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What better way to spend my vacation than working on a car? Having successfully corrected my roommate's car about a month ago, I decided that my mom's 1999 Toyota Camry was a perfect candidate to practice my technique. The car is a daily driver with about 170,000 miles on it, mostly from commuting to work, with quite a few 300+ mile trips thrown in for good measure. It's been garage kept since it was purchased in 1998, but hasn't been washed all that often (mostly by me when I'm visiting friends and family). As you'll see in the pictures, the car was significantly swirled, and had quite a few deeper scratches where Mom had used the abrasive side of a kitchen sponge to remove tar and bug residue. Also present was a bit of etching from bird droppings and water spots. I had washed and waxed the car in May with NXT, but that had all worn off. Having heard that Toyota paint tended to be on the soft side, I was a bit apprehensive about what approach I would use, but as it turned out, Ultimate Compound did a fantastic job of cleaning up the majority of the defects without leaving the clear coat hazy.
Day 1
I started around 11:00am by soaking the tires with Super Degreaser and the wheel wells with APC+, then gave them a good scrubbing use various brushes and a bucket of Hyper Wash. Next, I moved on to the body, and pre-treated some of the dirtier areas with APC+ before hand washing with a MF mitt and bug sponge, again using Hyper Wash and the two-bucket method. The wash complete, I moved into the garage and gave the car a quick wipedown with an old Absorber. I then clayed the entire car using QD and a Smooth Surface Clay bar. Surprisingly, the clay didn't pull much off the paint - amazing what a difference it makes when you keep a car garaged.
After claying, I masked off all the panel gaps, rubber trim, and pin stripes, then broke out the G110v2 and did a pair of test spots on the hood. Ultimate Polish cleaned up some of the defects, but still left some swirling, and didn't touch the deeper scratches. Ultimate Compound, however, removed all but the most major defects, and as I already mentioned, didn't haze the clear coat at all, so I went to work on all of the larger surfaces. By 7:00pm, I was pretty exhausted, so I called it quits for the day.
Day 2
Got started at 10:00am, and finished up compounding the front and rear bumper, as well as the windshield and rear window, which had some nasty permanent water spots - UC did a fantastic job of cleaning the glass, leaving it crystal clear. Next, I cleaned up the headlights with PlastX and a 4" polishing pad on the DA, doing four passes on each. This cleared up most of the haze, but, didn't leave a perfect finish - I would have gotten better results had I wet-sanded them first. Oh, well.
With the correction phase now complete, I cleaned up all of the dust left by compounding with a bit of QD and a few MF cloths, switched over to a finishing pad on the DA, and laid down a thin coat of NXT 2.0 Liquid Wax. While this was drying, I dressed the tires with Endurance spray, dressed the wheel wells with Hyper Dressing 4:1, cleaned the exterior and interior glass with Glass Cleaner Concentrate 10:1, and applied Rain-X to the front and rear windshield. I also gave the interior a quick dusting with Quik Interior Detailer and cleaned the door jambs with APC+. I finally finished up by removing the excess wax just before 6:00.
Total time for this job was 17 hours - I've really gotta work on my speed if I'm ever going to try to make any money doing this. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results. Although I wasn't able to remove all of the paint defects, I was at least able to make even the most severe much less noticeable. And after all, this car is nearly 13 years old, and has never been introduced to the 5-step paint care cycle until this week.
Anyway, on to the pictures. As usual, the Florida weather was not cooperating, so I was unable to get any after shots in direct sunlight.
Before
Swirl marks on hood
Deep scratches caused by kitchen sponge
More deep scratches
Faded rear bumper, as is typical of this particular model, I think
The champagne color really does a great job of hiding dirt
More scratches on the left rear quarter panel
Close-up of scratches on the right front door, again caused by an abrasive kitchen sponge. You can also see how dirty the car actually is
Scratches above the front left door handle, probably from keys
After
Scratches on the front right door all but eliminated, though there was nothing I could do about the spot where Mom rubbed right through the paint
Windshield looks great now
Deeper scratches on the hood are still present, but not as obvious, and the swirl marks are all gone
Another spot on the hood, this one totally free of defects
Scratches gone from the left rear
A bit out of focus - some of the scratches above the door handle are still present, but not visible here
Day 1
I started around 11:00am by soaking the tires with Super Degreaser and the wheel wells with APC+, then gave them a good scrubbing use various brushes and a bucket of Hyper Wash. Next, I moved on to the body, and pre-treated some of the dirtier areas with APC+ before hand washing with a MF mitt and bug sponge, again using Hyper Wash and the two-bucket method. The wash complete, I moved into the garage and gave the car a quick wipedown with an old Absorber. I then clayed the entire car using QD and a Smooth Surface Clay bar. Surprisingly, the clay didn't pull much off the paint - amazing what a difference it makes when you keep a car garaged.
After claying, I masked off all the panel gaps, rubber trim, and pin stripes, then broke out the G110v2 and did a pair of test spots on the hood. Ultimate Polish cleaned up some of the defects, but still left some swirling, and didn't touch the deeper scratches. Ultimate Compound, however, removed all but the most major defects, and as I already mentioned, didn't haze the clear coat at all, so I went to work on all of the larger surfaces. By 7:00pm, I was pretty exhausted, so I called it quits for the day.
Day 2
Got started at 10:00am, and finished up compounding the front and rear bumper, as well as the windshield and rear window, which had some nasty permanent water spots - UC did a fantastic job of cleaning the glass, leaving it crystal clear. Next, I cleaned up the headlights with PlastX and a 4" polishing pad on the DA, doing four passes on each. This cleared up most of the haze, but, didn't leave a perfect finish - I would have gotten better results had I wet-sanded them first. Oh, well.
With the correction phase now complete, I cleaned up all of the dust left by compounding with a bit of QD and a few MF cloths, switched over to a finishing pad on the DA, and laid down a thin coat of NXT 2.0 Liquid Wax. While this was drying, I dressed the tires with Endurance spray, dressed the wheel wells with Hyper Dressing 4:1, cleaned the exterior and interior glass with Glass Cleaner Concentrate 10:1, and applied Rain-X to the front and rear windshield. I also gave the interior a quick dusting with Quik Interior Detailer and cleaned the door jambs with APC+. I finally finished up by removing the excess wax just before 6:00.
Total time for this job was 17 hours - I've really gotta work on my speed if I'm ever going to try to make any money doing this. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results. Although I wasn't able to remove all of the paint defects, I was at least able to make even the most severe much less noticeable. And after all, this car is nearly 13 years old, and has never been introduced to the 5-step paint care cycle until this week.
Anyway, on to the pictures. As usual, the Florida weather was not cooperating, so I was unable to get any after shots in direct sunlight.
Before
Swirl marks on hood
Deep scratches caused by kitchen sponge
More deep scratches
Faded rear bumper, as is typical of this particular model, I think
The champagne color really does a great job of hiding dirt
More scratches on the left rear quarter panel
Close-up of scratches on the right front door, again caused by an abrasive kitchen sponge. You can also see how dirty the car actually is
Scratches above the front left door handle, probably from keys
After
Scratches on the front right door all but eliminated, though there was nothing I could do about the spot where Mom rubbed right through the paint
Windshield looks great now
Deeper scratches on the hood are still present, but not as obvious, and the swirl marks are all gone
Another spot on the hood, this one totally free of defects
Scratches gone from the left rear
A bit out of focus - some of the scratches above the door handle are still present, but not visible here
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