Some days you get a car which is more of a challenge than others, even if they look fairly innocent at the start of the day! This Grand Vitara was one of these cars, the subject of a full exterior detail by myself, Gordon (caledonia) and Davy (badly_dubbed). The car on arrival in Edinburgh was not hugely dirty, and looked in good condition: Unlike a lot of my details however, this was to be carried out essentially outdoors (private car park), which as those who are regular mobile detailers will tell you, presents a set of different challenges to those you face when unit based The car was washed and clayed ready for machine polishing, and now it was clear to see the paint finish - not bad by any means, light to medium marks with a few deeper ones here and there... Depending on the paint requirements around the car, most regions received a two stage machine polish - that is a correction polish, followed by a finishing polish for refining and ensuring the gloss and clarity are the best possible. After testing various combinations out on a test region on the bonnet to assess what the paint required (I always do this - start light and build to reach the desired combination, this serves to achieve the results with the minimum removal of paint which is key to the longevity of the finish after detailing). The chosen correction polish was Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish applied using a white 5.5" Chemical Guys Hexlogic pad. The paint on this car was found to be sticky, the polish tending to dry a little and higher panel temperatures experienced which was compensated for by making more passes at slower speeds to coax the polish into life... Spread at 600rpm Begin working at 900rpm, several slow light passes until residue evenly spread Speed up to 1200rpm keeping pressure light, montoring panel temperature Work at 1500rpm until residue clear, light to moderate pressure, continuing to monitor heat No refinement made, this was left to the finishing polish which followed, which today was chosen to be Menzerna PO85RD Final Finish, applied as follows... The heat buildup was still notable with this polish, but the rotary glided much more easily... Spread at 600rpm Begin working at 1200rpm, light pressure and slow machine movements to spread residue Work at 1500rpm, steady machine movements and light to moderate pressure monitoring the panel temperature Refine at 1200rpm, light pressure and slow machine movements Burnish at 900rpm, light pressure and slow machine movements The paint required you to keep your wits truly about you, constantly monitoring temperatures to keep the low when finishing as raising them shortened the life of the polish and would contribute to reducing the quality of the finish achieved. The next minor issue with this paint finish was its tendancy to mark - very gentle pressure with the microfibres was required which made residue removal more difficult. Very careful IPA wipedowns were performed but ultimately, we went for a very different pre-LSP preparation procedure: double strength Optimum No Rinse, after an IPA wipedown, which removed the light dust which the car was picking up in the car park between wipedown and LSP. This ensured no marring was inflcited during LSP and highlighted a fantastic use for ONR, a product that comes in very hand when you lease expect it too! :thumb: The end results of this machine polishing on the bonnet... Rear 3/4... You can still see very slight evidence of product residue in some shots, which was removed fully using ONR which allowed a safer method on this paintwork without inflicting any marring to the freshly polished paint. Working outdoors has its joys, and does mean you need to box clever if you are in pursuit of the best possible finish on more awkward paints. Gordon worked away on the rear of the car, using 3" pads to cut into every detail surrounding the tail, the metal halide lights proving very worthy tools for assessing the quality of the finish - they highlight far far more than 500W halogens! The front end of the car after finishing was showing a lovely deep gloss... And under the Sun Gun, was proving to be nicely defect free with good clarity for the metallic flake... Some regions of the car were refined using the G220 and 85RD, and a 3M Blue finishing pad... owing to wind blowing dust through the car park, it was necessary to keep the work area very small to guard against dust pick up during the set - this made the rotary impractical on sections exposed to more dust as the very small working areas were causing too high a heat buildup for finishing purposes. So the good old DA was pulled into action here and there, with a work area of absolutely 1' square max and the following application technique: Spread polish at speed 2 Work for three or four passes on speed 4 to evenly spread residue Work on speed 5, moderate head pressure and slow machine movements for around 3 or 4 minutes until residue clear Care had to be taken when removing residue not to pick up any dust as the smallest piece of grit would mark the finish. IPA wipedown performed, again with very light pressure over very small areas at a time after first lightly dusting the finish. Full removal of any remaiining residue was left for the ONR wash at the end. After pics of a couple of DA'd regions... Times like this do make you very glad of your detailing unit ... But sometimes you just have to adapt your style to your work environment - its all part of the fun :thumb: More afters from around the car... The front wing, looking lovely and glossy under the garage lighting... Thoroughly checked by Sun Gun to ensure no marks, or marring left in the finish... Following an ONR wipedown, the glass was cleaned with Duragloss 751, trim and tyres with Chemical Guys New Look and then the paint protected with Duragloss 111 sealant. After shots, indoors I'm afraid in the car park as the car was being parked up readied for a long trip and then its move to another country Have to say, I was loving the depth in the bonnet This car was a challenge, but very rewarding in the end - and we do enjoy a challenge!! :thumb:
Dave...sounds like your work would have been cut in half if you were able to do it in your shop. Good lesson there. Congrats for pulling it off!
Nice work given the situation you had to deal with! That hood is giving some great reflections ! well done :applause:
