This vehicle was booked for a two day paint correction, here is the vehicle upon arrival: Like all details I begin with the tires, rims and wheel wells. So first up Red P21S Gel is sprayed on: Here is Red P21S Gel doing it’s job: (The peculiar thing about Red P21S is that it literally pulls anything that is stuck on the rims off the rims as you can see by this picture) Next the wheel wells were sprayed with P21S Total Auto Wash: The tires received a coat of ARO. With the help of the EZ Brush the inside of the rims were agitated: With a long handle brush the wheel wells were scrubbed: The face of the rims were done with a Zymol brush: The tires were given a scrub, not that it was required as ARO does a great job at removing all grime from the tires. Here is what all that scrubbing looked like at the end: All that’s left is to rinse everything off: This process is done to all the tires, rims and wheel wells. Next it was time to wash the rest of the vehicle, for this the two bucket method is used and as for shampoo I decided to go with Pinnacle Shampoo with the Sea Sponge. Once I was done washing the vehicle the lower panels were given a coat of Tardis: Tardis was left to dwell for several minutes then removed with a yellow microfiber towel. The vehicle was once again given a thorough rinse. Next, the vehicle is clayed. The clay of choice is Blue Riccardo, this vehicle had some contamination, this is the clay after claying just the driver side fender: The claying process took a bit longer then I had expected. Also as for clay lube, I simply used water. I wasn’t overly worried about inducing micro marring as polishing will follow up :shrug: Once I was done claying the vehicle, the vehicle was once again rinsed off and then dried with the help of some waffle weaved micro fibber towels. I started the washing process nice and early and the sun was just starting to show it’s face and before putting the vehicle inside with the help of the sun I inspected the paint and here is what the sun had to show: The vehicle was brought inside for further inspection with the 3M Sun Gun: The vehicle also came with this lovely scratch: Not to mention some of these lovely defects: Well now that I knew what I was up against it was time to see how much clear coat I had to play with. First the PosiTector 6000 was used: Well this vehicle was mostly made up of composite material, so the only area where the PosiTector 6000 was used was on the head light covers as they were aluminum. Since the body of the vehicle is made up composite the PosiTector 200 was used: The vehicle had a wild range of clear coat, as you can see by the chart graphed with the help of PosiSoft: Now that I knew how much clear coat I had to play with it was time to tape off a section and find a combo that will deliver results: The first combo I decided to go with was 3M UK Black Polishing foam pad with Metabo Rotary and Menzerna Intensive Polish: This combo delivered the following results: This combo delivered exceptional results, so I decided to proceed on using it and here is how the rest of the panel was looking: Now if you look closely at the following picture: You’ll see that there are some fine, fine scratches left. So some areas required multiple pass with Menzerna Intensive Polish. There were a few stubborn RIDS which required a pass with Menzerna Power Gloss with another 3M UK Black Polishing Pad then followed up with Menzerna Intensive Polish. Leaving the following results: Now that I’ve found a combo which delivers the results I’m after it’s time to press on with the rest of the vehicle. Here is the driver side fender before: After: A closer look to the driver side fender, before: After: Here is one of the vents on the hood, before: After: Now remember that long, deep scratch on the hood, this one: Here is how that long scratch was finished off: Now this pictures is deceiving as the scratch was quite deep and depending at what angle you look at the scratch you can still see it’s presence, here is what I mean: Well this concludes day one, day one went quite well as almost half the vehicle had been corrected. Day two: Day two began right where day one left off, continuing on with the paint correction. Here is the driver side fender, before: (Sorry for the out of focus picture :shakehead After: Here is a 50/50 of the passenger side fender: Passenger side door 50/50: As you can see on this 50/50 picture the corrected side need another pass. Another 50/50 of the passenger quarter panel: All corrected: Now all that is left to correct is the rear end of the vehicle, this vehicle had a large spoiler. The spoiler had a tail light on it and here is a 50/50 picture of the tail light on the spoiler: 50/50 of the spoiler: Menzerna was leaving some dust behind, just a little bit of dust: But I’m used to the dusting from