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Whats up all....been insanely busy (and loving it) the last few weeks but finally had a chance to sit down and do a write up on a recently detailed 2010 Dodge Challenger.
The title of this write up will be Stormy Monday, since it was a Monday when we did the detail and towards the end a nice storm rolled in...and with this black paint on such a wicked looking car...the name is just fitting. At least we finished up before it rained!
Craig wanted us to touch on all bases...full interior, engine detail, and a double pass and wax on the paint...I'll say this, it was one hell of a long day but it was worth every second in the end. The neighbors kept coming out and saying 'You're still here??' lol...our reply "Yup!" :props:
Was a decent drive out to his house, but we got around rush hour and made it there in decent time...started around 9 a.m and finished up at dark-thrity (bout 6ish?). Long day like i said.
So enough chit-chat, lets take a quick look at the car of the day!
Sweet looking ride...and just as sweet of a sound to it. Gotta say we've done a couple challengers and a charger recently and they all have some sweet sounding exhaust systems on them.
So as i said above, he wanted us to touch on all three bases...so before the sun got too hot on us we decided to go ahead and wash this bad boy first...get all the grunge work done (tires, rims...ick....claying) and have the paint nice and prepped.
After doing that, i went on ahead and attacked the engine job while my sis started to work her magic on the interior of the car...neither were horrible, but both surely needed love.
We'll start with the engine bay....it had been hit pretty good by our lovely dust storms out here in Az and dust on black just does NOT look good.
Yup yup, nice and dusty. DUST i can deal with...its grease that i hate, but this had very little grease on it...so i was happy :dblthumb2:
Usually I'd go at it with some Meguiars Degreaser first but, with this being just dirt and not grime, i opted out for some Meguiars APC+, along with some Optimum No Rinse clay/detail spray mix for the paint and Meguiars Hyperdressing 2-1 for the dressing. Hit it with some APC first (carefully of course, don't want it going into the wrong areas)...used different brushes to agitate the dirt and worked all of the little nooks and cranny's...then used the pressure washer to wash it all down (again, gently and avoiding the sensitive electrical and air intake areas).
I've gotta say, it turned out pretty bad ***...take a look:
Now THAT...is clean enough to eat off of people! Can't beat a nice clean blacked out engine with some colorful highlights here and there.
Here is a closer look before:
Oooh yeah you can really see the dirt all up in every little crevice there. I do admit i had to twist my hand into some creative positions to get as many areas possible...i think i got them though, what do you think?
2:1 Hyperdressing is usually a bit more glossy, but i like to spray it on, let it set...and then wipe it down with a clean microfiber to dampen down the shine a LITTLE...now its more of a semi-gloss...or even a satin...very nice i think.
Looks good from all sides!
So while i was busy under the hood...my sis was under the roof doin her thing on the inside. The dirt wasn't bad, but our buddy Craig had a dog...a lab...and labs...they like to shed. So she had a good deal of vacuuming to do, but again..as long as it doesn't look like a Starbucks EXPLODED on the inside, then shes good lol.
Very cool looking interior, but of course what would you expect with a sweet looking exterior? Can't really see the hair much but got a good amount out...nothing compared to the 88' honda civic we did the week prior. I emptied out a full poodle out of the shop-vac when we were through...no not a mini-poodle..full size....insaneeee amount of fur!
But back to THIS interior, like i said above...she did a full interior. Steam cleaned everything, extracted carpets and mats, deep cleaned leather (and cloth) on seats and steamed them as well, dressed all vinyl, treated all seats......everything. Can't have a sweet looking exterior and engine and not have the cockpit lookin right!
Here's how it looked when she was all finished:
I really liked this next picture...i swear she gets the coolest shots of the inside of the car when its finished up:
The back was a little more on the dirty side...but hey this is little league stuff compared to some things we've done before....
Hey wait, I can see a hand with the spray bottle in it through the window...I thought i was detailing the engine, who the hell is that!? Guess I was claying while she was doing these photos lol, either that or a mystery person jumped in to help out (hah yeah, like that'll ever happen!)
Back seat turned out sweet!
And of course the view from the passenger side was just as nice of a turn around
Before:
And after...
:dblthumb2:
Passenger floor before
And of course a couple beauty shots of it all finished up
It smelled as good as it looked...it smelled like....leather...mmmm.
Now for what you've allllll been waiting for, the paint!
Craig opted for the double pass (compound pass, followed by a finishing polish pass) and then topped with Meguiars #26 paste wax. It was a great choice for such a nice car with such cool paint. A single pass makes a big difference, but i LOVE doing a finishing polish before the wax, just makes things that much clearer and glossier. I won't lie, this took some time! But my sis finished up the inside around the same time i finished up the engine so we double teamed the paint, and i'll tell you what...having two people sure makes things go easier.
So first of course, we needed to see what kind of damage and swirls we were dealing with. And with black, it was NOT hard to see the problem here!
With some of these to go with em' on the roof
Looking a little closer to the quarter panel we saw this
Now of course to ME, the swirls were about all i could see at first. Just a complete eye sore, but after pulling myself away from the horror of those things, i started noticing what a beautiful metal flake the paint had in it. Craig said that when he first bought it the metallic look just popped right out at you. Well...if it looked good THEN you can imagine how it looked after some REAL TLC from us.
