Well the ‘detailing phone’ went off and another vehicle to detail, now not just any vehicle this time it’s a..wait for it..wait for it: 2002 Mini Cooper S Not sure why but I enjoy detailing these things :woo: :woo: :shrug: Any who, this vehicle belongs to a co-worker and it was booked in for a minor paint correction. To be honest despite the year, this vehicle was in reasonable shape :thumb: Well Here is the vehicle upon arrival: Well not in too rough of a shape…but will see First up the shoes of the vehicle: Red P21S Gel :thumb: The inside of the rims are scrubbed with an EZ brush: Tires received and wheel wells received a healthy coat of P21S Total Auto Wash, then scrubbed with a brushes and this is how all the scrubbing looked like at the end: Well this was carried out to all rims, tires and wheel wells. Once done time for the rest of the vehicle. Like always two bucket method was used: I really should stop using the two bucket method since I’ll be polishing the vehicle there really is not point but I figured it’s a good habit to maintain :shrug: Ah, since I wasn’t using my steamer I washed the door jams wile washing the exterior of the vehicle: The vehicle was clayed with Yellow Riccardo, for the most part the vehicle was in reasonable shape but claying is always a step I’ll never skip out on :thumb: Well vehicle was rinsed of and dried and with the help of the 3M Sun Gun here is the true condition of the vehicle: No reflection what’s so ever :shakehead: The paint was a real pain to capture it’s true state: Here is me manually focusing trying to capture the swirls with the help of my lights installed on the walls: Well as expected the vehicle needs some TLC and I got what the Dr. ordered :thumb: Before I can begin applying the medicine I need to check how much clear coat I have to play with, so first up PosiTector 6000: Next up PosiTector 200: Turns out vehicle has plenty of clear coat :thumb: so let the polishing begin. First I needed to do something about those pesky washer fluid nozzles getting in the way, so I lifted them up to gain better access during polishing: Now the color is lovely but it’s a pain to capture the difference made by polishing, here is what I mean: Well at leas the pillars show the difference I was making much, much better: Now seeing as the vehicle was in for a minor paint correction, meaning a single pass I decided to go with Menzerna Intensive Polish partnered up with a Menzerna Polishing foam pad. As you can see, results are quite good so I stuck with hit. Driver side tail light before: After: Passenger side tail light before: After: Seeing s the first attempt of a 50/50 didn’t work so well I tried again and got this: Oh remember the driver side pillar: Here is how it finished of: Well that about does it for polishing, now to remove some polish dust with the help of my Zymol duster: Like always vehicle is given a final wipe down with Menzerna Top Inspection. Now ready for LSP, seeing as this vehicle belongs to a coworker and the plan is for him to drive it through winter it was decided to go with a sealant, not just any sealant first up: Followed up with: Sealant was left over night, mean wile it was time to take care of a few loose ends, such as the exterior plastic trim, for this: Black WOW was used :thumb: Exhaust tips were also polished off with the help of Autosol and steel wool: Autosol worked it’s magic: Tires were dressed with Optimum Tyre, wheel wells were dressed with Meg’s #40…that about does it :shead: Well that about does it, the next day with the help of Duragloss Aquawax the sealant was removed and here is the end result: Um…I got creative with the picture :shrug: There goes that creativity again Well coworker is happy, vehicle’s paint was given some life back and I got to drive the vehicle…ah..isn’t life grand :thumb: Well that concludes this detail hope you enjoyed it, I sure did eace:
Great turn around man. Those things are so tiny, that must have taken you a whole 1 hour to do. :giggle:
Yea, I would have preferred a darker color, it would have been better for the before/after pictures but you make do with what you get. Glad you enjoyed it eace:
Thank you doc, lol no not quite an hour I took my time with this one...I honestly can't remember how many hours I took to detail this one...lets just say the vehicle was in my garage for a few days :whistle:
Nice work! Just not sure I could drive a small car like that. Your feet have to be so close to the front.
Great job, Always liked the darker colored Mini's but still looks good after your magic touch. The "creative" pics look nice, I see you like the key in the door lock as it seems to be common in your write-ups.
