Hey everyone. Some of us GTA folks had a "PC training-day/meet & shine" meet yesterday where I was to detail an '04 coupe from the ground up and let everyone throw questions at me. It turned out really nice, the weather was great, turn out was awesome - the actual detail, well read on!
So inititally I planned on doing two full cars. It didn't work out that way, the '04 coupe that I originally thought would take 2-3 hours took almost 8. A lot of that time was spent explaining processes and answering questions (which I had planned for), the rest was because it was the G35...
FROM HELL! 
When I first saw the car it was morning and the sun wasn't really out. I washed and clayed and was greeted by this:
No problem, right? So I rolled it into the bay and turned on my halogen lights.
The owner is a teacher, and while he takes care of the car the very nature of his job seems to entail kids near the car, rubbing against the car, and possibly dancing on the car. Aside from the swirls there were a series of scratches on the hood and near the passenger side rear fender (above the gas cap) that were hideous. I don't even want to know what made them (dirty push broom, maybe?). You can see them in the befores (1, and 3).
Process was:
-Wash with
P21S
-Clay (the
clay took off an incredible amount of goodies.)
-Test rear fender with Opt Hyper on an orange LC pad...no progress.
-Test rear fender with
Menzerna IP on a yellow pad...some swirls removed, almost no progress on scratches.
-SFX-1 on a yellow pad. very little progress.
-SSR3 on a yellow pad. A ton of hazing, almost a sinful amount. A little progress. I was a little worried at this point because I though I'd have to do the whole car like this they take two steps to remove the haze.
-Menzerna PG via a yellow pad. Finally, success. Low to moderate haze and some noticable improvment. I tested this on a spot on the hood and was equally impressed.
Now I was going to break out my rotary, but it was a "PC training day", so it would have defeated the purpose. Luckily PG saved me.
-3/4 of the car got PG via a yellow pad (all fenders, hood, rear deck, tops of doors).
-The entire car got Hyper via orange to clean up haze (and remove marring on bottoms of doors, trunk, roof, and bumpers)
Some areas were wetsanded. I did the top passenger side of the hood with 2000 and 3000 unigrit to take out some of the deep scratches, got them about 90% out. Some spots on doors (people rubbing against them, etc..) and quite a bit on the rear decklid. I used the Hyper to take out the marring.
-Opt compound on an orange to further clean up the finish, finally I was haze free.
-Menzerna FP and some
AIO to make it bootiful.
-RMG on the entire car via a black pad.
-EX w/carnauba over the entire car via a black pad
-Nattys Blue
- PB's trim restore on trim, 303 in wells and megs shine on tires. Interior got megs interior cleaner/dressing,
vacuum, leather cleaned and conditioned (z9/z10). Glass and jambs got OCW.
I rolled the car out into the sun after polishing to illustrate to the guys that prep really is 95% of the job. It's kind of amazing how many people think wax is a fix-it-all and will make any car look good. I think they all got the point when I rolled it out with nothing on it (after isa:water rubdown) to show them the difference and how good it looked.I tried to get as many full sun shots as I could, it was 7pm at this point. The swirls were 100% gone, some of the deep scratches are not coming out... I'd say I got them 92.5% out.
Oh, before anyone says "the wheels are dirty", his front wheels got an acid bath that was left on too long - the stripes are the result. They need re-finishing.
Afters:
You can still see the long
scratch on the decklid I wetsanded. Not sure what caused it but I don't think it'll ever budge.
Linear Mode
