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Hey everyone, i know it's been a while since i've posted some work on here so i thought i'd share a polish out we did last week on this sweet 09' Dodge Challenger over in Tempe, Az.
Mike was cool from the get go with me because he fixes instruments for a living, and being that im a musician we hit it off with no problem
. He was going to one of the bigger car shows in Az this past Saturday and wanted to have it polished out and ready to show.
SO we hooked up with him on the Wednesday before the show and did our thing. This car didn't have a lot of miles on it (under 19k) and the swirls weren't heavy, but they were EVERYWHERE. We had a couple things we wanted to try out on it to see what would work best...and i'll go through all of that below...so enjoy!
Lets start off with a list of things used.
Optimum No Rinse
Hi-Tech Magna sponge (to clay with)
Mix of ONR & water for rims and clay lube
Meguiars D151
Meguiars D300
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant
Wolfgang Tire Gel
Lots of microfiber towels
Meguiars Ultimate Protectant for trim
Griots DA
Flex 3401
Sweat...lol
So heres what we saw when he drove up...
First thing i noticed was DAMN the hood was big! We'd never done a Challenger before, never got up close to one in person..but when you do you can tell it's American muscle for sure...
I was a bit disappointed...not in the car, but in the stupid clouds above...there were only a few but it was enough for me to have to wait and bide my time in taking pictures. SOME of the befores don't really show you the amount of swirls, but i got enough in good sun for you to really see the damage. The AFTERS however...we had nice full sun so you can see the beautiful outcome.
We were both drawn to it right away because we like the darker 'burgundy' red...but of course with darker colors come more apparent swirls.
It wasn't trashed by any means...just a nice good coat of Arizona Dust on it (the anti-clear coat). He left it with us and headed back to work...so we went to work...with our camera first lol.
So here ya go...this is the damage.
Clouds are trying to hide them...but we know they're there...
Booyah...there they are! Sneaky little things...
Yup yup...they were there alright, not deep, but like i said...ALL over.
Next we shot a before video (video will be at the bottom of the post) and then got to the REAL work.
Since it was just a light coat of dust on it we went with ONR (optimum no rinse) using the two bucket method of course. WHY use the two bucket method on a car that isn't that dirty you may ask...THIS is why..
Wanna guess which water was the rinse water? And thats JUST off the body, not the tires or rims...THATS why you gotta use two buckets every time
Next we used the Hi-Tech Magna Sponge on it to remove any debris (which there wasn't much of), but even thought there wasn't a lot on there, you could still feel the difference after the claying was done. I love that smooth as glass feel.
Now it was time for the fun stuff...the polishing. I THOUGHT because the swirls were light, that i could get away with using D151 and then just add an extra layer of wax or sealant on top of it. So, as always, we taped off a test spot (on the trunk this time) and gave it a shot.
So this was our test area before:
As you can see, the sun came out for us...which was a good thing.
So i primed a white 5.5" Lake Country Polishing Pad with some Megs D151 and did a pass over the area with my Flex 3401 (love that machine)
Here were the results
Here is a shot of the top of the test area, above the tape was not done:
As you can see there was a HUGE improvement....BUT, if you have trained eyes you can also see that there are a couple deeper scratches left over (more visible in the first picture). For many, this would be 'good enough'....BUT, that just ain't our style!
So i taped off a spot right above the D151 test area and pulled out some Meguiars D300 and a 5" MF cutting disc, primed it up and did another test spot...
Below the tape was the D151 section, above the tape is the D300 section...
So you already saw what the section above the tape looked like before anything was done, here it is after a pass with D300.
We have a winner!
The D300 left no deeper scratches behind on our test spot and since this was suppose to be just a single pass and seal job (we ended up doing a little extra but hey, thats just us), this was our product of choice. It gave excellent correction AND finished down VERY nicely. SO...we hooked up the Griots with a pad as well and double teamed the big red beast.
We polished it from head to toe, then topped it off with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant. I've had a sample of it for a while but wanted to wait to use it on a car that really had a sweet color...and this was it.
We used a LC Hydro Tech Finishing pad (5.5") to spread the sealant...ad let me tell you, it came off like butter...NO drag at all. And as for the FEEL of the paint after it was applied...well it was SLICK after the D300, very slick...but after the DGPS...it felt like silk...literally. A baby's bottom had nothing on this paint!
We finished off by using my mix of ONR & water on the rims and tires to clean them and then dressed them with Wolfgang Tire Gel.
Tires weren't bad to begin with:
But when we finished!...
Ya they just looked bitchin'...plain and simple.
Also touched up the trim with some Ultimate Protectant and THEN...the fun stuff, the after shots...
So again, here is what we started with:
and this my friends, is what we finished with...
Remember the swirled up trunk?
After a little buffer persuasion...
And as for those old Hemi Swirls..
They got the boot too
A shine worthy of the Hemi emblem.
A couple more hood before and afters...
and after..
GEEZ those were bad..
BAM! ...sorry, but i get excited when i see paint look like that lol
The roof had some swirls too
But not anymoreeeeeee
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!
