We received a phone call from one of our favorite customer requesting our services, Davenport. The reason this is our favorite customer is not because it’s a performance shop but because every time we show up there are some incredible vehicle’s inside the shop. Well the vehicle we had the pleasure to work with is a Chrysler SRT 8. The vehicle is scheduled for some serious work at the shop, but the owner wanted the appearance of the vehicle to be spruced up. Well on to the detail, here is what greeted us: The rims were in dire need of some pampering. First was to wash the vehicle, seeing as the vehicle was inside the shop and the no washing bay inside the shop our washing method was ONR with the two bucket method, sea sponge and a waffle weaved micro fiber towel: Once the entire vehicle had been washed it was time to clay the vehicle. During the wash it was noted that the surface of the vehicle felt extremely rough, so it was decided to use an aggressive clay bar: As lube, ONR was used and yet another waffle weaved micro fiber towel to dry the vehicle off. To better illustrate how bad the contamination was on this vehicle, here is how the clay bar looked after claying one side of the trunk: The Red Clay Magic clay bars are quite large, so we cut the bar in to three peaces. On this vehicle we ended up using all three peaces. Once the entire vehicle had been clayed the surface felt much, much smoother and it made the defects much more visible. The vehicle was then taped up and with the help of the 3M Sun Gun the paint was thoroughly inspected and here is what we were up against: Now the reason why we were detailing this vehicle was to remove such things as these: The vehicle was covered with deep, long scratches. We knew we had our work cut out. Now that we knew what we were up against, it was time to see how much clear we had to play with. For this the PosiTector 6000 and 200 were used: Lucky for us the vehicle showed an abundant amount of clear coat, no signs of body work and most importantly no signs of previous details. With the amount of deep scratches on this vehicle the first combo was: 3M UK Fast Cut Plus, Meg’s Polishing Pad and a Metabo rotary. This combo actually delivered some reasonable results, after hitting it three times that is, like previously mentioned the scratches were quite severe: Seeing as the first combo didn’t remove the deep scratches it was time to use a heavy hitter: Menzerna Power Gloss, Menzerna wool pad and Metabo(s) rotary. This combo worked extremely well but it still required at least two passes to achieve the following result’s: As you can see this combo did a great job at flattening out the clear coat, another thing to note is that the surface was simply compounded, it was no where near perfect but the results were very satisfying. Still working away on the trunk, this was noted: Some lovely deep scratches all conveniently located at an edge. Good thing we had left some Mirka wet sanding discs 2,000 and 4,000 grit to soak in a bucket over night: The 4,000 grit sanding dist was used by hand on these deep scratches. The rest of the trunk was wet sanded and compounded very carefully to not burn any edges. Here are some before and after: After: Before: After: Before: After: Here are some 50/50 picture to help illustrate the difference the compounding combo made: Now the hood of this vehicle required some wet sanding, first 2,000 grit was used followed up with 4,000 grit. What made wet sanding tough was that there was a lifted ridge in the middle of the hood. So wet sanding was done with extreme care as to not to remove too much clear on such edges, when done wet sanding it looked something like this: This was then compounded with Menzerna Power Gloss and Menzerna wool pad. Well this concluded day one, day one was quite long and didn’t feel as though we had made much progress as we barely got through compounding half the vehicle. Day two: Day two began right were we had left off, compounding. The rest of the vehicle was wet sanded as required, followed up with compound. Majority of day two was spent compound the rest of the vehicle. Once we were done compounding the entire vehicle the vehicle was covered with dust, here is a picture to show how much dust was on the vehicle: The vehicle was far from finish, with the compound now complete it was time to go back and remove all the holograms left from the wool pad. The next combo is: 3M UK Polishing pad (Black), 3M UK Extra Fine Compound with Metabo rotary’s. This combo not only removed the holograms but brought more shine to the vehicle: This combo also did wonders on the side view mirrors: (Sorry for the dusting, it was all over the vehicle) Not to mention to the deepest scratch on this vehicle: This particular area looks more like a door ding and the scratch left was very deep but with the compounding and followed up with a finer compound combo the deep scratch that was once very noticeable has now diminished to a lighter scratch and not as noticeable as before. Day two was much more satisfying then day one. Regrettably that is as far as we would be able to get done to the vehicle. The shop informed us that they will be working on the vehicle and doing some extensive work in the engine compartment. So it was agreed that this would be as far as we would go with the detail for now, once all the work to the vehicle was completed it would be given to use to complete. So regrettably no finish shots as we still need to give the vehicle a final polish, but we will have to wait and see how the vehicle is returned to us, we are expecting some more swirls due to mechanics working on the vehicle, but hopefully not as sever as we originally were given the vehicle. Hope you enjoyed 80% of the detail, hopefully the rest of the detail will come shortly.
