JLs Detailing: Honda Accord

Good friend of mine was going to be at the beach for a few days and asked if I would detail her Accord for her while she was gone. It was nice being able to work on it pretty much at my leisure since I had it for a few days. She dates my brother-in-law and he has done a pretty good job maintaining it. The car was very easy to work on and was just up to me to take it up a notch in the looks department. Oh and she said she would be thrilled if I could get the curly fry from between the seat and the console as she couldn't reach it and it was driving her nuts! LOL! Well here's what I did:

Tires/Wells/Wheels: The wheels got Megs Wheel Brightener and a variety of brushes. I used a lug nut brush, green foam finger pocket, Black Magic wheel brush bent to 90 degrees for getting behind the spokes, HD brushes for the tires and wheel wells, and my beloved all time favorite wheel brushes the Raceglaze brush for the barrels and areas behind the calipers because the clearance was so small. Not only does this thing get into tight tight areas but it holds up very nicely. I've used it on a dozen or more details and it still looks brand new. It's also very ergonomically designed because it causes no hand fatigue either. If you don't have this brush you need to contact Ken at Autowerkes and get one!

For the tires and wells they got the ol' standby Majestic Solutions Super Green Stuff at 2:1 in a 2 gallon pressurized sprayer, and some of the brushes I got from Home Depot. The tires were first dressed with Megs Hyper Dressing @ 3:1 with a MSs tire applicator. I then dressed them with the same method with a TW tire applicator and my new Tropi-Care tire dressing. Again if you haven't tried this dressing and you like the look of brand new tires this is a product you need to buy. Wells were dressed with Adams Undercarriage Spray. I then coated the wheels with MS Enviro Shield. Her wheels will be 100x easier to clean.

Engine: I gave the engine a quick rinse, and sprayed it down with MS SGS. There was a lot of dirt and dust in just about every crevice there was so I agitated it and re-rinsed. I dried most of the water with a leaf blower and then sprayed the engine bay down with Megs HD @ 3:1 in a Solo 418 handheld sprayer. I cranked the engine and let it run for about 20 minutes and it looked brand new. Nothing like a great looking engine bay to impress a client.

Exhaust: The exhaust got Megs WB and #0000 Steel wool. Then I used a product that I have just started using here lately called Fukken Wax. The stuff is supposedly like a rinseless wash and wax product sort of like CGs One. Only difference is it's in an aerosol can. Well the first time I used it was on a chrome bumper and it left the bumper so shiny I could hardly stand to look at it. All you do is spray it on let is set for a few seconds, wipe it off and then it hazes. When it hazes (which is very quickly) you buff that off and it leaves behind an incredible shine.

Wash: Well it looked as though this car had a bit of protection on it as I'm sure my brother-in-law has been using the CGs Blitz I gave him on it like he does on his patrol car. Well to get all the LSP off I went with my favorite and loaded up the foam cannon with my new strip anything combo of 2 oz. of MS Super Foam and 1 oz. of MS Power Prep. Man this combo foams like crazy and cleans even better. Like I said in another post this combo stripped everything but the paint off! I used my CR Spotless (for the entire detail) and the 2 bucket method. In one bucket I used Tropi Care Premium wash and the other was a rinse bucket, both with grit guards. I used my Zymol Sponge on this wash.

There were lots of bugs so I used the CGs Strong Wash and a Majestic Solutions Bug Brick. Since the sun wasn't out and it was drizzling on and off during the wash I didn't have the luxury of letting mother nature and the good ol' NC sun dry the car so I broke out the leaf blower and the Vroom MF to dry.

Clay: Well my mainstay for clay has become and always will be the Bilt Hamber and this detail was going to be no different. I used the soft clay for this one. Of course as always the lube was water from the CR system.

Glass: Glass inside and out got Autoglym Fast Glass. I used a MS blue huck window towel to apply and a Walmart WW to buff off. The outside of the glass was treated with Zaino Clear Seal.

Interior: The interior wasn't in bad shape at all but there was a lot of dust everywhere. I started by dusting everything down with my Swissvax look alike brushes from Micheals. Then I vacuumed everthing with my Shop Vac and yes I got the curly fry. It looked as though whatever the interior was treated with before was just attracting dust like crazy so I decided to clean everything with my Majestic Solutions Leather and Plastic Cleaner @ 1:1 with about an ounce of MS lemon deodorizer added and a MF mitt.

