04 Hyundai Elantra - Paint Correction - Pic Heavy

[SeaJay's]

Worked on this car over the weekend. Full detail and paint correction, took me 18 hours.

Process/Products

Foamed with DP Xtreme Foam
2 Bucket Wash with Dawn & Schmitt
Dried using leaf blower
Clayed with Adams clay & DP Clay Lube
IPA wipe down

PC7424

Started my test spot with green CCS pad and Megs 205. The paint was harder than I expected and the swirls were fairly deep, so the 205 didn't do much. I stepped it up to the orange CCS pad and 205 with the same results. Tried Orange CCS pad and 205, still not enough correction. Finally tried 105 with the yellow pad and got the correction I wanted. Unfortunately the backing came off on my yellow CCS pad after about half the car. So, I ended up doing the rest of the car with the orange CCS pad and Megs 105, with just about the same exact results.

Followed up the 105 with Adams Revive polish on green CCS pad. I was very low on Megs 205, so used the Adams with great results.

After polished entire car got another IPA wipe down before DP Poli-Sealant was applied and allowed to dry for roughly about an hour. Wiped off and let it sit over night to allow sealant to cure.

Next day I applied Collinite 845 via DA and CCS red pad.

Since I was in a hurry I didn't get any before or after pics of the interior, but here is my list of products.

Stoners Invisible Glass
1ez Cockpit Cleaner
Various MF's

And on to the pics...

Before

Taped Up:

Test Spot:

50/50 of test spot

Some 50/50's

And the after shots:

Thanks for reading!

 

[Southern Stang]

Looked like the car had seen better days, but It's now seeing a bright future. Good work :xyxthumbs:

 

[gewb]

Lookin' good!

Had I known you were going to do an '04 Elantra I would have cautioned you about the clear coat - TWO different hardness's:
1) metal body parts are pretty hard, BUT
2) the plastic front and rear lower panels are quite soft.

If you do the body and think "darn this is hard - need to get more aggressive" and then move to the bumper panels THINKING they are the same...well, you can get a rude surprise!

Regards,
GEWB

 

[SeaJay's]

Lookin' good!

Had I known you were going to do an '04 Elantra I would have cautioned you about the clear coat - TWO different hardness's:
1) metal body parts are pretty hard, BUT
2) the plastic front and rear lower panels are quite soft.

If you do the body and think "darn this is hard - need to get more aggressive" and then move to the bumper panels THINKING they are the same...well, you can get a rude surprise!

Regards,
GEWB

I must have lucked out then because I didn't run into any issues. I did notice that the bumpers didn't take nearly as many passes though. If I recall correctly it was only 2-3 section passes and it was done. The rest of the car it was 4-6 passes depending on the area.

Is this typical with most cars? The bumpers are softer than the rest of the car due to the plastic?

 

[J Z06]

Night and day!! good job!! isn't the challenge fun? it's almost like you are praying for a tough car, give it the needed re-condition and the owners mouth hits the floor upon seeing it :dblthumb2:

 

[SeaJay's]

I love the challenge! I'm extremely anal and I found myself going over areas that weren't perfect again to see if I could get it better. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to get any better than it was without wet sanding, which I don't have a paint meter so I wasn't going to get into that.

 

[J Z06]

SeaJay's, likewise!

On my sis' tribute, there were quite a few areas I couldn't get to with either buffer...the flex or the cyclo. So I ended up using a m/f towel with some product and tried the best I could to get under mirrors...around the window area etc. The objective each time is to get it as good as it can be. No exceptions! I try and treat each car I can, like I do my own.

 

[SeaJay's]

I hear ya! There were actually some areas that I had to polish by hand. My yellow 4" CCS pad had the velcro backing come off, so since the pad itself was still good I saved it and used it for my hand polishing. It actually worked really well in the areas of the door handles, and on the front bumper.

 

[J Z06]

LOL(not laughing at you)

My friend borrowed my flex...I think the exact same thing happened to the orange pad. He said it flew right off the buffer and was no longer useful. That hasn't happened to me yet, but good idea to keep some of the older pads around. They probably would make a good "by hand" touch up. You learn something new each day!