:nod: you bet, Power Gloss is incredible. We had to clean our wool pads several times due to Power Gloss guming up the wool pad oh and not to mention the dust but it's all good :thumb: Glad you enjoyed it. Glad you enjoyed it, this was a tag team action with Justin and my self. It was great to be detailing again, this vehicle had lots of defects to work with, best part I got to play with a bunch of my toys :thumb:
Looks great Nica! I was looking into buying those Mirka Wet Sanding pads, and I was wondering how do you use it? Because my friend is repainting his car...and he is expecting a lot of orange peel, so I have to be ready for that. Thanks. Again, the car looks great. :thumb:
wow!. hopefully those guys working with the engine will not put any other scratches in. what a great job nica!:thumb:
Glad you enjoyed it, as for the Mirka pads. I'm really happy with these pads, specially with the 4000 grit, it works extremely well. The 2000 has a great cut too. One thing I enjoy about these pads is the extra foam they have, it cushions the pressure and hold water. I was using them by hand and you have to be really careful to insure you apply even pressure, otherwise you could be removing clear coat uneven. I've ordered a 3inch DA, which brings me to the next point. If your going to do a full vehicle, I suggest you get a DA, it will come in handy when doing a large amount of wet sanding. Oh that and make sure you have plenty of clear coat, but if the vehicle has been repainted, I'm sure you would have some clear coat...but it's always good to double check. Glad you enjoyed it, Justin and my self had a blast with this detail. Best part there was no rush to get it done, so we took our time. We are hoping that the vehicle wont have much swirl mark, I'm sure there will be some but no where near what we originally started off with. We are hoping that a simple pas of 85RD will finish of the vehicle when we get it again, but will have to wait and see. Oh we still have to finish off the rims as well, they were in dire need of a good cleaning. We were hoping they would be able to remove the rims but when we were working on the vehicle, the battery was dead and there was no where to move the vehicle. So when we get the vehicle back we will have to work on the rims and finish it all off. If we are lucky we may have to do the interior as well, the interior was in really bad shape from sitting at the shop and other shops :shrug:
Awesome work Carlos. Did you find it hard to remove the contaminants from the wheels using ONR? Or did you not touch the wheels? I felt like I couldn't get as good of a clean as I wanted when I initially used it on the wheels. What performance upgrades was the car getting?
We never got around to the rims, on I did try one rim with the ONR and the ONR is not nearly strong enough to remove anything on the rims...well just some surface grime, but the deep stuff I had a bottle of Tardis with me, but never got the opportunity to put it to use. I'm looking forward to the next round with this vehicle...oh another thing these vehicles are larger then they look, lots of surface area. As to what was scheduled for this vehicle, if I heard correctly the entire motor had to be taken out and rebuilt (?) don't quote me on that but apparently the owner of this vehicle loves fast cars...oh Justin should have a better idea as to what this vehicle was in for. Justin care to elaborate what the vehicle was in for? I know you know..so share.
We havent really touched the tires/rims at all yet, as we were focusing mainly on the body. The one rim that carlos did use the ONR on did clean it up a bit, but they definatly need a LOT of work still.
Wow Nica, that is some great work so far...i always enjoy your write ups, you put a lot of work into them and it shows, thanks so much
Looks good guys :thumb: I do find it wierd they had you correct the paint before they had the modifications done:shead:
They used to be out here in my neighborhood. they build some very wicked stuff. Their roll cages are beautiful.
Glad you enjoyed the detail, Justin and I had a blast with this vehicle. yea..yea..yea..Mr. beach boy, actually maybe it was a good thing you werent in town, Justin and my self got sick wile detailing this vehicle...not that it was the vehicle's fault just the flue bug going around :shrug: :nod: I agree, but to be honest I think the gentleman who contacted us wanted to see if we could actually remove all the defects from the vehicle. As you saw the vehicle had quite a bit of imperfections. The owner of the vehicle was actually considering getting the entire vehicle repainted, but the gentleman who contacted us from Davenport thought it would be best for us to give it a go first. We are happy to say we delivered what was expected from us :thumb: Justin and I just couldn't wait to get our our self inside the shop to, well I knew I wanted to hang around there, lots of neat things to see and great people to chit chat with :thumb:
Really, I didn't know Steve had a shop over in your neck of the woods...mm..maybe Justin knew this but I didn't. They have some incredible machines inside there shop, most if not all a 100% American Muscle but it's great to see...oooh they had a brand new Black Cobra man did that vehicle look incredible up close. I had never seen on up close and personal, incredible body lines and so aggressive it was wicked.
Great job guys I really love the 50/50 shots. I can't wait to see you guys finish it out when you get it back. Hummmm I wonder what LSP it will get???
