This car was brought back to me by a repeat customer after I did an extensive job on it for him last year after he had purchased it. http://www.live2detail.com/showthread.php?t=376 This time he agreed to have it protected with Opti Guard and just clean up the interior. There were 2 little marks he needed out of the leather and that was about it. This owner is meticulous and would fit right in amongst us crazies.. Anyway, I was just going to compound, polish and seal the paint and glass. The wheels he did not want me to pull and seal which was a shame b/c they are gorgeous and would have benefited from it...maybe next time? Here is the condition in which it arrived: Interior Marks: THE PROCESS: First up as always was the wheels, wells and tires. The tires were cleaned with Zep Purple. The wells were cleaned with Zep Citrus. The wheels were cleaned with Iron X. They looked pretty clean, but a lot of brake dust still came off of them! The owner had put wheel wax on them. The IX killed that! I would take care of that later.. Next up was the foam and wash. The car was foamed with Dawn and then washed with a mix of DG 901 and Dawn. The car was then brought inside where it was clayed with yellow Riccardo that was first softened in the microwave. COMPOUND/POLISH: My awesome combo of M105/205 did very well on this car. The paint is hard and I used a yellow B & S pad for most of it but some scratches and whatnot needed the black Tufbuff wool. Here is a neat trick I read somewhere to protect your wheels while working in the area: take a large plastic garbage bag and rip it on one side and slip it around the tire and wheel. Great protection; cheap price! This car also got quite a bit of attention for chips and scratches. The ones on the plastic I had to tread very lightly with as I don't know how much paint I'm working with unlike the metal surfaces. Some fill-ins were leveled with wet sanding and some with Langka. As far as the tires and wells go, I used my mini spray gun with Opti Bond for a second time. I absolutely adore this method! I am still playing with the settings on the gun to get it dialed in right, but this is by far the best method. The look is so uniform and it gets into every single crevice. Now, the purchase of my mini spray gun was inexpensive. Princess Auto here in Canada had them on for 1/2 off and I picked it up for about $12. Here is the link for it. You should be able to buy something of similar quality and price at Harbor Freight I would think or online somewhere: http://www.princessauto.com/pal/product/8079923/Conventional/Touch-Up-Spray-Gun Here are a few pics of the spray gun with the adapter for my air compressor: Artanian from L2D came by on Saturday while I was buffing and coating and got to see some stuff in action. Plus he got to enjoy a Fat Tire beer which Tad turned me onto. After the surfaces were polished with M205 (using white B & S pad), the surface was cleaned with ONR and then wiped down with ERASER to prepare the surface for Opti Guard. I used my usual block and suede mf method. It was a perfect day to do it with comfortable temps and low humidity. After allowing the OG to cure for a few hours, it was topped with Permanon which made it very slick. Remember my mention of the wheels? They got Permanon too although I just sprayed on and wiped off for them. I used a different method this time for the rest. Like always, I sprayed it on using my paint gun. Permanon recommends rinsing it with water and then drying. I did something a little different. After spraying, I used a soaking mf with ONR and then washed it down with that and dried it off. No need to drag out the hose and it was just as slick as normal. I might be onto something here... Last up was the interior. It got a thorough vacuuming and the leather (including those 2 spots) was cleaned with OPC at 3:1 and the Auto Glym Interior pad. Spots gone. Next the leather was treated with UIGP and the plastic with PERL. Here are the: AFTER SHOTS: Thanks for looking.
Thanks a bunch Sergei!! Thank you. I used my Dynabrade rotary for both 105 and 205. Be happy to: I used to use both CQuartz and OG and would go back and forth between the 2 products. CQ comes with a kit with a rubber foam type block and I believe 4 small suede mf towels (4" X 4"). I have found using the CQ method of application works very, very well for OG. It goes on evenly and you use (and waste) less than using a foam applicator. That's been my experience anyway and have been very happy with the results of using OG that way. PM me for a source on the small suede mf's as I don't believe Phil stocks that style of mf. I wish I could find another source for them as well. If you put them in a bucket of APC after you use them(which I do with the mf's I use to level OG anyway, they will not harden up and you can reuse them).
i really like the application method of the opti-bond tire gel such a matte and subtle finish on the tires. you know the tire shine is on, but it doesn't scream out at you. very nicely done Richy! what are the specs on the air compressor that you have?
I got it at Canadian Tire. It is an oil-less one made from DeWalt. 200 psi, 4.8 scfm, 1.6 hp, 15 gal. I bought it primarily to blow out sprinkler lines.