Continued Below....
The title of this write up will be Stormy Monday, since it was a Monday when we did the detail and towards the end a nice storm rolled in...and with this black paint on such a wicked looking car...the name is just fitting. At least we finished up before it rained!
Craig wanted us to touch on all bases...full interior, engine detail, and a double pass and wax on the paint...I'll say this, it was one hell of a long day but it was worth every second in the end. The neighbors kept coming out and saying 'You're still here??' lol...our reply "Yup!" :props:
Was a decent drive out to his house, but we got around rush hour and made it there in decent time...started around 9 a.m and finished up at dark-thrity (bout 6ish?). Long day like i said.
So enough chit-chat, lets take a quick look at the car of the day!
Sweet looking ride...and just as sweet of a sound to it. Gotta say we've done a couple challengers and a charger recently and they all have some sweet sounding exhaust systems on them.
So as i said above, he wanted us to touch on all three bases...so before the sun got too hot on us we decided to go ahead and wash this bad boy first...get all the grunge work done (tires, rims...ick....claying) and have the paint nice and prepped.
After doing that, i went on ahead and attacked the engine job while my sis started to work her magic on the interior of the car...neither were horrible, but both surely needed love.
We'll start with the engine bay....it had been hit pretty good by our lovely dust storms out here in Az and dust on black just does NOT look good.
Yup yup, nice and dusty. DUST i can deal with...its grease that i hate, but this had very little grease on it...so i was happy :dblthumb2:
Usually I'd go at it with some Meguiars Degreaser first but, with this being just dirt and not grime, i opted out for some Meguiars APC+, along with some Optimum No Rinse clay/detail spray mix for the paint and Meguiars Hyperdressing 2-1 for the dressing. Hit it with some APC first (carefully of course, don't want it going into the wrong areas)...used different brushes to agitate the dirt and worked all of the little nooks and cranny's...then used the pressure washer to wash it all down (again, gently and avoiding the sensitive electrical and air intake areas).
I've gotta say, it turned out pretty bad ***...take a look:
Now THAT...is clean enough to eat off of people! Can't beat a nice clean blacked out engine with some colorful highlights here and there.
Here is a closer look before:
Oooh yeah you can really see the dirt all up in every little crevice there. I do admit i had to twist my hand into some creative positions to get as many areas possible...i think i got them though, what do you think?
2:1 Hyperdressing is usually a bit more glossy, but i like to spray it on, let it set...and then wipe it down with a clean microfiber to dampen down the shine a LITTLE...now its more of a semi-gloss...or even a satin...very nice i think.
Looks good from all sides!
So while i was busy under the hood...my sis was under the roof doin her thing on the inside. The dirt wasn't bad, but our buddy Craig had a dog...a lab...and labs...they like to shed. So she had a good deal of vacuuming to do, but again..as long as it doesn't look like a Starbucks EXPLODED on the inside, then shes good lol.
Very cool looking interior, but of course what would you expect with a sweet looking exterior? Can't really see the hair much but got a good amount out...nothing compared to the 88' honda civic we did the week prior. I emptied out a full poodle out of the shop-vac when we were through...no not a mini-poodle..full size....insaneeee amount of fur!
But back to THIS interior, like i said above...she did a full interior. Steam cleaned everything, extracted carpets and mats, deep cleaned leather (and cloth) on seats and steamed them as well, dressed all vinyl, treated all seats......everything. Can't have a sweet looking exterior and engine and not have the cockpit lookin right!
Here's how it looked when she was all finished:
I really liked this next picture...i swear she gets the coolest shots of the inside of the car when its finished up:
The back was a little more on the dirty side...but hey this is little league stuff compared to some things we've done before....
Hey wait, I can see a hand with the spray bottle in it through the window...I thought i was detailing the engine, who the hell is that!? Guess I was claying while she was doing these photos lol, either that or a mystery person jumped in to help out (hah yeah, like that'll ever happen!)
Back seat turned out sweet!
And of course the view from the passenger side was just as nice of a turn around
Before:
And after...
:dblthumb2:
Passenger floor before
And of course a couple beauty shots of it all finished up
It smelled as good as it looked...it smelled like....leather...mmmm.
Now for what you've allllll been waiting for, the paint!
Craig opted for the double pass (compound pass, followed by a finishing polish pass) and then topped with Meguiars #26 paste wax. It was a great choice for such a nice car with such cool paint. A single pass makes a big difference, but i LOVE doing a finishing polish before the wax, just makes things that much clearer and glossier. I won't lie, this took some time! But my sis finished up the inside around the same time i finished up the engine so we double teamed the paint, and i'll tell you what...having two people sure makes things go easier.
So first of course, we needed to see what kind of damage and swirls we were dealing with. And with black, it was NOT hard to see the problem here!
With some of these to go with em' on the roof
Looking a little closer to the quarter panel we saw this
Now of course to ME, the swirls were about all i could see at first. Just a complete eye sore, but after pulling myself away from the horror of those things, i started noticing what a beautiful metal flake the paint had in it. Craig said that when he first bought it the metallic look just popped right out at you. Well...if it looked good THEN you can imagine how it looked after some REAL TLC from us.
Continued Below....
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