Okay I told you all in my review about getting the Scholl Concepts polish kit from Ketil at Scandicshine. Well this was to be the real test of the product. All I did to this one was the exterior. The Jeep was a repaint and not a very good one. I suspected it was a repaint when I saw the bottom trim was soooo black. I mean a shiny black that told me when the car was repainted so was the trim. When I got the car in my garage and before I started polishing I used my DFT Combo paint gauge and checked it out. I consistently got readings in the 275 to 300 micron range. The Scholl Concepts did not let me down and really put a shine on this thing that even impressed me. The owner was simply ecstatic. The owner by the way is my nanny and she is about to go off to college in a few weeks so this was a gift to her. She was great because she didn't care what I did to the thing as long as I was detailing it! :applause2: Heck I even tried wet sanding for the first time on this thing. Oh and I have to give props to Asphalt Rocket and richy for giving me tips and walking me through the whole wetsanding process. :thumb: Okay I'll do more review of the Scholl Concepts in the polish section, so here's what I did: Tires/Wheels/Wells: The tires got MS Super Green Stuff from a handheld pressurized sprayer and a black Shmitt. The wheels were a disaster and had a ton of rash and really needed to be refurbed. Anyway they got Megs Wheel Brightener with an EZ Detail and a Black Magic (bent at 90 degrees) brush. I used a foam finger pocket on the wheel faces and a lug nut brush for of course the lug nuts. The wheel wells got CGs Grime Reaper diluted at 2:1 in a Solo 418 Sprayer and a black Shmitt. The tires were dressed first with a base coat of Megs Hyper Dressing @ 1:1 and then got a coat of Optimum Tire Shine. Both were applied to a CGs Tire Applicator and applied to the tire. The wells were dressed with CGs Bare Bones. Engine: Well I rinsed the engine, sprayed it with MS SGS, agitated, rinsed, blew some of the water off with the leaf blower, sprayed a healthy coat of Megs HD @ 3:1 and cranked the engine and let it run for about 15 mins. This method with the Megs HD is really working well for me and I think I have locked into my engine dressing that I will be using for a long time. Wash: First, the bugs got CGs Bug and Tar Strong Wash @3:1 in a 418 sprayer and a MS bug sponge. The CGs strong wash is by far the best cleaner for bugs, road grime, and tar that I have seen. After hooking up to the CR Spotless system the car got a quick rinse. I pre-treated the lower panels and running boards with MS SGS and pre treated the windshield with the CGs Strong Wash. This makes cleaning bugs and road grime off the windshield a breeze. I then foamed the car with my foam cannon and 2 oz of CGs Citrus Wash Clear and 1 oz of CGs Strong Wash. Although I was pretty sure there was no protection on the car to begin with, with this combo there would be no trace of anything left behind when the wash was done. I put some Megs Gold Class in a rinse bucket with a grit guard and I proceeded to wash with my long handle boar's hair brush. After the wash the car was rinsed and ready for claying. Clay: I used Megs Clay with DP 4n1 Clay lube in a 418 Sprayer. The car had a lot of bonded contaminats and was probably the worst one I have clayed. Then re-rinsed with the CR spotless. And then I let mother nature dry the car (no worries about water spots). Glass: The outside got DG 501 and was removed with a CGs 530 XL MF. Trim/Nerf Bars: The bottom trim package since it was painted got DG 501 via the Metabo and a black 3M finishing pad and was buffed off with a CGs Yellow and Black MF. The metal on the nerf bars were treated with Klasse AIO and the plastic pieces got Stoners Trim Shine. Exhaust: The exahust pipe looked awful. I started by spraying it with Megs WB and cleaning with a black Shmitt. After that it looked good but I wanted it to look even better so it was time to try out Nica's favorite Autosol. I got some 0000 Steel Wool and the Autosol and went to town. I buffed it off with a Costco MF and it looked great again. Polish: Ok there were a ton of swirls and scratches on this thing and not all would come out as some were under the clearcoat. The car was probably 75% corrected when I gave it back to her but it was a huge improvement and the gloss on the red paint would just knock your socks off. I decided on some of the rougher areas to use the S17 polish in the two step method. I began with the S17 and the wool pad. This combo really cleaned up the paint. Now while using the wool pad I did get some dusting but it was very minor. When I previously used the S17 with an orange pad I got no dusting. Now the paint looked a ton better after the first hit with S17 and the wool, which you can really work. However I remember what Asphalt Rocket tells me and after the wool I got the finishing pad and used the S17 with that and cleaned it all up. Paint looked really smokin' now and would get even better as I would go over everything with the Scholl Concepts S40 and their orange polishing pad (its equivalent to the white pads we use). I will tell you that the spouts on the Scholl bottles are rather large and a lot will come out when you squeeze it so be careful. I ended up putting four pea sized drops on the pad when I used it first and then each subsequent time it got 2 pea sized drops. I will tell you to that my favorite finishing polish is 3M