4. Clean/Polish #1
The paint was in generally good shape except it had many microabraisons and light swirls from almost 10 years of abuse, unfortunately these didn’t photograph well. The original owner shipped this car to Japan and back and you could see where the straps had marred the paint because the car was dirty when they put the cover on it for shipment. I don’t think the paint had ever been truly cleaned. Since I purchased the car 2 years ago I had, unknowingly, mostly applied fillers to hide these problems with 3M IHG, P21S PCL and Griot’s fine hand polish. I learned very quickly here that while reasonably good products they represented little more that automotive makeup. My objective was to remove most if not all of those microabraisons and again based on the feedback here I chose 3M PI-IIIMG as the product with an orange pad. I chose the orange pad because I already had a few new ones and I had used them before. As a PC user for a couple of years I just refreshed my technique by reading here and applied a little more pressure than I had in the past. I used 100% cotton towels to buff off the PI-III and you’ll note in the pics I masked with 3M “blue” painters tape and did some minor disassembly. This combination did a fair job of removing the microabraisions consistent with the feedback and representations made here. I was a little too conservative though and should have used a little more abrasive product/pad combination. I’d say I removed 60% of the microabraisions. Since it is a single stage paint I had to get comfortable with removing some of the paint and cleaning of the pads as you’ll see below. If I were to do it again I would have had a yellow cutting pad ready as well as some
DACP.
In process after 2 passes with 3MPI-III
5. Clean/Polish #2
Ok, so I’m pretty happy with the finish right here but I’m also committed to going the “Polymer” route and trying out the Klasse twins. Let me first say I tried both AIO and SG last year with dismal results because I simply did not know what I was doing and treated them like the polish/wax combinations I’ve used for years. Of course I knew what I was doing now as I used “Jimwh’s Klasse Instructions” as well as posts from a number of others.
Jimwh Klasse Instructions (updated)
After the PI-III the paint was pretty “squeaky” so the AIO while definitely improved the “liquid” feel of the paint and overall gloss it didn’t make the huge difference you’ve come to expect when seeing a badly oxidized finish transformed by AIO. That said AIO is now my cleaner of choice. I went over the car 2 times by hand and it went on and came off very easily. I’ll say I paid close attention to not using too much product and I think that worked well and helped with the removal. I used Megs
Final Inspection for a little help removing AIO and found it outstanding in this capacity and streak free unlike some other QDs I’ve used. The Pakshak MF towels from Ranney were also responsible for making this easy as they removed what little residue AIO leaves easily.
AIO Starts to give that "wet look"
6. Seal
I’ll say at this point I was very happy and tired and considered skipping the SG phase because of the dry/cure times. I’m glad I didn’t. I put on my first coat of SG and buffed it off about 30 minutes later, waited overnight, about 12 hours, and put on the second coat and again buffed off after about 45 minutes. When buffing it off I noticed a little faint haze and thought “oh no I shouldn’t have used this stuff.” So I decided to let the SG cure for a full 24 hours before my next layer and then let that 3rd layer dry for a full 2 hours as it has been a little humid here. Perfect, haze gone and a great hard looking shine developing…cool. I followed the same procedure for the 4th layer and let it again cure before the
Pinnacle topper.
4 Layers of SG
7. Wax Topper
Again, I considered not doing this step as the car looked great and I’d also had some hazing with PS before…again because I didn’t really understand you just can’t throw one product on top of another and not expect them to “react” to each other often creating the haze.
I applied PS by hand with a small yellow applicator and all can say is I just knew it was right as I was applying and removing. My wife, who thinks I’m completely nuts and is truly bored with all things related to detailing actually stopped and commented on how “wet” the car looked after this step.
I’ve always considered myself a reasonably good amateur detailer but in the past month I’ve gotten so much good information on products and application methods here at Autopia I thought I’d share my experience with the several new products and techniques I used in prepping my car for a local Concours.
Linear Mode
