Weekend Details - v. Prepped to Sell & Polishing Darks in Direct Sun

G35stilez · 09-13-05, 06:46

UPDATE ON PAGE 3

First up, the ones to be sold.

The owner told me they were pretty dirty and definately needed work. Definately had to agree with that statement, whole heartedly. I do appreciate the honesty of customers like that though. Most would just say, "Oh they're not too bad, just need a good coat of wax". He didn't want clay or intensive polishing, just a solid spruce up.

Anyways, the first up was a 99/00 (not exactly sure) Accord Coupe in V6 trim with leather and the whole 9. Its lowered with a lip kit and some other tasteful mods. The whole front nose was in an accident early on and had a bad repaint. The clear on the hood and a-pillars was checking pretty bad and the front bumper was sandblasted to high hell. The paint in general was filthy. Lots of swirls, water spots, sap and tar deposits, oxidation, and everything in between. I didn't get any post washing/pre polishing pics, but when I washed it, the car didn't look much better than the before pics. I had my work cut out for me on this one.

Note: I made a custom mix for the leather, vinyl, rubber, and plastic... I had a few products that I was running out of so I combined them all in hopes they'd do the trick. This mix was successful and I was happy. It left a soft sheen, soft feel, and completely dry to the touch. The mix is: 4 parts Optimum Tire Dressing (new build), 2 parts Poorboy's Bold n Bright , and 1 part Adam's VRT. Let's called it 'OptiBright VRT'.

Interior was pretty simple and the final processes were:

-Folex to clean vinyl, plastic, rubber, leather, and carpets
-OptiBright VRT on vinyl, plastic, rubber, and leather
-APC to degrease jams, then QD'd
-Klasse AIO on wood

Exterior final processes:

-NXT wash mixed with 4 oz of Costco APC
-Meguiar's Wheel Brightener to clean wheels, tires, and wells
-Wheels got OCW
-Tires got OptiBright VRT
-Wells got Optimum Tire Dressing cut 50/50

-Klasse AIO/Optimum via rotary and LC Polishing Pad @ 1500 rpm (laid 2 equal beads next to each other and buffed. This was done to mix cleaning and polishing abilities.)
-OCW x 2 by hand

Before

After

Before

After

G35stilez · 09-13-05, 06:49

Next up was the Eclipse Spyder GST to be prepped for sale.

1996 and only 36,xxx miles! The paint was in much better shape than the former, however, I had to clean up some rotary holograms from a previous detailer. Again, no full swirl or clay requested for this, I just had to make it look pretty. Finals on the interior:

-Folex to clean vinyl, plastic, rubber, leather, and carpets
-OptiBright VRT on vinyl, plastic, rubber, and leather
-APC to degrease jams, then QD'd
-Klasse AIO on clear plastic

Exterior final processes:

-NXT wash mixed with 4 oz of Costco APC
-Meguiar's Wheel Brightener to clean wheels, tires, and wells
-Wheels got OCW
-Tires got OptiBright VRT
-Wells got Optimum Tire Dressing cut 50/50

-Meguiar's #66 via rotary and LC Finishing Pad @ 1500 rpm
-OCW x 2 by hand

Before

After

Before

After

Them together

G35stilez · 09-13-05, 06:53

Onto the 9/11 details. Beautiful day and I was polishing in direct sun the entire time.

First was the Accord. I would call these a 'normal' amount of swirls. They were a little worse in person, but you get the idea. The car had a TON of IFO from being parked at the train station and I ended up adding some marring from claying. It was pretty much inevitable, though. I apologize in advance for the slight haze you might pick up. The second coat of Zaino wasn't cooperating well. Finals were:

-NXT Wash
-Meguiar's Overspray Clay
-Menzerna Powergloss and LC Cutting Pad @ 1500 rpm
-Optimum Polish and LC Finishing Pad @ 1200 rpm
-Zaino Z2 Pro x 2 (ZFX'd)

-OCW on wheels
-OptiBright VRT on tires
-Optimum Tire Dressing cut 50/50 in wells

Before

After

Up next, the main event!

tumbler · 09-13-05, 07:01

luv the depth of the OCW..

AIO on wood eh ? gonna have to try that

G35stilez · 09-13-05, 07:02

Finally, the worst one of them all. While the Accord probably had a broader range of contaminants, this one took the cake for neglect. In its raw form, its a beautiful machine, but as Rob007 (owner of the green Accord, and Autopian) can attest, this car is not taken care of. He brings it to the local car wash for washing and detailing. You would think they use a straw broom to wash it

. Even moreso, there was plenty of damage on the body and interior, oh well.

The interior wasn't too bad. It was detailed a couple weeks ago by the local car wash and I have to commend them on their carpet cleaning job. They truly looked very good. However, the rest of the interior looked like crap and he wasn't happy about it. I took my time to focus on the finer details with this one since the carpets were a breeze. Finals:

-Folex to clean vinyl, plastic, rubber, leather, and carpets
-OptiBright VRT on vinyl, plastic, rubber, and leather
-APC to degrease jams, then QD'd
-Klasse AIO on wood

The carpets are clean, I had to move the car and forgot to push the carpet fibers the same way before the picture, sorry.

Exterior was trashed with swirls and water spots. The before pictures represent it pretty well. Since the car is about 8 years old and obviously not cared for well, I didn't want to go too insane on the paint fearing the worst for the thickness of the clearcoat, or lack thereof. And, of course, the sun peeked down as I was doing my final wipedown

. Finals:

-NXT Wash
-Meguiar's Overspray Clay
-Optimum Polish via rotary and LC Cutting Pad @ 1500 rpm (x2 on horizontal surfaces)
-Menzerna FPII via rotary and LC Polishing Pad @ 1500 rpm
-OCW x 2 by hand

-OCW on wheels
-OptiBright VRT on tires
-Optimum Tire Dressing cut 50/50 in wells

Before

After

Before

After

G35stilez · 09-13-05, 07:03

One of my better reflection shots

.

Enjoy!

tumbler · 09-13-05, 07:04

ahhhhh.. the wonderful art created by a rotary !

Picus · 09-13-05, 07:06

Yikes. Amazing job on the Accord and MB. Kind of incredible what Optimum via a rotary will do. As a September contest entrant, I am glad you're a pro. :P