I don’t know where to start with this one, when I first laid eyes on the vehicle this was my reaction :sheep: Size was just the beginning, things got more interesting later on, you’ll see what I mean shortly Well here is the vehicle as it was delivered to me: Oh owner pointed out a few things he wanted me to concentrate on: Talk about exhaust pipes :what: Well for the most part the vehicle was in reasonable shape…so it appears :whistle: Now I gathered all the tools for the washing process: The rims were going to need some work so Red P21S Gel to the rescue :thumb: Here is Red P321S Gel and Meg’s APC hard at work. First up, the inside of the rims were agitated with EZ brush: Face of the rims were agitated with my Zymol brush: The wheel wells were agitated with my long handle brush and the tires were scrubbed with a Meg’s brush, here is how all that scrubbing looked like at the end: The rest of the vehicle was washed with the two bucket method once the entire washing process was done it was time to find out how much clear coat I had to play with, first up my PosiTector 6000: For the most part the vehicle had plenty of clear coat, as you can see by the chart bellow: Polishing this vehicle was not going to be an issue, by the way the vehicle was in for a two stage paint correction. Next it was time to take readings on the bumpers with the help of my PosiTector 200: Well now that I knew it was safe to polish the vehicle I taped it up and with the help of my 3M Sun Gun it was time for the paint inspection, here is what I was up against: These were going to need a little more then polishing. Pillars were in just as bad shape as the rest of the vehicle. Well I had my work cut out, now to find a suitable combo for this vehicle. First up is my favorite combo: Menzerna Intensive Polish, Menzerna Polishing pad with my Metabo. This combo delivered quite well, here is a 50/50 of this combo: Like I said one pass was delivering great results, here is how the rest of the panel finished off: There were a few deeper scratches that were left, like so: The polishing combo was delivering great results but regrettably I couldn’t use it. Reason being this vehicle had sticky clear coat :doh: The panels would heat up quickly causing my Metabo to skip and hop, chunks of polish flying out of the pad and worst part my Metabo was over heating :shakehead: Well to say I was tested with this vehicle is an understatement, not only was this a large vehicle but with the sticky clear coat this vehicle might as well been a large fire truck. Well lucky for me I had time to detail this vehicle properly :thumb: So I gathered all my polishing compounds, I already knew Menzerna wouldn’t work so I brought out my #2 products, 3M UK polish. Regrettably 3M UK polish did not help on this vehicle, it behaved exactly the same as Menzerna, surprising because 3M UK usually holds up well against sticky clear coat but not on this one. Next, I tried Scholl products, again no luck. I hardly ever use this product but I thought it might help and it came through, Meg’s 105 that is, before: After: The polish had no issues what’s so ever, some areas required two passes to get them looking just right but Meg’s 105 didn’t have any issues when it I bumped up the speed to 1,500RPM it behaved beautifully so the polishing combo is a Black 3M UK Polishing foam pad partnered up with Meg’s 105. Now finding this combo took me quite a bit of time but worth it as the rest of the polishing went reasonably well. Now remember those deep scuff marks on the back bumper, well I decided to wet sand these out: Followed up with three passes of M105 and here is how they turned out: The deeper scuff marks remained but for the most part the scratches were removed :thumb: Well seeing as I was at the rear of the vehicle I just proceeded on polishing the back, so here is a 50/50 of the trunk: The rest of the trunk before: After: This area took two passes to get it looking just right. Before: After: Again two passes were required. The rest of the bumper before: After: Before: After: On the bumper there were a few deep scratches, not all came out but two passes brought it to about 87% better. Here is the driver side quarter panel 50/50 using my lights in my garage: Now with the 3M Sun Gun: As you can see lots of hazing was being left behind, that’s okay I still have another pass to refine the finish :thumb: Well the back end of the vehicle was done, so I decided to go to the front now, here is a 50/50 of the hood using my lights in my garge: With the 3M Sun Gun: Well polishing this hood took a bit of time, this vehicle has large and I mean large body panels. Well moving on, here is a 50/50 of the driver side fender: As you can see lots of swirls to remove but the combo was holding up quite well against the sticky clear coat. Here are some 50/50’s of the front gril: 50/50 of the passenger fender: Well that took are of the front, the roof was next. Roof took some time it was massive…but what isn’t big on this vehicle lol. Well driver side pillar before: After: Before: After: Now for the passenger pillars, 50/50: Here is a 50/50 of the rear pillar on the passenger side: Almost forgot the door pillars before: Well that about does it for the paint correction process, pictures make it look easy but it was no where near as easy as the pictures portray it. Well now to refine the finish again I got a few of my favorite finishing products and tested them out: At the end I settled on 3M UK Ultrafina SE with a 3M UK Finishing foam pad, this took several hours as I had to make sure I was indeed removing all the hazing left by M105, some areas I had to come back and hit with M105 with a finishing pad then followed up with ultrafine SE and lots of final wipe down with Menzerna Top Inspection. Well after several hours the vehicle was refined and it was time to protect all the hard work I put into the vehicle. For protection I decided to go with my favorite DG combo 601 followed with 105 :thumb: As a final wipe down I used DG Aquawax and here is are the end results: Tires were dressed with Optimum Tyre :thumb: Oh and the rims were also sealed same as the paint. Not sure what kind of rims these are but a closer look revealed this: I just thought that neat :thumb: Well here are some interior pictures, I finished the vehicle late so no sun pictures till the next day: Oh right, the very long exhausts were polished with Autosol here is how they finished off: Well enough inside pictures now for outside pictures and best part with sun :thumb: Well that concludes this vehicle, hope you all enjoyed it I know I did but now I’m going to hunt for some new products to better equip my self against these sticky clear coat vehicles, well at least that’s my excuse to go purchase some more products :giggle:
