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Since the wife and i had no clue what to get her father for christmas, i offered to detail his car for him which he decided to cash in this past weekend. The car is i believe a 2002, Lexus ES300 with just about 90k miles. The car is a daily driver and is garage kept when home.
Products Used Include:
Megs Deep Crystal Wash
Megs Smooth Surface Clay
Megs 205
Megs UC
DP Poli-Coat Sealant
Megs NXT 2.0
APC+ 4:1
Megs Natural Shine Interior Dressing
Megs Aloe Leather Conditioner
Optimum Opti-Bond
Mopar Chrome Cleaner
Porter Cable PC7424XP
A few months back (early/mid 2010) the front passenger side of the car was hit and repaired. They replaced the hood, bumper, fender, headlight, etc... The problem is the driver side headlight is the original so there was a big difference in clarity. Needless to say the first item that needed attention was clearing up the headlight.
The process i used was:
Step 1: 800 grit (left to right)
Step 2: 1000 grit (up and down)
Step 3: 2000 grit (left to right)
UC via PC7424XP on Orange CCS Pad
Plastix via PC7424XP on Black CCS Pad
Here is the comparison shot after being taped off:
Here is a close up of light before:
And a comparison after:
Closeup after:
After the headlight was cleaned up, pulled it outside and gave it a thorough washing with Megs Deep Crystal Wash using the 2 bucket method. I then cleaned all door jambs with various brushes and APC+ 4:1. I then pulled it in the garage and clayed the entire car with Megs Smooth Surface Clay. It was pretty nasty on all the horizontal surfaces and probably would've benefited from a more aggressive clay but this was all i had so ill definately be ordering some on my next order.
Since the car was white and the sun started going down, it was kind of difficult to see any swirls even with the brinkman. There were a few marks here and there and a few small swirls but nothing major. After a few test spots i decided on M205 on a Black CCS pad. This removed 90% of the imperfections that i could find and brought out some gloss to the paint.
Here are some outside pics after the M205 process:
Thought this was a pretty neat reflection shot:
I then focused my attention to the door handles. They all pretty much looked the same, nothing a little UC and a foam applicator couldnt handle.
Before:
After:
Now that the outside is corrected, i focused my attention on the interior. The floormats were a mess so i decided to try some APC+ 4:1 with a scrub brush. They came out better than they started but not 100%
Before:
After:
The other floormat was pretty much the same start / end result. The leather seats were pretty bad so they got the same APC+ treatment
Before:
After:
I finished up the interior with Megs Aloe Leather conditioner. All interior plastics were treated with Megs Natural Shine protectant and the carpets vaccumed.
I returned my attention to the outside and applied a coat of DP Poli-Coat to all painted surfaces as well as all the lamps. After that, since i had less than a 1/4 of a bottle left, i topped it with a coat of Megs NXT 2.0 wax and let that cure for about an hour.
Wheels were polished with some Mopar Chrome Cleaner that i had and then coated with the DP Poli-Coat. Tires were dressed with Optimum Opti-Bond.
Here are the finished results. I finished kind of late so sorry for the lack of sun pics:
I'd say i had a total of about 6 hours into it.
Thanks
Products Used Include:
Megs Deep Crystal Wash
Megs Smooth Surface Clay
Megs 205
Megs UC
DP Poli-Coat Sealant
Megs NXT 2.0
APC+ 4:1
Megs Natural Shine Interior Dressing
Megs Aloe Leather Conditioner
Optimum Opti-Bond
Mopar Chrome Cleaner
Porter Cable PC7424XP
A few months back (early/mid 2010) the front passenger side of the car was hit and repaired. They replaced the hood, bumper, fender, headlight, etc... The problem is the driver side headlight is the original so there was a big difference in clarity. Needless to say the first item that needed attention was clearing up the headlight.
The process i used was:
Step 1: 800 grit (left to right)
Step 2: 1000 grit (up and down)
Step 3: 2000 grit (left to right)
UC via PC7424XP on Orange CCS Pad
Plastix via PC7424XP on Black CCS Pad
Here is the comparison shot after being taped off:
Here is a close up of light before:
And a comparison after:
Closeup after:
After the headlight was cleaned up, pulled it outside and gave it a thorough washing with Megs Deep Crystal Wash using the 2 bucket method. I then cleaned all door jambs with various brushes and APC+ 4:1. I then pulled it in the garage and clayed the entire car with Megs Smooth Surface Clay. It was pretty nasty on all the horizontal surfaces and probably would've benefited from a more aggressive clay but this was all i had so ill definately be ordering some on my next order.
Since the car was white and the sun started going down, it was kind of difficult to see any swirls even with the brinkman. There were a few marks here and there and a few small swirls but nothing major. After a few test spots i decided on M205 on a Black CCS pad. This removed 90% of the imperfections that i could find and brought out some gloss to the paint.
Here are some outside pics after the M205 process:
Thought this was a pretty neat reflection shot:
I then focused my attention to the door handles. They all pretty much looked the same, nothing a little UC and a foam applicator couldnt handle.
Before:
After:
Now that the outside is corrected, i focused my attention on the interior. The floormats were a mess so i decided to try some APC+ 4:1 with a scrub brush. They came out better than they started but not 100%
Before:
After:
The other floormat was pretty much the same start / end result. The leather seats were pretty bad so they got the same APC+ treatment
Before:
After:
I finished up the interior with Megs Aloe Leather conditioner. All interior plastics were treated with Megs Natural Shine protectant and the carpets vaccumed.
I returned my attention to the outside and applied a coat of DP Poli-Coat to all painted surfaces as well as all the lamps. After that, since i had less than a 1/4 of a bottle left, i topped it with a coat of Megs NXT 2.0 wax and let that cure for about an hour.
Wheels were polished with some Mopar Chrome Cleaner that i had and then coated with the DP Poli-Coat. Tires were dressed with Optimum Opti-Bond.
Here are the finished results. I finished kind of late so sorry for the lack of sun pics:
I'd say i had a total of about 6 hours into it.
Thanks
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