Hi everyone, This is my first write-up as xbr50 is the one usually taking care of the write-ups. This particular one is an exception since it is my personal vehicle. The subject is a 2007 Acura TL Type S in Kinetic Blue Pearl (KBP). I purchased this car at the end of August 2010 but it has never received a proper paint correction ever since it has been in my possession. A few days after I bought it, I did an amateur detail on it with basic OTC products that brought back some gloss and clarity to the paint but did next to nothing about the swirls. I wasn’t too concerned as winter was coming right around the corner and Edmonton is usually blanketed in snow for well over half the year. However, in the past few weeks I’ve made the time to do a proper detail on my car. It received lots of TLC on the exterior & interior. The majority of the work was performed by me while Adam dropped by to help wet sand and polish out my headlights. The subject: In total, the detail took about 28 hours over the course of nearly 2 weeks. I’m sure it wouldn’t have taken so long if it were completed fully on a weekend but weekends are the only time I can detail customer’s cars. I would work on my car here and there on days where I had spare time. All the paint correction was completed in one day while everything else was spaced out accordingly. Initial condition This car is lacking in the gloss department Wheels covered in brake dust Clear bra removal A clear bra had been applied by the previous owner to a portion of the hood, front bumper, side mirrors, fenders, and a small portion below the quarter panels. All pieces were removed as they have yellowed significantly and look battered Heating up the clear bra to make removal easier Side mirror clear bra peeled off Fender portion gone As you can see, it appears very aged Removal Working on the front bumper Wash Wheels & tires were hit with AG CWC diluted 1:1 with a Griot’s foaming sprayer Using a RG XL Wheel Brush to get in between and deep into the spokes Exhaust tips before Exhaust tips after - steel wool #0000, CG GR, Mini EZ Detail Brush & P21S Polishing Soap Note – inside of tips are treated so only outside was polished Car is foamed with 2 ounces of CG CW&G & filtered water I almost forgot to take a picture of the car snow foamed. This shot captures what it looked like after an approximate 3 minute dwell time Engine bay before Engine bay after – CG GR, Large & Mini EZ Detail Brushes, Meguiar’s #40 It started to drizzle outside as I took the shot, a few water spots can be seen Looking after the smaller details using a Swissvax Wheel Brush Interior Driver’s side before – Yes I know this is terrible for someone who calls himself a detailer. In my defense, the winters over here are terrible and when it’s so cold outside, I could really care less about how clean the interior looks. I just want to get inside my house to be warm and away from the -40 bone chill temperatures Closer up I hit the pedals with a combination of steam, Meguiar’s D103 Plus & a stiff carpet brush After Passenger side floor mat before Rear floor mats before Took the floor mats out to receive the same treatment as the pedals Steam power is awesome Rear floor mats after Driver side after The entire interior received a thorough vacuum and dusting prior to using cleaners Before & Durings Dusting with a Swissvax Detail Brush Trunk before Trunk after Leather seats before A lot of dirt was trapped between the seams Every seat was steamed After steaming, I prepared some items for cleaning up the seats Sprayed some AG LC Agitating with a Swissvax Leather Brush This is only the lower portion of the driver’s seat Seats received a layer of LM Leather Vital to finish off Cleaned door jambs with Einszett Blitz APC & Swissvax Detail Brush Einszett Cockpit Premium was applied to all surfaces to leave a matte finish The rubber trim at the moon roof received Meguiar’s #40 for a more glossy finish Applied Einszett Gummi Pflege Stift to all rubber seals Rear after Front after Although the seats don’t look too visibly different, they certainly felt much softer and didn’t have a slippery feel to them anymore. Exterior Moving onto the paint, it wasn’t too contaminated as I had previously clayed and waxed it a few months ago After a few test panels, the combo I decided on was Menzerna Power Finish P203 with a yellow B&S pad for cutting and Menzerna Micro Polish PO85RD on a blue pad for jewelling the paint. Fender before Fender after Passenger door before Passenger door after Driver door had been keyed Driver door after Rear driver side door had also been keyed Rear driver side door after – A faint mark still remains but is only visible at certain angles Top of rear driver side door before Top of rear driver side door after Left quarter panel before Left quarter panel after – The smudges are polish residue, tsk tsk on me Trashed pillars before Pillars after Before using a 4” spot pad After Damaged lower quarter panel before After – A faint mark remains since it is down to primer but appears greatly improved