A client contacted me after his car was involved in a slight off road excursion. No body damage, but below the bump strip the car had acquired a few scratches that really stood out. After viewing the car and checking the paint thickness ( 170 microns in most areas ) it was decided a two stage correction was in order as polishing the scratches out would result in a very noticeable two tone paint job. Shiny black on the bottom and dull black on the top. Amazingly enough, this car was in exceptional condition. Not even a door ding. The client even did a bang up wash on it before delivering it so I could get right to polishing. I had no idea the job would turn into the job it did. In the end the client was ecstatic so all is well. Before we start, these new drying towels showed up from CG.UK. They are a plush MF towel. Long nap on one side, short nap on the other. And they are BRIGHT ORANGE! Side by side shot with a Sonus towel. Nap shot Sonus towel on top, plush towel in middle and new CG towel on bottom. A friend had this banner made up for me. Cool! Some damage on the hood Damage on trunklid Rear bumper skin After one pass of Megs 105 on a Menz compounding pad. Just a wee bit of hologramming resulted. 50/50 on hood and another Reflection shot on hood 50/50 on door Damage on trunklid After Damage on rear bumperskin After These were too deep to chase. After two passes of 105 on (wool and Menz compounding) it just wouldn't have been prudent to try and remove these. Taillight before and after More 50/50s Apparently 105 produces some dust when you get it really hot. If I kept the rpms down around 1200 it didn't dry out as fast and greatly reduced the amount of dust produced. Polishing with Scholl S30 and 3M finishing pad on my PC to remove any light marring and hologramming. On dark colours, you can't beat Scholl. This paint was quite soft as my go to combo, Gloss it green and Power Finish hologrammed like crazy. The results. Overall I was able to achieve over 95% correction on the car with the exception being the rear bumperskin. And then we went outside to wash and get rid of the polishing dust. These pics were taken with about a 10 second shutter speed as it was dark out. Check out the parking lot lights on the buildings. Washing in the dark. Playing with aperatures and my new drying towel. Had to use my trusty DG Nu Glass to remove the buildup of water spotting on the front and rear glass and sunroof. I used my Flex rotary on 1100rpm and a Menz compounding pad. This is what the sunroof looked like before. To give you an idea hoe caked on this was, I normally use Nu Glass by hand with a MF towel. Here are some afters for you.After the first two days I had around 12 hours of straight polishing time. When I came in Saturday to seal it, I opted to spend a few more hours jeweling with S40. It was so worth it. It added so much wetness and depth. Overall, this job took around 17 -18 hours. Lsp was Colli 845. Thanks for looking.
Great job Ken! That paint was hammered but ya got it back to life. Oh yeah, nice drying towel...u going to be carrying any (must stop buying stuff!)
Good deal..send some over...i test it out ya know my bday is coming up so you can send anything you like for testing haha. I'll have to try out the DG Nu-Glass one I go through my 1z glas polish supply.
Great Job Ken. That Nu-Glass is really tempting me. What did you use to restore the headlights and taillights?
I had the pleasure of meeting Ken and seeing this Jetta in person over the weekend. I'd never seen a black paint job look as awesome, and he hadn't even finished with it at that point! Incredible work, Ken! :thumb:
Very nice work. Really liked the way the night shot came out leaving the shutter open. :applause: For a while it seemed like I was the only one using 845IW... it looks stunning! I can't see any reason to use anything else. For ease of use, longevity, shine & gloss, at 14 bucks a bottle it just can't be beat. Doesn't matter what I've tried I've kept coming back to 845 for over 20 years. As an aside, some have suspected the solvents in 845 preclude layering. Got this reply from Collinite this morning in response to my quizzicals on the subject: "Thanks for your email. I don't believe that you would have to worry about the solvent content of #845 Liquid Insulator Wax would strip an existing coat of wax or sealant. Say by chance you had to remove a coat of Collinite from the car because it needed body work, you would need to use prep-solv to completely remove the wax. I haven't received any complaints from detailers or customers regarding the wax "stripping" a previous coat of wax or sealant. Hope this helps. Let me know if you need any further information." TL
Wowza... that thing look terrible before! Great work Ken... I'll test out some of them drying towels for ya...
