2007 Ford Edge

[Nica]

Remember that airplane that sneek and I detailed? Well the owner that airplane just purchased a brand new vehicle and I was given the honor to detailing the exterior of it. Now like I said this is a brand new vehicle and even though it’s brand new you will be shocked at the state it was in, well I was. Some people wonder why a brand new vehicle would need to be detailed, well this is proof that even brand new vehicles require a good detail.

The vehicle:

2007 Ford Edge

Here is what the vehicle looked like when it was delivered to me

As you can see the vehicle appears to have just the regular bugs on the front and wheel wells were a bit dirty but nothing to bad in fact when I first laid my eyes on the vehicle I thought it looked good.

Well first thing I did was set up my Deionized filter system:

Deionized water ready to go

As always, I start on the rims, here are the tools I used for the rims, wheel wells and tires:

I’ve been eagerly waiting an opportunity to use my new wool brushes.

Well wheel wells received P21S Total Auto Wash

Followed by a gentle scrub

Once I was satisfied with the wheel wells I moved on to the rims

For the rims I used P21S Gel formula

P21S Gel formula working it’s magic

Started by agitating the inside of the rims with the new wheel wool brush

The beauty of these brushes is that you can get in quite deep

The smaller brush is wicked

Even with the EZ brush it’s quite difficult to get in behind the caliper with the my smaller wool brush I can get in behind the calipers with no problem what’s so ever, very happy with these brushes.

1/4

 

[Nica]

Well once the inside of the rims were taken care off now comes the face of the rims. With the help of my Swissol brush I agitated the face of the rims:

Once the rims were taken care off I moved on to the tire. For the tire I used Amazing Roll-Off.

I sprayed it on and let it sit for a bit, I got in to the habit of agitating the tires with my Meguiar’s brush and well that’s exactly what I did.

Here is the tire, rim and wheel well all done

Now comes the rinsing with Deionized water.

This process was done to all the tires, rims and wheel wells.

Once the rims were taken care off, I moved on to the rest of the vehicle. Now first I gave the vehicle a quick rinse then as it had a bit of bugs on the front I sprayed Poorboys Bug Squash diluted 1:3.

Let that sit for a bit. Now the vehicle definitely had something on it and I wanted to get rid of what ever was on it so I sprayed the entire vehicle with P21S Total Auto Wash.

I let P21S Total Auto Wash and Poorboys Bug Squash sit for a bit wile I got my self set up wit the two bucket method.

I used the two bucket method with Zymol spunge and Meguiar’s Gold Class Shampoo.

Once the entire vehicle had been washed and rinsed on to claying, I didn’t even bother drying the vehicle just proceeded to clay with my Ricardo clay bar. Now even though this vehicle is brand new it had a bunch of over spray on certain areas oh and I had to clean up the dealership prep work.

2/4

 

[Nica]

During the claying I discovered something that I’ve seen before and it concerned me.

This is probably the best picture to illustrate what I found. If you look closely at the picture you will see a few dots. Like I mentioned I’ve seen these before and on that particular vehicle that I saw them on what they turned out to be was air bubbles in the paint. Now air bubbles on the paint would be a bad thing because it could easily chip the paint and a good way to have premature rust. Well the other thing that it could have caused this is that during the painting process dust could have landed on the vehicle and was locked in with the spray of the clear coat. I pointed the spots out to the owner. Owner said he would take it up to the dealership. Well areas where I found these little spots I did not polish, I didn’t want to risk the heat causing any damage to them.

Once the claying was done I gave the vehicle a quick rinse and dried the vehicle with the help of my Guzzler.

Now to see what a brand new vehicles comes with. For this inspection I used my 3M Sun Gun.

Driver door

Driver fender

The entire vehicle had lots of swirls, now they didn’t look deep or severe so got my self ready to test a section.

Taped the read out along with the rest of the vehicle

Now what to use…mmmm…well I decided to try out Menzerna 106FA, Meguiar’s Finishing pad and my Metabo with the 3M backing plate at 1500rpm.

One pass and here is what the results were:

I was pleased with the results and proceeded with the polishing of the vehicle.

Here are some 50/50 shots:

Here is the driver corner of hood
Before:

After:

The hood was the only are that required two passes to get it just right.

