After getting my Griot's polisher, pads, and a couple Menzerna polishes for Christmas, I've been anxiously awaiting an opportunity to try it out. I can't polish cars at my apartment--well I suppose I could, but I'd rather avoid working outside. As I was watching my parents' house for a week and already had several cars lined up to clean, so I decided to spend a day on my boyfriend's car. Here's what happened. Since I was replacing the front brake pads, I went ahead and pulled all of the wheels to clean the barrels. They were incredibly nasty--it appears as though one of the front CV joints failed at one time, flinging grease all over one of the wheel barrels. That took several applications of Megs WB and Zep Citrus to remove. The barrels were slightly corroded so they don't look 100% perfect. While I was doing this and the car was up on stands, my boyfriend gave the wheel wells a quick wipe down with Megs APC. He also applied some Chemical Guys Wheel Wax on the faces of the wheels. Meanwhile, I performed an ONR wash on the car in the garage, and then used the Nanoskin Autoscrub pad to remove any wax residue and contaminants on the paint. The clear film down by the rear wheels had seen better days, so it was peeled off and the residue was removed with Stoner Tarminator. Finally, the paint was wiped down with an IPA solution to remove any last residue of polishes. It was finally time to start correcting. I used Menzerna FG400 on an orange Griot's pad, with about two passes on each panel. The goal was ~85% correction, and though the metallic paint made it hard to capture and view defects I believe that was achieved. There were several places that had been touched up by some previous owner that will require some wetsanding at a later date. Additionally, there were several panels that appeared to have been repainted. There was orange peel and some sanding scratches under the repaint that I couldn't do much about. All the while, my boyfriend worked on tidying up the interior, using 1Z Cockpit Premium on all plastic and leather surfaces, Stoner Invisible Glass on the windows, and a Bissell Little Green Machine on the carpets. Next, it was time to address the headlights. Though they were pretty clear when he got the car, they had hazed over since then. I decided to try out the 3M Headlight Restoration Kit, and I was pleasantly surprised. It worked very well, and the lights look better than they ever had. Finally, the wheels were put back on and the car was pulled out for a wash, using some Megs Gold Class car wash soap and Zep Citrus to strip polish residues. Once the car was dried it was pulled back in and waxed with Collinite 845, using the Griot's polisher. The headlights received Opti-Coat to prevent future hazing. The tires and trim got 303 Aerospace Protectant. Now, onto the pictures! They were all taken on my iPhone so I apologize for the poor quality. Before: Removed and cleaned up... Washed, clayed, and taped up: After polish, no LSP: After the 845 was applied and buffed off: It's hard to tell the difference in these photos due to the quality, but the car looks much better--definitely a noticeable difference! Thanks for viewing, hope you enjoy! I did a few more details over this week that I'll be posting up as well. -Clark
Well done! That must have taken a while to detail when you're removing the wheels and putting them back on.
Thanks everyone!! It's not 100% yet...I've got a few areas I need to touch up, but it's a huge improvement over how the car looked before