With everything nice and clean it was time to dress the the vinyl and plastic and it was protected with Scholl Concepts Purple 9000 interior protectant. This stuff is great. It gives a great matte finish with a nice smell as well. It also has one of the best if not the best sprayer that I have ever used. Only thing I can't figure out about it is why Scholl says to NEVER use it with a Microfiber, well since I know the client so well I decided to try it with a MF mitt and if it acted up later I could easily fix it for her and she wouldn't mind me experimenting. During application and 2 days later I didn't see any adverse effects from applying the SC Purple 9000 with a MF. I have yet to use a Scholl Concepts product that didn't truely impress me.

I cleaned the door jambs with Duragloss Citrus APC while washing. I used a Swissvax brush and rinsed with the pressure washer. I later wiped them down with DG Aquawax.

Paint: I went with my ol' standby DG 501 to clean the paint. I used my Makita @ 600 rpms with a black 3M pad. I buffed it all off with a Super Fly MF from Justin at Obsessive Details.

Protection: I went with my current favorite paint sealant, Blackfire Wet Diamond All Finish Paint Protection applied with a CGs Stage 3 applicator. Since I had the car for a few days I did 2 coats about 8 hours apart. It was buffed off with a Danase Phat Towel MF. The paint was soooooo slick and wet looking when I finished! I really really like the Blackfire Wet Diamond and if you haven't tried it you really should. Yet another product that Ken at Autowerkes talked me into trying and so glad he did!

LSP: Well I had some Blackfire Midnight Sun Wax on the way and wanted to try it over the Blackfire Wet Diamond but it didn't get here in time so I went with my Autoglym High Definition Wax. This stuff goes on so easy and comes off just as easily. And yes another product I got from Ken. I think he has direct access to my bank account!!:yikes:

The High Definition is a very nice wax and delivers some stunning results. Paired up with the Blackfire it looked just stunning to me. I know the Midnight Sun is suppose to look incredible over the Blackfire Wet Diamond but damn it would be hard to beat the look provided by the High Definition Wax. After application and removal I did a wipedown with Blackfire Deep Gloss Spray Sealant.

I took the car back to her before she got home and havent' had a chance to talk to her yet to see what she thought but here are the before and afters:






































Some reflection shots:

 

Great work JL, you really made that paint pop.

 

Great job JL.

 

good lookin detail... I've got a yukon denali next week i'm doing a single stage polish on. wanna use the BF sealant and maybe my Hi-def to go with it.

I'll also be premiering the new tire dressing I had steve from tropi-care make for me!! better than this stuff!

 

Looks great, awesome work on the engine bay!

 

I think I can see the green paint on the washers for the lugnuts in the after shots. That's clean!:worship2:

 

what a big difference!!
impressive one!

 

Thanks Jordan I really appreciate it. I think the Blackfire does a lot for the Metallic paint.

Much appreciated Dana.

Thanks Dust. This was my first time using the Blackfire and High Definition Wax but I really loved the look.

Thanks Stems. I do the same process on all my engine bays but this one just seemed to really clean up better than any of the others.

 

Yeah thats what it is and I was really pleased with how everything turned out on this one.

Thanks I really appreciate it!

 

Great work, JL! I really like the way that car came out! How do you like Autoglym HD Wax so far? Can you compare it to Blackfire Midnight Sun?

 

Nice work man! I Ive always like how you present your pictures..

 

The Autoglym HD wax is very very good. I've used it on two cars so far and both were metallic paint. I want to try it on non-metallic paint and see how it looks. I haven't used my Blackfire Midnight Sun yet but I'm planning on using it this weekend!

Thanks man I really appreciate it.

 

JL, Great job! I've been contemplating Autoglym HD for some time now.. sigh one day!! Looks great, love the interior/door jambs and exhaust tips

 

Awesome work JL, the car looks better then new, the lugs and exhaust tip are blinding

 

Great job man. I try to stay away from Hondas as much as I can. IMO they have terrible paint that is really thin and vulnerable to cc failure.

 

It is a very very good wax and I think you would love it. Thanks for the compliments.

Much appreciated Sal. Maybe one day we can hook up and do a detail together.

You know I was utterly amazed at how good the condition of her paint was. There were almost no swirls at all.

 

JL..great job on the Honda! I've got a question for ya: (i've never noticed this in the write-ups before?) I see you use DG 501 BEFORE you do your compounding/polishing. Does the sealant gum up the pads at all? I use 501 AFTER compound/polishing. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this...maybe I'm not getting as much out of hte cleaning stage using it after??

 

Not sure Rich:shead:. I didn't do any polishing/compounding on this detail??? I've always used the DG 501 as a cleaner/prep for the sealant or wax. Like you say when I do polish or compound I use DG 501 to clean everything up before sealant or wax. We do things the exact same way:headbang:.

 

Heck yeah JL I would be honored to team up with you

 

It's hard to read well with your head up your ass! Sorry, I thought I'd read that you did compound it? Glad to hear we do it the same way!