time to do the writeup.

 

Nice to see you back in action JL !

Excellent turnaround on a very interesting looking car, I am sure the owner was well pleased with your efforts!


Is that a FWD S/C V6 btw?

 

Excellent job, kind sir. That thing looked like an old vinyl record!

 

Looks great JL! Glad to see you posting up details again! I always learn a lot when reading your 10 page papers on your process(es). :

:thumb:

 

wow, what a great turnaround given the difficult situation.

I bet the owner was thrilled.

 

Great job on something I never would of thought could of been brought back to life!

 

Supposedly there's some sort of oil that is good for restoring plastic, perhaps it's the same for leather. Linseed oil maybe?