I tackled an '04 (I think that's the year) Accord today. it was white and as dirty as could be. This is the first white car that I've done so it was a little bit of a learning experience as well. First lesson, white cars play hell with the white balance on your camera. I was able to get a few good pics. It had some pretty bad swirling on it as well.
This was an exterior detail only. I started out by doing the engine, wheel wells, tires, and wheels all with Adam's APC. Washed with a combination of Adam's
car wash and Duragloss 901. I was running a little low on car wash, so I combined the two. Even after washing the hell out of the thing, there was a lot of caked in dirt on it. I proceeded to
clay with Adam's clay and Adam's QD as lube. I really didn't realize how dirty this thing was until I did my test section. Holy sh!t was this thing messed up.
Here's a few before pics after washing, but before claying.
So, I busted out the new 4 oz. bottle of OC and the orange Erasure pad. After doing my usual moves, I pulled up and checked it in the halogens. First thing I noticed is there was a 2 x 2 section of black, built in grime that was just lifted from the surface. It took care of some of the swirling, but not as much as I would've liked during my run. So, onto the OHC. Still wasn't as satisfied as I thought I should've been. Well, back to old faithful -
Menzerna IP. There were still some stubborn scratches. Son of a gun!!! Out comes the
Menzerna Power Gloss compound, yellow pad, and kept it on a speed 6. Worked the hell out of it, but they still weren't budging. They were getting progressively a little better every time. So, did the fingernail test again, and it caught it ever so slightly. Sometimes, you just have to now when to move on. I retreated to IP + orange pad for the rest of the car.
As I progressed, I realized that there were still some minor swirling and spider webbing left. This after the same combination knocked out the same thing on the black MDX last weekend. I think I figured out why this was happening. There was so much built-in dirt on this car, that it was building up on the pad and re-introducing some of this swirling. Now, I don't have 10+ orange pads to use one per panel, and this job became more about getting the built-in dirt off than it did removing swirls. I was able to get about 65% of them out, but think I re-introduced some.
Here's a couple attempted 50/50 shots trying to show the dirt that was coming up:
I know it's really hard to see on a white car on a computer screen. On the first one look to the right of the Honda logo about where the right side of the center brake light ends. On the second, lood for the line about 1/3 the way down from the top of the pic.
Oh, and here's my new tape removal helper:
Here's some other before/afters. Again, hard to pick up sometimes with the white paint.
After:
Before:
After:
This is the front left fender, and actually turned out really well. I had just switched to a new orange pad.
Here's a few finals after applying FMJ:
Like I said, my WB on my camera was waging war with itself.
Did tires and splash guards with Adam's VRT. Hit the cowl and some other areas with Adam's In & Out. Did windows first with Prima Clarity and their short knap MF window cleaning towel, followed by Adam's QD. Really like the Prima Clarity btw. Hit the wheel wells with Adam's undercarriage. Did door jambs with Mequiar's QD. And think that was about it...
Well, I was a little disappointed in myself for not getting all the swirls, but in the end, the car looks much better than it did before as it is back to it's factory color again...white!!! And, like I said, I was able to get most of them out, but some still remained. I'm pretty sure why. The lady was paying for a polish and a wax, not a polish, polish, wax. Also, I don't have a pad per panel in my arsenal either (yet!). The Optimum stuff will have to get a better test run. The Menzerna stuff just seems to give me the right correcting ability, with the right breakdown timing with the Flex.
Oh, and did I mention, I have a 5/8" Edge 2K rotary adapter in the mail for the Flex LK 302 VE rotary I picked up. I'm taking next weekend off on a little vaca with the family, so there'll be no updates next weekend. Let me know if there are any questions.
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