This car I've been dreading for a while. It belongs to a good friend of mine, and I've been trying to convince him to have this done while kicking myself at the same time. It's tax return time so here we go! There's a big Nissan meet tomorrow, and he had a dyno/tuning appointment 8hrs after I had the car. This was going to be interesting. :applause2: I knew the car was bad -- it sat for 2 years while he was trying to figure out which engine swap he wanted to go with. And it was neglected. Apparently, someone tried to polish it before me, as the evidence will show. I left my washmitt at home :shead:... so I had to use a EuroW towel for the wash. It worked quite well but wasn't exactly what I wanted. Oh well. I didn't need worry about scratches too much. Products Used: Wash Gilmour Foam Gun (Loaded with Maxi-Suds II) 2 Bucket Wash Method with Optimum Car Soap EuroW Wash "mitt" APC SwissVax Detail Brush Wheels/Tires AutoGlym Custom Wheel Cleaner Raceglaze XL SwissVax Wheel Brush Two (2) coats of White Pearls Tire Dressing Protected with Werkstat Prime: Acrylic Clay "Ebay" Gray clay (This feels identical to the CG White) Optimum No Rinse (old formula) at clay lube strength Polish Uber Yellow LC Flat Green Uber Blue LC CCS Black Menzerna Power Finish PO203S Menzerna Power Gloss Menzerna 85RD Protection Two (2) coats of Menzerna PowerLock One (1) coat of RBOE (Rubbish Boy's Original Edition) Glass Chemical Guys Window Clean DI Glass ww towels Metal CG Metal Shine Microfiber Drying -- DetailedImage WW Drying (my favorite drying towel) Doorjambs + dirty stuff -- "throwaway" towels from Roger Polish Removal -- EuroW plush towels Onto the writeup! Upon delivery I knew I had my work cut for me for 8hrs. Umm.....Crap:thud: Pretty standard here -- nothing too terrible Foamed with Maxi Suds II WHAT?!!? Scrubbing the mold/pollen/crap/pine needles out of all the nooks and crannies Wash buckets (No grit guard in the rinse bucket -- not worried about scratching with this job) Washing with my ultra rare EuroW Wash "mitt" :drinking2: Onto claying. I knew this was going to be mighty "fun" so I grabbed my most aggressive and cheapest clay. I still needed 3 chunks. 1 208oz bar I cut into 6ths... so half a HUGE claybar on this car. After 2 panels All clayed and dried! Not much of a crisp reflection Front bumper was spraypainted with no CC. I washed it (kinda) and left it alone at owner's request. Now the inspection I was really dreading. IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH CLOSE THIS THREAD NOW Burn through, on the C Pillar What? Carbon Fiber hood is very faded and dull, not sure what I'll be able to do with this Um....:thud: I avoided this area like the Plague. Hm.. odd scuff Another scuff Fairly deep scratches Under the halogens, the entire car looked like this Alrighty, now we're onto polishing. Fender before The fender on the left was hit with 1 pass of PO203 on an LC Flat Green pad and the door on the right is the control. Not quite enough correction for what I was after New weapon.... the uber yellow! Much better! For some reason I used an LC Flat Green pad with 85rd (I was on drugs I guess) and went to finish.. by the time I was halfway through my pass I realized I had on the green pad! The results were great though! 50/50 action? Okay! Still some RIDS, but not worth chasing after seeing the previous "detailer" burned through a few spots I knew my arsenal for the paint, so it was onto the hood while I was in "experimentation mode" so I grabbed the LC Flat Green pad and some power finish and I thought I could get some more. I stepped up to Power gloss and got another Flat Green pad and here's the results from my test area! this was hard to photograph From here I had to stop taking pictures and get to work. I snapped a few during, but not much. 50/50 of the taillights After I was all done polishing and wiping down with IPA... It was on to 2 coats of PowerLock! I love this sealant. Put two TINY dots on your pad and you can do two panels. Once the pad was soaked a bit I didn't even need anymore. Fantastic spreading action! An hour after the Powerlock cured it was on with the RBOE! 45 minute cure time on the RBOE while Acrylic: Priming the wheels, dressing the tires, wiping the door jambs and other misc things.... and it was time to get it outside for sexy pictures! Unfortunately there wasn't much for sun at this point Not a hologram in sight! Much better reflection (minus the orange peel) 10000% improvement Oh yes Carbon Fiber was a major milestone, the owner was floored at my work on the hood! Is that a sexy Subaru in the background. Oh, the 240 is nice looking too. A little rboe residue by the Nissan emblem (this damned thing wouldn't get clean) :sorry: but he had me debadge it... no fading after having badges on it for 12 years! Nice! It was a fun marathon and a lot of work! The owner was ecstatic and rushed off to his dyno/tuning appointment! Thanks for looking! :gidiup:
Lol! Ok, still risky though when you detail. Dang, the wifey must have you by the balls that she won't let you take it off even when you detail. :giggle:
Pictures look great man! I love the z wheels on those cars! That car had to feel like a 5 o'clock shadow before claying lol.
The Naked Detailer (cheers JamieO) No I'm not suggesting you detail your vehicle without any clothes on (although what you do in the privacy of your own garage...) But just be aware that jewellery, watches, rings, clothing with metal buttons, rivets or exposed zippers, or belt buckles can very easily be rubbed against the vehicle surface causing deep paint surface scratches
How could she have him by the balls? I hear she keeps them locked up in the house somewhere! Great job Ty! Too bad there was so much damage to the car before you got it. 50/50s looked great.
some nice results you got out of that job. The car was pretty hash to say the least but looks excellent now.