Well I'm short so driving this vehicle for me was fun, my co worker is going to drive this vehicle in the winter...I'm curious how the vehicle will deal with the snow we get here :shrug: Glad you enjoyed it eace: Yea, pictures are just random but the pictures with the key I've taken a liking lately :shrug: Glad your enjoying the "creative" pictures eace:
What a nice little car. I can see why you like to detail those. You really did a super nice job. I enjoyed reading about this one...:thumb:
Thank you guys for the feed back eace: The vehicle only got a single pass, if you look closely the paint is far from flawless but better then it was before :shrug: I'm sure I'll see this mini again, the owner lives about five blocks away from me lol.
What, no Steamer >:mad2: I actually love that colour, and the Mini's have alot more Legroom then you may think :shrug: Great Job Carlos :applause: :shead: I know all your Co-Workers must do this >chitchat: Hey Carlos detailed my car this weekend, looks better then new. Your gonna have to let him do yours :thumb
Nicely done Carlos, well done :thumb: Interesting floor covering you have in your garage, what is it if I may ask?
Beautiful work, Carlos! Did you say you left sealant overnight? You mean you apply a coat at evening and removed the next morning?
Carlos..the little bugger looks good. I like the contrast with the white hood on those (I like them on the Flex too). Just a suggestion, but I see your method with the 601/105 combo is to leave it applied over night. That's the advantage to using the 601 is that the cure time is very quick. In fact, I'm pretty sure cure time is measured after it is removed. I'm no expert but I apply 601 to the whole car, come back around (do a swipe test) and then follow up with 105. I pretty much remove it when I get done applying it. I find that after a few hours, the slickness is over the top. As a final step before delivery, AW is applied (by hand), although I may just start applying it via my UDM after seeing how nice it was on my FX...did you see that post? I'm not being critical, I just want you to get the most out of those products. You may find that by removing it sooner and letting it cure after being buffed off, that you get more slickness.
Looks great! I'm in the works right now for getting some P21S Red gel... Just figuring out how much to order, as the shipping price is the same whether I order 5 or 25 Litres.
Thank you Phil, glad you enjoyed it eace: I agree these Minis are surprisingly big inside, well more then you'd think. As for the co-workers, you know it is something like that. I've detailed so many co-workers vehicles I've lost count now. No complaints here, makes my weekend very intertaining. I some times wonder what a weekend would be like with out having a vehicle to detail and I honestly can't think of anything I'd be doing...when I do get a weekend off I'm in the garage detailing my own vehicles :shrug: Glad you enjoyed it Carn, as for the floor the company I purhcased it from is called ucoat it. Great product and very easy to apply, I did it my self and very reasonable price too. Yes, sometimes I leave DG#105 over night. I do it just to fool around and compare things. The best part is that no matter how long I let the sealant sit for it's still easy to buff off :thumb: Thanks for the feed back richy, I've been going over your thread about application via UDM sounds very intersting I've never tried it that way. As for leaving the sealant over night, I do that from time to time, not sure it's nesesary but one thing I've noticed is that no matter how long leave it over night it buffes off just as easy. I've also tried buffing it off as soon as I'm done applying it to the rest of the vehicle and I agree the surface feels much more slick but when I leave it over night then buff it off and then follow up or use AW to help buff off 105 I've been curious if AW adds anything? I like the smell but as far as apperance/look to the vehicle I've noticed AW adds to the end results. After I've gave it a final wipe down with AW the surface feels much, much better...not sure if it's just me :crasy: but AW is a very neat product. Oh another reason I some times leave 105 longer is becuase by the time I'm all done applying it, it's either supper time or I just need a snack so I go in the house for a bite and by the time I coem back at least an hour or so have gone by :giggle: Any who, thanks for the feed back richy, I'll keep experimenting with the sealant, it's good stuff, I'm very pleased with it :thumb: Glad you enjoyed it, if you can get your hands on Red P21S you'll love it, very potent stuff. One thing I'll caution you on though, the US has very stricked VOC (I think those are the initials) rules and regulations. Most UK companies avoid shipping such products to the US becuase of such rules and regulations, I've learned this the hard way. So just make sure you do a bit of your home work before you go through the process of getting some Red P21S oh and if everything goes well I'd recommend the 25L container you'll love this stuff.
It's a distributor from Norway. They have told me it's about 90 USD to ship up to 5 5L containers. The gel itself is in the neighborhood of 100 per 5L container. It would make the shipping much morereasonable if I were to order 25L of product, that's for sure! Thanks for the tip on the rules/regulations surrounding this product. I will make sure everything is kosher before sending money!
