Today I detailed the car of a friend from work. Every day when I would walk by it in the parking lot (before we were made to work from home) I would notice the buildup of swirls and micro scratches on the hood and dirty wheels. It couldn't be saved with anything but a deep clean and paint correction. With my arsenal of products full from doing my M340i and with a lot of time on my hands, I had him drop the car off today. I didn't go too crazy because I wanted to get done in one day but I was able to give it a good cleaning, decon, and do a one-step correction with CarPro Essence topped with Reload. Non-traditional LSP with Reload, I know, but it came in my CQ UK 3.0 kit, I used Gliss instead so it was kicking around, and I figured it would boost Essence which I wanted to get more experience with. My main goal was to eliminate most of the micro scratches and swirls and while it's far from perfect, I accomplished almost exactly what I set out to do.
MAIN STEPS AND PRODUCTS USED: (I won't list everything like the other thread, just the key items)
Clean engine bay
PHOTOS: (I'll sequence the before and afters where appropriate)
MICRO SCRATCHES. It was hard to get a shot that really showed the level of scratching with the angle of the sun but it was much worse than shown here. I confirmed the entire car, wheels included, was being washed with one mitt.
ENGINE BAY BEFORE AND AFTER (glass not done in these pics)
TRUNK JAMB BEFORE AND AFTER (glass not done in these pics)
WHEELS BEFORE AND AFTER. I'd say this is my one disappointment. There was some staining I could not get off, at least not without wheel removal and that was not in the cards for today.
FOAM BATH!
DETAILING IS IN THE DETAILS...
IRON DECON.
CLAY. One of the telling things on how many bonded contaminants there were is normally I only expect to see dirt on the leading edge of the clay, here the trailing edge is also picking up dirt.
SCRATCH ON FRONT BUMPER (again I didn't go crazy)
B-PILLAR TRIM BEFORE AND AFTER
OXIDATION ON METAL DOOR TRIM BEFORE AND AFTER
FINAL SHOTS!
MAIN STEPS AND PRODUCTS USED: (I won't list everything like the other thread, just the key items)
Clean engine bay
P21s Total Auto Wash
Adams In & Out Spray
Clean wheelsAdams In & Out Spray
Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner
Tuff Shine Tire Cleaner
Clean jambsTuff Shine Tire Cleaner
P21s Total Auto Wash
Foam bath
Meg's D111 mixed with CarPro Multi-X
Contact wash
Meg's D111
Iron decon.
CarPro Iron-X
Clay
Pinnacle Poly Clay
Correction/Polish (1 step)
CarPro Essence
UroFiber Pad (two thumbs up)
'LSP'UroFiber Pad (two thumbs up)
CarPro Reload
PHOTOS: (I'll sequence the before and afters where appropriate)
MICRO SCRATCHES. It was hard to get a shot that really showed the level of scratching with the angle of the sun but it was much worse than shown here. I confirmed the entire car, wheels included, was being washed with one mitt.
ENGINE BAY BEFORE AND AFTER (glass not done in these pics)
TRUNK JAMB BEFORE AND AFTER (glass not done in these pics)
WHEELS BEFORE AND AFTER. I'd say this is my one disappointment. There was some staining I could not get off, at least not without wheel removal and that was not in the cards for today.
FOAM BATH!
DETAILING IS IN THE DETAILS...
IRON DECON.
CLAY. One of the telling things on how many bonded contaminants there were is normally I only expect to see dirt on the leading edge of the clay, here the trailing edge is also picking up dirt.
SCRATCH ON FRONT BUMPER (again I didn't go crazy)
B-PILLAR TRIM BEFORE AND AFTER
OXIDATION ON METAL DOOR TRIM BEFORE AND AFTER
FINAL SHOTS!
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