So here I found myself doing a detail for a friend. This time, a mother in law's 1997 Malibu. Not only has this car been completely neglected, it's constantly parked under an acorn tree and it drops all sorts of nastiness on it. The interior wasn't that bad really so it got a quickie. who wants to spend 1-2 hours on a 12 year old Malibu anyway. The customer paid for a 'one step' and wasn't so much concerned with swirls as much as just 'make it 'shiny white' again.
I kept it overnight and basically knocked the interior out before bed. No pics because c'mon, we're talking about a Malibu here. Mats and carpet got a little scrub down using some spray foam and a brush. plastic/vinyl bits scrubbed with some woolite dillution and finished with 303 throughout. Windows with Stoners.
I was most concerned (as was the customer) with the heavily oxidised white paint. The washing alone took me a solid hour using a few MF mits, 2 bucket method suds'd with armor all heavy duty shampoo. This stuff is supposed to be more concentrated but I'm sure any soap would have worked the same. Wheels/wells/tires got a good scrub with Eagle One, Simple green and
Meg's long lasting tire gel.
After washing the beast, I rolled her into the garage to clay the surface THOROUGHLY. I don't have any fancy shots of my clay bar showing all the grime...LOL but let me say I love the
clay magic bar. I used the Mother's clay and although it's more pliable, the
Clay Magic holds up better to the abuse.
After clay and taping up the seems/seals
Ok, to cut the story short, I basically gave the customer what I would consider a worthy effort for a one step. I'm sure I could have used something more agressive and still finished down nicely but I went with this quick combo punch to bring up the gloss within a reasonable time.
Using a white
CCS pad on the PC with poli-seal..including all exterior glass. Added a single layer of Opti-seal and a coat of that on the wheels also. Hit the trim with 303, windows with Stoners, and headligh/taillight lenses with
plastX, then buffed the paint down with OCW once the opti-seal set a little. Not too shabby forabout 5 hours total.
he liked the smell of the OCW i think
this is just a side hobby for me but dam if it aint a good stress reliever in times like these!!
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