zmcgovern45
New member
- Sep 5, 2012
- 3,443
- 0
This customer contacted me because he was looking to have his wife's vehicle cleaned up and coated to make it easier to maintain and to protect the painted surfaces from the harmful environmental contaminates it will surely see on a regular basis. It was decided that the car would be polished to remove light surface defects and produce a deep, glossy finish and then coated with CQuartz Finest paint coating to provide years of durable protection and shine. The car turned out great... have a look for yourself in the photos below!
Process
- Tires: Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner & Tire Brush
- Wheels: Sonax Full Effect, EZ Detail Brushes, ATLASTA Soft Tip Brush, Wheel Brush, etc.
- Foam Pre-Soak: CG Citrus Wash
- Wash (2 bucket method): CG Citrus Wash and Sheepskin Wash Mitt
- Dry: Waffle Weave Microfiber Towels
- Fallout Removal: CarPro Iron X
- Surface Decontamination: Fine Grade Nanoskin Wash Mitt with Nanoskin Glide (7:1) as lube
- Masked off areas of concern
- Paint Thickness Readings Taken
- Polish: Optimum Hyper Polish on Orange LC Pads via Rupes LHR21ES (5.5" Pads) and PC7424XP (3" Pads)
- IPA Wipedown (15% solution)
- ONR Wash (Garry Dean Wash Method)
- Eraser Wipedown
- CQuartz Finest Applied (2 coats paint, 1 coat wheels)
- Exhaust Tips: CG Metal Polish + Protection
- Tire Dresssing: Optimum Opti-Bond Tire Gel
- Glass: Meguiar's D120 & DI Glass Towels
Before
The car was quite dirty as you might expect from the typical Midwest winter conditions.
Wheels and tires needed a good cleaning.
During
As usual, I began by cleaning the wheels and tires. Here you can see the tire cleaner turning a dirty brown color as it works to remove dirt from the rubber.
The 2nd round of tire cleaner showed that much of the dirt had been removed. The cleaner is now just slightly brown after agitation.
The 3rd round of tire cleaner confirmed that the tires were now clean as the tire cleaner remained white after being agitated with the tire brush.
Once the tires were clean, the wheels were treated with Sonax Full Effect wheel cleaner. The cleaner was left to dwell for a couple of minutes while it began breaking up the dirt and debris on the surface of the wheels.
Next, I began cleaning the barrels of the wheels with my wheel woolies and EZ detail brushes. Then, I moved to the faces of the wheels with my boar's hair wheel brush, sheepskin mitt (for wheels only), and atlasta soft tip brush.
The wheels & tires cleaned up nicely.
After washing and decontaminating the paint, it was much easier to see the surface defects. There were swirls and scratches present on every surface.
Another common defect found on daily driven vehicles are bug etchings. Bug guts contain acid which, when left on the paint, will etch and can sometimes cause permanent damage that will require the effected area to be repainted.
This is a small spot on the front bumper where the clear coat has peeled away. This was most likely caused by bug damage that ate away at the paint. An unfortunate reminder that things like bird droppings and bug guts can do some serious damage in a short amount of time.
Paint thickness readings were then taken before polishing to ensure that enough material was present to safely polish. These readings were quite low, therefore a medium polish was chosen as a good compromise for removing the lighter defects without removing a significant amount of material. This process will leave the heavier scratches, however the owner was not concerned with a perfect finish as he knew this car would see it's fair share of use.
Some areas were surprisingly thin. Caution was exercised around such spots, as the safety of the vehicle is always my #1 priority.
I began my test spot on the door. Here it is before correction. The metallic flake makes it hard to photograph the defects with the halogen lights, but you can see the swirls and scratches on the surface.
After polishing the majority of defects have been removed and the surface is smooth and the metallic flake really 'pops'.
Look at that gorgeous metallic paint!
This photo shows the side by side comparison of the polished area (left) vs. the original (right). Notice how the left side looks noticeably darker and clearer. This goes to show that even newer cars can benefit from a good polishing to really bring out the true beauty of their paint.
Another look at the awesome metallic paint after polishing the fender.
Here is another look at the bug etchings on the mirror. This is before polishing.
After polishing, the majority of the defects were removed and the mirror looks much better.
