Wills.WindowsAndWheels
New member
- Oct 31, 2009
- 1,682
- 0
Tunnel washes are a bad, bad thing for paint. Brushes whipping around at mach3 speed coated in the grime they scrubbed off of the previous 1000 mud buckets that came through there does not agree well with your paint. Then add in the fact that those brushes run across your tires/wheels and then drag that brake dust/grime all along the lower sides of your car and well, you get this:
Yup, we had some work to do! The owner had come down two months ago for us to take a look at his car. He knew it needed help and was very honest about how it had been cared for. He wanted full correction and a long lasting protection - so some seriously polishing and CQ Finest was on the menu. We set the date for a couple of months later - he was driving over 150 miles to have us take care of it so we set it up for a time that would be as convenient for him as possible.
Upon arrival well, things were not a lot better thats for sure lol. The owner HAD however pulled the wheels a few days prior and cleaned them…that did help some!
But of course they had to be cleaned again after the long drive:
Im melting, melllllting…..oooooh what a world!!!!
Ok so seriously after cleaning all that yumminess up it was onto the prep wash….foamin' her up!
Thickness….i likey!
After a good wash it was time to rinse it down:
It's hard to tell because of the tarp reflection but, this is the roof..look closely and you can see how FLAT the water is setting. There was nada left on this paint.
Next up it was time for some "claying" (using a decontamination towel but you get the idea):
After that was done it was pretty clear to see some nice water spot etching on the flat panels. Gotta love Arizona water - especially when its well water!
Once in the sun the real delightfulness was apparent:
THIS was one of the "better" areas…yeah…remember what i said about low areas getting torn up from brushes being drug along the tires and then the paint…we'll get to that again in a moment…here is more of the "better" areas:
HOLY!
Those tunnel washes are thorough, they get every little inch!
More swirls and water spot etching:
Got water spots? Why yes, yes we do….
That was in the sun….next we pulled her on into the garage and gave it a looksie under the LED lights. For those who just use over head or even halogen lights - trust me, there are somethings that just don't show up unless you pull out a direct beam LED….its a scary world once you do but it sure helps you see things you never knew were there…even under direct sun some defects are difficult to see - but a darkened garage with one of these will make you cry…but will also make you better:
Oh yeah…LED's are not my friend during this portion of the detail….daym!
Tunnel wash whipped it, whipped it good.
Yeahhhh baby! Thats the good stuff right there!
This sucker was NOT for the faint of heart thats for sure. So what were we gonna rock it with. 105? D300? Maybe the hard core 101? Nope….we were going to go at it the same as we did the black Vette we had earlier that week. Rupes 21, Megs MF Finishing pad and Megs 205…yes, 205, the finishing polish that can cut like mad.
Primed up the pad thoroughly, set the speed to about 4, taped off a test section on the hood and went at it. 205 allows for a longer work time, less dust, easier to wipe away and less scouring than its more aggressive counterparts. NOT to say those heavy cutters are not needed, but sometimes you can work smarter and not harder.
The result was beauuuutiful:
Not only did it cut the holy hell out of all the defects, but it left a great finish. We had seen this earlier that week on a black Vette as well. On black, if there is marring there is NO hiding it with an LED light - but we were getting nearly a polished looking finish after "cutting" with a microfiber pad and 205. On a blue metallic like this however, it was hard to tell the difference. We of course still used 205 with a finishing pad and slower speed to squeeze as much gloss out of this baby as possible, but it sure makes the "cleaning up" of the marring much easier than after using something like 105.
Now knowing what weapons to use to attack this mess, we proceeded by working all the top panels first and then dropping down to the sides:
Knockin' those suckers out - 20"x20" at a time!
The top panels were relatively….emphasis on RELATIVELY, painless. Not many areas needed additional passes as long as we consistently cleaned our pad after every section. Next we dropped down to the sides and all was good the first few sections…till we got below the height of the wheel. Oh yeah….this was the bundle of joy that awaited us:
Now in this case Dani and i differed a bit in how we proceeded. I was able to continue to get 205 to work where as with her side, she added a little M100 to her pad to up the bite of the cut. After the detail Dani posted some photos and such up on facebook and made a comment that 205 wasn't quite getting what she wanted on the realllly bad stuff - but guys like Bryan Burnworth and Kevin Brown were kind enough to comment leave some more info for us to go by (since they both have been using 205 in this method longer than we have). To quote Bryan "When in doubt, use more" lol. Thats perhaps why i was still getting the cut i wanted on my side.
That mess up above was my side…sooo i kinda laid the 205 on pretty heavily and went at it. One thing Dani and I did both notice is since most of the scratches were going east/west…we seemed to get better/quicker removal if we started our section out by going north/south.
So again, this:
Became this:
(In my best Hey Kool-aid voice) - Oooooh yeaaaaah.
Again, a bit further down the same door we had this:
Thats a nasty nasty mess! I swear sometimes when i go back through our pictures I'm like…wow! That was really really messed up!
And yet again - 205 to the rescue:
Im sure you see the spray bottle. Water is your friend. To extend the buffing cycle and help purge residue/build up free from the pad during the buffing cycles. To help loosen up that residue AFTER the buffing cycle so when you clean your pad with air or a mf towel MORE of that gunk will get removed. After every panel or so id hit my pad with some Final Inspection which seemed to really help break down that build up even more and really get my pad back into good shape. So that i could move onto more of this:
And turn it into this (50/50)
Yes, yes we do love 205…we do love Meguiars pads and damn sure love our Rupes 21. Note this was done using the 6" mf pad, not the 5". It really is quite amazing how well that Rupes 21 can swing those larger pads around. As Kevin told us, momentum = cutting power! I sent a couple of those pictures to him and he appropriately responded "Pa-dowww!" hahaha.
