Hey guys,
This is actually my personal car. I've had it for two years now, and autocross it just about every weekend during the spring/summer, and have taken it to several track days. Needless to say, the racing, along with the high amount of miles I put on the car, really started to take its toll. There were scuffs and scratches all along the lower parts of the car from slamming into cones. Also, there was a big wind storm here last week left over from hurricane Ike. A tree branch blew into my bumper and punctured a hole, and some drywall flew across the highway as I was driving, bounced off my hood and scratched it up pretty bad. I really let the brake dust and
grime build up over the past few weeks as i've been very busy. Here's what it looked like going in:
Notice the scratches on the hood from the drywall...
And the "40" still on my door from where my race number magnets go...
Anyways, it was time to give my baby some much needed love. The paint itself wasn't toooooo bad. It has some minor swirls in it, but it was really the big scratches and scuffs that I was after on this one. I had never taken the time to really give it a full out detail since I bought it, really just did some minor polishing and paint protection when I got it.
I started out by taking the wheels off and cleaning them with
NXT soap and a sponge, then giving them an acid bath. I scrubbed some remaining tar that was caked onto the front of the wheels. Cleaned the wheel wells out with Simple Green and a brush while I had the wheels off.
-Next came a bath with NXT soap, sheepskin mitt, and two buckets.
-Clayed the car using NXT quick detail and
Clay Magic blue. Holy crap did my car need this. it felt like I was claying sand paper to start off with. Buttery smooth at the end
-Hit some areas that had stubborn pieces with bug and tar remover
-Washed again to get rid of excess QD and b&t
-Time to polish! Started out with a LC wool pad and Poorboys SSR3 with the PC7424 pegged at 6. The hood took several passes since my PC was no match for the ridiculously hard clear coat that my car has.
-There was some haze and micro-marring after such a brutal compounding, so I went to a less aggressive SSR1 on an orange pad after this. The haze was gone and it was really starting to look good.
-White pad with Menzenra
Final Polish II was next
-Menzerna Finishing Touch Glaze helped hide any remaining deep imperfections, and the car was really starting to look wet.
-After all of the paint correction was done, I gave the car two coats of
Menzerna FMJ, letting each one dry for a bit before being buffed off.
-LSP?.... My new sample of
Dodo Supernatural. My god is this stuff awesome. Much better than the P21S I have been using up until now. Just hope it lasts long!
-I moved to the interior and vacuumed everything. I carry my dog to the dog park and such in this car, so there was drool EVERYWHERE. There was also dirt all over the leather even though I keep towels over the seats when the dog is in there. I cleaned all of the plastic and hit the rubber with Megs interior shine. The drool being gone was a welcome sight!
-I attempted to polish the
headlights with PlasticX on a white pad. It helped, but i think the dealership marred the insides of the covers when they were workin on my lights after i first got the car.
Here's a bunch of before and after pics!
Another shot of the scratches on the hood. Almost completely gone!
This entire area was scuffed and scratched to hell and back from cones.
Dirty wheels got some FMJ after their bath. Dr. Colorship helped that gash
More cone scuffs...
Not perfect, but better...
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