Worst water spots I have ever seen + Opti Coat

tdekany

tdekany

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Took 60 + hours, could have used 20 more. I had Nicholas from Autowerx help my on this one. Nick is an excellent detailer glad to be working with him, hopefully more to come from "US"

4 years of parking next to a sprinkler.





50/50



Opti Coated



 
It turned out great Thomas!

Thanks for calling me out to help with this one. I thoroughly enjoyed working with you. My arm is still tired from all the hand polishing!!! :cheers:
 
Cant imagine how much clearcoat was taken off in the correction process...
 
02accordSE said:
Cant imagine how much clearcoat was taken off in the correction process...
Click to expand...

The clear on this MDX was actually VERY hard and not too much was removed during correction. After the vehicle was washed/clayed you could literally feel the texture of the water spots on top of the paint. They were obviously deeply etched as well.

The paint measured between 85-120 microns so we had minimal film build to play with on some areas. Each panel was carefully leveled and measured during each phase of correction to ensure minimal film removal. I wasn't recording the measurements on paper but IIRC the worst panels (hood/roof) probably only saw about 3-4 microns of clear removed. I'm sure the water spots added another micron on top of the paint that we were cutting through as well.

Best of all the vehicle is now coated with a permanent coating that replaces the thickness and UV protective qualities of the original clear coat that was removed from polishing.
 
Wow that is crazy. Nice job that was intense. What made the owner finally decide to get it fixed? I hope they don't let it happen again.
 
CCC4me said:
Method?
Click to expand...

I wasn't there during the wash/decon phase. The first pic is what it looked like when I got there from Thomas compounding some of the hood and side panels. The side closest to the sprinklers is also in the sun in the afternoon and was the worst area (other than the hood and roof).

Tools:
PCXP DA x2, Flex 3401 DA x2, Rupes 21, Griot's 3rd Gen DA, HD DA, HF DA, Dewalt 849x rotary. I think there were some other polishers sitting there too that didn't get touched, lol. All the curved and hard to reach areas were done by hand with either a yellow CCS or MF towel.

Compounds & polish:
Compounds used were M100, M101, M105, CarPro Fixer, and CarPro CeriGlass for the glass. Paint was finished using HD Polish.

Pads:
CarPro rayon (glass), CarPro velvet 3000g, Meg's MF cutting, LC CCS/flat yellow, LC flat orange, LC flat white, and I think Thomas used a few Buff & Shine pads as well (can't remember the colors).

I didn't have time to snap very many pics because I was trying to get as much done as possible in the time I had with the car. Here are a few from the job just from my cell:

Cleaned up all the crud around the trim and emblems. Left clean, right cruddy:
2013-09-02_12_47_07.jpg


This is all compounding dust LOL.
2013-09-02_16_36_20.jpg


Getting under the mirrors by hand...
2013-09-02_16_48_49.jpg


Some of the lower panels weren't as bad with water spots but they were still badly swirled.
2013-09-02_12_03_19.jpg


After compounding.
2013-09-02_12_03_27.jpg


I had a lot of fun on this job and got to try out a bunch of new products and tools. The Rupes 21 is a beast!!! :buffing:
 
Holy crap! How much did this cost the owner? I can't imagind a 60 hours correction being cheaper than a new paint job.
 
Thanks guys. I'm not sure of the exact final total. I'm sure it was over 2k. Still significantly less expensive than a new paint job and will now retain the resale value with OEM paint throughout.

Thomas did another car for them a while back, full correction and opti coat, which is what led to this job here.

The owner was cool and had the bbq running almost the whole time we were working. He made me a killer pulled pork sandwich the first day!!! You meet the most awesome people in this business!

Sent from my LG-VM696 using AG Online
 
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