Phew... Crisis Averted...

[Slick]

This is my daily driver... a 2004 Rainforest Green Saturn Vue. Currently has 12,000 miles on it. Wish I could've gotten some sun shots... the color really explodes in the sun.

If any of you frequent the Autopia site, you may have caught my none too short tirade after my car was sideswiped a few weeks ago whilst parked on Santa Monica Blvd. A door mirror scraped its way down my door & front fender, and my wheel got craped up pretty good. I finally got around to addressing the damage this weekend. Came out MUCH better than I thought it would- especially the wheel. The pics aren't the greatest, but knew if I waited til tomorrow, would be all dusty and dirty.

Am really thankful for the dent-resistant polymer panels though. Have a feeling the damage would be much worse had it been sheetmetal.

Process:

wash- Gold Class carwash
clay- Quick Clay
rough polish- ScratchX
fine polish- Speed Glaze #80 (via PC)
finish- 2 coats NXT liquid (via PC)

here's a street shot showing the skid mark coming up to my wheel...



here's a door shot (after washing). Was really nervous about hot deep this went...



... and the front fender...



the lower fender got the worst of it...



... besides the wheel (which REALLY looked bad before washing)...



Anyhow, on to the afters...





NEVER thought the wheel would come out this good...



... nor the door & fender...



Again, sorry for the quality of the pics... was getting late in the day. Had hoped to top the NXT with a coat of Natty's Blue, but will have to wait. My only big regret with the process was NOT having some #83 polish on had. This clear is just too hard- #80 wasn't strong enough to get all the fine scratches out- will have to wait for next time. When the lighting is right, you can still see some scratches in the clear on the fender & door. I just get nervous that I'll go through the clear.

[superswamper]

Keep your fingers that this works. Here are the pics:

Street shot:


Door shot:


Front fender:


Lower fender:


Wheel:


Afters:

[Slick]

Thanks for the help-

I screwed up when dropping in the photos last night, & by the time I had realized problem, my 5 minutes of edit time was up.

While this is one of my favorite cars for general comfort & driving ease, it is my LEAST favorite to wash & detail. The weekly wash job takes me at LEAST two hours. There's a lot of surface area to cover & a LOT of nooks & crannies to dry out afterwards.

There are also a lot of body panel creases, seams, & transitions from paint to plastic that are tough to do with with a big foam pad, so plenty of areas had to be completed by hand.

Working with the PC on this was exhausting. On the roof, you have all the ribs to contend with, and the plastic roof rails to avoid. On the sides there are all the body creases & seams, and transition to the plastic cladding.

Spent the whole weekend on it. Took me about 1.5 hrs to clay it, almost 2 hrs to get it all taped off, probably 5-6 hours to polish with speed glaze, & another 6 hrs to apply 2 coats of NXT & remove all the tape & general cleanup. The PC really did a nice job applying thin coats NXT. I did the wipe off by hand, as I was too lazy to switch pads. Came off really easy.

[Slick]

Here's my "Dorf" shot... couldn't resist.



overall, it came out pretty good considering how much orange peel is present in this paint.