Where to start. Well I guess wash. 38* to start the day off. I dropped down to 28 by the time i left at 7 pm. It was snowing on the way home. Overall the car had almost no swirling. the exceptions were around the hood emblem, roof, and verticals on the passenger rear. It did not have much depth, clarity, or color definition. The wheels had a fair amount of asphalt in them. The air boxes needed to be polished and sealed. Muffler can polished, titanium tips polished, etc. Pre-wash pictures. Wash photos. The car had been clayed with swisswax paint rubber. Using ONR QD strength as a lube. Taped off. As you can see the Claying brought out a lot of gloss, I did not however do much for depth or for color definition. This is after polishing. As i had mentioned there were few swirls, mostly it was wipe, rub, or scratching. I started out with 3m ultrafina on a blue pad. It did not have enough cut to remove the marring on the front. It also gave me a fair bit of chirping on the paint. I switched to 106 at 1000-1500-1000 and it improved greatly. The main areas with scratching and marring still remained. I stepped up to SIP green pad 1000-1500-1000 for those areas. That removed 98% of what could be removed. The rest i deemed needed 4k paper. The car was then polished out with 106 white pad. I only took two-3 pics of it polished out. Why, well by that point it was 5 pm, I did not have a whole bunch of time left. I then applied swiss wax cleaner fluid to the rear 2/3rds of the car. Flex speed 2 to apply 4 to work in, black pad. The front was to receive venture shield the following week. I did not want cleaner fluid to interfere with the venture shield application. So i left that area bare. I removed the cleaner fluid. By this time it is fully dark out. I started on the hand application of Concourso. Again only one picture, time was running out. I still had a fair amount to do that day. Photo's of the car after concourso removal. Okay here it is a week later, venture shield has been installed. I have returned to finish up the front apply the remaining concourso, and 2nd layer of concourso. Today's temp was hovering around 36*. First the car received an ONR Wash. You can see the venture shield slip solution drippings and drops all over the car. to my surprise this was fairly sticky and tacky. ONR made quick work of it though. I'll use this picture to illustrate a point. From this angle the car looks near flawless. I bumped up the shadow contrast 4 points. Here it is at another angle, I lowered high light detail fully. (i shoot raw and convert to jpg.) That is the remaining slip solution, ONR cleaned it up very easily. Look just under the passenger mirror. One of the requests by the customer was to polish out both air boxes, and the muffler can. before engine bay wipe down. Note the can, and air boxes. Engine bay is wiped down. I did my first test polish of the driver side air box. I went back over it with lc green 106ff speed 6, then lc white 106 speed six after this photo. Both air boxes fully polished. Notice the matte finish on the fire wall carbon fiber versus the air box. On to the can. First step was to wipe it down with mothers billet by hand. and then wip it off. Next step was to Green LC mothers billet at speed 6 times 3. Yeah there was that much goo on there. Then Adams number 2 on white LC speed 6 times 2. Notice the glossy air boxes. I did not get all of the scratching out of the can. I wish i could have used my rotary in that space. I simply was unwilling to put the edge of the pads so close to the lip of the carbon air boxes. I stuck with my PC. I think it is a huge improvement. Not as great as i would have liked, but better safe than sorry. I finished out the rest of the carbon, aluminum with Klasse AIO Onto the interior carbon. the customer had expressed a wish to have the interior carbon lightly polished and sealed. I used Klasse aio by hand. After interior wipe down I used swiss wax cleaner fluid on the front, then started concourso on the un waxed portion of the car. After the car's second layer of concourso on to the under carriage. It was a bit of a mess, not bad by any means. Just dusty for the most part. After steam cleaning, dressing. the photo's were taken as the dressing was drying. So it will appear a little blotchy. Fin. Thanks to the owner for the opportunity to do this. ~Aaron
Very nice!! I cant believe you have a lift in your garage!!. Looks awesome. Great job on that air box.
I've been wondering when you were going to post this one Grouse, incredable detail my friend. Your attention to detail is mind blowing well done the engine bay looks gorgeous well done. So you used the steamer on the undercarage, nice. Was that the only area where you used the steamer? Just curious. Vehicle looks great, what did you think of Concourso? Oh how bad was the clearcoat? Sorry for all the questions but gorgeous detail :applause: thank you for sharing.
Thanks, no i used the steamer the first day on all the vents, defuser, cross hatch grills, wheels, and wheel wells. I've used concourso quite a bit. I am about 1/2 through my can on 2 dozen cars or so. It's a great wax. I had hoped to have a sample of vintage to use on this car. The dealer i was trying to buy it from does not have any in stock. even though it says he does on his site. Clear coat was fine, minor bits of marring, a bit of tire gel and asphalt on the paint but that is it. the car has sub 1000 miles right now.
How is the steamer on the wheel wells, I mean I'm assuming it will work the following way. You steam the wheel wells and then wipe if down or just pressure wash it? Now the vents, that's something I'm very interested on using, do you use it the same way meaning you steam the vents and then you use an air compresor with a MG towel and wipe it down? I remember how you had that yellow MF on the head of the steamer and you would go around the interior but the vents I'm curious how you would use it. Hope you don't mind the questions just curious, I've been chatting with Kevin on getting me one and we are just working out the final details :applause2:
For vents i steam it with the towel on, then i have a tool with a towel wrapped around it. poke it into the vent to wipe dry and clean. For wheel wells i use the steam to help loosen gunk. spray it with p21s or blitz. agitate, steam, pressure wash. on the wheels, pressure wash goo off, p21s wheel gel, agitate, steam clean, steam off any road tar. rinse when rinsing car. on low this has so little moisture that you would not really need to dry the interior vents. they will flash over very quickly.
Wicked info Grouse :applause: oh since you mentioned tar, have you tried using the steamer to remove tar on the surface of the paint? Just curious.
Veeeeeeeeeeeeery Nice Detail and write up! That was an exceptional engine detail! Do you go as far as "bellingvue" or something like that? A customer of mine was asking about it.
Nica, There is some debate on using 300* hot steam on standard clearcoat paints. I have not done so yet. I have used it around trim, window gaskets, door jams, and wheels. It will melt off asphalt chunks from rims in nothing flat. fminus, I live in bellevue, are you asking about bellingham? It all depends on the customer and work desired. When traveling that far i take it on a case by case basis.
Yea I figured it would be geat on door jams, I can't wait to get my steamer..when I get it I'll give it a try on the paint of the Jeep..thing has so much rust it wont make a difference :thumb: Hopefully I'll get mine soon :waiting2: :waiting2: :waiting2: Thank you for the info Grouse :thumb:
