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Whats up everyone. I just wanted to do a write up on the detail we did for Rick's 08' Z06 Vette that we polished out for him a couple weeks back.
I got a call from him about a week before Valentines day. He told me he lived down in Tucson and had been looking for someone down there to detail his ride, but couldn't find anyone he thought would do it "the right way"....and as those of you who have had a good polish out know, there IS a difference between a quick hack job done by someone who just wants to get in and out and just whales away at your ride with a rotary, and someone who spends hours working to get the paint just right. So after talking with me about our process, what exactly we do etc. he decided he wanted to drive all the way up here just for us to take a look at the car and to talk to us in person. He said "if we were good enough for Vidal (Vidal1313), we'd be good enough for him."
So he came up, we met, looked at the car to see the condition it was in - and for being black it was better than i expected, but of course it still had swirls etc being it was 4 years old, and then talked about what he could do to maintain the swirl free paint on his own since well, he's a bit far for a maintenance wash
. We agreed on doing a double pass and upgrading to Wolfgang Fuzion Wax. We set the day for the day after Valentines, he'd drive up early morning and give us the day to do our thing.
The day came, my sister and I were waiting inside and then we heard it...literally, coming up the street lol. My sis said "i think he's here", we walked out and she was right, he was backing it into the driveway. We went out, talked for a minute..and then got to work.
Here she is before we started any work:
Gotta say, quite the car.
We went ahead and started with our wash, cleaning up the tires, rims and barrels of the rims.
Always get all kinds of good brake dust out with this brush:
Next we did a pressure washer rinse to knock off the bulk of the dirt and then...one of my favorite parts, which still makes my sister crack up and Rick got a pretty good laugh out of it too, the foam cannon!
I love using this, it gets soap and suds into every crevice, helps get the car super clean....plus letting it set on the paint a couple of minutes allows the soap to loosen up what dirt if left on it, making washing much safer and easier. Transition from black to white here...
Pretty sweet right :p
So we went on to wash it, rinse it and then pull it into the garage to dry it off and start claying it. Rick stuck around for a little longer till his friend showed up to take him out while we did our work. Before he left, he wanted to see what we got off with the clay and what exactly it did...well, even on a very well kept, freshly washed car....you still get debris off with the clay:
After finishing the clay...we got to work inspecting the paint to really see what condition it was in. Even with the light cloud cover, it wasn't too hard to start seeing the swirls in the paint:
But as always, we don't just check the paint condition under one light source, so we pulled it in the garage, closed it up and started inspecting it with our sun gun and halogens. Direct light always shows the true condition of the paint the best...and well...the defects were really showing up now.
Here's some swirls right above the Z06 emblem:
Some on the back:
Above the tire well:
Passenger door had some nice ones in it:
And of course the hood...the sun decided to come out from behind the light cloud cover after we closed the garage door up and hit through the garage windows just right to show us this:
So needless to say, we had our work cut out for us. Black is the ultimate test, it REALLY shows if you know what you're doing or not...and if you don't, you'll end up with leftover swirls, holograms, haze or micro-marring that will be quite visible...where lighter colors may cover these very light defects up, black makes them stick out like a sore thumb.
We next started taping off trim, emblems etc. While my sis did that i taped off an area on the hood to do a test spot and see which products/pads/process seemed to work best on this car.
I broke out my Flex 3401 polisher, hooked it up with my new Optimum Microfiber cutting pad and got some Meguiars 105 to start compounding the swirls out of the paint. Corvette's are notorious for having hard paint, but part of this car had been re-painted due to a run in with Bambi (sorry bambi...) so we had to really make sure we paid extra close attention when dialing in what process we'd be using. The compound first pass seemed to level the paint out quite nicely, but left a haze, which is typical when using an aggressive pad/product. Next I got out my Griots DA, hooked it up with a foam polishing pad and took out some Meguiars 205 Finishing Polish. Usually this second step process will eliminate any haze left from the first step and leave the paint glossing and defect free.
Well, this wasn't most times. After finishing the polishing step I examined the paint from different angles with different lights including my sun gun, my dual halogen lights and the sunlight shining in through the garage. From 2' or further away, the paint looked perfect...completely flawless. Even with direct sunlight on it or me using my super bright Sun Gun, no defects were visible, but of course i had to check closer....and when allowing my eyes to focus just right, i could see VERY light micro-marring left from the polishing step. This of course was not acceptable, so i went and got a softer finishing pad and did another pass using my 205 finishing polish and then re-examined the paint. It was better, but still very very light marring was left.
Finally i broke out some of my Menzerna's PO85rd polish. My Menzerna's is a life saver on paints that act finicky. I went to a fresh finishing pad and gave the test spot another shot using the PO85rd, wiped away the residue when i was finished and ahhhhhh, yes...success! Finally i got what i was aiming for! It was crystal clear under all lighting conditions so i knew now i had my process dialed in for the rest of the car. By that time Dani had finished the taping and was ready to take over the polishing job while i did the compounding...so the real fun was about to begin!
