S281 Mustang Cobra Saleen with 650 Horsepower!!

[RickRack]

This Mustang Cobra Saleen is a fairly rare car and belongs to a very good friend of mine. The car is constantly at the performance shop having modifications done to it and spends lots of time at the local track. It is currently pushing about 650 rwhp. The car has been well taken care of, but was in need of a little TLC to get it looking perfect again.


This was my first week at my new shop, so don’t mind the mess! It has come a long way since these pictures were taken. Since it was my first week at my new location, I was backed up with plenty of work as you can see…






Being white, the car always looks good from a distance, but up close you can see some surface scratches and light marring from improper washing techniques and wiping the car down when it’s dirty. My friend LOVES to constantly wipe his car down with detail spray, even when it’s dirty, which is why it looks the way it does.


I started by giving the car a thorough wash. As soon as I rinsed the car down with water, it beaded like crazy, which I was expecting due to the multiple layers of spray wax on the surface. I continued to wash the car with normal car wash soap, clayed the entire exterior, cleaned the wheels, scrubbed the tires and cleaned the engine compartment.








To remove the layer of spray wax and whatever else was on the paint, I sprayed Spray Nine degreaser on a microfiber towel, then scrubbed each panel until the water was no longer beading. As most of you already know, if the previous layer of wax, sealant, silicone, etc. is not fully removed, it will cause the polisher to “hydropane” above the surface, making defect removal much more difficult, not to mention the possible filling effects. As you can see in the picture below, the water is no longer beading, which means that the coating has been removed.






After the car was stripped free of all contaminants and previous coatings, I wiped down the complete exterior with 91% alcohol. This is what it looked like …
























I masked off specific areas before any polishing was done…









After testing various products and combos, I chose to use Menzerna Power Finish (203S) on a black Tuf-Buf lambs wool pad, which has become one of my favorite combos. This combo cut right through the defects and made a very noticeable difference. In the 50/50 picture below, you can clearly see the difference between the two panels. It really brought out the true color of the paint and left only minor buffer trails from the wool pad, which is to be expected.








After the previous step was complete, I polished the complete exterior using 3M Extra Fine Compound (UK 80349) using a green german CCS pad.






This step dramatically increased the gloss and removed any buffer trails that were left behind from the PF/black wool combo. Below is what the paint looked like after this combo.

[RickRack]

~


Although the finish was nearly LSP ready, I chose to perform an additional polishing step to ensure perfection and see if I could achieve any additional gloss. For the final polishing step, I used Mark V IP-200 Depth Restorer on a red Sonus foam pad. This really gave the car a nice glow and left the surface ready for the LSP.


Before applying any LSP, I removed all of the tape and gave the car a Z6 wipedown.


All exterior chrome was polished using Wicked Metal Polish, followed by Deep Chrome. This included the exhaust tips, wheels and cobra emblems.










All exterior plastics (cowl area and mirrors) were polished by hand using Zaino Z14 Magic Plastic Cleaner & Polish, then treated with Plexus.






This really made a big difference and deepened the color dramatically as you can see.








All tires were treated with 3 coats of Tuf Shine tire coating and wheel wells were treated with Super Blue dressing.






I did a quick once over to the interior, which didn’t need much at all.






Once all of the little odds & ends were complete, it was time to apply the LSP. Typically, white is the most difficult color to achieve any significant gloss, so I decided to try something a little different on this car. I normally don’t use glazes, but decided to on this particular car.


I applied a thin coat of Danase Wet Glaze to the complete exterior by hand and let it dry for about 30 minutes. After the Wet Glaze was removed, I applied a coat of Ultima Paint Guard Plus and left the car in the shop over night to properly cure before adding any additional coats.


The following morning, I applied a second coat of DWG as well as another coat of Ultima. I left the car in the shop all day and decided to and additional coat of each later that evening, so a total of 3 coats of each were applied. Although the car looked great, I wasn’t sure if this really made any difference. It wasn’t until the following day that I noticed how wet and glossy the car looked.


Unfortunately, the weather was not the greatest, so I do not have any outside pictures. To be honest, the following pictures really don’t do the car justice, but here they are anyway…


















































Thanks for looking!

[Apollo_Auto]

WOW! Me likey, me likey! Nice work, Rick! No engine pics??

[TSC17]

Stellar work as always my friend! Glad to see you're getting settled into the new shop.

[RickRack]

Originally Posted by Apollo_Auto

WOW! Me likey, me likey! Nice work, Rick! No engine pics??

Thanks Apollo!

Here you go, but I just did a quick cleanup. No polishing the aluminum or anything....

[RickRack]

Originally Posted by TSC17

Stellar work as always my friend! Glad to see you're getting settled into the new shop.

Thanks a lot Todd!

It's getting there slowly but surely.

2009 has been a crazy year so far...

[Apollo_Auto]

Originally Posted by RickRack

Thanks Apollo!

Here you go, but I just did a quick cleanup. No polishing the aluminum or anything....

Sweet jeebus that's some porn there! Thanks! It looks almost like he's got ram air intake and a supercharger??

[RaskyR1]

Excellent work Rick! Great write up too.

Shop looks great....I have that same wheel clock BTW.

[Danase]

Good work! I love to see white shined up for some reason.

[RickRack]

Originally Posted by RaskyR1

Excellent work Rick! Great write up too.

Shop looks great....I have that same wheel clock BTW.

Thanks a lot Rasky!!

The clock came with the shop



Danase- Thank you!

I agree. White always looks nice if it is done right....

[Hemin8r]

Whether the car is outside or not I can definitely see a wet shine. Car looks amazing. Great job

[Jokeman]

Looks good Rick. Was it the stang or the vette that had the bottle of boost juice in the trunk?