Menzerna so it doesn’t really bother me :shrug: Now polishing the trunk took some careful maneuvering, with the help of my 75mm backing plate and my 5/8th to M14 adaptor I was able to make quick work of the awkward areas: You see the extra clearance the adaptor provides makes it easier to maneuver around the spoiler and get in tight areas. The tail lights were looking quite dull, here is a 50/50 of one of the tail lights: Before: After: Well now the entire vehicle has been corrected and it’s now time to give the vehicle another pass with Menzerna 85RD with a 3M UK Blue Finishing pad: Once I was done with 85RD the entire vehicle is given a final wipe down, for this Menzerna Top Inspection is used with a Cookie Monster: Next Zymol HD Cleanse Professional is applied by hand, one panel at a time: Followed up with a coat of Vintage, applied via applicator: Wile Vintage was left to bond, other bits were finished off. Exhaust tips were refined with Autosol: Tires were dressed with Optimum Tire, exterior plastic trim received some Black WOW. Glass were done with Stoners Invisible Glass and a glass micro fiber towel. Vintage was buffed off with several Cookie Monsters and here are the end results, also please note that I have not yet gone over the vehicle with Field Glaze, this is to be done the next day so some pictures will show some haze: The next day I showed up to give the vehicle a final wipe down with Field Glaze and best part I was able to get the vehicle outside: Enough shade shots, now for some sun pictures: Now I didn’t touch the engine bay on this vehicle, but it’s engine compartment was quite interesting to look at: Well this concludes this detail, hope you enjoyed it.
Outstanding work, Nica! Hey, that HD-cleanse pro, how different is it from regular HD-cleanse? Is it abrasive?
Fantastic job and man Vintage does look great on a blue car. Heck Vintage looks great on EVERYTHING you detail! I do love the car/color combo though. And what the hell, he didn't get the man that does the best interior details in North America to do his interior?
I love that color on those cars. Do you all remember the commercial with those cars back in the 90's? Sitting at the light, car is gas'd and the light explodes....used to make me smile every time.
Those commercials are great, you can still see them on you tube. Awesome job Carlos! Love the NBM T/A's.:thumb:
Great job Nica, i always enjoy the throroughness of your write ups. EDIT: This is my 1,000th post not to hijack
Thank you super, glad you enjoyed it. The HD Cleanse Pro is a bit more aggressive compared to the regular HD Cleanse, this stuff is not fun to use to be honest, if you let it sit for too long on the vehicle and it dries up its horrible to remove, it's wipe on wipe off. The thing is that it adds to the paint and that's why I love using it, you know my opinion on HD Clease in general is that it's more of a glaze but the Pro version is a tad different...just my :2cents: though. Well I knew it was supercharged but the kit looked impressive, the vehicle also sounds very aggressive, nice sound to it. Oh I love it when they start up some of the Vettes they have there or when they have them on the Dyno...the more I hang around this shop the more I appreciate american vehicles, specially the Vettes :thumb: Thank you Jay, PM..um..no I don't think you Jay :shead: Glad you enjoyed it eace: Glad you enjoyed it as for the steamer, I was so eager to try out my pressure washer by the time I was done washing the vehicle I didn't really need the steamer...it felt so good to wash a vehicle with water, it's been a long winter :thumb: When I saw the vehicle the blue didn't pop at me but when I was done polishing and put Vintage on the paint came to life and the blue looked nice and fresh. As for the interior, no interior on this one :shrug: shame as it needed a little touch up inside. Thank you for the feed back and I agree Vintage is a great wax. I've seen a few of the commercials on you tube and I know which one your referring too, I agree just can't help but smile :thumb: The clear coat on this vehicle wasn't too hard, I found it to be on the mild side but I'm not sure if the paint is factory paint, I found some spots that had a few runs and other areas had high readings to be factory paint. Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. Thank you Buddy for the feed back, very much appreciated eace:
Thank you Joe eace: Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for the feed back. Glad you enjoyed it compa eace: Thank you Ken, glad you enjoyed it. Glad you enjoyed it and didn't find it too long, I can get carried away sometimes :shead: Congrats on the 1,000th post :thumb:
Awesome job Carlos as always. :thumb: What? You did not manhandle that car with Vintage? :shead: What do you have against Trans Ams? :giggle:
