richy
New member
- Mar 27, 2007
- 5,158
- 0
OK, so maybe you can tell from the title that I was a little excited about doing this vehicle. I fell in love with them at the Detroit Auto show several years ago, and, to me, they haven't lost any of their panache. This is a repeat customer for whom I did a detail using CQF on a brand new Jag F type. (They obviously have great taste in vehicles!)
Anyway, it was booked in for a wheels-off, CQF detail. There was one small scratch in the RF passenger door that was easily dealt with. Other than that, it was a joy to work on. Of course, being white, it had contamination to deal with. More on that in a bit.
Here she is as it arrived:
The afore-mentioned scratch:
First up as always for me is the wheels. I thought these would be a GREAT test vehicle for the PWC wheel cleaner that I had reviewed on AG a few weeks ago. However, the barrels were also nasty and I wanted to use my go-to Tarminator on those first. Tarminator plays the best on a dry wheel I find. I shot the barrel with Tarminator and agitated with my Daytona brush. (Yes, my arms looked like I had some funky disease). Without rinsing it off, I then applied the PWC cleaner directly to the barrel and the face and allowed it to sit. I wondered if it would work #1 and also whether it would play nice with Tarminator #2. Well, here is a wheel after a few minutes of dwell time:
So, ya, I'd say it worked just fine. That process was repeated on each of the remaining wheels. The barrels were cleaned with LA Totally Awesome and the tires cleaned twice with Zep 505.
It was then sprayed down with IronX and allowed to dwell. The sides were not as bad as I expected them to be. There ended up being some contamination higher up that I had to deal with at claying. The car was then washed with Megs HW and then again for a 2nd decontamination stage using IronX paste and a wash mitt.
I then brought it inside to clay. I started using my CarPro clay towel but found there was some contamination that didn't get removed chemically, and the clay towel was ineffective in removing as well so I busted out my Riccardo blue clay and after warming it up for 30 seconds in the microwave, used it to remove the contamination on the paint. That did the trick just fine.
Now was wheel removal time. You think you got the wheels pretty clean using the various brushes, and it looks that way when they're still on the car. But, removal is the only way to get it thoroughly clean. Check out this barrel that I had cleaned while on the car:
You can see where the spokes are make it difficult to reach the complete area. The wheel was intensively cleaned with Tarminator and then I used Duragloss Squeaky Clean chemical cleaner to ensure nothing was left on the surface. Here it is after having used the SC:
The barrel was then double coated in CQF. Here it is all done:
The face was also double coated:
While waiting between coats, the caliper was cleaned and coated too. I also did an intensive cleaning of the plastic wells (up front only, the rears were fabric). The plastic wells were then coated with the beta sample of the DG trim coating:
After installing the wheel back on, I shot the tire with Opti Bond from my spray gun prior to lowering the wheel, so it could get completely treated. The wheel was then lowered and torqued back to spec.
Now it was time to smoke a cigar...oops, play with paint! What I ended up settling on for a good shine and to remove some slight imperfections was a yellow B/S pad + Sonax Perfect Finish + Flex 3401. I ran it at 4.5-5 so as to not get it too hot. That seemed to work. I followed that step with DG Squeaky Clean + white B/S + Flex to ensure proper bonding, and to chemically clean the paint as well. I love using a white pad with SC as it will show what it is pulling from the paint. The pad stayed white so I knew it was good, clean paint that was left.
The windshield and back glass got a double coat of Forte. The paint, head and tail lights and glass top panel were all double coated with CQF. The trim was done with DLux.
Here are some inside shots first:
Now THAT'S how a barrel should look!
Dlux looking amazing too!
I might be small, but I come from a mighty family!!
I don't think there's a bad angle on this thing at all!
DG Trim looking amazing!
Some white reflection shots:
Thanks for looking! Comments always appreciated!
Anyway, it was booked in for a wheels-off, CQF detail. There was one small scratch in the RF passenger door that was easily dealt with. Other than that, it was a joy to work on. Of course, being white, it had contamination to deal with. More on that in a bit.
Here she is as it arrived:
The afore-mentioned scratch:
First up as always for me is the wheels. I thought these would be a GREAT test vehicle for the PWC wheel cleaner that I had reviewed on AG a few weeks ago. However, the barrels were also nasty and I wanted to use my go-to Tarminator on those first. Tarminator plays the best on a dry wheel I find. I shot the barrel with Tarminator and agitated with my Daytona brush. (Yes, my arms looked like I had some funky disease). Without rinsing it off, I then applied the PWC cleaner directly to the barrel and the face and allowed it to sit. I wondered if it would work #1 and also whether it would play nice with Tarminator #2. Well, here is a wheel after a few minutes of dwell time:
So, ya, I'd say it worked just fine. That process was repeated on each of the remaining wheels. The barrels were cleaned with LA Totally Awesome and the tires cleaned twice with Zep 505.
It was then sprayed down with IronX and allowed to dwell. The sides were not as bad as I expected them to be. There ended up being some contamination higher up that I had to deal with at claying. The car was then washed with Megs HW and then again for a 2nd decontamination stage using IronX paste and a wash mitt.
I then brought it inside to clay. I started using my CarPro clay towel but found there was some contamination that didn't get removed chemically, and the clay towel was ineffective in removing as well so I busted out my Riccardo blue clay and after warming it up for 30 seconds in the microwave, used it to remove the contamination on the paint. That did the trick just fine.
Now was wheel removal time. You think you got the wheels pretty clean using the various brushes, and it looks that way when they're still on the car. But, removal is the only way to get it thoroughly clean. Check out this barrel that I had cleaned while on the car:
You can see where the spokes are make it difficult to reach the complete area. The wheel was intensively cleaned with Tarminator and then I used Duragloss Squeaky Clean chemical cleaner to ensure nothing was left on the surface. Here it is after having used the SC:
The barrel was then double coated in CQF. Here it is all done:
The face was also double coated:
While waiting between coats, the caliper was cleaned and coated too. I also did an intensive cleaning of the plastic wells (up front only, the rears were fabric). The plastic wells were then coated with the beta sample of the DG trim coating:
After installing the wheel back on, I shot the tire with Opti Bond from my spray gun prior to lowering the wheel, so it could get completely treated. The wheel was then lowered and torqued back to spec.
Now it was time to smoke a cigar...oops, play with paint! What I ended up settling on for a good shine and to remove some slight imperfections was a yellow B/S pad + Sonax Perfect Finish + Flex 3401. I ran it at 4.5-5 so as to not get it too hot. That seemed to work. I followed that step with DG Squeaky Clean + white B/S + Flex to ensure proper bonding, and to chemically clean the paint as well. I love using a white pad with SC as it will show what it is pulling from the paint. The pad stayed white so I knew it was good, clean paint that was left.
The windshield and back glass got a double coat of Forte. The paint, head and tail lights and glass top panel were all double coated with CQF. The trim was done with DLux.
Here are some inside shots first:
Now THAT'S how a barrel should look!
Dlux looking amazing too!
I might be small, but I come from a mighty family!!
I don't think there's a bad angle on this thing at all!
DG Trim looking amazing!
Some white reflection shots:
Thanks for looking! Comments always appreciated!
