BryanH
New member
- Jan 9, 2013
- 152
- 0
Technically it's not a daily driver anymore, but it was for many years. This is a good friend's car and as a favor I took it home to diagnose/fix a boost issue and give it a mini makeover.
When I got it home the first thing I had to do was clean the engine bay! Since I would be leaning over the fenders to fix the car, I didn't work on paint until later.
After a thorough wash and decontamination of the paint with IronX and then clay, this is what I had to work with:
I started by wetsanding the headlights. And as you can see I was in for a lot of chip repair!
I did a few test spots, such as this one with Griots FCC on a Griots white pad with my Meguiars G110v2 DA.
A big improvement, but some RIDS remained (there were a ton on this car) as well as some speckled spots. A second pass got rid of another 50% of them.
Ultimately I settled on FCC with the Griots microfiber pad. This gave a faster cut, a better finish, and quicker working time on this paint. I was amazed again by FCC when I found the right pad for this paint - compounding/polishing in 1 step shouldn't be this easy.
Did I mention how soft this paint was? The car was repainted the original color years ago. Soft as it is, it's no wonder it had so much marring. I educated my friend on how to minimize marring in the future, but it will be a challenge.
Correction wasn't 100% but with the amount of RIDS on the car I didn't want to chase them all out and get the clear coat too thin. It's a driver, not a show car. From a few feet back it looked pretty good.
The paint was wiped down with some leftover CarPro Eraser, and then Optimum Paint Prep. Sealed with WDGPS 3.0 - my fave - and left to cure in the garage overnight. The next day, upon delivery to the owner's house 3 hours away, a rinseless wash was performed using ONR and the BRS, and D156 as a drying aid. I've put together a mobile rinseless kit of sorts for myself, using a Meguiars 3.5-gallon bucket that happens to be a perfect fit for a Chemical Guys Cyclone Dirt Trap and a Gamma Seal lid. Being smaller than a 5-gallon bucket, it's much easier to transport in a car.
I never had great lighting for any of the "after" photos, but these will have to do.
The interior was equally "used" but I neglected to get any after shots of that. Oops!
The owner was very happy when she saw her car again, so I can call this one a success even though it's not quite up to my standards. Areas of the car proved to be a real challenge with years of inadvertent neglect. There were areas of this car not even my GG3 could reach so I did my best by hand, and some parts of the interior took several attempts/methods to get clean. I've never seen dirt/grime so stubbornly embedded.
When I got it home the first thing I had to do was clean the engine bay! Since I would be leaning over the fenders to fix the car, I didn't work on paint until later.
After a thorough wash and decontamination of the paint with IronX and then clay, this is what I had to work with:
I started by wetsanding the headlights. And as you can see I was in for a lot of chip repair!
I did a few test spots, such as this one with Griots FCC on a Griots white pad with my Meguiars G110v2 DA.
A big improvement, but some RIDS remained (there were a ton on this car) as well as some speckled spots. A second pass got rid of another 50% of them.
Ultimately I settled on FCC with the Griots microfiber pad. This gave a faster cut, a better finish, and quicker working time on this paint. I was amazed again by FCC when I found the right pad for this paint - compounding/polishing in 1 step shouldn't be this easy.
Did I mention how soft this paint was? The car was repainted the original color years ago. Soft as it is, it's no wonder it had so much marring. I educated my friend on how to minimize marring in the future, but it will be a challenge.
Correction wasn't 100% but with the amount of RIDS on the car I didn't want to chase them all out and get the clear coat too thin. It's a driver, not a show car. From a few feet back it looked pretty good.
The paint was wiped down with some leftover CarPro Eraser, and then Optimum Paint Prep. Sealed with WDGPS 3.0 - my fave - and left to cure in the garage overnight. The next day, upon delivery to the owner's house 3 hours away, a rinseless wash was performed using ONR and the BRS, and D156 as a drying aid. I've put together a mobile rinseless kit of sorts for myself, using a Meguiars 3.5-gallon bucket that happens to be a perfect fit for a Chemical Guys Cyclone Dirt Trap and a Gamma Seal lid. Being smaller than a 5-gallon bucket, it's much easier to transport in a car.
I never had great lighting for any of the "after" photos, but these will have to do.
The interior was equally "used" but I neglected to get any after shots of that. Oops!
The owner was very happy when she saw her car again, so I can call this one a success even though it's not quite up to my standards. Areas of the car proved to be a real challenge with years of inadvertent neglect. There were areas of this car not even my GG3 could reach so I did my best by hand, and some parts of the interior took several attempts/methods to get clean. I've never seen dirt/grime so stubbornly embedded.
