Last weekend saw the return of one of my good friends and a regular customer, Saint J. This time around it was the turn of his Colt Club Cab sporting some HUGE rims and a killer sound system. She was looking a little drab and Jeremy wanted to give some TLC so naturally I obliged :applause2: Considering J wanted the whole schebang on this puppy, including a full wheel well detail, engine bay detail and full interior treatment, I elected to take Friday off so that I could spend a full 3 days attending to his cab. I must note here at the start that I didn't snap as many photo's as I would have liked as I new I had a lot of ground to cover. Unfortunately I was often working on various bits and pieces and as a result I somehow managed to miss a few afters along the way :sorry: Day 1 Friday started with J dropping the car off at around 9am. As he set off for a track day with some mates I got started with the wheels, arches and undercarriage. Wheels Calipers Arches Undercarriage Product of choice on the wheels was none other than Sonax Extreme rim cleaner, applied here and starting to work on the brake deposits and buildup. The wheels were then agitated with another new brush I just got in, the Ez-Detail wheel brush. This brush is almost identical to the Daytona's I brought in for the GB not so long ago except for having slightly denser bristles. Overall they worked really well, managing to reach all the way to the back of the 22" wheels with ease. With the wheels completed I set my sights on the arches. All were soaked with a 5:1 solution of APC and left to dwell while I fetched some clean water and my wheel arch brushes. The arches were pressure washed clean before being liberally doused in more APC and scrubbed down with various brushes. After a final rinse and with the arches all cleaned up I turned my attention to the undercarriage. Here I followed the same process with an APC soak followed by pressure washing and then agitation with variouos brushes. After rinsing with the PW I hauled out the steamer to remove any final bits of stubborn dirt in some of the area's I couldn't reach with the brushes. Overall the steamer did a great job of lifting most of the stubborn dirt leaving the undercarriage good as new. With the wheels out of the way I got stuck into cleaning the engine bay. Here once again 5:1 APC and various brushes were the order of the day. I also used the steamer on some of the more delicate areas where I didn't want to direct the pressure washer. We went from this... To this... After finishing on the engine bay and giving the arches, wheels and undercarriage one final rinse I soaked the whole car and set about the main wash process. After rinsing the car thoroughly I hauled out my trusty detail brushes and set about cleaning all the nooks and crannies. Door handles and key holes Trim Panel gaps & mouldings Other area's that are often get overlooked I decided to give the car a 10:1 APC wash down to make sure the entire surface was completely free from any previous LSP's and road grime. With the wash completed and after a final rinse I clayed the car using Meg's fine clay. As expected the clay came up pretty full of contamination including lots of tar. The remaining tar spots were treated to Sonax tar remover which did a fantastic job of dissolving it. After one final rinse the car was dried using my new drying towel, the Chemical Guys Miracle Drier. The more I am using this super plush towel to dry, the more I am enjoying it and wondering how I ever managed without it! With all the prep work completed I decided to call it a day on headed on in to enjoy the regular Friday night combination of pizza and dvd's :headbang: Day 2 On day 2 I awoke to the most miserable weather for detailing I have ever come across. The skies were dark, the wind was howling and it was bone chillingly cold outside...Perfect then for working on the interior I guess :thud: Being J's daily ride and work bakkie the interior was in need of some TLC. Overall nothing to serious apart from the usual... Collection of various bits of junk Dusty bits The headlining was one of J's main concerns and was looking a little grubby. Not the greatest photo but it was dark & grey outside so there wasn't much ambient light I decided to start from the top down and tackled the roof lining 1st. A mild solution of APC was misted across the surface of the roof lining before being agitated with a small waffle weave towel until the solution starts to foam lightly. At this point the cloth was rinsed in some fresh water before being wrung out and wiped over the same section again to remove the foam. This process was repeated until the surface was free from any soap residue. It is important when doing this not to overly saturate the roof lining as this could cause the backing adhesive to come unstuck. At no point should the roof lining become soaking wet, but rather only mildly damp. After rinsing the entire roof it was out with the hairdryer on low while rubbing back and forth to ensure the lining is completely clean and dry. Drying with a hairdryer also affords you the opportunity to make 100% certain the lining is clean without any dirty patches re-appearing. 50/50, lower half has been cleaned and dried, top half still to be cleaned. Finished results Next up the leather was cleaned with another damp MF cloth using 15:1 APC before being wiped down with plain water and then dried. While the seats were air drying I set about vacuuming the interior and cleaning all the vents, stalks and other areas. Once the cleaning process was completed it was out with the 303 Aerospace Protectant which was applied to all the plastics, leather and interior trim leaving us with this... With the interior completed it was time to get cracking on the paint correction. I decided to remove the windscreen washer vents to properly polish the bonnet. Some of the defects I managed to grab in the short bursts of sunlight we had After taping up the trim in the icy conditions I decided to head on over to my dad's place to make use of the garage for the paint correction phase. It was simply too cold and windy to work outside. In the garage under the lights the full extent of the paint defects could be clearly seen Surface looking dull and lifeless Some major swirling present all around the car Taillights sporting some swirling With the inspection complete I set about starting the correction process to see what polish and pad combo's would deliver the results. This particular car was a mixed bag with some areas having quite hard paint, and others having softer, almost 'sticky' sections. I put the 'sticky' area's down to either the extremely cold conditions causing the 106FA to act up, or simply something in the paint. In any event I finally settled on 1 hit of FCP on the 3M compounding pad followed by SIP and finally FA on the hood. The rest of the bodywork was either taken care of in a similar manner where required, or was corrected using Meg's M105 followed by M205, or plain M205 in some of the softer areas. I have Woodie to thank for the M205 sample's which really impressed me with their ease of use and unfussy workability :thumb: Having found a good combo on the hood and it now being just after 7pm on Sat evening, I headed on inside to have a quick shower and dinner with the folks. Day 3 Sunday morning started bright and early just after 7am and thankfully the skies were notably clearer with slightly warmer conditions. While on my way to the kitchen for breakfast I noticed Timber, my mothers norwegian forest cat, had already caught his brekkie :applause2: With a belly full of bacon eggs and orange juice I got stuck into the correction phase. Not many pics along the way unfortunately except for these few: 50/50 section corrected with a single pass of M205. Lovely glossy finish and good correction achieved. Some afters of the hood after FCP, SIP and finally FA Tailgate came out superbly after 1 hit of M105 followed by 1 hit of M205 Taillights before And after (not the greatest pics, sorry) With the correction completed I packed in the tools and headed home to give the car a final wash down and to apply the finishing touches. LSP of choice was none other than Jeff's Werkstat Acrylic Prime followed by 2 coats of Jett Trigger which left an unbeatable gloss on the off silver paintwork. Trim was taken care of by 303 Aerospace Protectant while the polished lips on the rims were polished with Sonax Aluminium and Chrome polish followed by Meg's NXT fine polish. With the lips completed the entire wheels were sealed and buffed with Smartwax Rimwax. Some finished results... Lovely glossy finish after the Jeff's Acrylic kit Rims and tires after Smartwax Rimwax and Meg's Endurance Tire Gel With everything completed and a lovely sunset on the horizon I stopped at the local petrol station to snap some pics before heading on over to J's place to deliver his freshly pampered ride. As always, thanks for looking :thumb:
Well done Carn, vehicle looks great, love all the attention to detail :worship2: Oh I love how slick the paint looks, I can just imagine how it must have felt :druling: Job well done :thumb:
