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The neighbors allowed me to work on her Buick Lucerne and his Cadillac DTS. The outdoor detailing season has ended with this project and the search for a heated garage will be the next priority to continue my apprenticeship.
Both cars are regularly run through a tunnel wash and their owners strive to keep their cars in tiptop shape and I appreciate they allowed me to detail the exteriors.
The goal was to freshen up the paint and get a couple of coats of wax laid down before the start of winter. Plus get more hours in with a DA and improve my standing on the "Stoops Scale".
The 2006, silver colored Buick was in good condition and the rims required most of the attention. A run of Ultimate Compound at speed 4, followed with ColorX brightened up the surface and removed some of the minor defects. At the end of the first day, washing, claying, limited correction was complete, windows were clayed and cleaned and the first layer of M21 was laid down.
The next morning I finished up the wheels, touched up the windows, wiped down the surface and put down the final layer of M21.
My first contact with the owners' cars was when they stopped by one day to ask about tree sap removal. I searched MOL and one of the wise ones, either Murr or J.A. or perhaps both had recommended concentrated detailer glass cleaner. Here is one of the gobs of tree sap on roof.
Here is another angle of the tree sap.
Down in the wiper cowling were more tree sap spots. After soaking all of the globs of tree sap with glass cleaner, they easily came right off.
The car only had a couple of defects. This blue paint mark removed easily.
There were a few spots of road tar, which also removed very easily.
As you can see, claying removed few bonded contaminates.
The chrome rims were fairly dirty with minor pitting.
I started out using microfiber gloves and hand rubbing Ultimate Compound, but found it to be too labor intensive and I worried about marring the chrome. So I jumped on them with a Mothers red foam cone and some Mothers chrome polish, which help speed up the process with a fairly good result.
I had some Black Magic spray from a sale at the grand opening of an Auto Zone. So I dressed the tires.
The finished car has some nice reflections and much nicer wheels.
The second car of the two 'fer a 1999 Cadillac was in need of a wash and it had the usual amount of bug bodies and also bug pits and rock chips on the front bumper.
The hood was mildly dirty and had a few swirls in the finish.
Notice the obligatory scratches on the rear bumper from golf clubs.
I decided to run the car to the car wash to get a thorough cleaning of the undercarriage, but first I wanted the work on the wheels. Using APC and a mildly stiff nylon brush I went after the tires.
Using a softer brush I went over the rims with APC and thoroughly rinsed before running over to the car wash to hand wash with Gold Class and power rinse the entire car.
Examining the hood for swirls after washing, I found them; but it struck me that the swirls seemed few, short and a little deeper more like scratches. As a noob, this implied to me that the finish was hard. Both difficult to swirl and perhaps difficult to correct. I told the owner I would be able to freshen up the finish, but time constraints would prohibit me from doing a complete correction. Perhaps in the spring when the Microfiber DA system is available I could do a proper correction!
When I first saw this "defect" I went into panic mode thinking I blew off some clean coat cleaning the car. I started looking around for a piece of clear coat on the ground. I didn't see a complete edge around what appeared to be a hole in the clear coat, indicating it was something else. It turned out to be some sort of glue clobber or some other sort of smeared out goo. Rubbing with APC on a microfiber I was able to remove it and continue claying the car.
Here is a before picture of the rims. I don't think the tunnel wash used by the owners does a very good job of cleaning tires and wheels. (well, duh!)
Can't wait for the new 2011 products to become available. Cleaning something like this will be easier.
Spending two hours cleaning and polishing each wheel, the end result was an improvement. The tires were dressed with Meguiar's aerosol spray.
Weather conditions, cloudy and overcast, make for perfect conditions for a self-portrait reflection photo.
After going over the car one run (four passes) of Ultimate Compound at speed 5 and a run of ColorX at speed 4 and one coat of M21, many swirls still are present. I spent so much time on the wheels I was unable to get the second coat of M21 on the car in the day and half I allowed for the car.
Final photo
Products Used:
APC and APC+
Gold Class Car Wash
Meg Super Soap - Buick only
Gilmour Foam Gun - Buick only
Meg Consumer Clay
Meg Quik Detailer
D120 Glass Cleaner
Ultimate Compound - Yellow Meg Pad
ColorX - Black Meg Pad
M21 Wax - Black Meg Pad
Mothers Chrome Polish
Meg Aerosol Tire Spray
Thanks for stopping by.
