Rotary Virgin! [Mercury Tracer]

So this crappy economy has actually resulted in something fun for me this year. Instead of mass lay offs due to the economy, my work (Hitachi GST, hard drives) has mandated shutdowns throughout the year (4th of july, thanksgiving, and christmas), and we are also required to take 1 day off of work every month we don't have a shut down. Luckily I have enough vacation so I didn't have to take time off without pay. So this gives me the opportunity every month to have a 3 day weekend take on a big detailing project!

I've been gearing up for this since Christmas and I'm really excited about trying all of this stuff out. I've been searching for my first victim, I mean, customer for a while now, but the only one dumb enough was my girlfriend . Luckily she has the perfect car. I used my Highline PTG and measured some fairly thick paint throughout her car, between 150 microns to 200+ microns.

Carrie has had her 1997 Mercury Tracer since her junior year in high school (2000), so she has had plenty of years to beat it up. She has never parked it in doors, and the trees on campus basically tar and feather [i.e. sap and flower/pollen] her car. The car rarely ever gets a wash and is all around pretty bad shape.

I would also like to thank Carrie for helping me with the detail. I think she had a lot of fun! I'm really thankful we can share something we both enjoy. Hopefully I can trick her into helping me with my future projects.

We spent approximately 35 wo/man hours on this car over 3 days. We would have spent more time, but we actually found a new house to rent this same weekend, so that took some time out of the day. Anyways, thanks for looking, and enjoy!

Products:

Engine
-CG Grime reaper
-CG Fade2Black
-Swissvax wheel brush

Wash
-CG CWC
-LC grout sponge
-Two bucket, grit guards
-Karcher 1400 psi
-HD foam lance

Wheel wash
-P21s wheel gel
-CG Grime reaper for wheel wells
-Swissvax wheel brush
-OTC nylon wheel brush
-DD spoke brush

Clay
-CG gray clay
-CG speedwipe

Polish
-Megs M105
-Megs W66 Back plate
-LC PFW 6.5"
-3M UK green 75mm
-Gloss-it 3" BP
-Craftsmen halogen light
-50/50 IPA
-Makita 9227C
-Highline PTG

Interior
-1Z cockpit premium
-1Z Gummi
-1Z plastic cleaner
-CG Lightning fast
-303 fabric guard
-Bissell proheat
-Swissvax leather brush (used as upholstery/carpet brush)

Glass
-Sprayway

Trim
-1Z rubber/vinyl
-CG fade2black

Wheels
-CG Barebones for wheel well dressing
-Collinite 845

LSP
-Duragloss 501
-Duragloss 601
-Duragloss 105
-Collinite 845

Towels
-DD Uber red WW drying towels
-DD Uber red (a lot)
-DD Glass towels





























The amount of junk in her car is astounding! As you can see from the other interior pictures it has 9 years worth of stuff inside of it. From left to right: A box full of stuff (google map print outs, mail, razor blades, candy, spool of 18 gauge wire, broken alternator, oil filter, jumper cables, a ruler with an image of every American President, etc.), 16 gatorades for Aikido, some moving boxes, one panel of a bowling lane (yes, you read that correctly), scrap steel for her undergrad projects she finished 3 years ago, 4 bowling bowls and their bags, window washer fluid, and some anti freeze to top things off.


First off I washed the engine. I diluted CG Grime Reaper 5:1 with distilled water. The mixing measurements stamped onto the side of the 24 oz US plastics spray bottle is very useful for this. Grime reaper worked phenomenally. I dressed it with CG Fade2Black. It turned out well, but I still like CD2 more.
Before:


After:




Next step was to clean up around the seals of the trunk, the gas door, the wheels, and the wheel wells. I used Grime Reaper on the trunk seals, gas door, and the wheel wells. I used P21s gel on the wheels, but just like all of you guys... for the amount I had to use, P21s wheel gel gets very expensive. Sorry, no wheel pictures, forgot to take them. Unfortunately I wasn't able to completely clean up the wheels, there was this brownish grime I could get rid of. I'll take some pictures later to get some feed back on how to attack it.




Carrie and I then clayed the car with CG gray clay and used CG speed wipe as lube. This is my first time using it and it works great. I have had only used CG's blue poly clay before and I like the traditional clay much more because of how malleable it is.


