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My boss has been trying to get me to do her car for a while and it finally worked out this weekend to do it. This was easily my most challenging venture to date. I work solely with the PC as I have no experience with a Rotary to date.
Products:
Wash
Meguiars Clay w/ QD
#83
#80
NXT
Meguiars Hot Wheels wheel Cleaner
Lexol Leather Cleaner/Conditioner
Meguiars Interior Detailer
There were more scraches on this car than anything I've ever tried to detail so I didn't know how well it was going to turn out. Here is a few pics showing the general condition of the paint:
Swirls covered the entire finish
Deep grooves on the trunk from a garage door incident
Paint and scraches on the rear bumper
Scraches behind the rear tire
Severe scratching on the front bumper
So obviously I have my work cut out for me. I started out with a good wash and dry and spent about 45 minutes getting the grime out of the wheels bringing them back to life. Then I moved on to Clay. I have never encountered a car with as much bonded contaminants as on this car. Usually I have to turn the clay 3-5 times if the car is decently kept. On this I had to turn it at least 12-15 times. The doors on this thing felt like sand paper.
Just a pic of the clay after running it over the hood, which was actually one of the cleaner panels on the car.
Once I had a smooth finish to work with I started tackling the worst areas with my strongest product #83. I basically covered the whole car with #83 and the hood and roof which didn't have as many scraches just got #80 then NXT. Here are some area specific before and after shots:
Driver Quarter before, you can see that this car has basically no shine:
This was after #83, all the swirling is gone and the shine is back:
The driver side door was littered with scraches and swirls:
Again 90% of the scraches are gone, you can see one that was too deep for the PC to handle but this is basically the philosophy I took throughout the whole car, get as much as I can out as this is going to continue to be a daily driver and perfection is not going to happen.
After polishing, the shine was back to the rear of the car and looking good.
Now on to the Passenger side which was much worse. Scratches covered the whole rear quarter panel and back of the car.
Scatches on the wheel well
Here is the after. The reflection is hiding some of the deep scratches in the clear coat, but again, 90% of the scratches are gone.
The Scratches on the trunk are still there but here you can see that it looks much much better. You can see the scratch on the right side still there, but all of the paint has been cleaned out and it looks much better.
The shine and reflection are back
Took it out in the sun and noticed that about all of the swirls are gone and looking good
After I finished the exterior I did the interior. Which was every bit as bad as the exterior. She owns a dog so there was dog hair everywhere. Dog slobber on the leather seats, mulch, gravel, dirt caked into the carpet. It really appeared that in the 7 years of existence of this car, that the leather had never been conditioned. I was mad that I didn't get any before pictures, but lets just say the interior was aweful.
Now some of the specific spots from the before pics. The rear bumper with all the scratches and paint... there are still scratches in the clear coat but again this I expected and so did the owner.
Stll scratching on the front bumper, but it was all the way down to the urathane so not much I could do.
Another shot of the trunk, there were several spots on the car that were etched beyond PC repair. You can see one such spot in this picture. Not sure if they would be able to be taken off, but after 2 coats of 83 and one of 80 they weren't even touched so I just said so be it and left them.
And ready to take it back to the owner
Sorry for the long post, but with the 9-10 hours I spent on this I really wanted to capture all the defects and the condition before and after the job. I'm really pleased with what I was able to do with the PC.
Products:
Wash
Meguiars Clay w/ QD
#83
#80
NXT
Meguiars Hot Wheels wheel Cleaner
Lexol Leather Cleaner/Conditioner
Meguiars Interior Detailer
There were more scraches on this car than anything I've ever tried to detail so I didn't know how well it was going to turn out. Here is a few pics showing the general condition of the paint:
Swirls covered the entire finish
Deep grooves on the trunk from a garage door incident
Paint and scraches on the rear bumper
Scraches behind the rear tire
Severe scratching on the front bumper
So obviously I have my work cut out for me. I started out with a good wash and dry and spent about 45 minutes getting the grime out of the wheels bringing them back to life. Then I moved on to Clay. I have never encountered a car with as much bonded contaminants as on this car. Usually I have to turn the clay 3-5 times if the car is decently kept. On this I had to turn it at least 12-15 times. The doors on this thing felt like sand paper.
Just a pic of the clay after running it over the hood, which was actually one of the cleaner panels on the car.
Once I had a smooth finish to work with I started tackling the worst areas with my strongest product #83. I basically covered the whole car with #83 and the hood and roof which didn't have as many scraches just got #80 then NXT. Here are some area specific before and after shots:
Driver Quarter before, you can see that this car has basically no shine:
This was after #83, all the swirling is gone and the shine is back:
The driver side door was littered with scraches and swirls:
Again 90% of the scraches are gone, you can see one that was too deep for the PC to handle but this is basically the philosophy I took throughout the whole car, get as much as I can out as this is going to continue to be a daily driver and perfection is not going to happen.
After polishing, the shine was back to the rear of the car and looking good.
Now on to the Passenger side which was much worse. Scratches covered the whole rear quarter panel and back of the car.
Scatches on the wheel well
Here is the after. The reflection is hiding some of the deep scratches in the clear coat, but again, 90% of the scratches are gone.
The Scratches on the trunk are still there but here you can see that it looks much much better. You can see the scratch on the right side still there, but all of the paint has been cleaned out and it looks much better.
The shine and reflection are back
Took it out in the sun and noticed that about all of the swirls are gone and looking good
After I finished the exterior I did the interior. Which was every bit as bad as the exterior. She owns a dog so there was dog hair everywhere. Dog slobber on the leather seats, mulch, gravel, dirt caked into the carpet. It really appeared that in the 7 years of existence of this car, that the leather had never been conditioned. I was mad that I didn't get any before pictures, but lets just say the interior was aweful.
Now some of the specific spots from the before pics. The rear bumper with all the scratches and paint... there are still scratches in the clear coat but again this I expected and so did the owner.
Stll scratching on the front bumper, but it was all the way down to the urathane so not much I could do.
Another shot of the trunk, there were several spots on the car that were etched beyond PC repair. You can see one such spot in this picture. Not sure if they would be able to be taken off, but after 2 coats of 83 and one of 80 they weren't even touched so I just said so be it and left them.
And ready to take it back to the owner
Sorry for the long post, but with the 9-10 hours I spent on this I really wanted to capture all the defects and the condition before and after the job. I'm really pleased with what I was able to do with the PC.
looks amazing, how long did that take you?
. Good....no....Great Job!
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