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This is the third car of a group of three I was allowed to clean up and wax for one of my neighbors. The first two consisted of a black Chevy Cobalt and a black Ford Escape. So this color, I believe it's called dark cherry, was a pleasant change of pace. The goal of the project has been to prepare all three cars for the start of winter and perform some minor paint correction.
This is the finished vehicle with one coat of NXT Tech Wax 2.0 after the paint correction work was completed. A second coat of NXT was put on after a 6 hour cure time of the first coat.
Products Used:
Mequiar's:
Super Soap via Gilmour Foam Gun
Gold Class Car Wash and Shampoo
All Purpose Cleaner
Consumer Clay
Quik Detailer
Ultimate Compound
SwirlX
ColorX
Yellow and Black Pads
NXT Tech Wax 2.0
Glass Cleaner
Ultimate Protectant
Other:
Bounce Dryer Sheets
Black Magic Tire Spray
Mother's Chrome Polish
Porter Cable DA
This photo shows the starting condition of the car as shown by the trunk lid.
Most of the car was swirled up.
The hood also appeared to have a row of water spots. Turned out the water spots were fairly mild and not etched into the surface and they buffed right out.
To start the cleaning process, I ran the car through a touchless car wash to get the undercarriage high-pressure washed. Next I took the car home and gave it another high-pressure wash, front bumper rub down with Bounce Dryer sheets and complete coverage with Super Soap using a Gilmour Foam Gun. The car was then hand washed using Gold Class Wash and since there was just a little Super Soap left in the gun, I went over front bumper again with foam and hit it with a microfiber to eliminate the last of the bug bodies. The tires were sprayed with All Purpose Cleaner and throughly brushed. Final rinse with a slow hose and dried with a waffle weave.
I was surprised that the horizontal surfaces hood, roof and trunk were not covered with lots of bonded contaminates. Rather the doors seems to be much rougher than the other surfaces. This is clay following two doors.
I created three test spots on the trunk lid to determine the best corrective process. This is the ColorX section at PC speed 4. Swirls persisted.
This is the SwirlX section and after two quick passes at PC speed 4 and swirls persisted to a lesser extent than the ColorX section.
This is the Ultimate Compound section with a moderately heavy pressure pass and a moderate pressure pass, both at speed 5. The swirls and minor scratches seemed to be gone. For the final process I decided on Ultimate Compound followed by a quick pass with ColorX. So many people have recommended ColorX, I wanted to give it a whirl on this car. I used it as a final cleaner and not a wax, so it was removed before it could dry.
As a testimont to the rough life this car had, this molding was missing finish. In speaking with the owner, he indicated he had purchased the car used and in it's previous life the car was a rental. So rotating brush car washes may have been a way of life for this Mazda. My one-day training session in California had been on a rental, so this was a good follow-up to my introduction to concerned car care on yet another rental.
I had a couple of minor problems during this detail. First I ran out of Ultimate Compound. I thought I had a second bottle on the shelf, but did not. So I decided rather than run to the store and lose valuable time, I started using SwirlX as the primary correcting liquid. However, I had to increase the Porter Cable speed up to 6 and increase the passion enough to nearly stop the rotation of the pad to get the correction level I had achieved on the rest of the car.
Another minor problem occurred when I went to shake the bottle of SwirlX by banging it on my leg. Not paying attention, I noticed my leg felt wet and lo and behold I had broken the seam on the bottle and spewed liquid all over.
With a quick repair of the bottle, I got back to work
After working passionately with SwirlX, I wish I had run to the store to finish up with Ultimate Compound as originally planned. Lost time working the SwirlX, when Ultimate Compound would have been easier. Here is the finish.
Swirls seem to be all gone.
Windows were clayed and polished with Meguiar's Glass Cleaner, tires dressed with Black Magic, exhaust tips polished with Mother's, and rough texture plastic coated with Ultimate Protectant.
(Mr. Stoops if you're reading...how's the Brinkmann technique? Better?)
Thanks for stopping by.
This is the finished vehicle with one coat of NXT Tech Wax 2.0 after the paint correction work was completed. A second coat of NXT was put on after a 6 hour cure time of the first coat.
Products Used:
Mequiar's:
Super Soap via Gilmour Foam Gun
Gold Class Car Wash and Shampoo
All Purpose Cleaner
Consumer Clay
Quik Detailer
Ultimate Compound
SwirlX
ColorX
Yellow and Black Pads
NXT Tech Wax 2.0
Glass Cleaner
Ultimate Protectant
Other:
Bounce Dryer Sheets
Black Magic Tire Spray
Mother's Chrome Polish
Porter Cable DA
This photo shows the starting condition of the car as shown by the trunk lid.
Most of the car was swirled up.
The hood also appeared to have a row of water spots. Turned out the water spots were fairly mild and not etched into the surface and they buffed right out.
To start the cleaning process, I ran the car through a touchless car wash to get the undercarriage high-pressure washed. Next I took the car home and gave it another high-pressure wash, front bumper rub down with Bounce Dryer sheets and complete coverage with Super Soap using a Gilmour Foam Gun. The car was then hand washed using Gold Class Wash and since there was just a little Super Soap left in the gun, I went over front bumper again with foam and hit it with a microfiber to eliminate the last of the bug bodies. The tires were sprayed with All Purpose Cleaner and throughly brushed. Final rinse with a slow hose and dried with a waffle weave.
I was surprised that the horizontal surfaces hood, roof and trunk were not covered with lots of bonded contaminates. Rather the doors seems to be much rougher than the other surfaces. This is clay following two doors.
I created three test spots on the trunk lid to determine the best corrective process. This is the ColorX section at PC speed 4. Swirls persisted.
This is the SwirlX section and after two quick passes at PC speed 4 and swirls persisted to a lesser extent than the ColorX section.
This is the Ultimate Compound section with a moderately heavy pressure pass and a moderate pressure pass, both at speed 5. The swirls and minor scratches seemed to be gone. For the final process I decided on Ultimate Compound followed by a quick pass with ColorX. So many people have recommended ColorX, I wanted to give it a whirl on this car. I used it as a final cleaner and not a wax, so it was removed before it could dry.
As a testimont to the rough life this car had, this molding was missing finish. In speaking with the owner, he indicated he had purchased the car used and in it's previous life the car was a rental. So rotating brush car washes may have been a way of life for this Mazda. My one-day training session in California had been on a rental, so this was a good follow-up to my introduction to concerned car care on yet another rental.
I had a couple of minor problems during this detail. First I ran out of Ultimate Compound. I thought I had a second bottle on the shelf, but did not. So I decided rather than run to the store and lose valuable time, I started using SwirlX as the primary correcting liquid. However, I had to increase the Porter Cable speed up to 6 and increase the passion enough to nearly stop the rotation of the pad to get the correction level I had achieved on the rest of the car.
Another minor problem occurred when I went to shake the bottle of SwirlX by banging it on my leg. Not paying attention, I noticed my leg felt wet and lo and behold I had broken the seam on the bottle and spewed liquid all over.
With a quick repair of the bottle, I got back to work
After working passionately with SwirlX, I wish I had run to the store to finish up with Ultimate Compound as originally planned. Lost time working the SwirlX, when Ultimate Compound would have been easier. Here is the finish.
Swirls seem to be all gone.
Windows were clayed and polished with Meguiar's Glass Cleaner, tires dressed with Black Magic, exhaust tips polished with Mother's, and rough texture plastic coated with Ultimate Protectant.
(Mr. Stoops if you're reading...how's the Brinkmann technique? Better?)
Thanks for stopping by.
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