Now on to polishing. This is my first time polishing with a rotary so it took me a very long time to figure out what pad/product combination I should use to correct the paint. As you call recommend, I started at the least aggressive (106FF w/ LC white pad) then tried various combinations with LC white/green/orange 3M UK blue/yellow with 106f, SIP, and M105. I tried to stay under 1500 rpm's, so nothing really had enough bite to it, so I went all the way up to PFW with M105. Then I had to figure out how to use M105! It is very different from the menz polishes. The work time is so short! I finally figured out that I had to ramp up to the highest rpm (600 -> 900 -> 1500rpm) very quickly, then come down (1500 -> 900 -> 600) with a couple passes. I'm not sure if coming down is necessary with M105, but I didn't do any testing. I did try PFW/M105 at around 2000 rpm's and quickly discovered I induced hologramming, so I quickly reduced the RPM's. At around 1 PM on the 3rd day I finished polishing the car with PFW/M105. I basically didn't have enough time to really top it off with 85RD with a 3M UK blue pad, so I decided I can always come back and try again in a couple months. Hopefully I'll be faster by then!














I tried clearing the headlights too but I wasn't able to get 100% correction. I tried to fit the 6.5" PFW/M105 onto the pad, but I couldn't get it to touch the edges, esp. near the bumper. I tried using a 4" 3M uk green pad with a gloss-it back plate and M105, but I couldn't get it to correct the hazing on the right hand head light. I'm hoping a plastic polish will do the trick. I'll also post some more pictures of this later for some help.
Before:


After:


Carrie took care of the entire interior detailing while I was working on the body. She took some pictures of a stain she's had since she first got the car. This is CG Lightning Fast with a Bissell pro-heat and a Swissvax leather brush (I need another one of these to actually use on leather...). Came out very easily!






This is Carrie's first time seeing the foam cannon in action. As you can see... I was washing in the sun... I know it's a big no no, but I had no choice because we were running out of time. I also made a mistake assuming a wash would completely get rid of the dusting from the polish all over the car. I'll discuss this more later.






Onto the LSP. I did an IPA wipe down after the wash to remove any leftover polish. I decided to go for maximum protection and went with Duragloss 501 -> 601 -> 105 -> Collinite 845. I wanted to give her a fighting chance against the tar and feathering on campus. I applied 501 and 105 with a LC flat black pad on a UDM, and used a red ccs applicator for the 601 and 845. Along the way we used the rest of the 1Z products for the trim, and Sprayway for the glass. Sorry for the lack of interior pictures though! You'll have to trust me that Carrie did an awesome job! I hope you all enjoy the results!








I think the s2000 is getting jealous!!!






















Lessons learned:
1) Her door handles don't have a clear coat on them! My 3M UK green pad became a Christmas ornament
2) A 6.5" pad is much much much hard to control than a 5.5" pad... there are also big differences from pad to pad. I LOVE the LC green pad and all of the 3M pads.
3) Always wear a mask while applying LSP. I wore a mask the entire time until the third day. I felt pretty sick afterwards.
4) I need a better method of handling dusting from polish. After I finished with M105 I assumed that a foam cannon wash/rinse would be enough to remove all of the dusting, but while applying the duragloss 501 I discovered that some was still on the paint and I was marring the paint with it!!!! ALL OF MY BEAUTIFUL WORK! :doh: As a result you can still some some swirls in the paint, which really makes me upset, but it still looks significantly better than before. Next time I'm thinking of covering the nearby panels that I'm not working on with blankets, kind of like what I do with my soft top for the s2k. If anyone else has any other suggestions I would really appreciate it!
5) I haven't had much experience, but my s2000 spoiled me. A 2 door, soft top convertible is soooo much faster to do everything!

One complaint:
I had a great experience with the Gloss-it 3" backplate with the small 3M UK green pad, but I noticed as I was finishing up with the polish, the foam is starting to tear on Gloss-it backplate! Basically where the foam of the back plate meets the velcro. I don't think I didn't anything wrong. I keep the RPM's within reasonable ranges and I didn't apply excessive pressure. I think I'm going to email Gloss-it about it.

 

It looks amazing, what a turnaround. She must be really happy. :mounty: For the dusting wiping with a clean wool duster and a wash usually takes care of it for me. You should go over everything before the LSP though.

 

Great turnaround!

 

Great job man.