Right mirror before Right mirror after Top of trunk before Top of trunk after Using a 4” spot pad to get at the smaller spaces of the trunk Trunk before Trunk after Caused by things always going in & out of the trunk A few RIDS remain but significant improvement Taillight before Taillight after During one of the days, Adam came by and assisted with restoring my headlights. He wet sanded using 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, and finally 3000 grit. After removing most of the pits, he polished them with a 4” Surbuf using M105 & finished down with a 4” B&S green on M205. Befores After wet sanding with 5 different grits Afters Brought into the garage to receive LSP & finishing touches Wheels were sealed with KSG Tires dressed with BF Long Lasting Tire Gel Trim pieces received a Pre-Wow & Black-Wow treatment. Quite the difference I must say! Left side untreated, right side treated After all the paint correction, the car was rewashed and brought in to have a glaze applied. Glaze of choice was The Detail Shoppe Wet Glaze 2.0 After working the glaze into the paint & buffing off, BFWD was immediately applied for a wet, dripping looking finish. I waited 2 days and rewashed the car in preparation for wax application. I decided to top BFWD with Blackfire Midnight Sun Wax. It added a warm glow to the paint. Finished Pictures Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this write-up. I know it seems like I have more pictures of what I did to the interior than the exterior. It seems I forgot to go picture happy while doing the paint correction but did so for the interior instead. But as you can see, I didn’t forget about the exterior in the final shots. Please feel free to comment or ask questions.
I can't get over how glossy Vince's paint was after! The headlights had some very very deep pits, if I removed the headlight assembly and had access to polishing discs I could have gotten the headlight to a near 90% correction. But we'll save that for next time when Vince has his headlights removed. By the way, the last picture Vince requested that I use Photoshop to remove the M3's license plate out. Being new to the program there was some issues. Here is a copy that did not make the cut: If you snoop around the album in my photobucket you may be able to find a few more.
great job! inspires me to go take care of my own car. and the other picture in the photobucket was... interesting haha
You did a great job! What steamer do you use? You need to get some D300 from Meguiars and try it on the Yellow pad. If finishes down really well considering the cut it has.
Funny Adam, ^ To answer froboys question yes, I made mince meat out of a caked on X5's alloys when using it 1:1 honestly don't know the different, it's just full strength makes for more foam? Great job on the TL Vince it's a very nice car, but the gas it uses must really hurt the wallet
Wow amazing work! Were those rock chips behind the 3M on the rest of the hood or just some kind of residue/dest? Because after you applied the glaze and wax, they magically disappeared!
Yeah I can't tell the difference between using it straight or diluted 1:1 with filtered water. I also use it with a Griot's Foaming Sprayer so it probably allows it to dwell longer on the surface of the wheels and work its magic. Thank you sir. My steamer is just a generic Shark one from Canadian Tire. I got it a few years back and it doesn't look like they stock it any more, they've upgraded and made improved versions. I remember reading a few threads here on DB about members using one they got on-line for around $300. I don't remember the name of it but it's yellow in color,. Hopefully someone who knows what I'm talking about can chime in. Yeah I've been eyeing that D300 for some time now. I've read M105 still has a bit of an edge on D300 on the correction ability though. I'll have to see what compound I stock up on next. Lol Adam wanted me to use one of those shots as my final instead of the "normal" one. He wonders why I didn't want it haha... Yeah the car is an absolute gas guzzler. It actually isn't too bad on the highway but in the city with stop and go traffic, it's not friendly to the wallet at all. Thanks man! Yeah my hood has a ridiculous amount of rock chips. I forgot to mention in the write-up, on one of the days I decided to fill the rock chips in on my driver side fender. I could only fill in around 150 rock chips before my touch up pen ran out of ink. I was filling each chip in with a toothpick so I did have to waste quite a bit of ink by squeezing the paint out onto a piece of paper and dabbing it with the toothpick. The paint kept on drying out very fast so it meant constant reapplication. Next time I need to get some more touch up paint to fix the massacre on the hood. Yeah the rock chips are very noticeable under the halogen lighting. When the car is outside or not under intensive lighting, they aren't as noticeable. Under the sun, they just blend in with the reflection haha. Glaze and residue do not fill in rock chips unfortunately.
