richy
New member
- Mar 27, 2007
- 5,158
- 0
This car belongs to a friend of my wife's and I really wanted to make it great for her. It's seen a few auto car washes as was evident by the usual light scratches in the tops of the fenders, etc. The trunk lid had deeper ones as did the roof. Here's what it looked like upon arrival:
First up was the wheels. I actually had a hard time cleaning them with my usual arsenal. Time to start resorting to wheel acid again I think. After doing 2 brand new vehicles (Buick and the Scion), I was doing my best to make this look the same. It has that big chrome grille up front and I wanted it to be a focal point on the car when I was done. See if you think I succeeded.
The wheels were cleaned first with Tarminator on the barrels and where needed on the face. That was followed up with Wolf's Decon gel and Zep Citrus. The tires were cleaned with Zep Purple (both Zep's at 4:1). The wells were done with ZC as well.
The car was then shot with Zep Citrus and allowed to dwell about a minute or so and then was washed with my Pinnacle bug sponge to remove the bugs up front. The car was then foamed with a strong mix of Dawn and Megs Hyper Wash.
That was followed by a wash with Dawn and DG 901. The car was then brought inside and clayed with a CarPro foam clay block. The inspection of the paint showed a few areas of concern and about 5 paint chips. This car is exactly the same colour as my Lincoln, so I used my personal stock of touch up paint on her car. Here's a few areas that would need some work:
For the paint correction, I used my Flex and a yellow B/S pad and M105. There were a few deeper scratches that needed some aggressive action. Those got Menz FG500 and a Tuf Buff black wool pad and my Dyna rotary spun between 1800-2200 rpm. I was getting the paint warm but was getting the results I wanted. That was followed by M105/yellow B/S I mentioned above. For the follow up step, I used Optimum Hyper Polish and a blue Hydro pad. I alternated between that and M205 and a green pad. They both finished down the same. I wanted to make sure the finish was free of any polishing oils so I added another quick step of the DG light chemical polish with the Flex and a blue B/S pad to ensure a clean, true finish. I gave the paint an ERASER wipe down and then did paint, glass and wheels with OG.
The chrome grille in the front was cleaned with the DG chem compound and then wiped down with ERASER and sealed with OG.
I probably didn't need to do the chem stage, but I wanted to see if it would make the metallic pop even more. Maybe it was my imagination, but it did seem to. I spent 11 hours on the outside of this car. After OG cured overnight, I gave it a final wipe down with FK 425.
AFTER SHOTS:
You can see in the reflection I had a cloudy day unfortunately to show it off!
Thanks for looking. Comments are welcomed.
First up was the wheels. I actually had a hard time cleaning them with my usual arsenal. Time to start resorting to wheel acid again I think. After doing 2 brand new vehicles (Buick and the Scion), I was doing my best to make this look the same. It has that big chrome grille up front and I wanted it to be a focal point on the car when I was done. See if you think I succeeded.
The wheels were cleaned first with Tarminator on the barrels and where needed on the face. That was followed up with Wolf's Decon gel and Zep Citrus. The tires were cleaned with Zep Purple (both Zep's at 4:1). The wells were done with ZC as well.
The car was then shot with Zep Citrus and allowed to dwell about a minute or so and then was washed with my Pinnacle bug sponge to remove the bugs up front. The car was then foamed with a strong mix of Dawn and Megs Hyper Wash.
That was followed by a wash with Dawn and DG 901. The car was then brought inside and clayed with a CarPro foam clay block. The inspection of the paint showed a few areas of concern and about 5 paint chips. This car is exactly the same colour as my Lincoln, so I used my personal stock of touch up paint on her car. Here's a few areas that would need some work:
For the paint correction, I used my Flex and a yellow B/S pad and M105. There were a few deeper scratches that needed some aggressive action. Those got Menz FG500 and a Tuf Buff black wool pad and my Dyna rotary spun between 1800-2200 rpm. I was getting the paint warm but was getting the results I wanted. That was followed by M105/yellow B/S I mentioned above. For the follow up step, I used Optimum Hyper Polish and a blue Hydro pad. I alternated between that and M205 and a green pad. They both finished down the same. I wanted to make sure the finish was free of any polishing oils so I added another quick step of the DG light chemical polish with the Flex and a blue B/S pad to ensure a clean, true finish. I gave the paint an ERASER wipe down and then did paint, glass and wheels with OG.
The chrome grille in the front was cleaned with the DG chem compound and then wiped down with ERASER and sealed with OG.
I probably didn't need to do the chem stage, but I wanted to see if it would make the metallic pop even more. Maybe it was my imagination, but it did seem to. I spent 11 hours on the outside of this car. After OG cured overnight, I gave it a final wipe down with FK 425.
AFTER SHOTS:
You can see in the reflection I had a cloudy day unfortunately to show it off!
Thanks for looking. Comments are welcomed.