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Actually, it's their daughter's car. I detailed my neighbor's 2006 Chrysler 300 several weeks ago in exchange for some yard work. Well, now we are moving at the end of the month and our neighbor is actually helping us pack. Sooooo....I offered to detail her daughter's Saab. I normally just maintain my own cars but I've been sorta itching to do this car - partially because it really needed it, and partially because it's black and I wanted to see how I'd get on as I've never polished a black car before.
A quick wash with Meg's Gold Class and I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me. I clayed the car after washing and found so many scuffs, scrapes, scratches, etc (not to mention the chewing gum all over the left side of the thing that required bug & tar remover to get rid of!!) that I wasn't sure how well this would turn out. My first black car, my first Saab. Was the paint going to be really hard or fairly soft? Well, I'd rate it fairly soft (either that or Mike Phillips has taught me better than I realized!!) since I managed to remove virtually all the swirls, scuffs and scratches.
The process:
Gold Class wash
Clay
M83 over most of the car (2x in some spots)
M80 over the entire car to follow
M20 x2 to seal
No pix of the interior but the owner's parents helped out a lot and did the interior while I worked on the paint. Using things like APC and the Bissell Little Green Machine to clean the floor mats (really should have taken before/afters here because the difference was astonishing!), #39 to clean and #40 to dress the interior plastics, and Meg's Aloe Leather cleaner and conditioner on the seats. The car looked new again and the owner was just thrilled! But enough of that, on to the pix!
Scratches and swirls in the rear quarter panel - after wash and clay.
Driver's door - taped and ready to polish:
Swirls in the hood:
Long scratch in the hood:
Half and half of the hood after a single pass of #83 on a Meg's polishing pad. Guess the paint isn't so hard.....thankfully!!
Me (with camera) and the owner's parents after the fact. This is the same quarterpanel shown above, nicely polished out. No more swirls or nasty scratches. The owner believes those scratches were left by her cat.
It was getting late when I finished so the sun was low, but the side of the car looked great in the setting sun!
Self portrait in trunk lid. Mmmmmm, shiny!!!
I sent the owner around the car with some NXT Speed Detailer and a MF towel. She really got into it......I told her to keep the bottle and the towel and put them to good use.
A quick wash with Meg's Gold Class and I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me. I clayed the car after washing and found so many scuffs, scrapes, scratches, etc (not to mention the chewing gum all over the left side of the thing that required bug & tar remover to get rid of!!) that I wasn't sure how well this would turn out. My first black car, my first Saab. Was the paint going to be really hard or fairly soft? Well, I'd rate it fairly soft (either that or Mike Phillips has taught me better than I realized!!) since I managed to remove virtually all the swirls, scuffs and scratches.
The process:
Gold Class wash
Clay
M83 over most of the car (2x in some spots)
M80 over the entire car to follow
M20 x2 to seal
No pix of the interior but the owner's parents helped out a lot and did the interior while I worked on the paint. Using things like APC and the Bissell Little Green Machine to clean the floor mats (really should have taken before/afters here because the difference was astonishing!), #39 to clean and #40 to dress the interior plastics, and Meg's Aloe Leather cleaner and conditioner on the seats. The car looked new again and the owner was just thrilled! But enough of that, on to the pix!
Scratches and swirls in the rear quarter panel - after wash and clay.
Driver's door - taped and ready to polish:
Swirls in the hood:
Long scratch in the hood:
Half and half of the hood after a single pass of #83 on a Meg's polishing pad. Guess the paint isn't so hard.....thankfully!!
Me (with camera) and the owner's parents after the fact. This is the same quarterpanel shown above, nicely polished out. No more swirls or nasty scratches. The owner believes those scratches were left by her cat.
It was getting late when I finished so the sun was low, but the side of the car looked great in the setting sun!
Self portrait in trunk lid. Mmmmmm, shiny!!!
I sent the owner around the car with some NXT Speed Detailer and a MF towel. She really got into it......I told her to keep the bottle and the towel and put them to good use.
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