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Ah, it feels like old times! Nick Winn had some personal plans for a few days so I got back to my old groove and hosted a TNOG again!!!
We rolled a few different cars through the garage, with different issues to address and processes to be learned. How's this for a before/after shot?
Crazy thing is, this not a before/after shot of any process we did. The clear area on the right is due to a racing stripe decal covering the carbon fiber for a couple of years, and the cloudy, oxidized area on the left is what happens when carbon fiber is left unprotected. Our goal? Make the left side look like the right side.
Here's the entire front of the car for context:
We managed to make great progress on the lower half of the left side.
In this image you can just make out the color difference between the side that was covered with the decal and the exposed side. Carbon fiber tends to yellow with age, and this was no exception. Unfortunately, there's no way to correct this color shift other than to give the freshly exposed area time to catch up.
Alan, one of our TNOG regulars, offers some assistance to Max, the car owner, as he gets comfortable with the MT300.
On to another car, and more oxidation. Yes, this may look like we just wiped the dirt off one side of the panel, but that's not the case. That, friends, is oxidation!
Massive progress was made though, and this big Lexus deserved the TLC.
Brad jumped in to lend some of his skills to the party.
And here's where things really got fun!! This Dodge Magnum had headlights in desperate need of cleaning up. So, we did just that. Here's the passenger side before we started.
We tested first with 1000 grit wet sanding but it wasn't quite aggressive enough. This is after moving to 800 grit dry sanding via pneumatic DA.
We then refined with 1000 grit wet sanding via pneumatic DA.
Further refinement with 3000 grit wet sanding.
Finally, we put a 3" microfiber disc onto a rotary polisher (yes, microfiber on a rotary....... crazy, huh???) and primed with M105. We ran the buffer at just 1000 rpm and this is what we got.
We finished it all off with the wipe on coating from one of our consumer kits to give a year's worth of UV protection to the lens.
Here, in rapid succession, is a before and after of the driver's side lens using the same process as described above.
We just couldn't leave the grille looking so rough next to the newly refreshed headlights, so we aggressively worked in some Ultimate Black on a microfiber towel, and then topped with our aerosol D4510 Plastic & Vinyl Coating.
Thanks to everyone who came out and brought a great project with them!!!
We rolled a few different cars through the garage, with different issues to address and processes to be learned. How's this for a before/after shot?
Crazy thing is, this not a before/after shot of any process we did. The clear area on the right is due to a racing stripe decal covering the carbon fiber for a couple of years, and the cloudy, oxidized area on the left is what happens when carbon fiber is left unprotected. Our goal? Make the left side look like the right side.
Here's the entire front of the car for context:
We managed to make great progress on the lower half of the left side.
In this image you can just make out the color difference between the side that was covered with the decal and the exposed side. Carbon fiber tends to yellow with age, and this was no exception. Unfortunately, there's no way to correct this color shift other than to give the freshly exposed area time to catch up.
Alan, one of our TNOG regulars, offers some assistance to Max, the car owner, as he gets comfortable with the MT300.
On to another car, and more oxidation. Yes, this may look like we just wiped the dirt off one side of the panel, but that's not the case. That, friends, is oxidation!
Massive progress was made though, and this big Lexus deserved the TLC.
Brad jumped in to lend some of his skills to the party.
And here's where things really got fun!! This Dodge Magnum had headlights in desperate need of cleaning up. So, we did just that. Here's the passenger side before we started.
We tested first with 1000 grit wet sanding but it wasn't quite aggressive enough. This is after moving to 800 grit dry sanding via pneumatic DA.
We then refined with 1000 grit wet sanding via pneumatic DA.
Further refinement with 3000 grit wet sanding.
Finally, we put a 3" microfiber disc onto a rotary polisher (yes, microfiber on a rotary....... crazy, huh???) and primed with M105. We ran the buffer at just 1000 rpm and this is what we got.
We finished it all off with the wipe on coating from one of our consumer kits to give a year's worth of UV protection to the lens.
Here, in rapid succession, is a before and after of the driver's side lens using the same process as described above.
We just couldn't leave the grille looking so rough next to the newly refreshed headlights, so we aggressively worked in some Ultimate Black on a microfiber towel, and then topped with our aerosol D4510 Plastic & Vinyl Coating.
Thanks to everyone who came out and brought a great project with them!!!
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