Nice job, great write-up :applause: I see you had a helper with the flashlite I have a customer with a Maruader just like this one. Did you get a chance to drive it? Very Quick for a ledsled :cig:
I don't like the car particularly.. But the turn around is amazing man, great job! Btw, I'm surprised you didn't dress it in Vintage or Crystal Rock. Lol.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it eace: Thank you flash. I drove the car inside the garage and out but I took a peak under the hood, the engine is huge! No doubt a very, very powerful engine, it would have to be to haul that beast around though...but boy this vehicle seemed to have great suspension, great for hi way driving :thumb:
Yea, the vehicle is huge, very comfortable inside and lots of space :thumb: Vintage or Crystal Rock would have been wicked if you ask me but it's a daily driver so this vehicle needed protection so went with my favorite sealant DG. Glad you enjoyed it eace:
Looks Great!!!! I'm surprised at the PTG readings... the 03 Marauders were notorious for clear coat failure.
I'd doubt it... seems more like the sticky clear issue is proof of the clear just being junk not being too thin...
amazing transformation, Carlos! That Menzerna pad you are using (I could have asked you that question before, I just don't remember) is it different then Lake Country?
Mercury (mythology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Indeed. Great job on the car man. I happen to be big fan of these cars. I own a Crown Vic and really wanted one of these when they came out but the money wasn't right at the time. Ford didn't really market them and the price was out of control for them when you took into account what you got over the base model and as such they had a very short run.
Beautiful work! Those cars are monsters. I was surprised at the Impala SS I did a few weeks ago. When it drove in, my jaw dropped just looking at how big the hood was!
Beautiful job Carlos. For sticky paint, try using a harder pad. I have found that using a softer pad causes even more drag and thus more heat making the sticky paint issue even worse. Harder pad + lower speed =
:nod: you can say that again, this vehicle had huge panels...you know I was thinking this vehicle would be ideal for someone to learn how to polish. I mean with it's nice large, flat panels it would be great for someone starting out with a rotary. Thank you Rocket, glad you enjoyed it. As for M105, it was good I'll be sure to keep it nearby. Strong stuff, very pad dependent for sure but really good stuff. I'd like to use it some more and I'll be getting M205 to fool around with. I've always been curious about M83, always heard good thigns about it but never did purchase it :shrug: Well when the owner came to pick it up I asked if the vehicle had ever been in an accident or body shop, he said he didn't know. The passenger door was the only area with out the sticky clear coat and there were signs of repaint, shocking the readings were close to factory panel, means body shop did a reasonable job..minor the few spots of respray left behind but other then that this vehicle seemed original paint. This car vehicle is in great shape owner takes good care of it aswell :thumb: Huh Greek Mythology huh, neat stuff :thumb: Glad you enjoyed it super as for the Menzerna pad these pads are totally different then any other foam pad I've used. The foam is hard and it is not forgiving what's so ever but it delivers great results, best part it takes a long, long time to saturate the pad everything stays on the surface. Once the pad is saturated they seem to only perform better and better. It took me several vehicles to get the hang of these Menzerna pads, I had to adjust my technique and I had to pay extra, extra attention to what I was doing. They are great pads, I love using them but like everything you just have to pay close attention to what your doing that's all. Hope this helps super eace: Just by driving it in my driveway the feel of this vehicle is quite nice, felt confortable, the suspension felt good and the seats are big...everything about this car is big...I felt small in it :shrug: I can see why people would like these vehicles :thumb: :nod: I did a little bit of this :thud: when I saw the size and when I realized it was sticky clear coat I did a bit of this :wall: :wall: hahaha but it was fun, challenging but fun :thumb: Really, I found it the other way round on this car. The stiffer pads would heat up the panel much, much faster and over heat my Metabo as well. I ended up with the 3M UK foam pads that are much softer and that's what seemed to work on this vehicle. I even tried the Meg's pads and they didn't hold up well agains the sticky clear coat :shrug: This sticky clear coat issue is very interesting, it's not consistant and each vehicle I've done with sticky clear coat has a different solution...that's why it's good to have a large selection of compounds :thumb:
You seem very comfortable on the floor here :applause2: Also, those are some crazy exhausts! Overall though great detail as usual.
I've always loved the wheels on those cars... thought it was awesome that they just polished them instead of chrome like most shiny wheels... Thanks again for posting this one Nica