Both cars are regularly run through a tunnel wash and their owners strive to keep their cars in tiptop shape and I appreciate they allowed me to detail the exteriors.
The goal was to freshen up the paint and get a couple of coats of wax laid down before the start of winter. Plus get more hours in with a DA and improve my standing on the "Stoops Scale".
The 2006, silver colored Buick was in good condition and the rims required most of the attention. A run of Ultimate Compound at speed 4, followed with ColorX brightened up the surface and removed some of the minor defects. At the end of the first day, washing, claying, limited correction was complete, windows were clayed and cleaned and the first layer of M21 was laid down.
The next morning I finished up the wheels, touched up the windows, wiped down the surface and put down the final layer of M21.
My first contact with the owners' cars was when they stopped by one day to ask about tree sap removal. I searched MOL and one of the wise ones, either Murr or J.A. or perhaps both had recommended concentrated detailer glass cleaner. Here is one of the gobs of tree sap on roof.
Here is another angle of the tree sap.
Down in the wiper cowling were more tree sap spots. After soaking all of the globs of tree sap with glass cleaner, they easily came right off.
The car only had a couple of defects. This blue paint mark removed easily.
There were a few spots of road tar, which also removed very easily.
As you can see, claying removed few bonded contaminates.
The chrome rims were fairly dirty with minor pitting.
I started out using microfiber gloves and hand rubbing Ultimate Compound, but found it to be too labor intensive and I worried about marring the chrome. So I jumped on them with a Mothers red foam cone and some Mothers chrome polish, which help speed up the process with a fairly good result.
I had some Black Magic spray from a sale at the grand opening of an Auto Zone. So I dressed the tires.
The finished car has some nice reflections and much nicer wheels.
The second car of the two 'fer a 1999 Cadillac was in need of a wash and it had the usual amount of bug bodies and also bug pits and rock chips on the front bumper.
The hood was mildly dirty and had a few swirls in the finish.
Notice the obligatory scratches on the rear bumper from golf clubs.
I decided to run the car to the car wash to get a thorough cleaning of the undercarriage, but first I wanted the work on the wheels. Using APC and a mildly stiff nylon brush I went after the tires.
Using a softer brush I went over the rims with APC and thoroughly rinsed before running over to the car wash to hand wash with Gold Class and power rinse the entire car.
Examining the hood for swirls after washing, I found them; but it struck me that the swirls seemed few, short and a little deeper more like scratches. As a noob, this implied to me that the finish was hard. Both difficult to swirl and perhaps difficult to correct. I told the owner I would be able to freshen up the finish, but time constraints would prohibit me from doing a complete correction. Perhaps in the spring when the Microfiber DA system is available I could do a proper correction!
When I first saw this "defect" I went into panic mode thinking I blew off some clean coat cleaning the car. I started looking around for a piece of clear coat on the ground. I didn't see a complete edge around what appeared to be a hole in the clear coat, indicating it was something else. It turned out to be some sort of glue clobber or some other sort of smeared out goo. Rubbing with APC on a microfiber I was able to remove it and continue claying the car.
Here is a before picture of the rims. I don't think the tunnel wash used by the owners does a very good job of cleaning tires and wheels. (well, duh!)
Can't wait for the new 2011 products to become available. Cleaning something like this will be easier.
Spending two hours cleaning and polishing each wheel, the end result was an improvement. The tires were dressed with Meguiar's aerosol spray.
Weather conditions, cloudy and overcast, make for perfect conditions for a self-portrait reflection photo.
After going over the car one run (four passes) of Ultimate Compound at speed 5 and a run of ColorX at speed 4 and one coat of M21, many swirls still are present. I spent so much time on the wheels I was unable to get the second coat of M21 on the car in the day and half I allowed for the car.
Final photo
Products Used:
APC and APC+
Gold Class Car Wash
Meg Super Soap - Buick only
Gilmour Foam Gun - Buick only
Meg Consumer Clay
Meg Quik Detailer
D120 Glass Cleaner
Ultimate Compound - Yellow Meg Pad
ColorX - Black Meg Pad
M21 Wax - Black Meg Pad
Mothers Chrome Polish
Meg Aerosol Tire Spray
Thanks for stopping by.
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