Now while i was workin' the 205 just fine, i did find myself using some M100 or 101 on the rear bumper, which was a lovely cluster of what the hell. All the cutting was completed on day 1 along with the polishing of all the top panels.
Yup, we had some work to do! The owner had come down two months ago for us to take a look at his car. He knew it needed help and was very honest about how it had been cared for. He wanted full correction and a long lasting protection - so some seriously polishing and CQ Finest was on the menu. We set the date for a couple of months later - he was driving over 150 miles to have us take care of it so we set it up for a time that would be as convenient for him as possible.
Upon arrival well, things were not a lot better thats for sure lol. The owner HAD however pulled the wheels a few days prior and cleaned them…that did help some!
But of course they had to be cleaned again after the long drive:
Im melting, melllllting…..oooooh what a world!!!!
Ok so seriously after cleaning all that yumminess up it was onto the prep wash….foamin' her up!
Thickness….i likey!
After a good wash it was time to rinse it down:
It's hard to tell because of the tarp reflection but, this is the roof..look closely and you can see how FLAT the water is setting. There was nada left on this paint.
Next up it was time for some "claying" (using a decontamination towel but you get the idea):
After that was done it was pretty clear to see some nice water spot etching on the flat panels. Gotta love Arizona water - especially when its well water!
Once in the sun the real delightfulness was apparent:
THIS was one of the "better" areas…yeah…remember what i said about low areas getting torn up from brushes being drug along the tires and then the paint…we'll get to that again in a moment…here is more of the "better" areas:
HOLY!
Those tunnel washes are thorough, they get every little inch!
More swirls and water spot etching:
Got water spots? Why yes, yes we do….
That was in the sun….next we pulled her on into the garage and gave it a looksie under the LED lights. For those who just use over head or even halogen lights - trust me, there are somethings that just don't show up unless you pull out a direct beam LED….its a scary world once you do but it sure helps you see things you never knew were there…even under direct sun some defects are difficult to see - but a darkened garage with one of these will make you cry…but will also make you better:
Oh yeah…LED's are not my friend during this portion of the detail….daym!
Tunnel wash whipped it, whipped it good.
Yeahhhh baby! Thats the good stuff right there!
This sucker was NOT for the faint of heart thats for sure. So what were we gonna rock it with. 105? D300? Maybe the hard core 101? Nope….we were going to go at it the same as we did the black Vette we had earlier that week. Rupes 21, Megs MF Finishing pad and Megs 205…yes, 205, the finishing polish that can cut like mad.
Primed up the pad thoroughly, set the speed to about 4, taped off a test section on the hood and went at it. 205 allows for a longer work time, less dust, easier to wipe away and less scouring than its more aggressive counterparts. NOT to say those heavy cutters are not needed, but sometimes you can work smarter and not harder.
The result was beauuuutiful:
Not only did it cut the holy hell out of all the defects, but it left a great finish. We had seen this earlier that week on a black Vette as well. On black, if there is marring there is NO hiding it with an LED light - but we were getting nearly a polished looking finish after "cutting" with a microfiber pad and 205. On a blue metallic like this however, it was hard to tell the difference. We of course still used 205 with a finishing pad and slower speed to squeeze as much gloss out of this baby as possible, but it sure makes the "cleaning up" of the marring much easier than after using something like 105.
Now knowing what weapons to use to attack this mess, we proceeded by working all the top panels first and then dropping down to the sides:
Knockin' those suckers out - 20"x20" at a time!
The top panels were relatively….emphasis on RELATIVELY, painless. Not many areas needed additional passes as long as we consistently cleaned our pad after every section. Next we dropped down to the sides and all was good the first few sections…till we got below the height of the wheel. Oh yeah….this was the bundle of joy that awaited us:
Now in this case Dani and i differed a bit in how we proceeded. I was able to continue to get 205 to work where as with her side, she added a little M100 to her pad to up the bite of the cut. After the detail Dani posted some photos and such up on facebook and made a comment that 205 wasn't quite getting what she wanted on the realllly bad stuff - but guys like Bryan Burnworth and Kevin Brown were kind enough to comment leave some more info for us to go by (since they both have been using 205 in this method longer than we have). To quote Bryan "When in doubt, use more" lol. Thats perhaps why i was still getting the cut i wanted on my side.
That mess up above was my side…sooo i kinda laid the 205 on pretty heavily and went at it. One thing Dani and I did both notice is since most of the scratches were going east/west…we seemed to get better/quicker removal if we started our section out by going north/south.
So again, this:
Became this:
(In my best Hey Kool-aid voice) - Oooooh yeaaaaah.
Again, a bit further down the same door we had this:
Thats a nasty nasty mess! I swear sometimes when i go back through our pictures I'm like…wow! That was really really messed up!
And yet again - 205 to the rescue:
Im sure you see the spray bottle. Water is your friend. To extend the buffing cycle and help purge residue/build up free from the pad during the buffing cycles. To help loosen up that residue AFTER the buffing cycle so when you clean your pad with air or a mf towel MORE of that gunk will get removed. After every panel or so id hit my pad with some Final Inspection which seemed to really help break down that build up even more and really get my pad back into good shape. So that i could move onto more of this:
And turn it into this (50/50)
Yes, yes we do love 205…we do love Meguiars pads and damn sure love our Rupes 21. Note this was done using the 6" mf pad, not the 5". It really is quite amazing how well that Rupes 21 can swing those larger pads around. As Kevin told us, momentum = cutting power! I sent a couple of those pictures to him and he appropriately responded "Pa-dowww!" hahaha.
Now while i was workin' the 205 just fine, i did find myself using some M100 or 101 on the rear bumper, which was a lovely cluster of what the hell. All the cutting was completed on day 1 along with the polishing of all the top panels.
rops: