Cleaned & Coated in 3 Hours - 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Cleaned & Coated in 3 Hours - 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee


Here's a brand new 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee. After inspecting the paint in the sun there were no swirls or scratches. So luckily the dealership has not washed it or buffed it as the paint is pretty much flawless. I also did the Baggie Test and did not feel any type of contamination on the paint.

Waterless Wash
The car was lightly dirty so first thing I wiped the car clean using Detailer's Waterless Auto Wash. I started at 10:15am.

40 minutes to wipe clean
About 40 minutes later I had wiped the entire car down including the wheels, lowest parts of the car, the roof and even the roof rack plus all the glass, grill and trim.

Machine Prep Paint
Although the paint felt rubbery like there was no wax or anything on it I wanted to make sure it was perfectly clean and prepared for coating so I machine applied Detailer's Paint Coating Prep using a Porter Cable 7424XP on the 5.0 speed setting. To apply the product I used a 5.5" Hydro-Tech Tangerine Polishing Pad.

I started this right at 11:00am.

1 Hour to prep paint
It took me approximately 1 hour to run the polisher over every inch of the body panels and I also machine cleaned all the glass. The way I did this was to machine clean the entire Cherokee all at once and then I wiped the entire car down to remove the Detailer's Paint Coating Prep. You can if you like, remove the prep as you finish a panel as this product does not need to dry. I find it faster to do the machine application all at once and then wipe down the entire car all at one time. I wore microfiber gloves to help me grip the microfiber towels and to also avoid getting any skin oils onto the freshly cleaned and wiped paint.

Ready to apply Detailer's Paint Coating
It was noon and I was all ready to apply the coating but I took a break from this project to make some phone calls and get something cold to drink.

Break time over...
Took this picture after I returned from my break just to document the accurate times for each step.

45 Minutes to apply and remove Detailer's Paint Coating
I applied the Detailer's paint coating to one body panel at a time and then carefully inspected the panel to wipe-off any high spots or technically, excess product residue.

Note I left one section on the passenger side of the hood un-touched except for wiping clean with the Detailer's Waterless Wash.

Then I shot this video...

Cleaned & Coated in 3 Hours - 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee​

[video=youtube_share;ebOcj3ls2gM"]Video showing before and after[/video]



Clean and coat bare section on hood
Then I removed the tape and machine applied the Detailer's Paint Coating Prep followed by application of the Detailer's Paint Coating. This probably took me about 10 to 15 minutes.

All the glass was coated with the Detailer's Glass Coating

Here's the after shots...

Here's the products I used...

On Autogeek.net


Detailer's Paint Coating Prep

Detailer's Paint Coating

Gold Foam Finger Pockets

Detailer's Waterless Auto Wash

Black Nitrile Gloves



:xyxthumbs:

 

[Audi X2]

Looks beautiful Mike, excellent work as always rops:
Certainly makes the process much easier when the vehicle is defect free from the start.

The 2014 Grand Cherokee is a very nice ride :xyxthumbs:

 

[c8n]

How many section passes when applying the coating prep polish?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Certainly makes the process much easier when the vehicle is defect free from the start.

100% agree with you on that. I actually cannot remember a car in the last few years or even decades that I didn't have to at least do one machine polishing step and also remove contaminants at least off the horizontal panels.

The paint on this was immaculate and quite frankly, I was surprised, impressed and even happy about it.

About a month ago I detailed a guys Mercedes- Benz and while it was in great shape, garage kept it still needed to be clayed and because I clayed it I went ahead and machine polished it. I need to get that write-up posted to as that was a 2-hour, $200.00 detail.

The 2014 Grand Cherokee is a very nice ride :xyxthumbs:

That's what I've heard... unlike my truck which not only highlights every bump in the road but also maximizes every bump in road.

How many section passes when applying the coating prep polish?

You know that's a really good question. I'd say about 3 section passes but not like removing swirls and scratches because you don't have to press hard and you can tackle larger sections at a time. Think of how you would hand apply a paint cleaner to simply remove light surface impurities and that's how I ran the polisher over the paint.

Another way to think of it is how you machine apply a finishing wax. After you've done all the correction and polishing work, when you go to machine apply a finishing wax or finishing sealant, you can pretty much move the polisher over the surface fairly quickly and tackle as much area as you can reach. The goal is clean the paint thoroughly but paint like this didn't have much to clean off.

I will say this, the paint felt rubber before I started, I also mention this in the video. After using the Paint Coating Prep the paint felt very smooth, so whatever was on the paint was removed. Then after applying the coating the paint went from smooth to slick and glassy.

And I did run the pad over each square inch though, I didn't skimp at all. So the entire front portions of the Jeep and the back hatch and even the fender moldings and very lowest portions of the sides had the paint coating prep machine polished over them. Even in-between the chrome grill inserts as I tipped the pad on edge to get into this tight area.

Then all the panels were carefully and very thoroughly wiped clean. After the first pass around the car I even made a second pass to make sure all residues were removed off not only the paint but all the black plastic trim and moldings and the rubber gaskets around all the side glass and the sunroof glass.

This Jeep was surgically clean before I applied the coating. And believe me while I didn't rush, I did work fast.

 

[KillaCam]

Brand new cars, my favorite to clean lol. I absolutely love the new grand Cherokees and they look their best in white! How long is the glass coating supposed to last? I would like to compare it to flyby30.

 

[sproketser]

Great job again Mike ! Well organized as well . Experience talks .

 

[Mfour]

Dang that looks good!!!

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Looking good Mike!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Brand new cars, my favorite to clean lol. I absolutely love the new grand Cherokees and they look their best in white!

I rarely work on anything in good condition let along "excellent" condition. Nice change for once.

How long is the glass coating supposed to last? I would like to compare it to flyby30.

Product info I think says up to 2 years. Things like this always depend on "how the car is treated".

Great job again Mike ! Well organized as well . Experience talks .

Dang that looks good!!!

Looking good Mike!

Thanks guys... I was surprised at how little time I had into considering the wiping and machine polishing, I figured another hour but it was right at 3 hours, a little less if you were to cut out the time I spent setting up shots.

 

[Wors]

Very nice work Mike. The Jeep is well protected.

The information on DP products is spot on for anyone questioning how to apply. All three DP coatings are easy to apply and can be applied very quickly with the spray bottles.

 

[sjb89]

Beautiful job Mike ! The paint looks wet and deep. Keeping it that way , should be a lot easier now. Awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing.

 

[mikesal57]

Beautiful!!!


P.S.- What kind of sweet shop you work for that only gives 25 mins for lunch :laughing:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Very nice work Mike. The Jeep is well protected.

The information on DP products is spot on for anyone questioning how to apply. All three DP coatings are easy to apply and can be applied very quickly with the spray bottles.

Thanks Ben...

The spray-on application plus the sprayer doing a very good job of atomizing the product does make it very easy. I captured this shot of the sprayer atomizing the product when I did the back of my wheels.

Beautiful job Mike ! The paint looks wet and deep. Keeping it that way , should be a lot easier now. Awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you. I'm not a big fan of working on white colored vehicles but this Jeep did come out looking like a brand new vehicle should look like and that's wet and glossy.

As for maintenance, that will be up to the owner...

Beautiful!!!


P.S.- What kind of sweet shop you work for that only gives 25 mins for lunch :laughing:

Thank you... and that was a "working break".

 

[Lean69]

Love new Grand Cherokees, looks great, amazing job!

 

[rdf]

Wow. It's usually hard for me to see much about a white vehicle's finish, but that Jeep looks like it's coated in glass. Beautiful.

I have the DP Paint Coating en route. Will the DP Coating Prep Polish remove my current sealant (Ultima Paint Guard Plus)? I don't want to use an abrasive to remove the Ultima if it's not necessary to do so .... in the spirit of the "least aggressive" theory.

Great pix. I really like the shot showing how well the wheel coating sprayer atomizes the product.

 

[cleanmycorolla]

Wow. It's usually hard for me to see much about a white vehicle's finish, but that Jeep looks like it's coated in glass. Beautiful.

I have the DP Paint Coating en route. Will the DP Coating Prep Polish remove my current sealant (Ultima Paint Guard Plus)? I don't want to use an abrasive to remove the Ultima if it's not necessary to do so .... in the spirit of the "least aggressive" theory.

Great pix. I really like the shot showing how well the wheel coating sprayer atomizes the product.

Yup DP prep polish will clean and remove pretty much anything. It's just like any paint cleaner minus glazes, oils etc...

 

[rdf]

Thanks, Chris!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Love new Grand Cherokees, looks great, amazing job!

It did come out really nice. It would be fun to take it back to the dealership and show them what their cars "could" look like if they invested a little education into their staff.

Wow. It's usually hard for me to see much about a white vehicle's finish, but that Jeep looks like it's coated in glass. Beautiful.

I agree. The Detailer's Paint Coating really works great. And think about it this way...

If the Detailer's Paint Coating can make white paint look this good... just think what it can do for any other color or metallic finish...

I have the DP Paint Coating en route. Will the DP Coating Prep Polish remove my current sealant (Ultima Paint Guard Plus)?

I don't want to use an abrasive to remove the Ultima if it's not necessary to do so .... in the spirit of the "least aggressive" theory.

If you do a really thorough job of applying it then I think it will. I tend to do everything by machine unless it's physically impossible.
I applied the Detailer's Paint Coating Prep to every square inch of this Jeep using a Hydro-Tech Tangerine Polishing Paint and after wiping all the residue off the paint not only looked clean but it was squeaky clean to the touch.

Great pix. I really like the shot showing how well the wheel coating sprayer atomizes the product.

Thank you. I'm getting a lot more comfortable with the settings on this new camera.

 

[javip2k]

Mike:

Fantastic mirror shine, sincerely I like whites. Did you a good job. Like ever. Thank you Mike for sharing with us your tips and valuable experience. :dblthumb2:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Mike:

Fantastic mirror shine, sincerely I like whites. Did you a good job. Like ever. Thank you Mike for sharing with us your tips and valuable experience. :dblthumb2:

Thank you. I find white paint so boring to work on but if I had to buy a new SUV that's the color I would probably buy.

I think white SUVs with nice chrome wheels have a real clean look to them. Boring but clean.