Oliver the CR-V gets some love

rms64 · Apr 24, 2015

Hi folks,

Another detail weekend for me. Next up is my friend Brittany's Honda CR-V, also known as "Oliver" because it resembles an Olive. She left the car with me for the weekend so I have some time - and incidentally, she's now cruising Orlando in my BMW. Probably with the top down - hmmmm...and nope, I don't do this for just anyone.

Anywho, this will be my attempt to "up my game" in terms of posting better pics, products, and process and will evolve over the weekend.

First up, the headlights were a mess. :nomore:

I'm about 2 hours in so far and here's the progress:

Condition upon arrival:

So, I broke out the 1000 / 3000 / 5000 Unigrit discs and went to town (after taping, of course):

After wetsanding with 1000:

Then the 3000 comes out:

Finally, after 5000:

Next up was to polish out the sanding marks on the headlights. So, I broke out my 3" GG and went to town with Menzerna FG400 and a griot's 3" orange pad.

Overall, I'm happy with the results - she should be able to see where she's going at night now.

The lights will be sealed after I get through the rest of the exterior process. Gameplan at this point is:

- Debug with DP Bug remover
- Wheels / tires cleaned with Amazing Rolloff
- Foam gun prewash with Honeydew
- Wash with same / Rinse
- IronX / rinse
- Clay
- Compound / polish as needed. Products to be add later, after I see what I'm really dealing with.
- Coat with Pinnacle Diamond Coating
- Interior cleanup if I still have time

Here's the headlights after FG400: :buffing:

So far so good...time to try to squeeze in the wash steps which is all timing in Orlando - gotta let the sun go down a bit.

More to come and who knows, maybe Brittany will chime in here too. :cheers:

Kamakaz1961 · Apr 24, 2015

Wow beautiful work!

rms64 · Apr 24, 2015

Kamakaz1961 said:
Wow beautiful work!

Thank you Sir...updates in the works...

rms64 · Apr 24, 2015

Ok, about 5 or so hours in and I'm at the point where I'm ready to actually start correcting some paint. :xyxthumbs:

Here's some additional shots of Oliver The Olive as he arrived - pretty much suitable for a dirty martini and that's about it :bash:

First up, debugging with DP Bug Remover - good stuff. Spray on, let it dwell for a few minutes and then hit it with the bug sponge:

Even got some buggage on me...

And...the resulting bucket o bugs...:help:

After a quick rinse, I got on the wheels with Amazing Roll Off, which I really like, especially for tire cleaning. It looks like my brush is on the ground here, but it's not!

After hitting all four tires / wheels and another rinse, it was time to fire up the foam gun:

Primed and ready:

My first action shot!!

Love me some honeydew foam....

After another rinse to loosen up the bad stuff, a honeydew bucket stands at the ready:

Two bucket method wash with the mega suds and a rinse and I'm ready to bust out the stinky IronX. Cherry scented? Nope. Still stinks like heck.

Action shot #2!

And IronX doing its magic. A hidden thank you to Corey@CarPro for hooking me up on short notice since I realized last night I had run out.

Working panel by panel, let the IronX dwell for a couple of minutes, then spread with a sponge, followed by a good rinse.

SO, after the above I'm ready to clay and compound, polish, etc. first thing tomorrow.

I've run out of daylight but will post pics of the condition of the paint before I start tomorrow. I can see some scratches, RIDS, some tar (I think) spots, etc. but should be able to correct most of it.

Thanks for watching...hopefully not overloading with info. / pics. Would love your input on what I can do better here. I recognize that a better camera would really help. Gotta do that.

Feed back please

Ebg18t · Apr 24, 2015

Glad you found the Iron-X.

Looks like you got your handful this weekend fixing up the Olive.

rms64 · Apr 24, 2015

Ebg18t said:
Glad you found the Iron-X.

Looks like you got your handful this weekend fixing up the Olive.

:dblthumb2:

Appreciate the assist, Sir.

