I did a detail for the customer a couple of weeks ago (Cadillac XLR). Last week I went back to work on this older truck with only 56*** miles on it. I was asked to clean it up for his son. How do you "clean up" a car that is over 20 years old? I only know one way to improve black paint unfortunately. So that is what I did. Having fresh bottles of each product I started on a small section to test what pads I'd need to level the paint, which was thick enough. Interestingly the front fenders and hood were repainted at some point, even though the client had no clue. The original paint is flat black but the repaint seemed to have flakes in it and the hood is in pretty poor state and should be resprayed in my opinion. The one good thing about the paint was it's hardness. I really enjoyed working on it since I didn't have to stress whether I will mar the paint or not. It corrected pretty easy and I could wipe off the polish residue with no issues at all. Anyway, I used UNO and a black wool pads on the Griots PC to level. This combo worked very well. Next step was an Orange/yellow pad on the Flex 3401 and POLISH. This step cleaned up the paint perfectly, it was ready to be protected. However, I just had to do an additional step to get the best out of this color. I have to tell you, this black was one of the blackest paints I've ever worked on. Even with all the Orange Peel, the paint looked phenomenal. Out came SPEED and a black pad on the Griots PC (my favorite pad with speed to finish with). Unless you try SPEED you really don't understand my enthusiasm about the finish it leaves behind. I protected the finish with POXY. As far as I know, this car is very rarely driven, so it should stay looking great for a long time. Here are some random pictures I took throughout the detail. General condition of the paint - this is the hood P1070397 by thomasdekany, on Flickr Improved after 3 steps P1070451 by thomasdekany, on Flickr Left front fender was the worst panel. For some reason it had more water spots that the rest of the truck P1070414 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070415 by thomasdekany, on Flickr Cleaned up the front fender P1070438 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070439 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070440 by thomasdekany, on Flickr RIDS, SWIRLS, you name it P1070416 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070416 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070417 by thomasdekany, on Flickr Much improved P1070419 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070421 by thomasdekany, on Flickr Some random shots P1070429 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070399 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070401 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070411 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070437 by thomasdekany, on Flickr All done P1070462 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070461 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070460 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070459 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070456 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070458 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070455 by thomasdekany, on Flickr P1070453 by thomasdekany, on Flickr
Damn that looks good! That wool pad really cleaned up that mess of a paint job. Sent from my HTC Sensation using Tapatalk 2
thomas, is SPEED another hd product? possibly a finishing polish. i have been using the hd polish with softer pads but would love to try another of their line. thanks dave in sweet home
Thank you guys - speed is an all in one product. Best by far I have ever used. Dave you have HD POLISH?