Finished the polishing and the owner and I had agreed on an LSP. The owner wanted a sealant followed by a carnauba. So I looked at my arsenal and came up with Wolfgang Finishing Glaze, followed with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant (two coats) let it cure over night then finished off with Victoria Concourse.

Wile I let the sealant cure all exterior plastic received Black Again. The wheel wells also received Black Again.

I went back to the rims and the rims also received some Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant.

Tires received Optimum Tire Shine.

Here are the rims, tires and well wells all done:

3/4

 

[Nica]

Here are the end results:

I was very pleased with the result of the vehicle and the owner was very pleased with the results.

As always any feed back (good or bad) is always welcome.

4/4

 

[ehuth1]

another great detail from nica !! Awesome walk through with stunning results!

 

[dontsleeponit]

excellent write up, I enjoyed checking out every single step in your process. You got all the pimp detailing stuff too you b*stard!

Do you dilute the total auto wash for any of the things you use it for? Any reason you like that back to black stuff over other products?

awesome work as always man:cheers:

 

[richy]

Carlos..Absolutely great job as usual. This thread should be used as an example of how much a "brand new car" can be improved! A question for you: Did it have a clear bra? IF so, did you use the 106 on it? It looks like there is one from this pic..both on the hood as well as the fender.

 

[pirex]

Very nice work Nica oh, the new toys I mean brushes looks sweet Nice to get around the calipper. The car loos good, to bad the bubbles/sand on the paint, thats to bad on a new car! Oh, did you do two coats right after each other, or cured 12 hours?

Again, Love your work buddy!

 

[supercharged]

Great job, Nica. I sent you a P.M.

 

[mixxer]

great work dude!

 

[Dust2Glory]

Nica.... man I think I have used up all my words for describing your details. Hey, where did you get your wheel foam brushes? I seen those on another detailing vid from a guy over seas... how much?

 

[alban61]

Another "wicked" detail, Carlos! Love the new format of pics/write-up, that you started with your previous detail.
Any feedback from the Sienna owner on the durability of Back to Black? I haven't used any of my new products. In fact, I haven't washed any of my vehicles in the past 2 weekends.....not feeling well.

 

[Nica]

another great detail from nica !! Awesome walk through with stunning results!

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it my friend and the compliment is very much appreciated.

excellent write up, I enjoyed checking out every single step in your process. You got all the pimp detailing stuff too you b*stard!

Do you dilute the total auto wash for any of the things you use it for? Any reason you like that back to black stuff over other products?

awesome work as always man:cheers:

lol thanks for the compliment buddy hahahaha as I read your comment I just have a big smile in my face hahahaha...seriously through I appreciate your compliment.

as for Total Auto Wash, no I don't dilute it...never really tried to be honest. I should give it a try, I like using it straight becuase it's strong enough to remove any protection on the vehicle and great on weel whells. As for the Back to Black, to be honest I tried a bunch of other products on exterior trim and this stuff is the best I've tried so far. Really brings trims back to life and it lasts a long time too.

Carlos..Absolutely great job as usual. This thread should be used as an example of how much a "brand new car" can be improved! A question for you: Did it have a clear bra? IF so, did you use the 106 on it? It looks like there is one from this pic..both on the hood as well as the fender.

My home boy richy....who's got a wicked castle as a house lol just teasing richy. Thank you for the compliment bro means a lot to me. Yea brand new vehicle and to see it in such a state made me feel good at the end and he owner was really pleased with it. Oh yes, it does have a 3M protection on the entire hood and fenders oh and bumper and yes I went over the 3M with the 106FA and Meg's Finishing pad, I didn't really have to but the 3M seemed to have some kind of hase to it..hard to explain oh and very difficult to capture it with the camera..unfortunetly my picture taking abilities are limited (for now) and I really couldn't get a good picture of the 3M...you could only see it under direct sun light/3M Sun Gun but what ever it was I managed to remove it with a single pass of 106FA...just seemed like a white film resedue...could have been what ever the dealership put on the vehicle.

