Full sun details-Altima, DTS, RX300, LS430, Sienna

Scottwax · 06-16-06, 10:24

I have a total of 11 cars to detail for a law firm every summer, no shade except early morning and late afternoon, between 9:30 am and 3:30 pm, unless it is cloudy, we are working in the full sun. We finished 8 this week (already posted 3) and I have 3 more next week. I'm glad we are doing them in June this year instead of July like last year because the humidity is lower this time of year. Mid 90s to around 100, but afternoon humitidy has been in the 25% range during the heat of the day.

Lucky for me and my boys, the combination of Clearkote, Poorboy's, Gatorade and gallons of cold water get us through this each year.

We used Clearkote's Vanilla Moose using the Cyclo and white Cylco polishing pads followed by Poorboy's EX w/carnauba on the Altima, DTS and RX300, sustituting 'Pink' Moose (50/50 mix of Vanilla Moose and Red Machine Glaze) on the LS430 and Sienna. VM works great in the sun but it was smearing slightly on removal-maybe using too much with the switch to the Cyclo, Pink Moose seems better in this regard. A bit deeper looking too.

The interiors were cleaned with Woolite/water mixture and protected with Optimum's Protectant Plus. The Cyclo with the brush attachment was used on all the mats, really does an amazing job deep cleaning them and it is very fast too!

2001 Lexus RX300:

2002 Cadillac DTS. This car really needed a bit more polishing but I give a flat rate for all the vehicles since they give me so many to do, any extra polishing is up to the owner of the car and she opted to go with what the company was paying for since she is probably going to trade this one in anyway. Still, VM got about 90% of the swirls out of the paint-seemed a bit softer than most GM paint since I started with the green Cyclo pad first but it left some light hazing-switched to the white pad and it worked great. Turned out better than I expected, although not as good as it could have had she'd been willing to pay for deeper polishing-the important thing was she was thrilled how it turned out.

Scottwax · 06-16-06, 10:28

2003 Nissan Altima.

My flash didn't go off in this pic, couldn't figure out why until my son noticed the bill of my hat was pressing against the pop-up flash and holding it down! Anyway, that is why half the carpeting looks so dark.

2005 Toyota Sienna:

dtexanz · 06-16-06, 10:32

looks awesome I need to learn how to detail like that

Scottwax · 06-16-06, 10:41

2004 Lexus LS430. This is the owner of the law firm's car. He showed up at 12:30 pm as expected and then told us he was leaving at 3 pm sharp. I had hoped he was staying until 5 pm like usual (we did the Sienna on the same day) so we could have some shade when we polished it out but...

The exterior was caked in sap and the interior was going to take some work. Not trashed but he works out on his lunch and sweaty hands make for a grimey looking interior. With three of us working on it though, that was almost like having 7.5 hours to clean it and Lexus interior surfaces are of a high quality and pretty easy to clean unless heavily stained. The exterior, like the DTS really could have used a bit deeper polishing but being limited on time, plus he really has no intention of maintaining a swirl free finish (parks under trees at home, runs it through the tunnel wash the rest of the year) we two-stepped this one as well. He said maybe later this year when he has more time I can go nuts on it. We finished the car about 10 minutes before he had to leave and when I brought the keys in, his assistant was very happy we finished with time to spare because he was in a bad mood...although when he saw the car, you wouldn't know it. He waved and gave us 'thumbs up' when he left and when he returned a hour later, came over and thanked us for the job we did on his car.

No interior shots, too much full sun and full shadows to get any good pics even with flash.

You can see a little remaining scuffing on the top of the rear bumper in the first pic and although you can't see it, there are some scratches remaining on the trunk lid where he obviously lays his briefcase down and then drags it off.

862sik · 06-16-06, 11:20

hands down, good job. man i got to get my PC

BigAl3 · 06-17-06, 12:45

hey scott, just curious but are you still going to be using the pc anymore?

Scottwax · 06-17-06, 05:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by imacarnut

hey scott, just curious but are you still going to be using the pc anymore?

Of course. Some cars are so rounded or have such weird contours the Cyclo isn't going to be as easy to use on and based on what a few others have mentioned, it isn't as AIO friendly as the PC and I am guessing the same would hold true for Prime.

mav63 · 06-17-06, 08:21

The cars that you say need "extra work" are stunning. I can't imagine what they would look like if you had more time.
Nice work as always!!

Deviant · 06-17-06, 08:42

Amazing work as always

tumbler · 06-17-06, 10:30

yet more reasoning why I love Poorboys products so much

surprised to see hear softer GM paint .. heh heh

Scottwax · 06-17-06, 11:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by mav63

The cars that you say need "extra work" are stunning. I can't imagine what they would look like if you had more time.
Nice work as always!!

You can still see a little swirling on them in the full sun, just so much you can do with a two step (all the boss is paying for). Probably we'd be the only ones who'd really care about it though.

Obviously, I'd prefer to 3 step them for best results but not for free. Not going to push the issue too hard with a company willing to pop for 11 full details.

RogueM3 · 06-17-06, 11:59

What colors do you find "Pink Moose" works best on for you? Is it just a time saving step, or does it actually provide better/different results than using each seperately.