98 Catera makeover

[Tom Weed]

I talked some nice lady into lettting me detail her 1998 Cadallic Catera today, it had 98 K miles and really needed some work.



I washed the car with Pro C60 super car wash soap, it' kind of strong, the car had tar along both side panels so I had to use Pro-sol to remove the tar as I washed it then pulled the car in the garage and clayed it using Last Touch 1:1 and C-2000 detailing clay, the car was so dirty it wasted my new clay bar, I also clayed the wheels and windows. I pulled it out into the sun only to see swirls and Holograms:



I Sprayed off the motor with APC-4:1 and use my little Karcher power washer and followed that with Hper Dressing and just sprayed it on the hoses, wires and the plastic.

[Tom Weed]

I pulled the car back in the garage and broke out the rotary with a Meguiars 7006 cutting pad and "cough" Optimum compound, I followed that with a Meguiars 8006 polishing pad and "cough again" Optimum polish on the rotary. I then broke out the DA with a 9006 finishing pad and applied #21. I did the wheels with my new powerball and some mothers crome polish I had in the shelf. I dressed the tires with NXT Insane shine. Let me know what you think...

[Tom Weed]

Few more shots....

[explore_02xlt]

looks awesome man. just question for you. what causes buffer swirls? it looked like it had some in the before pictures.

[rusty bumper]

Nice work Tom!

I saw it in the gallery and traced it here.

What do you think of the Optimum products?.....Are they hard to work with?

[Tom Weed]

Thanks guys,
Explore, it did have lots of swirls, but I am not sure those were from a buffer, as it didn't have the little trails as you would normally see, I would say these were from improper washing and drying over the years. As to what causes buffer swirls, usually it's improper rotary use or someone using something to agressive, then not following it up by polishing them out. Mike or Superior Shine may have a better answer for you though.

Rusty, I don't want to get in trouble here, since this is a meguiars forum, but I had just recieved those products as I have been reading a lot about them on Autopia and there was an artcile in here somewhere, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try them out. I was impressed by how easily both the Compound and Polish was to work and remove. They both let you work them without drying up and wiped off pretty easy.

Tom

[Anthony Orosco]

Buffer swirls and halo-scratches are two different animals. Most people call halo-scratches "swirls" but the halo-scratches are caused, as Tom noted, by washing, drying and just general life of a car. They look like circles but really they are random scratches within the top coat, thousands and thousands of them.

Swirls on the other hand are caused by a high speed rotary. Also called "wheel marks", "halograms" and some refer to them as "buffer swirls" or "ribbons". Where halo-scratches are circular in appearance, halograms take on the appearance of a 3 dimensional flowing ribbon.....which looks as if it's flowing in the cars paint.

They are caused by the operator not properly finishing out his or her buffing job. In other words they did not go down the scale from "leveling" to "finishing" in both pad and product selection. I have always said, "The finer the pad and product the fewer the swirls". So a super fine polish with a 100 ppi pad, around 1200 rpm's, and you should have a swirl free finish....or pretty darn close. Then follow up with a DA, the same pad and the same polish and you're done.

Tom - Very nice work there on that black car

Anthony