Very nice work Nica oh, the new toys I mean brushes looks sweet Nice to get around the calipper. The car loos good, to bad the bubbles/sand on the paint, thats to bad on a new car! Oh, did you do two coats right after each other, or cured 12 hours?
Again, Love your work buddy!

pirex, compadre thank you for the compliment bro. I'm pleased with the brushes, makes cleaning the rims very easy..mind you the rims are in good condition to begin with but yes they sure came in handy. As for the sealent what I did was I put the first layer on let it sit whie I worked on other areas of the vehicle before calling it a night (about 4hrs since first application) I put a second coat on top of the first coat...I did this becuase I wanted the vehicle to be well protected and to make sure I didn't miss any areas. Next day (+12hrs) came back and removed the sealent and then put a nice layer of carnauba on it.

Great job, Nica. I sent you a P.M.

Thank you for the compliment, means a lot ot me...oh and I responded to your P.M.

great work dude!

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.

 

[Nica]

Nica.... man I think I have used up all my words for describing your details. Hey, where did you get your wheel foam brushes? I seen those on another detailing vid from a guy over seas... how much?

Thank you for the feed back Dust, always appreciate feed back buddy. As for the brushes I got them from the US actually. I wonder if your thinking of Mark, Paul Daltons friend he has the full set of wool brushes and that's where I got the idea from...man I wish I could get my hand on the full set of these wool brushes though. Apperently there is a paten issue not to mention that the manufacture of these brushes can't keep up with the demand. I would post the place I got them but I don't want to get in trouble.

Another "wicked" detail, Carlos! Love the new format of pics/write-up, that you started with your previous detail.
Any feedback from the Sienna owner on the durability of Back to Black? I haven't used any of my new products. In fact, I haven't washed any of my vehicles in the past 2 weekends.....not feeling well.

Not feeling well? What's wrong? Nothing serious I hope, cold? Flue? Well I hope you feel better soon. Thank you fo rhte compliment my friend, very much appreciated and I'm glad you like the new format. Oh as for the Sienna, he told me the Black Again is holding up really good, no wax/polish resedue has come back, just a nice clean exterior plastic panel. He hasen't driven his Sienna in to work but when he does I'll snap a picture of it so I can post here and everyone can see the durability on it. I used the Black again on my Lexus, mind you my Lexus just sits in my garage but so far it's been about three weeks and Black Again is still going strong.

 

[Jimmie]

Now we can recommend a detailer that will make it look better than new. Great job.

 

[joe.p]

nice work Nica..

 

[Old Pirate]

Awesome write up and pic's on the work you did on the Edge ! but those bubbles on the finish are poor quality control from the factory.........must of been done on a Monday:cheers:

 

[AL417]

Nice job on that one Nica. Your interest in detailing has certainly turned into a passion. Your write-ups make me feel like I'm right there with you as you do the detail.

 

[Nica]

Now we can recommend a detailer that will make it look better than new. Great job.

Thank you for the kind words Jimmie, it was quite the compliment for the customer to sit there and say "..you sure did make a difference.." I was pleased with that, as long as the customer notices the difference I'm happy with that.

nice work Nica..

Thank you bro, always appreciate feed back buddy.

Awesome write up and pic's on the work you did on the Edge ! but those bubbles on the finish are poor quality control from the factory.........must of been done on a Monday:cheers:

Thank you, glad you enjoyed the write up. As for the bubbles, yea I do hope the owner can get it taken care off but it is a bit disapointing to see on a brand new vehicle...lol...Monday lol...good one lol.

Nice job on that one Nica. Your interest in detailing has certainly turned into a passion. Your write-ups make me feel like I'm right there with you as you do the detail.

Thank you Al, yes detailing has definetly turned to a passion. I've always enjoyed cleaning my vehicles but now I've taken "cleaning" to detailing and behond lol. Al417, your statement that I bolded there is exactly what I was going for. It's like reading a good novel, a really good book will grasp you and you find it difficult to put down well I've found that the UK guys have taken taht concept and perfected it and well I'm using there technique and trying to add my personal "flavor" to it. Credit should be given where it belongs and the UK guys have been very helpfull and I respect them for that so when you compliment me you compliment too .

Thank you all for the kind words though, really you all put a smile on my face and that's what keeps me coming back

 

[bill walsh]

great job nica how much for the wool brushes?