My first show and shine guys i hope you will enjoy my post. That being said, let me tell you a little bit about me. I started my mobile detailing business a few months ago and ive been pretty busy since. I live in montreal canada and the winter here pretty much gives a hard time to our car's paint. Salty roads, gravel trucks spraying all over the place, snow brushes everything you could imagine being bad for the paint, we have it...
I wanted my car to be almost perfect since it is the first thing customers see when you arrive at their place. I purchased this used mercedes c300 4matic 2011 during last winter. Car had one previous owner, no insurance claim on it and after a good dealer inspection, car came out to be a good deal. Paint was not what i expected for a 2011 but hey, not something a good detailer can't take care of.
Here it is after a snow foam wash followed by a regular two bucket wash. 3D pink car soap
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Car was badly contaminated i had to use autoglym intensive tar remover on every panel before claying because clay alone wasn't enough.
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Here some better pictures showing how bad the paint was.
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That was for the exterior only...the carpets were covered wit massive salt stains which is normal for any winter driven car in quebec....
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The next pictures show the salt being under the front carpets...as you can see this is a receipe for electrical components failure since everything is so badly covered with salt. To properly clean everything i had to remove both front seats and both front floor liners. I have to agree with you, doing that kind of job is really not my cup of tea. I did it because it's my personnal car and i don't want any trouble with corrosion down the road...
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You get the point...
Shop-vacc, small steamer, salt remover and carpet shampoo with drill brushes and bissel auto care extractor were all used to clean the interior. Only took one photo.
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So for the major paint correction i did use the dewalt rotary for the compounding stage. Since fg400, m105 with a wool was not cutting fast enough for me i decided to buy a new aggressive compound to see if it would save me some time down the road.
Just so you know i really like to use my rotary as an initial step for any major kind of correction. For that project
I went with my dewalt + BnS wool pad + menzerna shc300 cutting compound. Let me tell you that it did cut pretty fast but oh boy it was a pita to remove the compound. It was too oily and sticky for my taste but being the fastest way to cut defects i figure i would just wash the car afterwards... Not really a fan of the SHC300 but oh well.
Next i switched to a yellow BnS pad with hd cut still with the rotary to get rid of the holograms created with the first step. Yes hd cut is my go to compound when doing a test spot. Just make sure to use plenty of foam pads as you will gum up the pads and get some buffer hop/pad kicking. Holograms are way less noticeable but still there. (As expected)
Test spot revealed that using a green BnS with HD polish with the PC got me the results i was looking for.Here are some pictures after polishing. Photos are without any lsp. I did use chemical guys jetseal for my lsp but i didnt get the chance to take pictures afterwards and it rained since then....
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Recap of what i did on the exterior.
-foam wash rinse with 3d pink car soap
-two bucket wash with 3d pink car soap
-AutoGlym intensive tar remover
-Medium grade clay by hand
-Rotary/wool/menz shc300
-Rotary/yellow BnS foam pad/HD cut
-PC/green BnS foam pad/HD polish
-Griots 3" JetSeal application (no photos)
I wanted my car to be almost perfect since it is the first thing customers see when you arrive at their place. I purchased this used mercedes c300 4matic 2011 during last winter. Car had one previous owner, no insurance claim on it and after a good dealer inspection, car came out to be a good deal. Paint was not what i expected for a 2011 but hey, not something a good detailer can't take care of.
Here it is after a snow foam wash followed by a regular two bucket wash. 3D pink car soap
View attachment 50057
View attachment 50058
Car was badly contaminated i had to use autoglym intensive tar remover on every panel before claying because clay alone wasn't enough.
View attachment 50059
View attachment 50060
View attachment 50061View attachment 50062
Here some better pictures showing how bad the paint was.
View attachment 50063View attachment 50064View attachment 50065View attachment 50066View attachment 50067View attachment 50068
That was for the exterior only...the carpets were covered wit massive salt stains which is normal for any winter driven car in quebec....
View attachment 50069
The next pictures show the salt being under the front carpets...as you can see this is a receipe for electrical components failure since everything is so badly covered with salt. To properly clean everything i had to remove both front seats and both front floor liners. I have to agree with you, doing that kind of job is really not my cup of tea. I did it because it's my personnal car and i don't want any trouble with corrosion down the road...
View attachment 50070View attachment 50071View attachment 50072View attachment 50073View attachment 50074
You get the point...
Shop-vacc, small steamer, salt remover and carpet shampoo with drill brushes and bissel auto care extractor were all used to clean the interior. Only took one photo.
View attachment 50075
So for the major paint correction i did use the dewalt rotary for the compounding stage. Since fg400, m105 with a wool was not cutting fast enough for me i decided to buy a new aggressive compound to see if it would save me some time down the road.
Just so you know i really like to use my rotary as an initial step for any major kind of correction. For that project
I went with my dewalt + BnS wool pad + menzerna shc300 cutting compound. Let me tell you that it did cut pretty fast but oh boy it was a pita to remove the compound. It was too oily and sticky for my taste but being the fastest way to cut defects i figure i would just wash the car afterwards... Not really a fan of the SHC300 but oh well.
Next i switched to a yellow BnS pad with hd cut still with the rotary to get rid of the holograms created with the first step. Yes hd cut is my go to compound when doing a test spot. Just make sure to use plenty of foam pads as you will gum up the pads and get some buffer hop/pad kicking. Holograms are way less noticeable but still there. (As expected)
Test spot revealed that using a green BnS with HD polish with the PC got me the results i was looking for.Here are some pictures after polishing. Photos are without any lsp. I did use chemical guys jetseal for my lsp but i didnt get the chance to take pictures afterwards and it rained since then....
View attachment 50076View attachment 50077View attachment 50078View attachment 50079View attachment 50080View attachment 50081
Recap of what i did on the exterior.
-foam wash rinse with 3d pink car soap
-two bucket wash with 3d pink car soap
-AutoGlym intensive tar remover
-Medium grade clay by hand
-Rotary/wool/menz shc300
-Rotary/yellow BnS foam pad/HD cut
-PC/green BnS foam pad/HD polish
-Griots 3" JetSeal application (no photos)