 

Just started with a rotary too. It takes time but you learn what product and pad combos work best. Great restoration though. You should be very happy.

 

dude..you did a great job on that car!! don't worry about how long it took you..that will improve with practice. i can tell by the halogen reflections that you did good work with the rotary. i bet your gf will be much better to her baby now that she took part in its revival! your protection regime is killer...

 

Looked like the beginings of a garden under the trunk with all that dirt in there :giggle:

Nice work on that one :thumb:

 

Great detail...Way to go...You did awesome...Not to worry about time...just results...:thumb:

 

Great Job player! One thing to note, as I am on a similar experience level as yourself, I looked at the panels I had attacked this past weekend myself with my Makita on our '03 Corolla. Some areas have some light holograming and other areas didn't. I kept the RPM's around the same speed all around, not higher than speed 4 or just under.

Maybe someone can chime in if that is due to the length of time working M105. I also spritzed the pad and/or panel with distilled water and kept working the M105, don't know if that helped or hurt me regarding the holograms. I'm gonna keep playing with it also.

 

Great job HC, especially for your first time with the rotary!

A few pieces of advice for you. The headlights looked pretty bad and I think you'll need to wet sand them, compound them and then polish them to get them a little clearer. Another thing is that there's nothing wrong with washing in the sun so long as you have a CRSpotless or similar deionized water system. As far as getting rid of the polishing dust, did you do an IPA wipe down after the foam and pressure rinse?

If you ever need any help, Aaron and I are just a skip away. Just give us a buzz and we'll be happy to help you out.

 

What a turnaround, very niice Oh, and who`s nice passat do we see in the background??

About the backingplate, how did you remove the pads from it? Did you split the pad from the backinplate using your finger og just tear it off?

 

awesome turn around !

Hey quick question how do you like the Bissell Proheat?

 

Nice one mate, looks like your missus had a good time helping!

 

lol, unfortunately there isn't much we can do to protect her car from building up that compost heap! We'll just have to make sure we regularly wash it.

Thanks for the tips! I regularly spritzed the pad with pinnacle XMT pad conditioner. I was hoping to increase the work time just like you, and I did notice a small increase in work time. I know what you mean about the holograming at higher RPM's (>3). Is there a good combo to use a higher RPM with M105 (to cut more), but then remove the holograms? Maybe M105 -> 106FF?

I didn't even think about wetsanding the headlights... hmm what grit? i have some 2000 grit already, need something more coarse? I did do an IPA wipe down, but it felt like I didn't have enough lubricity. Maybe I wasn't spraying enough? I should really check my towels again soon, my garage has a lot of pine needles and shrubry that gets blown into it by the wind. It's not the most ideal environment. I mainly did the foam wash because it's fun and I thought it would be quick way to remove the dust, but I could do a ONR wipe down. Thanks for offering some help! You, me, and Aaron should grab some lunch some time.

Hahaha, my house actually has a rear unit studio, it belongs to the guy that lives in that rear unit. Also.... it's an Audi A4 :giggle: About the backplate, I actually didn't take the pad off during the detail, but once I saw the damage I carefully pulled the two velcro pieces apart, not the pads themselves.

Thanks! I really like the size, but I was hoping for more suction and the water definitely isn't very hot. I'm not a pro, so it fits my needs just fine, esp. for the price, I think you get a good value. I haven't used the extra attachment either, but the main head works fine. well.. just one complaint, the water has a very wide spray (about 1 foot wide), so you can't really just soak a small area.

 

After reading this thread I saw in another location that using M105 is best up to about 1500rpm. I would try M205 to finish after. Otherwise you may have to try some other products with a white pad or finishing pad to see if it removes the holograms/swirls...

Someone correct me regarding the M105 operating speed if I'm incorrect or not on the right path.

 

if this is a Audi A4:



I owe you a swissvax concorso

 

awesome write up and super job...what a turnaround......

 

Now that's what detailing is all about...

Fantastic job :thumb::thumb::thumb:

 

LOL now that i think about it.... there was something off about his car. Here's another angle:



The tail lights look a lot like:



but I am 99% sure I never saw "passat" or a giant VW emblem on the back of his car.... he must have rebadged it >.< now i'm ashamed to live on the same property. As luck will have it, he literally moved out last night. I'll see if I have more pictures of it somewhere.

 

Yeah, it's definitely a Passat, LoL.