Sicoupe · Apr 24, 2015

Nice start! Looking forward to seeing the progress

dcjredline · Apr 25, 2015

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep it up.

Mike@DedicatedPerfection · Apr 25, 2015

Your off to a great start Rob. Tuned in to see how the rest of the story unfolds.

If you can swing an entry level DSLR, do it. You won't regret it.

rms64 · Apr 25, 2015

Sicoupe said:
Nice start! Looking forward to seeing the progress

Thanks! Early start this morning...

dcjredline said:
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep it up.

Thank you!

Mike@DedicatedPerfection said:
Your off to a great start Rob. Tuned in to see how the rest of the story unfolds.

If you can swing an entry level DSLR, do it. You won't regret it.

Mike, yep - it's on the list and I know would help a ton..

rms64 · Apr 25, 2015

Day 2 has begun - got an early start this morning so after another couple of hours or so, I'm finally ready to break out the Flex!

Realized I forgot the fuel cap / door last night - didn't seem right to not take care of it, so I did just that...

Before:

During - used Chemical Guys APC 1-1:

After:

With that taken care of, it was time to clay. I picked up some Riccardo clay lube when it was on BOGO and really like this stuff!

Clay action!

And the resulting dirty clay sample...

After claying there were some sap spots remaining, although they were diminished:

These were taken care of fairly easily with just a little mineral spirits, applied gently. More shots of the change after the polishing steps..

It's evident that the trim has taken a beating since this car lives outside 24/7:

Also a few scratches here and there:

So that's it so far today. Time to get out the (pink) Flex and do some polishing. The paint is actually in pretty good shape, with a surprising lack of swirls - obvious that there haven't been many runs (if any) through the swirl-o-matic car wash :xyxthumbs:

The plan is to use Menzerna SF4000 to bring up the shine a bit, with FG400 on any more difficult scratches. Then, Pinnacle Black Label Surface Cleansing Polish / Eraser, and then the Diamond Coating.

I'll also apply CarPro DLux to the trim - it hurts me to see it in its current condition.

Back to work - more later! Thanks for following along...

rms64 · Apr 25, 2015

Just a few updates from today. The Pinnacle Diamond Paint Coating is now curing on the car and I'm toast. It's HUMID in Orlando today - so I'm also fairly stinky.

Anyway, some steps along the way:

Flex ready with primed Hybrid blue pad, SF4000:

Fake action shot - no, I can't one-hand the Flex:

Removing SF4000:

Hood after Black Label Cleansing Polish - ready for coating (terrible pics):

The rest of the car got the same treatment and I moved on to CarPro DLux on the trim:

Probably the easiest 50-50 shot I'll ever do:

I'll put up more "afters" tomorrow and jump into the interior :dblthumb2:

Sicoupe · Apr 25, 2015

Looking sweet my friend

dcjredline · Apr 25, 2015

You better get her a chair when she sees it!

Ebg18t · Apr 25, 2015

Looking good.

How did you like the black label coating?

rms64 · Apr 26, 2015

Sicoupe said:
Looking sweet my friend

Thanks!

dcjredline said:
You better get her a chair when she sees it!

Lol - I'll have the appropriate furniture and EMT equipment ready

Ebg18t said:
Looking good.

How did you like the black label coating?

Thank you - I really like the black label coating. It's fairly easy to apply and as always, the prep is the crucial part. I'll be interested to see how it holds up on her car since it's outside (in Florida, no less) all the time. We work together so I'll be able to keep up with how it's looking as time goes by.

rms64 · Apr 26, 2015

OK, day 3 and The Olive is now ready for business. Got a very early start today (hopefully the vacuum noises didn't bug the neighbors too much) and did some final touches and the interior.

Here's the afters - I'm estimating about 16 hours altogether and I'm pretty happy with the results, although I'll probably go nitpick it some more before she comes to pick it up later.

Unfortunately, a bit overcast here this morning, so I did the best I could...