We went ahead and did 1/2 the hood...i was hoping to be able to get a sweet 50/50 before and after shot of the hood..but of course by the time we finished, the damn sun had gone back to hide behind the clouds. I took a shot anyway, but it didn't come out nearly as well as i had hoped...if you have good eyes you can see the left side is finished, while the right side has swirls showing around the reflection of the light:
If you don't have good eyes, don't worry...there will be some photo's below that show a drastic change that anyone can see
We got a couple hours of polishing in when Rick and his buddy showed back up. I noticed his friend Frank was carrying something about the size of my arm...it was his camera lol. He said it cost about 7k :eek When they first walked in Ricks reaction was "Wow the car looks great!"....but he was looking at the side that had only been clayed lol. So Dani told him we hadn't actually polished that side out yet. She called him around to the side we were working on and got the light to show him the difference (the side he was looking at was shaded so, of course it looked good lol). As soon as she turned the light to show him a 'before' area and then an 'after'...well, I won't say his jaw dropped cause i didn't see it, but it sounded like it hit the floor lol. While she was showing him the areas we had polished out, Frank was walking around snapping some more pictures:
Here's one of Rick checking out some of our work
Here's the side we had polished...not even waxed yet but it already looks liquid!
A reflection shot of the photographer in action!
Rick really wanted to take us out to lunch since we had already put in about 5 hours total and hadn't stopped to even eat yet lol. We thanked him but told him it would really interrupt our work flow and that we had to keep moving to make sure we got his car back to him with time to be able to get home. Reluctantly he accepted our reason and then took off with his friend again shortly there after. We on the other hand kept working...
When we say we detail....we detail. From top to bottom we polish the paint....Dani caught me in action here:
We had 4 polishers hooked up, two for me and two for her. I had a 5" pad for larger areas and 3" pad for smaller areas for my compounding, and she had a 5" pad and 4" pad hooked up for her polishing behind me.
Here she is working the small area around the vent near the front of the drivers door:
Round and round we went....the sun started going down and the reflection on the hood was just unreal. I had to stop for a sec to snap a picture...again this is polished but not waxed...
It got to be about 5 pm or so (we started at 9 a.m). Rick showed back up and we were JUST about to start waxing. Frank had his camera still and started snapping some more pictures.
Here's Dani finishing up on polishing the front bumper...look at the reflection on that damn bumper...crazy:
Here i am doing a quick ONR wash to remove all the dust and any possible leftover polish residue on the paint while Dani was getting some dust out of the body lines in the front.
And finally, the time had come...*que holy music*
The first official use of...The Wax! Wolfgang Fuzion...
I got a call from him about a week before Valentines day. He told me he lived down in Tucson and had been looking for someone down there to detail his ride, but couldn't find anyone he thought would do it "the right way"....and as those of you who have had a good polish out know, there IS a difference between a quick hack job done by someone who just wants to get in and out and just whales away at your ride with a rotary, and someone who spends hours working to get the paint just right. So after talking with me about our process, what exactly we do etc. he decided he wanted to drive all the way up here just for us to take a look at the car and to talk to us in person. He said "if we were good enough for Vidal (Vidal1313), we'd be good enough for him."
So he came up, we met, looked at the car to see the condition it was in - and for being black it was better than i expected, but of course it still had swirls etc being it was 4 years old, and then talked about what he could do to maintain the swirl free paint on his own since well, he's a bit far for a maintenance wash
. We agreed on doing a double pass and upgrading to Wolfgang Fuzion Wax. We set the day for the day after Valentines, he'd drive up early morning and give us the day to do our thing.The day came, my sister and I were waiting inside and then we heard it...literally, coming up the street lol. My sis said "i think he's here", we walked out and she was right, he was backing it into the driveway. We went out, talked for a minute..and then got to work.
Here she is before we started any work:
Gotta say, quite the car.
We went ahead and started with our wash, cleaning up the tires, rims and barrels of the rims.
Always get all kinds of good brake dust out with this brush:
Next we did a pressure washer rinse to knock off the bulk of the dirt and then...one of my favorite parts, which still makes my sister crack up and Rick got a pretty good laugh out of it too, the foam cannon!
I love using this, it gets soap and suds into every crevice, helps get the car super clean....plus letting it set on the paint a couple of minutes allows the soap to loosen up what dirt if left on it, making washing much safer and easier. Transition from black to white here...
Pretty sweet right :p
So we went on to wash it, rinse it and then pull it into the garage to dry it off and start claying it. Rick stuck around for a little longer till his friend showed up to take him out while we did our work. Before he left, he wanted to see what we got off with the clay and what exactly it did...well, even on a very well kept, freshly washed car....you still get debris off with the clay:
After finishing the clay...we got to work inspecting the paint to really see what condition it was in. Even with the light cloud cover, it wasn't too hard to start seeing the swirls in the paint:
But as always, we don't just check the paint condition under one light source, so we pulled it in the garage, closed it up and started inspecting it with our sun gun and halogens. Direct light always shows the true condition of the paint the best...and well...the defects were really showing up now.
Here's some swirls right above the Z06 emblem:
Some on the back:
Above the tire well:
Passenger door had some nice ones in it:
And of course the hood...the sun decided to come out from behind the light cloud cover after we closed the garage door up and hit through the garage windows just right to show us this:
So needless to say, we had our work cut out for us. Black is the ultimate test, it REALLY shows if you know what you're doing or not...and if you don't, you'll end up with leftover swirls, holograms, haze or micro-marring that will be quite visible...where lighter colors may cover these very light defects up, black makes them stick out like a sore thumb.
We next started taping off trim, emblems etc. While my sis did that i taped off an area on the hood to do a test spot and see which products/pads/process seemed to work best on this car.
I broke out my Flex 3401 polisher, hooked it up with my new Optimum Microfiber cutting pad and got some Meguiars 105 to start compounding the swirls out of the paint. Corvette's are notorious for having hard paint, but part of this car had been re-painted due to a run in with Bambi (sorry bambi...) so we had to really make sure we paid extra close attention when dialing in what process we'd be using. The compound first pass seemed to level the paint out quite nicely, but left a haze, which is typical when using an aggressive pad/product. Next I got out my Griots DA, hooked it up with a foam polishing pad and took out some Meguiars 205 Finishing Polish. Usually this second step process will eliminate any haze left from the first step and leave the paint glossing and defect free.
Well, this wasn't most times. After finishing the polishing step I examined the paint from different angles with different lights including my sun gun, my dual halogen lights and the sunlight shining in through the garage. From 2' or further away, the paint looked perfect...completely flawless. Even with direct sunlight on it or me using my super bright Sun Gun, no defects were visible, but of course i had to check closer....and when allowing my eyes to focus just right, i could see VERY light micro-marring left from the polishing step. This of course was not acceptable, so i went and got a softer finishing pad and did another pass using my 205 finishing polish and then re-examined the paint. It was better, but still very very light marring was left.
Finally i broke out some of my Menzerna's PO85rd polish. My Menzerna's is a life saver on paints that act finicky. I went to a fresh finishing pad and gave the test spot another shot using the PO85rd, wiped away the residue when i was finished and ahhhhhh, yes...success! Finally i got what i was aiming for! It was crystal clear under all lighting conditions so i knew now i had my process dialed in for the rest of the car. By that time Dani had finished the taping and was ready to take over the polishing job while i did the compounding...so the real fun was about to begin!
We went ahead and did 1/2 the hood...i was hoping to be able to get a sweet 50/50 before and after shot of the hood..but of course by the time we finished, the damn sun had gone back to hide behind the clouds. I took a shot anyway, but it didn't come out nearly as well as i had hoped...if you have good eyes you can see the left side is finished, while the right side has swirls showing around the reflection of the light:
If you don't have good eyes, don't worry...there will be some photo's below that show a drastic change that anyone can see
We got a couple hours of polishing in when Rick and his buddy showed back up. I noticed his friend Frank was carrying something about the size of my arm...it was his camera lol. He said it cost about 7k :eek When they first walked in Ricks reaction was "Wow the car looks great!"....but he was looking at the side that had only been clayed lol. So Dani told him we hadn't actually polished that side out yet. She called him around to the side we were working on and got the light to show him the difference (the side he was looking at was shaded so, of course it looked good lol). As soon as she turned the light to show him a 'before' area and then an 'after'...well, I won't say his jaw dropped cause i didn't see it, but it sounded like it hit the floor lol. While she was showing him the areas we had polished out, Frank was walking around snapping some more pictures:
Here's one of Rick checking out some of our work
Here's the side we had polished...not even waxed yet but it already looks liquid!
A reflection shot of the photographer in action!
Rick really wanted to take us out to lunch since we had already put in about 5 hours total and hadn't stopped to even eat yet lol. We thanked him but told him it would really interrupt our work flow and that we had to keep moving to make sure we got his car back to him with time to be able to get home. Reluctantly he accepted our reason and then took off with his friend again shortly there after. We on the other hand kept working...
When we say we detail....we detail. From top to bottom we polish the paint....Dani caught me in action here:
We had 4 polishers hooked up, two for me and two for her. I had a 5" pad for larger areas and 3" pad for smaller areas for my compounding, and she had a 5" pad and 4" pad hooked up for her polishing behind me.
Here she is working the small area around the vent near the front of the drivers door:
Round and round we went....the sun started going down and the reflection on the hood was just unreal. I had to stop for a sec to snap a picture...again this is polished but not waxed...
It got to be about 5 pm or so (we started at 9 a.m). Rick showed back up and we were JUST about to start waxing. Frank had his camera still and started snapping some more pictures.
Here's Dani finishing up on polishing the front bumper...look at the reflection on that damn bumper...crazy:
Here i am doing a quick ONR wash to remove all the dust and any possible leftover polish residue on the paint while Dani was getting some dust out of the body lines in the front.
And finally, the time had come...*que holy music*
The first official use of...The Wax! Wolfgang Fuzion...
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