Volvo XC60 Get's the Full Treatment

[TTQ B4U]

So a previous customer of mine knows a non-car guy who recent upgraded into a super nice mid-range Volvo. Interior wise, this thing is awesome and well worth a look-see if you're in the market for a nice SUV.

He picked this one up new in March and heard about ceramic coatings and thought the car looked good but didn't have much punch in terms of gloss. After looking at the options available to him he decided to pull the trigger on:

• New Vehicle Preparation & Protection Package
• 3 Layer Ceramic Coat Protection - 2 Base coats and a 3rd Super Hydrophobic Gloss layer
• Wheel coating over the faces of these beauties
• Glass Coating all around
• Trim Coating

Overall the car came out fantastic but mother nature in Ohio just won't for the life of me have the sun shine when I'm finally completed. Was a great day yesterday to do the work but as soon as I rolled into completion the clouds came over making it nearly impossible to see the Osmium Gray Metallic paint in it's best light. The color has a tri-color pearl metallic flake in it that really is nice.

On to the pics:


The 20" Wheels on this ride really set it off and make it appear bigger than it is. The overall vehicle in the XC60 is IMO between a mid size and larger size SUV to begin with.

There wasn't much black plastic trim to coat so I added that in at No Charge.

Wheels have two layers of coating on the faces which will really make keeping them clean a breeze.

No more gray plastic grill area as it will stay dark and looking new for a while.

The process:

• Wash
• Iron X
• Nano Mitt Medium
• Rupes Mille with Yellow Mille Pads
• CarPro Essence Polish
• CarPro Cquartz UK 3.0
• CarPro Gliss v2.0
• GYEON Q2 Trim
• GYEON Q2 RIM
• McKee's 37 Glass Coating
• Meg's Hot Shine Tire Dressing

 

[Eldorado2k]

Great job! Looks great!
So the grill was the only trim that needed coating?
Just out of curiosity since I’m in the middle of adding new chrome emblems to my car, do you do anything special for them on a new vehicle like this?
Don’t take this a negative comment but, do you ever feel like the look on the tires could be short lived compared to the rest of the vehicle?

 

[Paul A.]

Beautiful work on a nice looking Swede SUV!

 

[Sizzle Chest]

^^^I agree!

 

[TMQ]

Wow...Looks great and geez---That's a big job there!

If you don't mind---How long did it take you to do the job?

Tom

 

[TTQ B4U]

Great job! Looks great! So the grill was the only trim that needed coating?
Just out of curiosity since I’m in the middle of adding new chrome emblems to my car, do you do anything special for them on a new vehicle like this?
Don’t take this a negative comment but, do you ever feel like the look on the tires could be short lived compared to the rest of the vehicle?

Thanks Eldo. The lower front grill and the dark plastic just above the fog lights were the only areas on the front. The upper vertical grill area is gloss so I simply coated it with cquartz. The other two areas of trim were the cowling that's covered by the hood but I did it too and the base of each side/door mirror.

In terms of the chrome accents, on a vehicle like this I simply coat them with the same as I would the paint. Here the only difference is the brushed aluminum tailgate bumper gaurd that lays horizontally on the rear area, I did that with wheel coating as it was indeed aluminum and I felt the wheel coating would bond well there.

No offense taken the tires. I haven't found a tire dressing that I "love" that is going to stay super nice for too long. Even some of the best coatings I've seen still don't hold up to day one standards for more than a couple weeks so I simply use whatever is around. Sure some others may look better for a little longer but still Meh to me.

Wow...Looks great and geez---That's a big job there! If you don't mind---How long did it take you to do the job?
Tom

Hi Tom. Yes, the XC60 is a little bigger than I thought but I leave myself some room and flexibility when pricing out vehicles and I purposely don't publish my pricing guide. Here are my pricing categories. This one fell into an exception category in that while it only has 2 rows, it's a bigger Volvo and something like the 40 series there would fall into my Small SUV category.

Small-Medium 2-5 Door Sedan/Hatch - Fit, Civic, Accord, Cruz, Golf, Altima, A4, Fusion, Vibe, WRX
Larger 2-4 Door Coupe/Sedan - Charger, Avalon, A6, 535, SHO, Genesis, G8, E-Class, Camaro, Mustang
Small SUV, 5 door Hatchback/Wagon - Escape, CR-V, Tesla S, Rogue, Forester, Edge, 2 most row seating w/exceptions
Large SUV, Van Wagon, Hatchback - Explorer, Pilot, Yukon, Wagons, Wrangler, most 3 row seating w/exceptions
Extra Large SUV, Van, Full Size Truck - Full size truck/van, Chevy Suburban, Toyota Sequoia


In terms of time, this one from start to finish took me about 8-9hrs but that counts me eating lunch while working on it, etc. and doesn't include the 4hrs I let it cure before applying Gliss. I move pretty fast overall and have bumped my hourly earnings into the $85 to $100 / hr range so far for the last 6 or so vehicles. This one came out to just about $125/hr for me based on what I provided which was great. New Cars like this area super easy thus I go after them a lot and thankfully the groups I'm a part of seem to always have new rides coming in.

 

[TMQ]

Thats pretty darn quick and hitting your price point too!

I'm still falling short on pricing out big jobs....Goal was to hit 87.50 per job.

Ain't hitting those numbers yet....But getting there.

Thanks for sharing your work. Will need to review mine.

Tom

 

[joleyred]

That's the same color as my wife's Volvo XC 60. Really nice work on a really nice car. That is certainly a lot faster than I can do that job. I admire your skill and efficiency.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[TTQ B4U]

That's the same color as my wife's Volvo XC 60. Really nice work on a really nice car. That is certainly a lot faster than I can do that job. I admire your skill and efficiency.

Thanks. I work hard on refining the process and time savings. Knowing the tools and products to use and having everything ready to go is key too.

 

[Kamakaz1961]

Wow very nice work!

 

[SWETM]

Awesome work and write up and pictures!

Yeah it has been a little critic on the size of the XC60 here in Sweden. Volvo is knowned for being a big roomy car. How is it with V90 the station wagon that is the replacement for the V70? Or is it just not so popular with the station wagons in the US? XC90 I could see it to suit the US market. The V90 is huge even on the outside and much cause of the going back to the design look of the front bumper and hood that 740 had.

Nice gloss you got out of it. The tri-colors pearl paints is not so easy to get to stand out. You succeded!

/ Tony

 

[LEDetailing]

Awesome work!

I love the design of the XC60, the styling is perfect everywhere you look. That glossy paint helps