1997 Ford Explorer, 2007 Mustang GT-CS, 2002 Honda S2000

Scottwax · 03-12-07, 12:02

1997 Ford Explorer. Owner called and said he needed it cleaned up because some friends were coming in from out of town. Uh-oh, that could be trouble! Calls like this are scary, you never know if it is just so disgusting they are embarassed to pick up their friends. It had been a full 4 years since I had last detailed it and frankly, I didn't remember what it was like the last time. When my son and I got there, we were relieved to see it wasn't too bad. Minimal swirls, some paint transfers and the interior, while obviously needing a good cleaning, wasn't even close to the worst we've seen.

The exterior was polished with Optimum Compound using green Cyclo polishing pads, then with Poli-Seal using a white LC polishing pad and PC. I sealed with my 80/20 blend of #16 and Pink Wax. There was nothing I could do for the chrome grill, it was pitted and oxidized, nothing I tried made any sort of improvement (problem very noticable in the 2nd pic). The whole top half of the grill was just trashed. The hard plastic was polished with Poli-Seal, the vinyl on the rear bumper and the side steps were treated with Meguiars Hot Shine Tire Gel.

Here you can see the side steps half treated with the Meguiars product-it really dries to a very nice, rich look:

A quick interior before and after:

After cleaning the carpet with Bio-Kleen Traffic Lane Cleaner:

Scottwax · 03-12-07, 12:12

2007 Ford Mustang GT California Special. Hit it with Prime and Acrylic Jett about 4 weeks ago, AJT two weeks ago. The owner has me out every two weeks to wash and wax his Z06 (the black one) and now their new Mustang. Works for me!

Anyway, this time I used Optimum Opti-Seal. Gave a noticable improvement in wetness.

I took some of the pics with my film 35mm camera and my son took some with his digital camera.

Since it was sunny and in the low 80s, I decided to see how well Opti-Seal works with a sun application. Overall, it seemed fine but I had a tendency to use a little too much since it seemed to dry pretty fast. You would probably be fine on light colors but I'd definitely move medium to dark colored cars into the shade to apply OOS. As you can see in this pic, just above the sun spot, is a smudge of product from over application....that I didn't notice and remove until after the picture...but the flake shot turned out so well I am posting it.

Opti-Seal on the door, fender a two week old application of Acrylic Jett Trigger. I think you can see the difference, but it was even more apparent in person.

MartinD · 03-12-07, 12:22

Both cars look great Scott. The flake shot turned out - wow

-Martin

Scottwax · 03-12-07, 12:22

2002 Honda S2000, second black S2000 this week...and second one with very soft paint. I wish I took some before and during shots, the car was pretty dirty and had lots of moderate swirling, scratches and some paint transfers...but if you look at the sunset in the paint in the after shots, you will see I flat didn't have time to take any! I started off with a 70/30 mix of Menzerna 106FF/Clearkote RMG using green Cyclo polishing pads and while it really looked great, it wasn't remove enough of the swirls. I stepped up to Meguiars #83 DACP and green Cyclo pads and BINGO! Took out a good 95%+ of the swirls and 90% of the random scratches. Minimal marring too. While I still had some sun, I quickly went over a couple areas with Optimum Poli-Seal and a white LC polishing pad, and that did the trick on the marring. Whole car got the DACP/OPS combo and, since the owner wanted a carnauba but was more interested in durability than pure looks I opted to use Meguiars #16 instead of Pinnacle Souveran....then we quickly pulled the car out from the covered parking right as the sun was going to down to take pics. They turned out better than I thought they would, given the time of day.

DieselMDX · 03-12-07, 12:38

WOW the deff between AJ and OPS is amazing!

Nice job on all details I think the s2000 with PS woudl have showcased your work better but the car still looked great.

What didu use on the tips of the 2000? I havnt read you using that carpet cleaner alot, was the dirt and grime too much for woolite?

thanx Scott :-)

Scottwax · 03-12-07, 01:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by DieselMDX

WOW the deff between AJ and OPS is amazing!

Nice job on all details I think the s2000 with PS woudl have showcased your work better but the car still looked great.

What didu use on the tips of the 2000? I havnt read you using that carpet cleaner alot, was the dirt and grime too much for woolite?

thanx Scott :-)

1. I agree, Souveran would have been a bit deeper, but since OPS does a good job darkening paint, the difference isn't too big.

2. I just washed the tips and went over them quickly with OPS. The owner was mainly focused on the paint anyway.

3. I got a sample of Bio-Kleen a few months ago from Aaron (grouse) that I really liked, and bought a gallon from him a couple weeks ago when he ordered a case. The cleaning power a bit stronger than Woolite/water, so now I am using Bio-Kleen on fabric and Woolite/water on everything else in the interior.

Bigpoppa3346 · 03-12-07, 01:18

Very nice wet gloss on that Mustang, and I agree, the difference is noticable, even on film. Nice glow on the S2000 as well.

Charisma · 03-12-07, 03:32

Looks great. How's the paint on those CS's? My friends dad has one, seems like it has some pretty hard paint, dunno though.

XPLORER9773 · 03-12-07, 03:44

Very nice i've always loved your work, your work with Optimum products has pushed me towards selecting them. I have a question how did you find the paint on the explorer i ask because i have a 97 explorer.

Grouse · 03-12-07, 04:01

That black s2000 i did had extremely soft paint too. it was an 02. Why they buy black i don't know...

Fantastic work.

on that explorer is that a coffee stain at the edge?

74 thing · 03-12-07, 04:30

Scott, I wanted to thank you since I stole what you did on your car while detailing a black 350z this past weekend. I used Menzerna on a finishing pad with a rotary to finish my polishing and then for my LSP I used CMW-it turned out really wet, wish I had pics to share. The owners loved it. Thanks again.

Scottwax · 03-12-07, 05:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charisma

Looks great. How's the paint on those CS's? My friends dad has one, seems like it has some pretty hard paint, dunno though.

I haven't polished it any deeper than Werkstatt's Prime and it is currently swirl free so I really don't know how hard (or not!) the paint is.

XPLORER9773-the paint is hard but correctible. No marring or hazing at all with OC but it still did a good job removing the swirls, paint transfers and a lot of the scratches.

Aaron-honestly, I have no idea and neither did the owner. Bio-Kleen didn't make any change to the appearance of that discoloration at the edge of the carpet.

74 thing-

Carnauba Moose definitely leaves a dark, wet finish.