Detail Advice

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cmoneyinc

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I am planning on detailing my Dad's 2003 Mitsubishi Montero soon. He takes good care of it and it has very low miles, so the paint is in pretty good condition. It's somewhat of a miracle, considering that he's pretty old school when it comes to washing/drying his car, as I had to explain to him what the 2BM was and the only way he ever dried was with terry cloth towels and/or chamois. Low and behold, I can't find a swirl anywhere on this thing, not even under inspection lighting. It could be that it is a metallic champagne-like color, which may be hiding them from my inexperienced eyes. Either way, if you can't see them, no reason for correction.

He hasn't had a detail in quite a while, so I will clay, polish and seal/wax it (his choice).

Here are some of the polishes I have in my collection: CG: V36, V38, Deep Reflections XP, EZ Creme Glaze II, Menzerna: SIP 1500 and SF4500. I have the PC 7424XP, a full set of Hex Logic pads and multiple sets of LC Hydrotech pads. I also have FG400 and V34 as compounds but won't be needing them since I'm not doing any heavy correction.

With the products in my arsenal, what do you guys think is my best approach for polishing? I've never worked on a Mitsubishi before, so I have no idea as to the hardness/softness of the paint.

I know I can do a test spot, but its a huge SUV and I'll want to save as much time as possible (I'm not a pro, just a weekend warrior). Also, with that paint color, I may not be able to tell accurate results from a test spot.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
Wow...74 views and not 1 reply??? Did I break a forum rule or something?
 
Always do a test spot as you said and always use the least aggressive first and work your way up from there.
 
The 4500 would clean up VERY light towel marks and liven up the shine IMHO. If you're set on a polish, better to go light and save the paint for the future full correction when/if it becomes necessary. A good cleaner wax would do the same thing with a black pad but the durability won't be as good as a two step.

Good luck!
 
If you don't have any swirls, the least aggressive approach (which I just used on my car, for the same reason) would be to use a paintwork cleanser. Mike has posted some before/after shots of cleaning up the paint. I had, even after washing and claying, a brownish tinge to the paint that I couldn't really see until I did a test spot with the paintwork cleanser. Made quite a difference.

I'd go with the wash, clay, cleanser, and then put a sealant or coating on it .... that way you won't be repeating this any time soon. And I'll bet that, on that light paint, you'll be able to see the difference with a test spot as you take out the ground in dirt.

You said you have a glaze on hand already. Having recently read here on AGO that you can put a sealant on top of a glaze, I plan to try that next. I thought it would interfere with the sealant bonding to the paint, but that's not the consensus. Just a note: Consensus remains that glaze under a coating is still a no-no.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.
 
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