Tato
New member
- Nov 27, 2013
- 2,157
- 0
Dear Friends, this week I had the pleasure to work on this 2013 Mitsubishi Pajero TR4.
I got some pictures of this work for my personal archive, however I've noticed customer had great interest in seeing the defects whenever I was trying to show her.
Based on that, I decided placing some pics of the work here so she can follow, and I appreciate your comments as well.
Let the pics do the talking:
Arrived. According to customer, it was dirty...
Removed the spare tire to allow better access to the trunk
More from the trunk
White paint is more prone to show stains that may occur by contaminants and dirt
Dark transfers are also more noticeable
Front close-up
Front-side
Hood section
Surface Prep
During a complete thorough wash, I was noticing many of the stains remaining untouchable...
This picture scary me (!)
Washing was proving not enough to get rid of this resistant dirt film.
After wash, car was decontaminated using Iron-X and Nanoskin fine clay mitt. No pictures of the process, sorry, but it was fundamental to start giving a smooth foundation to what was going to happen.
Paint Inspection
I've started re-evaluating the paint in order to choose my polishing approach.
Here is what I was dealing with:
Swirls, haze, waterspots, car looked like not being factory finished accordingly. Unfortunately, from what I'm seeing recently, white paint accepts anything from dealerships...
Polishing: The Test Spot
After evaluating paint condition, I've chose a spot on the roof to start testing my polishing approach.
Before:
After:
After dealing many setups, starting from white pad and SF4000. I was needing too much pressure, speed and too many passes with this kind approach, I soon decided using Rupes 21 + Meg's MF Finishing discs paired with FG400 for 3-4 passes at speed 3.
This option was removing almost 95% of defects while leaving a very fine, controllable haze. That haze was further removed using the Flex 3401, white hybrid pads and Menzerna SF4000 to a near flawless finish.
Just after the test spot, I've polished trick areas of the roof by hand and finished it down reproducing by machine my test spot results:
Even after thorough washing and decontamination, may stains still persisted:
Opened:
My Mistake
Whenever you will do a full engine detailing on a very dirty bay, take a BEFORE picture so you can brag about your results later. Even though customer knew the condition (I've showed her during inspection), you'll be 'forced' to believe me, it was nasty! At least, it was not like shown in the after picture bellow:
Got advantage of the moment to do an engine bay detail, which consisted basically in engine bay cleaning (degreasers, tar removers, polished metal painted by hand, brushes, waterless, blower, vacuum, and protected plastics by 303 Aerospace after all and painted parts were coated with PBL surface coating).
More on paint polishing
Before:
After:
Promoting the change
Left side, hazed and swirled:
Right side done, left side still hazy...
All done,
Told ya!
No more haze:
Overall view:
Another Angle
Hood Polishing
Here you can notice the detail just above Mitsubishi logo was already polished, while the hood was left last.
After, clear, and defect free:
Coating and finals
Car was coated at night for overnight curing. Here are the last few shots I got while finishing the job.
When you see tire gel back there in the pictures, it means we are near the end.
I've used CG New car shine dressing.... Looks great!
Driver's side, overall view:
Interior was also full detailed and protected (no pics included), but customer will be following the thread and she knows everything was done accordingly. Careful door jamb detail, Leather care, upholstery and carpet, interior roof, steam cleaning of everything, just to list a few things that were done.
Everything in place, ready to sleep for pickup at morning:
------------
In summary, I've enjoyed a lot working on this car because it presented great potential for improvement.
Even the car being white, treating it like any other color (getting rid of defects and finishing properly) gave the extra pop we all look for while detailing. Pinnacle Black Label Coatings gave the final touch, and the end results were enough to achieve customer's expectancies.
Hope you enjoy watching,
Please, feel free to add comments, questions, suggestions, critics... always, always welcome.
Thank you very much in advance,
Kind Regards.
I got some pictures of this work for my personal archive, however I've noticed customer had great interest in seeing the defects whenever I was trying to show her.
Based on that, I decided placing some pics of the work here so she can follow, and I appreciate your comments as well.
Let the pics do the talking:
Arrived. According to customer, it was dirty...
Removed the spare tire to allow better access to the trunk
More from the trunk
White paint is more prone to show stains that may occur by contaminants and dirt
Dark transfers are also more noticeable
Front close-up
Front-side
Hood section
Surface Prep
During a complete thorough wash, I was noticing many of the stains remaining untouchable...
This picture scary me (!)
Washing was proving not enough to get rid of this resistant dirt film.
After wash, car was decontaminated using Iron-X and Nanoskin fine clay mitt. No pictures of the process, sorry, but it was fundamental to start giving a smooth foundation to what was going to happen.
Paint Inspection
I've started re-evaluating the paint in order to choose my polishing approach.
Here is what I was dealing with:
Swirls, haze, waterspots, car looked like not being factory finished accordingly. Unfortunately, from what I'm seeing recently, white paint accepts anything from dealerships...
Polishing: The Test Spot
After evaluating paint condition, I've chose a spot on the roof to start testing my polishing approach.
Before:
After:
After dealing many setups, starting from white pad and SF4000. I was needing too much pressure, speed and too many passes with this kind approach, I soon decided using Rupes 21 + Meg's MF Finishing discs paired with FG400 for 3-4 passes at speed 3.
This option was removing almost 95% of defects while leaving a very fine, controllable haze. That haze was further removed using the Flex 3401, white hybrid pads and Menzerna SF4000 to a near flawless finish.
Just after the test spot, I've polished trick areas of the roof by hand and finished it down reproducing by machine my test spot results:
Even after thorough washing and decontamination, may stains still persisted:
Opened:
My Mistake
Whenever you will do a full engine detailing on a very dirty bay, take a BEFORE picture so you can brag about your results later. Even though customer knew the condition (I've showed her during inspection), you'll be 'forced' to believe me, it was nasty! At least, it was not like shown in the after picture bellow:
Got advantage of the moment to do an engine bay detail, which consisted basically in engine bay cleaning (degreasers, tar removers, polished metal painted by hand, brushes, waterless, blower, vacuum, and protected plastics by 303 Aerospace after all and painted parts were coated with PBL surface coating).
More on paint polishing
Before:
After:
Promoting the change
Left side, hazed and swirled:
Right side done, left side still hazy...
All done,
Told ya!
No more haze:
Overall view:
Another Angle
Hood Polishing
Here you can notice the detail just above Mitsubishi logo was already polished, while the hood was left last.
After, clear, and defect free:
Coating and finals
Car was coated at night for overnight curing. Here are the last few shots I got while finishing the job.
When you see tire gel back there in the pictures, it means we are near the end.
I've used CG New car shine dressing.... Looks great!
Driver's side, overall view:
Interior was also full detailed and protected (no pics included), but customer will be following the thread and she knows everything was done accordingly. Careful door jamb detail, Leather care, upholstery and carpet, interior roof, steam cleaning of everything, just to list a few things that were done.
Everything in place, ready to sleep for pickup at morning:
------------
In summary, I've enjoyed a lot working on this car because it presented great potential for improvement.
Even the car being white, treating it like any other color (getting rid of defects and finishing properly) gave the extra pop we all look for while detailing. Pinnacle Black Label Coatings gave the final touch, and the end results were enough to achieve customer's expectancies.
Hope you enjoy watching,
Please, feel free to add comments, questions, suggestions, critics... always, always welcome.
Thank you very much in advance,
Kind Regards.
rops: