What to do... Pictures! (warning: Large pictures inside!)

[nyjz1298]

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my car. It's a 2002 Black Saab 9-3. I bought the car from someone down south 2 1/2 years ago. Ever since it's been in NYC getting a bit beat and has never been hand washed. Always by machine. The car looks great after it's just been washed but dulls very very fast. The next day, the car almost looks like a dark blue. Hm.

Here are some pictures I took today. I have a pretty good camera with a macro lens so I was able to get very close. The camera lens doesn't have a zoom and I shot from about 6 or 7 inches away. All areas wiped clean with a sponge and water only. No real cleaning. But I did wipe it until the sponge wasn't picking up any more dirt.


This one is of the hood with the flash on. The rest are without the flash.


Same spot on the hood.




Good from a distance! Taken at the same time as the other pictures.



The paint just above the passenger side door handle.
Straight on



Standing slight to the right, shooting towards the rear of the car.



I want to make the car looks as good as possible. I'm willing to wash the car by hand during the warm and semi warm months. That being said this is what I was thinking about getting it back into shape:

1 - Clay the car as described (using quik detailer too).
2 - Get the Meguiars DA buffer... Buff on Ultimate compound
3 - Buff on deep crystal polish
4 - Buff on Nxt generation tech wax 2.0

Hopefully that should bring the paint back to looking good! What do you think?

[Markus Kleis]

Re: What to do... Pictures!

nyjz1298,

On MOL we don't allow click-able links until people reach 30 posts. I tried to quickly edit your links and turn them into embedded pictures, but they were the wrong links.

Please go back and try getting the URL for the picture, and then click the yellow and grey icon with the mountains and sun. Insert the link there.

This should work!

[Carfire]

Re: What to do... Pictures!

Welcome to Meguiars Online!!!
Maybe this Link will Help You:
How to place an image in your messages

[nyjz1298]

Re: What to do... Pictures!

I think I got it! Thanks.

[Markus Kleis]

Re: What to do... Pictures!

I think I got it! Thanks.

Hah, better! Next time try and get the pictures to be 700 pixels wide or smaller. These might be a little big for those users without nice big 22 or 24 inch monitors

[Ryan L.]

Re: What to do... Pictures!

Hah, better! Next time try and get the pictures to be 1024x768 or smaller. These might be a little big for those users without nice big 22 or 24 inch monitors

Standard for MOL is 700 pixels just to be safe for everybody out there.

Ryan

[Markus Kleis]

Re: What to do... Pictures!

Standard for MOL is 700 pixels just to be safe for everybody out there.

Ryan

Good catch. I think I switched my vertical and horizontal pixels for a second there Being one of those spoiled people with dual 22 inch monitors I don't usually need to pay much attention to picture size

[Ryan L.]

Re: What to do... Pictures!

Good catch. I think I switched my vertical and horizontal pixels for a second there Being one of those spoiled people with dual 22 inch monitors I don't usually need to pay much attention to picture size

Yea I'm running 2 19's right now and I don't know how people live without two monitors, definitly useful.

Ryan

[nyjz1298]

Re: What to do... Pictures! (warning: Large pictures inside!)

hahaha, Sorry for making them so large but you need to the detail! :-) Any suggestions how to make whats pictured in those giant pictures not so terrible looking?

[yalerd]

Re: What to do... Pictures! (warning: Large pictures inside!)

Your process looks fine.
With it you should see amazing results

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What to do... Pictures! (warning: Large pictures inside!)

That being said this is what I was thinking about getting it back into shape:

1 - Clay the car as described (using Quik detailer too).
2 - Get the Meguiar's DA buffer... Buff on Ultimate compound
3 - Buff on deep crystal polish
4 - Buff on NXT generation tech wax 2.0

Hopefully that should bring the paint back to looking good! What do you think?

That approach will fix just about any neglected finish. The key to getting good results with a DA Polisher besides using the right pad and product is using good technique. Read through the below before starting, note the common mistakes most people make when first starting out and the remedies listed below them.

How To use: G110 - G220 - G100 - PC/Porter Cable - UDM
If you're moving up to machine polishing, be sure to read the below thread before starting...
Tips & Techniques for using the G110, G100, G220 and the PC Dual Action Polisher
(These are all similar tools)


Friendly tip...
Posting HUGE photos causes people to have to horizontal scroll and is considered bad netiquette... you can get the point across by cropping out the fluff and then resize the photos to a more viewable size.

Working with photos on discussion forums