Straight on before...
and after...
(Continued Below...)
Mike was cool from the get go with me because he fixes instruments for a living, and being that im a musician we hit it off with no problem
. He was going to one of the bigger car shows in Az this past Saturday and wanted to have it polished out and ready to show.SO we hooked up with him on the Wednesday before the show and did our thing. This car didn't have a lot of miles on it (under 19k) and the swirls weren't heavy, but they were EVERYWHERE. We had a couple things we wanted to try out on it to see what would work best...and i'll go through all of that below...so enjoy!
Lets start off with a list of things used.
Optimum No Rinse
Hi-Tech Magna sponge (to clay with)
Mix of ONR & water for rims and clay lube
Meguiars D151
Meguiars D300
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant
Wolfgang Tire Gel
Lots of microfiber towels
Meguiars Ultimate Protectant for trim
Griots DA
Flex 3401
Sweat...lol
So heres what we saw when he drove up...
First thing i noticed was DAMN the hood was big! We'd never done a Challenger before, never got up close to one in person..but when you do you can tell it's American muscle for sure...
I was a bit disappointed...not in the car, but in the stupid clouds above...there were only a few but it was enough for me to have to wait and bide my time in taking pictures. SOME of the befores don't really show you the amount of swirls, but i got enough in good sun for you to really see the damage. The AFTERS however...we had nice full sun so you can see the beautiful outcome.
We were both drawn to it right away because we like the darker 'burgundy' red...but of course with darker colors come more apparent swirls.
It wasn't trashed by any means...just a nice good coat of Arizona Dust on it (the anti-clear coat). He left it with us and headed back to work...so we went to work...with our camera first lol.
So here ya go...this is the damage.
Clouds are trying to hide them...but we know they're there...
Booyah...there they are! Sneaky little things...
Yup yup...they were there alright, not deep, but like i said...ALL over.
Next we shot a before video (video will be at the bottom of the post) and then got to the REAL work.
Since it was just a light coat of dust on it we went with ONR (optimum no rinse) using the two bucket method of course. WHY use the two bucket method on a car that isn't that dirty you may ask...THIS is why..
Wanna guess which water was the rinse water? And thats JUST off the body, not the tires or rims...THATS why you gotta use two buckets every time
Next we used the Hi-Tech Magna Sponge on it to remove any debris (which there wasn't much of), but even thought there wasn't a lot on there, you could still feel the difference after the claying was done. I love that smooth as glass feel.
Now it was time for the fun stuff...the polishing. I THOUGHT because the swirls were light, that i could get away with using D151 and then just add an extra layer of wax or sealant on top of it. So, as always, we taped off a test spot (on the trunk this time) and gave it a shot.
So this was our test area before:
As you can see, the sun came out for us...which was a good thing.
So i primed a white 5.5" Lake Country Polishing Pad with some Megs D151 and did a pass over the area with my Flex 3401 (love that machine)
Here were the results
Here is a shot of the top of the test area, above the tape was not done:
As you can see there was a HUGE improvement....BUT, if you have trained eyes you can also see that there are a couple deeper scratches left over (more visible in the first picture). For many, this would be 'good enough'....BUT, that just ain't our style!
So i taped off a spot right above the D151 test area and pulled out some Meguiars D300 and a 5" MF cutting disc, primed it up and did another test spot...
Below the tape was the D151 section, above the tape is the D300 section...
So you already saw what the section above the tape looked like before anything was done, here it is after a pass with D300.
We have a winner!
The D300 left no deeper scratches behind on our test spot and since this was suppose to be just a single pass and seal job (we ended up doing a little extra but hey, thats just us), this was our product of choice. It gave excellent correction AND finished down VERY nicely. SO...we hooked up the Griots with a pad as well and double teamed the big red beast.
We polished it from head to toe, then topped it off with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant. I've had a sample of it for a while but wanted to wait to use it on a car that really had a sweet color...and this was it.
We used a LC Hydro Tech Finishing pad (5.5") to spread the sealant...ad let me tell you, it came off like butter...NO drag at all. And as for the FEEL of the paint after it was applied...well it was SLICK after the D300, very slick...but after the DGPS...it felt like silk...literally. A baby's bottom had nothing on this paint!
We finished off by using my mix of ONR & water on the rims and tires to clean them and then dressed them with Wolfgang Tire Gel.
Tires weren't bad to begin with:
But when we finished!...
Ya they just looked bitchin'...plain and simple.
Also touched up the trim with some Ultimate Protectant and THEN...the fun stuff, the after shots...
So again, here is what we started with:
and this my friends, is what we finished with...
Remember the swirled up trunk?
After a little buffer persuasion...
And as for those old Hemi Swirls..
They got the boot too
A shine worthy of the Hemi emblem.
A couple more hood before and afters...
and after..
GEEZ those were bad..
BAM! ...sorry, but i get excited when i see paint look like that lol
The roof had some swirls too
But not anymoreeeeeee
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!
Straight on before...
and after...
(Continued Below...)
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