2001 Ford Focus SE Wagon Exterior Detail (No paint correction)

[ctgrenade]

Well for those of you who saw my thread in Tricks Of The Trade about the best dollar I ever spent
you know that this Focus had not seen a proper wash job in over a year. Well after a
considerable amount of time the exterior is detailed.

First - The Befores












Part 1 - The Wash
Ingredients
2 Buckets
Meguiars Deep Crystal Car Wash
Meguiars Deep Crystal Car Wash in a spray bottle (15/1 Dilution)
White Wall Cleaner
Tire Brush
3 Wash Mitts (1 for top half, 1 for bottom half and 1 for wheels)

I decided to try an experiment with the wheels on this one. I took a spray bottle and put a
mixture of my car wash solution and water in it and used that as sort of a home brewed wheel
cleaner.

After the wheels and tires were cleaned and I emptied and refilled my rinse bucket (water was
very nasty from the wheel and tire grime) the body got a much needed bath. After washing the top
half of the car but before washing the bottom half the rinse bucket was emptied and refilled
again.

After washing I was honestly surprised at how good a shape the paint was in. I expected to find
a paint finish full of swirls and scratches. I was pleasantly surprised. The only real major
issue was a nasty series of scrapes on the rear bumper (that project will happen later). But the
paint was still noisy and rough to the touch. Which brings us to...

Part 2 - The Clay

Next the paint got the Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Kit treatment. Several areas got two rounds
with the clay (clay bar, wipe down and repeat) just to make sure it was nice and smooth.

Part 3 - The Polish and Wax

Since no real major paint correction took place the third step was a hand applied coat of
Meguiars Ultimate Polish topped off with a coat of Meguiars Gold Class Carnauba Plus Liquid Wax.

Part 4 - The exhaust pipe and another experiment.
I wanted to make the exhaust look better but didn't have any proper metal polish handy. But I
did have some Cameo Aluminum and Stainless Steel Cleaner under the kitchen sink. So i decided to
give it a try. After first cleaning the exhaust with a 10/1 dillution of my one dollar APC I
applied a mixture of cameo and hot water to form a paste to the exhaust and removed it with a
white towel dunked in hot water. I must say there was definite improvement from the before to
the after. Obviously didn't do as good as a proper metal polish and the pitting was still
visible but overall the result was decent.

Befores



After APC


After Cameo Aluminum and Stainless Steel Cleaner



And some after a proper polishing. Didn't get much of the pitting out but a definite shine compared to where I started.



And now the afters.

Tire and Wheel after my MDCCW experiment. Tires got a coating of Meguiars Hot Shine Tire Spray.

[Shawn T.]

Re: 2001 Ford Focus SE Wagon Exterior Detail (No paint correction)

Looks pretty good!!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: 2001 Ford Focus SE Wagon Exterior Detail (No paint correction)

For an 11 year old car that hasn't been babied it's whole life, and hasn't even been properly washed in over a year , you made a real turn around in the overall appearance. The paint looks great in the "after" shots.

[Raykreations]

Re: 2001 Ford Focus SE Wagon Exterior Detail (No paint correction)

I like Cameo steel cleaner...one of the first I started using. Works well to get the "rough stuff" off, but for finishing there's nothing like Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish

[chevyboy]

Re: 2001 Ford Focus SE Wagon Exterior Detail (No paint correction)

Nice work!!!!!! Thanks for the tip of that cleaner, i went out and bought some lol. That stuff works great.