Ultrafina and the S17 on a finishing pad acted a lot like UF, so that really pleased me. Well now it was time to move on to the S40 and the Scholl orange polishing pad. Now I only had one pad and knew I would go through a lot of pads polishing this thing so I just used my LC CCS 5 1/4 white pads with the Metabo. I primed each pad with the 4 drops and after the initial priming only used 2 drops until I changed pads. The S40 had a really good work time and I would spread on speed 1 then move to 3 (1500 rpms). After about 5-8 passes at 3 I would back it down to 2 for a final two passes. Man after buffing off the polish which was a breeze the shine was unbelievable and the S40 corrected a ton of the minor swirling too. Both of these polishes are great and I am so thankful to Ketil for hooking me up with them. I will be getting more of the Scholl Concepts lineup soon. If you have not had a chance to deal with Ketil and Scandicshine take the opportunity to do it because you won't be disappointed and get some Scholl Concepts while you are at it! Anyway here are a few before and after shots of the polishing and what Scholl Concepts can do: Wetsanding: Well I had been pestering richy and Asphalt Rocket about wetsanding and what I needed to do and both helped me tremendously. I had been wanting to do this and this was the perfect car. There were some scratches on the hood near the wiper cowl that were rough. So I got my 2000 grit paper that had been soaking for a number of hours and my Megs sanding pad/squeegee thing and some water/dish soap mixture and started sanding in one direction. I would wipe it and check it and then do a little more until I thought I had it. Well I was happy so far because it looked like what I see you guys do so I figured with AR and richy's advice I was on the right track. Next I decided to try my hand at the Megs M105 and the foamed wool pad since I had been having ZERO luck with that combo. I decided to use it again after a tip from Deep Gloss Details on it. I used it for 15 seconds at 1500 rpms, and did this twice and it cleaned it up much to my amazement. I then took the S17 with a finishing pad and polished it off to a great shine and NO scratches. Here is a sample of before/during/ and after. The during is not a great pic but I hope you can see it. LSP: I decided that she needed a really durable sealant now that the polishing was over so I did a double layer of ZFX'd Zaino Z5 Pro. I applied it with the CGs Stage 3 foam applicator and that really helps in applying thin. If you have a product you need to apply thinly and struggle with it get you some of these applicators and they will do the trick. Thats what I use when applying Rubbish Boys OE and it works like a champ! Well I buffed off the Zaino with the CGs 530 XL MFs. The car turned out great and was a nice gift for going off to college. She was so thrilled she said she was going to make her Mom park outside and the Jeep was going in the garage at night until she leaves for school. She was happy but I don't think Mom will be :applause2:. Well here are before and after photos: Random and reflection shots:
Great work man. Sounds like the Strong Wash and Megs HD I traded you have become staples. BTW you should see if you can work on those headlights.
Man, that is awesome! My favorite things are the wicked custom exhaust pipe and the choice front license plate!
Thanks doc I was very pleased with the turnaround. Oh yeah I told you that you had the coolest stuff I had not tried! Both are in my aresenal for good as a matter of fact I bought a gallon of the Strong Wash. I wanted to do the headlights and even took close up before pics but I was beat at the end of the day and it will have to wait for another day. I am going to get to them just like the interior for her but it will be a little while. Thanks it was a long hot day but the results were worth it. Thanks AR! I appreciate all the help you gave me on this one too. You made the wetsanding a breeze! Man I must admit I was pleasantly surprised at how well the tailpipe came out with very little effort. Megs WB and Autosol are a killer combo! Thanks Mate! Gotta love kickin' it Air Brush Style! LOL
Thanks bud it did make quite the transformation! Looking forward to it. Thanks Ketil I couldn't have done it without you and scandicshine.
Well done there JL, vehicle looks great...man that's a great vehicle to have as a student and you sure made it look good :worship2: I agree the exhaust tip looks great, it's strange lately I've been so focused on exhaust tips it's crazy lol. What did you think of Autosol? Thank you for sharing and as always job well done :applause:
Thanks bro and a huge thanks for the advice on M105, now that I seem to have the hang of it I'll be using it more often. Thanks Nica! You know I thought the Megs WB did a great job on the pipe and it did look good but the Autosol just took it to another level. I have been really really pleased with the Autosol so far. I used it before on some chrome trim on a Jeep Commander but that trim wasn't in bad shape so it was hard to gauge how much the Autosol really did. This however was proof positive at how good the stuff works! You get a huge :thumb: for bringing this product to my attention!
Glad your happy with Autosol, I'm very pleased with it bu tyou know what I keep forgettin to use Meg's WB on the tips, I could have used it on the vehicle I just finished :doh: Well next time I'll remember the tip :thumb:
