richy
New member
- Mar 27, 2007
- 5,158
- 0
So, a big "Thank you!" to Hamza for this detail. This was yet another one of the fruits of his labour from his post(s) on the FR-S forum where he posted about OC/OG. In addition to that, this was my first American customer. I live only 10 minutes from the border, so it was only a 25 minute drive for him...not to bad to come to Canada, LOL. We had this scheduled for about a month ago and had to delay it.
This was also the first detail that the customer sat and watched what I did. I obviously didn't smoke during this job and found it strange at first but there are some real advantages as you get to point things out and show what works and what doesn't.
Also, the paint on the front end of this car was very, very strange! I first thought it was water spotting. (Not to confuse things, but there actually was water spotting on the car from being parked next to a sprinkler, but they came off easily with my cleaner). The spots were varying in size from minuscule to larger. I tried Menz Power Finish which did absolutely nothing. Then I went for the specific tool and grabbed my CG Water Spot Remover. That also did nothing. The uniformity of the spots made me think this was the factory finish and it was just a kind of orange peel. I've never seen anything like it. Even though the paint was a good thickness, I recommended against him wet sanding it. For something he'll not likely ever see outside, why thin out the clear for that? Not worth it in my books. Check out these closeup pics of the paint:
Have you guys who have worked on these noticed anything similar? I ended up using a very special polish to make the metallic leap off the surface. More on that in a bit.
First up, here it is as it arrived:
There was a black scuff on the hood from who-knows-what that eventually came off with my Flex+Yellow B/S+Menz Power Finish:
There was some tape residue along the leading edge of the roof from delivery. He told the dealer not to wash it which was great!
The initial stage like always was the wheels.
The barrels were first done with Tarminator and then agitated with a Daytona brush. That was power washed off and then the wells were cleaned with Zep Citrus as well as the barrels again and the face. The tires were done with Zep Purple.
The paint was sprayed down with Tarminator and allowed to dwell. That was power washed off and then it was foamed with a strong mix of Megs Hyper Wash and Zep Citrus. Thick, beautiful foam!
Emblems, etc were attended to while that was allowed to dwell. The plate was also removed. It had surface rust spots on it that were sprayed with Wolf's Decon Gel. Check it out:
Then it was washed with DG 901 and Dawn. That was then rinsed off as well. I then checked the hood for contamination using IX gel soap. Here's what I saw:
So, the whole car got that too. That was then power washed off. The car was brought inside and clayed with Elastofoam while it was wet with the addition of ONR as lube. The garage door went on at this point and the air was put on. It was noon now and getting quite humid.
At this stage it became about what to do with the paint. My monster CFL 400W, 6500 color temp lights really show every sin. I call them my "Going before God" lights. The aforementioned paint finish was examined with the lighting. As I mentioned, Power Finish was tried with my Flex and a yellow B/S pad. I was not super happy how it looked. Don't get me wrong, it looked good, but I thought it could look better. Trying the CG WSR made me think of a product that I had specially made up for me a few years ago. It's a chemical cut compound. I have 2 versions of it: mild and moderate. I tried the mild and a green B/S pad at 4.5 to 5 on the Flex. Wow!! Super shine, clarity beyond belief and the metallic was a jumpin! The whole car including paint, glass and wheels were done with that product. To me it seemed like a stronger version of the DG beta Squeaky Clean paint cleaner we're testing right now. The surface felt so smooth too. The treated surfaces were followed up by ERASER (the customer volunteered to do that) and then it was onto doing the OG protection. I did the wheels first as I was going to coat the barrels with Permanon and wanted the OG to cure the most. Then the rest of the car got coated. I shot the barrels with Permanon as well as the trim front and back. I used my Master Blaster to remove it. The tires were shot with my mini paint gun with DP gel using my air compressor. He loved the look. Finally it was time to roll outside for its photo shoot, 7 hours later.
AFTER SHOTS:
Thanks for looking. Comments welcomed.