Rear door before polishing
Rear door after polishing
Paint is looking great!
50/50 shot on the passenger rear door. Look at that great improvement on the polished side (right)!
Rear quarter before polishing
Rear quarter after polishing
Process
- Tires: Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner & Tire Brush
- Wheels: Sonax Full Effect, EZ Detail Brushes, ATLASTA Soft Tip Brush, Wheel Brush, etc.
- Foam Pre-Soak: CG Citrus Wash
- Wash (2 bucket method): CG Citrus Wash and Sheepskin Wash Mitt
- Dry: Waffle Weave Microfiber Towels
- Fallout Removal: CarPro Iron X
- Surface Decontamination: Fine Grade Nanoskin Wash Mitt with Nanoskin Glide (7:1) as lube
- Masked off areas of concern
- Paint Thickness Readings Taken
- Polish: Optimum Hyper Polish on Orange LC Pads via Rupes LHR21ES (5.5" Pads) and PC7424XP (3" Pads)
- IPA Wipedown (15% solution)
- ONR Wash (Garry Dean Wash Method)
- Eraser Wipedown
- CQuartz Finest Applied (2 coats paint, 1 coat wheels)
- Exhaust Tips: CG Metal Polish + Protection
- Tire Dresssing: Optimum Opti-Bond Tire Gel
- Glass: Meguiar's D120 & DI Glass Towels
Before
The car was quite dirty as you might expect from the typical Midwest winter conditions.
Wheels and tires needed a good cleaning.
During
As usual, I began by cleaning the wheels and tires. Here you can see the tire cleaner turning a dirty brown color as it works to remove dirt from the rubber.
The 2nd round of tire cleaner showed that much of the dirt had been removed. The cleaner is now just slightly brown after agitation.
The 3rd round of tire cleaner confirmed that the tires were now clean as the tire cleaner remained white after being agitated with the tire brush.
Once the tires were clean, the wheels were treated with Sonax Full Effect wheel cleaner. The cleaner was left to dwell for a couple of minutes while it began breaking up the dirt and debris on the surface of the wheels.
Next, I began cleaning the barrels of the wheels with my wheel woolies and EZ detail brushes. Then, I moved to the faces of the wheels with my boar's hair wheel brush, sheepskin mitt (for wheels only), and atlasta soft tip brush.
The wheels & tires cleaned up nicely.
After washing and decontaminating the paint, it was much easier to see the surface defects. There were swirls and scratches present on every surface.
Another common defect found on daily driven vehicles are bug etchings. Bug guts contain acid which, when left on the paint, will etch and can sometimes cause permanent damage that will require the effected area to be repainted.
This is a small spot on the front bumper where the clear coat has peeled away. This was most likely caused by bug damage that ate away at the paint. An unfortunate reminder that things like bird droppings and bug guts can do some serious damage in a short amount of time.
Paint thickness readings were then taken before polishing to ensure that enough material was present to safely polish. These readings were quite low, therefore a medium polish was chosen as a good compromise for removing the lighter defects without removing a significant amount of material. This process will leave the heavier scratches, however the owner was not concerned with a perfect finish as he knew this car would see it's fair share of use.
Some areas were surprisingly thin. Caution was exercised around such spots, as the safety of the vehicle is always my #1 priority.
I began my test spot on the door. Here it is before correction. The metallic flake makes it hard to photograph the defects with the halogen lights, but you can see the swirls and scratches on the surface.
After polishing the majority of defects have been removed and the surface is smooth and the metallic flake really 'pops'.
Look at that gorgeous metallic paint!
This photo shows the side by side comparison of the polished area (left) vs. the original (right). Notice how the left side looks noticeably darker and clearer. This goes to show that even newer cars can benefit from a good polishing to really bring out the true beauty of their paint.
Another look at the awesome metallic paint after polishing the fender.
Here is another look at the bug etchings on the mirror. This is before polishing.
After polishing, the majority of the defects were removed and the mirror looks much better.
Rear door before polishing
Rear door after polishing
Paint is looking great!
50/50 shot on the passenger rear door. Look at that great improvement on the polished side (right)!
Rear quarter before polishing
Rear quarter after polishing
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