I apologize in advance for the length (grab a drink!) and to those of you who saw this as it progressed already.
Hopefully doing your own car doesn't break any rules. I wasn't going to put this in the contest but having down ~80 hours of work on it (and needing more supplies!) I decided to go for it.
Here is the back-story on this car and its paint.
Bought the car in June '05 pre-owned from an Infiniti dealer. They had two identical cars (this one had 31k on it, other had 36k), same year, color, options, but this one was ~$2,000 less because of the paint condition, they figured it needed an entire repaint. The previous owner had it washed only when he had it serviced, if that says anything. When I decided I wanted one of the two it came down to choosing which. At the time my car detailing experience was limited to hand detailing, mostly with Canadian Tire bought
Meg's products. I figured I would try to fix what I could myself (I've always been an automotive type guy) and worst case scenario, I'd have it re-painted.I had to admit I almost didn't do it, the thing that was really intimidating were that some of the scratches were right down to the metal.
So, before I get to process and pics you can likely surmise that in the end I bought a PC, learned how to chip repair and wetsand and well as remove some dents, learned where to find my local free lift to clean wheels and replace parts, and got a ton of info from Autopia, in particular thanks to Jdookie, Scottwax, Accumulator, Fujifast, pappijay, spitshined, ScubaSteveO, JBM and others too numerous to mention. Sounds cheesy but I got most of my info from you folks.
So ok, here are the befores that I have. Sorry I don't have that many but what I have you can gauge the overall condition.
This is after a wash and clay. It looked worse before but you get the idea. All those white spots are paint chips, there were 100+ that required filling on the from bumper, hood, and fenders. As you can see the front underspoiler is ravaged, too.
Here is the only shot I have of the swirls. Sadly this was after my first polish, but again, you get the idea. That blob in the middle is a paint chip repair blob waiting to be wetsanded
My fender had a fight with a grocery cart and lost.Those two scratches were about the size of a pencil and were down to the metal.
A random chip shot. This one was on the gas flap lip, it has been cleaned and primed in this picture, it was to the metal.
Process was as follows, in some semblance of order over the course of two weeks, a lot of setbacks and failures, and many hours. (edit - realized I didn't post a product picture and list)
A lot of touchup paint and Isopropylene alcohol
3M 1200, 2000, 3000 grit sandpaper
Zaino Z7 wash &
Sonus gloss shampoo
Z-18 clay
Poorboys SSR 1, 2.5, and 3
Optimum compound and polish
Zaino Z5, Z2pro, ZFX
Clearkote RMG
Poorboys EX w/carnauba
Poorboys Nattys blue wax
Z-6 QD, and Poorboys S&G DQ, Poorboys S&W for dust removal
Zaino Z9 and 10 leather cleaner/conditioner
Dupont teflon wheel cleaner, Michilen brake dust repellant
Z-16 tire dressing for tires and plastic trim
Stoners on windows
303 protectant for wheel wells, interior
I washed and clayed the car then washed and clayed it again. I then rubbed the entire car down with ISA:water and garaged it for the coming two weeks of joy. I started with the paint repairs - got the appropriate paint from my dealer and went to town with the toothpick method on the small chips, and a pen on the larger ones. I'd say I filled in about 100, of those 60-70 required wetsanding. The two toughest were those fender grocery cart ones, took 5 'coats' with the pen. I did this over the course of a weekend. The following week after about 50 hours of drying I attacked some of the blobs with langka. That worked ok, but not as well as I would have liked, so I decided to wetsand. This was a big step for me since I had just bought the PC a week or so before, and was a little hesitant to take sandpaper to the car - but I followed instructions and in no time my entire hood and front bumper were sanded, as well as many spots on the rest of the car. Sorry I didn't take pictures of this part, I now wish I had but at the time it was the last thing on my mind.
I have to say that Wednesday night was very nerve wracking. The entire front of my car was sanded down and it looked terrible. I slept badly.
The next day I went to work with the polish. Washed then polished with SSR2.5 and an orange LC cutting pad with the PC. This did almost nothing, so I moved to SSR3 and met with limited success. After some posting here I got some good info then tried again with SSR 2.5 the next day and had much better results. Here is that touch up from above after wetsanding and polishing.
This is from about an inch away.
And here is my fender, the one with the grocery cart damage. You can still see some of my sanding marks in this picture.
The entire polishing process actually lasted four days days. I did the hood the first day with SSR2.5 and a cutting pad, then the bumper, then the rest. The forth day I did the entire car with SSR2.5 and a polishing pad then SSR1 and a polishing pad. The next day I took the car to the local lift and took off the wheels and exhaust and cleaned them both. I also replaced my front rear underspoiler and side sills (they were mashed), and sanded down the rear underspoiler. The Interior process was mostly vacuum, 303, Z9 and Z10. The interior was actually in OK shape.
The next day I did a
final polish and LSP. I did Zaino first, (z5x2, then Z2).
) I will post some more closeup before/afters. I didn't post these before because I thought the afters kind of sucked with the poor lighting. I only scanned the ones that seem worthwhile to post. The after closeups are mostly inside my garage, so I apologize for the lighting but I shined a highpowered spotlight on them so you can see the improvement. I didn't want to put too many pictures up but this is the Xtreme Detail section so here goes!
. The G35 looks absolutely awesome, I got tired just reading your process. Great job picus.
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