Dubbin1
Active member
- May 28, 2009
- 3,845
- 0
This 2000 Explorer belongs to my sis-in-laws brother. All it has seen since new is a couple of drive through car washes a year... I have been wanting to get my hands on it for a long time now and finally talked them into it. As you can imagine the paint was in pretty poor condition so I wasn't expecting any miracles.
Products and tools used (in no real order)
DP Auto Bath Shampoo
DP Rinseless Wash & Gloss
Grit Guards
Cobra Blue Micro-Chenille Wash Mitt
Pinnacle Safe Scrub Bug & Tar Pad
Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner Plus D103
Meguiars Mirror Glaze #105 Ultra-Cut Compound
Meguiars Mirror Glaze #205 Ultra Finishing Polish
Wolfgang Finishing Glaze 3.0
Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay
Cobra Deluxe Jr. 600 Microfiber Towel, 16 x 16 inches
Cobra Indigo Microfiber Polishing Cloth
The Ultimate Guzzler Waffle Weave Microfiber Drying Towel
DP Poli-Coat Paint Sealant
Pinnacle Souveran Paste Carnauba Wax
Flex XC 3401VRG
Porter Cable 7424XP
Various LC pads
Nevr-Dull Wadding Polish
Optimum Opti-Bond Tire Gel
I started out by giving it a good 2 bucket wash using one of my favorite shampoos DP Auto Bath Shampoo and a couple Grit Guards. They live out in the country so the front end was covered with dead bugs. Thats where the Pinnacle Safe Scrub Bug & Tar Pad came in handy. I followed that up with a good scrubbing of the tires, wheels and wheel wells again using DP Auto Bath Shampoo and a healthy dose of Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner Plus D103. Then gave it another wash just for good measure.
As I was cleaning the the wheels I noticed how bad the plastic chrome center caps were and had to find something to clean them up with. I tried a few things that just didn't work until I grabbed the Nevr-Dull. I was simply amazed at how well it cleaned up that crappy plastic chrome they put on cars. I think everyone will be amazed at how they turned out too when you look at the pictures
After all the cleaning was done I proceeded to clay the SUV with Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay using DP Rinseless Wash & Gloss as the clay lube. This thing was nasty with road tar and what not all over it. By the time I finished with the clay I used up 2 full clay bars...
I started off polishing with the Flex 3401VRG, LC orange pad and M105 but quickly found out after a test spot that wasn't going to get the job done so I upped it to a LC yellow pad. After the test spots were done I came up with a plan of using the M105 with a yellow pad M205 with an orange pad and Wolfgang Finishing Glaze 3.0 with a white pad. The Porter Cable 7424XP was used in places where I needed 4" pads.
After the final polish and an alcohol wipe down was done I gave it another wash before moving on to the next step.
For the LSP I decided to go with DP Poli-Coat Paint Sealant for its durability and Pinnacle Souveran Paste Carnauba Wax for its looks. I applied both by hand and waited 12hrs after the sealant was applied to apply the final wax.
I'm not very good at getting pictures while I'm working on something but I did my best.
Befores
Test Spot
After
Products and tools used (in no real order)
DP Auto Bath Shampoo
DP Rinseless Wash & Gloss
Grit Guards
Cobra Blue Micro-Chenille Wash Mitt
Pinnacle Safe Scrub Bug & Tar Pad
Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner Plus D103
Meguiars Mirror Glaze #105 Ultra-Cut Compound
Meguiars Mirror Glaze #205 Ultra Finishing Polish
Wolfgang Finishing Glaze 3.0
Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay
Cobra Deluxe Jr. 600 Microfiber Towel, 16 x 16 inches
Cobra Indigo Microfiber Polishing Cloth
The Ultimate Guzzler Waffle Weave Microfiber Drying Towel
DP Poli-Coat Paint Sealant
Pinnacle Souveran Paste Carnauba Wax
Flex XC 3401VRG
Porter Cable 7424XP
Various LC pads
Nevr-Dull Wadding Polish
Optimum Opti-Bond Tire Gel
I started out by giving it a good 2 bucket wash using one of my favorite shampoos DP Auto Bath Shampoo and a couple Grit Guards. They live out in the country so the front end was covered with dead bugs. Thats where the Pinnacle Safe Scrub Bug & Tar Pad came in handy. I followed that up with a good scrubbing of the tires, wheels and wheel wells again using DP Auto Bath Shampoo and a healthy dose of Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner Plus D103. Then gave it another wash just for good measure.
As I was cleaning the the wheels I noticed how bad the plastic chrome center caps were and had to find something to clean them up with. I tried a few things that just didn't work until I grabbed the Nevr-Dull. I was simply amazed at how well it cleaned up that crappy plastic chrome they put on cars. I think everyone will be amazed at how they turned out too when you look at the pictures
After all the cleaning was done I proceeded to clay the SUV with Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay using DP Rinseless Wash & Gloss as the clay lube. This thing was nasty with road tar and what not all over it. By the time I finished with the clay I used up 2 full clay bars...
I started off polishing with the Flex 3401VRG, LC orange pad and M105 but quickly found out after a test spot that wasn't going to get the job done so I upped it to a LC yellow pad. After the test spots were done I came up with a plan of using the M105 with a yellow pad M205 with an orange pad and Wolfgang Finishing Glaze 3.0 with a white pad. The Porter Cable 7424XP was used in places where I needed 4" pads.
After the final polish and an alcohol wipe down was done I gave it another wash before moving on to the next step.
For the LSP I decided to go with DP Poli-Coat Paint Sealant for its durability and Pinnacle Souveran Paste Carnauba Wax for its looks. I applied both by hand and waited 12hrs after the sealant was applied to apply the final wax.
I'm not very good at getting pictures while I'm working on something but I did my best.
Befores
Test Spot
After
rops:
