Even though this is one of my all time favorite automobiles, I spent so much time on this car that I was actually thrilled to finally be done with it. This was definitely the most difficult car I have worked on to date. I thought I would be dealing with a relatively medium/soft clear coat but this was anything but… The clear on this car was hard as Nails! I had more difficulty with this clear than I did with an 07 Black Corvette. I hit it with everything I had and I was still not completely satisfied with the end results. I’d say I was able to get 95% correction but I was aiming for 100%. I was able to clean up the plethora of buffer swirls and Holograms but there were still some swirls that just beat me down. After awhile I just had to give in as I went way over my budgeted time table for this car. Fortunately the owner was very happy with the end results even though I was disappointed. Ok on with the process and pics.
I Washed the car down with some dawn to get rid of whatever glazes were still on the car. I could already see some holograms and buffer trails prior to washing it so I knew it was in pretty bad shape. The sad thing is that this car is either an 07 or 08 and has roughly 1800 miles on it. I asked the owner who detailed the car for him last and he said “The dealer delivered it to me that way”. Unbelievable! Just goes to show you that even when you pay over $400,000 for a car the dealer still hacks it all up. There was white wax residue all over the upper rear honeycomb trim pieces which vent the engine bay
and as you can see the swirls and Holograms were awful.
I Started with my
Flex XC3401 and an
orange CCS pad with some
Menzerna SIP. That did a pretty good job but not great so I stepped up to a yellow
CCS pad, not much better. I then tried
Menzerna Power Gloss Compound on a yellow
CCS pad and had to hit most areas 2 or even 3x and used a purple wool pad on the hood. I then tried following that up with
Menzerna 106ff but there were still way too many swirls left over so I went back over the entire car with SIP which worked pretty good and then finished up with the 106ff. I was amazed that there were still some swirls here and there. I was really scratching my head at this point and I can only deduce that the weather played a part in the polishes performance. The weather was really HOT, like in the upper 90’s-low 100’s with near 100% humidity and on day 2 there was a hurricane that blew in and launched a tree limb right through my clients roof. It rained most of the time which is why my pictures are so lousy, sorry. By the end of the job (3 full days) I was so tired of seeing this car that I was not so much interested in taking pictures as I was in getting home. The angles on this car were a bear to polish as well but oh well, sorry for complaining. I finished with an IPA wipe down and then applied Danase Wet Glase followed by
Pinnacle Souveran Wax both applied via UDM. Tires and trim were treated with Ultima Tire and trim guard plus, glass was cleaned with
Diamondite window cleaner, convertible top was cleaned with 303 high tech fabric guard and the honeycomb trim pieces were removed and scrubbed with an APC to remove the wax residue. I welcome any feedback positive or negative. I am always willing to learn from fellow detailers.
Here are some before pics:
Doesn’t look to bad right? Take a closer look!!
Here is an After Shot (No LSP)
Linear Mode
