So I had a monster of a detail this past weekend…lol. A customer contacted me about getting some work done on his black Chevy Tahoe. He said it had never been detailed, and was taken through tunnel washes on a regular basis. So I, of course, expected the finish to be pretty bad, but not nearly as bad as it ended up being….
Upon initial inspection we agreed to a two-step correction. A one step would not have removed enough of the swirls to make it worth it, and a full correction was not worth it since this vehicle is used to tow a boat, and sometimes go off-road. I soon found out that a two-step wasn’t going to work on this vehicle. The paint wasn’t overly hard, or overly soft (didn’t mar while wiping or anything) BUT it was nearly impossible to get the paint to finish without micro-marring. I tried M205 and even the new Blackfire AIO and both left a lot of micro-marring. I finally tried Menzerna 106fa on speed 2 and it seemed to work. I guess the SMAT abrasives in the other products just weren’t fine enough to finish off well. At the same time there were some very deep rids that ultimately required wet sanding…so, some spots on the car actually got 5 steps (2 wetsanding and 3 polishing) while the rest of the vehicle got 3 polishing steps.
I want to say up front that the car was brought to me clean, so I didn’t have to do any sort of wash. I did a quick wipedown with Blackfire Waterless Wash, and then moved right onto claying with the Ultima Clay Block with Chemical Guys Luber for lube. Here is how the paint looked after being prepped for polish.
First I decided to address the sections that needed wet sanding since they would take the longest, and most likely be the messiest. The worst sections were actually both rear quarter panels. Not 100% sure why, but they were both riddled with RIDS. I started wetsanding with 1500grit on my PC and finished up with 2500 grit on the PC. I then compounded the wetsanding marks out with M105 on the Meguiars Mf cutting pad with the PCXP, followed by Menzerna SIP on a Tangerine pad with the PCXP and finally finished with Menzerna 106fa on a black LC pad with the PCXP.
Here are a few 50/50 pics of the wetsanding.
Next up I tackled the rest of the vehicle. For compounding I used Menzerna’s newest product FG500 on a Cyan pad on my Dewalt rotary, followed by the SIP on a tangerine pad with the PCXP, and again finished with 106fa on a black LC pad with the PCXP.
Here are some 50/50’s of the polishing. Most of them are just after compounding, so there is some haze in some of the pics.
Next are just some random reflection pictures I took through the course of the detail. These are all during the detail, so excuse any dust or smudges; they were all cleaned up before returning to the customer.
Here are some random sun pictures. Most of these were also taking during the detail, so there may be some dust present from all the compounding and polishing.
After all the correction was done there was a good bit of dust on the vehicle so I did a quick wash with XMT soap, then blew the vehicle dry. I then did a quick wipe down with Eraser to make sure nothing would affect the bonding of my LSP. The LSP that I chose was the new Crystal Seal from Blackfire. This product is a WOWA LSP that applies just like UPGP and Opti Seal.
Upon initial inspection we agreed to a two-step correction. A one step would not have removed enough of the swirls to make it worth it, and a full correction was not worth it since this vehicle is used to tow a boat, and sometimes go off-road. I soon found out that a two-step wasn’t going to work on this vehicle. The paint wasn’t overly hard, or overly soft (didn’t mar while wiping or anything) BUT it was nearly impossible to get the paint to finish without micro-marring. I tried M205 and even the new Blackfire AIO and both left a lot of micro-marring. I finally tried Menzerna 106fa on speed 2 and it seemed to work. I guess the SMAT abrasives in the other products just weren’t fine enough to finish off well. At the same time there were some very deep rids that ultimately required wet sanding…so, some spots on the car actually got 5 steps (2 wetsanding and 3 polishing) while the rest of the vehicle got 3 polishing steps.
I want to say up front that the car was brought to me clean, so I didn’t have to do any sort of wash. I did a quick wipedown with Blackfire Waterless Wash, and then moved right onto claying with the Ultima Clay Block with Chemical Guys Luber for lube. Here is how the paint looked after being prepped for polish.
First I decided to address the sections that needed wet sanding since they would take the longest, and most likely be the messiest. The worst sections were actually both rear quarter panels. Not 100% sure why, but they were both riddled with RIDS. I started wetsanding with 1500grit on my PC and finished up with 2500 grit on the PC. I then compounded the wetsanding marks out with M105 on the Meguiars Mf cutting pad with the PCXP, followed by Menzerna SIP on a Tangerine pad with the PCXP and finally finished with Menzerna 106fa on a black LC pad with the PCXP.
Here are a few 50/50 pics of the wetsanding.
Next up I tackled the rest of the vehicle. For compounding I used Menzerna’s newest product FG500 on a Cyan pad on my Dewalt rotary, followed by the SIP on a tangerine pad with the PCXP, and again finished with 106fa on a black LC pad with the PCXP.
Here are some 50/50’s of the polishing. Most of them are just after compounding, so there is some haze in some of the pics.
Next are just some random reflection pictures I took through the course of the detail. These are all during the detail, so excuse any dust or smudges; they were all cleaned up before returning to the customer.
Here are some random sun pictures. Most of these were also taking during the detail, so there may be some dust present from all the compounding and polishing.
After all the correction was done there was a good bit of dust on the vehicle so I did a quick wash with XMT soap, then blew the vehicle dry. I then did a quick wipe down with Eraser to make sure nothing would affect the bonding of my LSP. The LSP that I chose was the new Crystal Seal from Blackfire. This product is a WOWA LSP that applies just like UPGP and Opti Seal.
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