A friend's Camaro (lots of reflection shots)...

[xfire]

So, my friend wanted me to detail his car, for free, because I knew it needed it. The car had scratches (many were very deep) all over the place and it was a complete wreck. Probably some of the worst paint I've ever worked on. Nevertheless, this was a great time to get comfy with my Metabo polisher, so that's what I used to cut the clearcoat. Very light swirls remain in some areas, it is not perfect, and I know that (it was free for crying out loud), and the paint was a disaster beforehand. I tried a variety of different techniques (ohc then op, then ps, different pads, etc...), but what seemed to work best was the following:
-Optimum hyper compound and yellow edge 2000 cutting pad via rotary at about 1500 rpm's
-Optimum poliseal and a green edge 2000 polishing pad with the PC (Poliseal and the green pad cuts wonderfully well...I have been able to produce swirl-free finishes on audi and lotus paints with just this combo, so I was hoping I could do the same with this).
-Optimum optiseal
-Natty's paste wax

In the pictures you will see a hood, the driver's side is the polished side, (not yet sealed or waxed), the other side was just clay barred. In real life the car is truly trandformed and the paint is now rich, which will make the car easier to sell for my friend. Here are some pictures. ENJOY!

Befores:






During:


ImageShack - Hosting :: dsc00357wc1.jpg

After (REFLECTIONS!!):

[Slickery]

looks great-good job, just out of curiousity why do you top OS? When I use CS I have zero desire to top it. I think it may detract from durability and it doesn't need it IMO. Where you just going for a little more wet look on black, or maybe do you personally think it'll add durabilty? You got some pretty good scratches out with that process, not bad for free. Not even a tip?

[93AccordLXwhite]

Nice turnaround! Looks like you need a trim product though Did the owner have a keychain that banged the door daily or something? Those look like some scary deep scratches!!

[xfire]

Slickery...This is only the 3rd time I used Optiseal, and I have yet to use it on my own personal vehicle, so I would not know about durability issues. But for that length of time, I am having difficulty noticing much of a difference in terms of shine between Poliseal alone and poliseal topped with Optiseal. Because of this lack of difference, I decided to throw on some Natty's as well. I first used Natty's on the dark blue Crossfire that I just recently posted a thread on, and I was truly impressed with the levels of shine and wet-look in that product, so I decided to use the Natty's once more. I will be using this combo in the future as well, as it far exceeded my expectations for wet-look and shine.

93AccordLXwhite...Yes, trim needs to be dressed, wheel wells need to be cleaned, wheels need to be polished, scratches need to be painted and wetsanded. Being in college though, my poor friend really did seem to have people ding and scratch his doors daily.

Thank-you everyone for the compliments.

[xfire]

Oh, did I mention that I LOVED the area where the shots were taken??? It was somewhere in VA!!

[bigfoot]

That car rocks! Congrats on such a fine job! BTW, PS and edge green are a winner for me as well. But does it really do Audi's with a PC? Wow! Better than I thought!

[synoh]

sweet turnaround! the hood looks great! I was wondering if I would get similar results using a PC since my arsenal of products are almost identical as yours (HTEC, OC, OPS, Opti-Seal)?

[MixSE]

Originally Posted by xfire

Oh, did I mention that I LOVED the area where the shots were taken??? It was somewhere in VA!!

I thought it looked familiar.......I know where you are!

Great job on the Camaro btw, looking deep and shiney.

[xfire]

Originally Posted by bigfoot

That car rocks! Congrats on such a fine job! BTW, PS and edge green are a winner for me as well. But does it really do Audi's with a PC? Wow! Better than I thought!

I guess I was lucky with this paint or something, but all I used was PS and a green edge 2000 pad with the PC at a speed of 6. Swirls were definitely there beforehand. P21S was on it too at the time of the pics:





I also used just this combo on a decently swirled Lotus a few weeks ago and it came out absolutely swirl-free after. Too bad I didn't have my camera!

MixSE: Hahahaha...Don't you like the area as well??

Synoh...Rotary only for this job...GM paint is tough as is. Unless you have a wool pad for your PC. Nothing is wrong with trying. Just keep the PC on a speed of 6 when correcting, and go very slow and work the polish in really, really well. Good luck!

[stiffdogg06]

Don't forget the wheel wells!

Car looks awesome!

Not a fan of the neck breaking pictures.

[vwgtivw]

Deep and shiney.