Hi everyone, Ive haven't been posting for quite awhile. I have a new job that keeps me much busier then I'm used to, and haven't been doing much detailing unitl lately. Hope everyone is doing well. I hope to try and post more often like I used too. My new job is in the auto racing field, and I detailed a car for one of our customers. His black 996 Carrera was in bad shape. After just a short time of polishing with my UDM and 106ff, I realized the clear was soft and correction would be easier then I thought, and it was. Unfortunately no pictures of that detail, but it came out very nice for the short amount of time I put into correction. The car I am posting about now, was basically the exact opposite, and it drove me NUTS! In the end I am happy with results, and the owner was thrilled with how it came out, but it took way too long, and the car is no where near perfect. I would say I removed about 80% of the defects from the paint, and most importantly made the car actually look white again. The paint completely lacked any shine before I started, and some areas were stained pretty badly from road grime. The car showed its age for sure. Polishing this car was so difficult, it has encouraged me to step it up and buy a rotary and learn to use it. I have purchased a Metabo from Phil@DD, and I am sure glad I did. I hope to practice for a little while on my beater car and some body panels, and hopefully cars like this won't beat be up again. I plan to do more cars this coming year, sort of like start a side job business for myself. Anyway unto the pictures. Like I said the car was killing me, and I took way too long on the detail, so my pictures are lacking, especially towards the finish as time was running out. The dirty engine bay and really dirty wheels. Caked on brake dust was etched into some spots. This shot shows the contamination that was basically all over the car. Took me 3 times as long to clay this car then any other I have done before. Tried to use my griot's clay which is really nice, but not strong enough for this. Went to clay magic blue and it worked well. Still probably only got 90% of it. The paint looks very dull and there was grime just about everywhere. Those stoneguard pieces were really yellowed, and in 2nd pic you can see the "stained" paint. This antenna trim, the side mirror trim, and the emblems were all faded like thise. I did a quick job on the engine bay, didnt get an after shot. Used Simple Green aerospace cleaner, cut about 15:1, with some NXT soap added in. I use this solution in my pump sprayer, the wand type, with a foaming tip rigged onto the end. It produces nice foam like this pic. I also use this for the wheel wells, and on wheels/tires if they are not bad. The wheels first got p21S gel. And it did a great job, but I tried Eagle One all wheel and tire, and wow it worked even better. It was obviously not as safe a cleaner as it left subtle residue the P21s didnt, but it's cheap and these are OEM coated wheels, it was perfect for this job. I used a nice new wheel scrubber stick from griots garage (worth it to check out, awesome on brake dust) and every wheel brush in my arsenal. The tires got ARO. I pre treated the trim and extra dirty spots with TAW and poorboy's bugsquash 3:1, and brushed those areas. The bugsquash is stronger then the TAW even at 3:1, but they both clean well. I then washed the car with citrus W&G and TAW in the foam gun, using a grout sponge (another new liking of mine). Here comes the fun (or lack thereof) At this point I didnt even know how hard the clear was, and I knew I was in for it. The halogens told the whole story, not pretty. At this point I marked off areas and started testing. After going through a bunch of polish/pad combos, as well as trying Menz Power Finish for the first time, I realized this was going to take forever. Left side after 2 passes SIP and Orange 5.5" LC pad. Thats the combo that I wound up using to for most of the car, sometimes I used a white pad on the second pass. Bottom left corner done. This was after 106ff and a white pad. I finished most of panels with this combo. I pulled the car into the sun and it was still not even close to perfect, but it was a huge improvement, and that would do for this detail. Door panel 50/50 The B pillar was gloss black and very soft clear. Those results were with light pressure, medium speed, and 106ff on a white 3.5" pad. Same treatment on the vent shades, these were polished quite easily too. I will definitely keep the UDM around for jobs like this, as well as other tight spots. This pretty much sums up the paint correction for this detail. You can see how much of the color is brought back, you can see an exact outline of where I've polished with SIP. The car is actually white again. I polished the tailights and headlights with SIP/Orange pad and 106ff/white pad. The tailights came out better then the headlights, didnt get any pics of those. I went over them with Meg's PlastX as well. Again unfortunately I finished late at night, the car was gone in the morning so I hardly got any finished pics. Wheels came out great (aside from having to replace a wheel weight I knocked off :doh: They were wiped down with DG 521 and tires got 303 protectant, followed by optimum tire shine. Wheel wells got Meg's Hyper Dressing 3:1. I restored the trim on that car that was faded with 2 treatments of black wow, one before the final wash after polishing, and one after. This stuff still amazes me. Some brinkman shots. Only good shot I got of the paint. It was once again white, and glossy. The paint recieved Duragloss 501, followed by 101, and quick once over with Aquawax. It was a huge improvement, but I really needed my new rotary to take it any further. You can also see the nice black mirror trim from the black wow in this pic. Ive read over some other guy's beetle details now, and I think I've confirmed the clear is like concrete. O well until next time... Glass - ZEP automotive glass cleaner (good stuff and cheap), and DG 521 All exterior trim got 303 protectant Did a quick once over on the interior with Einzeit CP, DP Total Interior Cleaner, and vac. Door jambs were cleaned with onr and got DG421. Engine bay got 303 and meg's Hyper 3:1. I hope to have some more details to show in the future using my new metabo and a bunch of other new toys. :afro:
Nice job bro! I had wondered where you had been. Was rearranging my polishes the other day and when I saw my CGs Wet Mirror Finish I thought about how I hadn't seen you on here in a while. Well glad to see you back and that was a great 1st detail back!
Thanks buddy, yea these were pretty much the dirtiest wheels Ive ever cleaned. These wheel scrubbers from griots are simply awesome on brake dust, best tool Ive found yet. Three Long Reach Wheel Scrubber Brushes - Cleaning Tools - Wheels & Tires - Car Care - Griot's Garage Thanks, and yes the wheels were something else. Wolfpacker? Got a new name for yourself I see, hope all is well buddy. And yea, my apologies but I haven't even tried the smple you sent me yet. I'm sure now that I'm getting more into doing other peoples cars I will have a candidate for it in the spring. Thanks, I think the duragloss combo does a great job on white. Squeaky clean and very glossy. Thanks, and your tellin me... I got the dreaded "The car is pretty good shape" from the owner. lol
Great detail, who says light colour vehicles aren't as rewarding..lol..well I've said that my self :shrug: but any who what I'm trying to say is you did a great job, vehicle looks impressive. Great turn around :applause:
i visited joe as he was doing this .and . pics dont show how great this really came out .. awesome turn around..
