GTO, a couple ML's, WRX, Civic, E90 330

Scottwax · 07-19-07, 10:35

2006 Pontiac GTO. The owner's parents called me out to do the detail while their son is in Europe. He (their son) had a list for me, plus one for his Dad after I finished the detail (car cover, etc!). Basically, he wanted a full detail done and the engine bay touched up. The car was bought used from a young girl who apparently never waxed it....but the car not being touched might be why the swirls were so minimal.

A couple of befores:

After using Optimum's Poli-Seal with a white LC CCS polishing pad:

I used OPS on the whole car, then followed with Opti-Seal. After that, I worked on a few other areas of the car, then came back after 45 minutes and used Menzerna High Gloss Acrylic Shield. I got some in a trade and was itching to try it out. Seemed to add some slickness but appearance seemed unchanged.

BTW, those wheels are a real PITA to clean. Nothing like 10 sharp angles to try and dig dirt out of on each wheel.

...and of course, have to get some sun shots with the metallic black paint!

Scottwax · 07-19-07, 10:50

2006 Mercedes ML500. Normally I would have just washed it but his wife tagged their gate on the way in and did this:

I was asked to make it look as good as possible so he could decide if he should get the whole area refinished or just have the ding PDR'ed out. I used Optimum Hyper Compound using yellow Edge Cyclo cutting pads, Optimum Compound using orange Edge Cyclo cutting pads, Zaino Z-PC using green Edge Cyclo polishing pads, Opti-Seal by hand.

Not perfect but the scratches on the door were greatly reduced and only noticable at certain angles.

The rest of the ML was washed with Optimum No Rinse and then gone over with Menzerna HGAS. Over a 3 month old application of Opti-Seal, HGAS did add slickness and a touch more gloss.

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2000 (I think) Civic and 2004 Subura WRX. The Civic had been repainted and not very well. Lots of visible sanding marks that appear to be under the clear, a few areas where the paint is pulling away from the trim, etc. The owner just wanted it cleaned up and protected. The WRX was in excellent condition overally, very minimal swirls.

Both got Optimum Opti-Seal using a white LC CCS polishing pad and finished with my 80/20 blend of Meguiar's #16 and FK's Pink Wax.

I would have preferred sun shots, especially of the WRX but that would have meant blocking the alley, plus moving my car (their driveway is very short) and pulling out the Civic and since it was nearing 7 PM and I was already nearly an hour late to a family gathering and he wanted to get dinner, I took the pics where the cars were.

Only one shot of the Civic, my camera battery died (already taken a few of the WRX).

MobileJay · 07-19-07, 10:52

damn that looks good. I know what you mean about the wheels, I had a gto to do a few weeks ago and they def are a pita. Nice job

MobileJay · 07-19-07, 10:57

apparently I got to this before the rest were on the thread. Nice job on all of them. Sucks that she took it for a drive along the gate. Oh well great job

Scottwax · 07-19-07, 10:58

1999 Mercedes ML430. Regular customer, I see this one once or twice a month (I wash his car every other Monday, whatever is there gets washed). The rest of the time, it gets a $5 express wash at the local scratch and swirl tunnel.

It was hard to really capture the fine straight line scratches in a couple before shots but I think you can see them. Right half already polished in the first pic.

I used Clearkote's Pink Moose (50/50 mix of Vanilla Moose and Red Machine Glaze) using a white LC polishing pad. No point in doing any deep polishing if the he keeps taking it to the tunnel wash but I had to do something!.

After polishing the whole car with Pink Moose, I waxed it with Carnauba Moose. This ML actually looks pretty good for being 8 years old with tunnel wash and soccer Mom abuse.

Scottwax · 07-19-07, 11:07

2006 BMW 330i. Did a polish and wax on his wife's G35 last week, his turn this week. I had polished it out pretty well last fall, had some light swirls but nothing major. I used Zaino Z-PC with green Edge Cyclo polishing pads and that combo really did a nice job. However, I had some really bad dusting problems with Z-PC. It has been really wet and humid since April but this day was in the upper 90s with noticably less humidity than we've had all summer, so maybe that was the problem? I've used Z-PC a lot and even in the sun (I had a garage to work in with this 330) and while it does dust, it isn't major. I maybe used a 1/4 oz of Z-PC on the whole car so I know I wasn't using too much. Anyone else have this happen on hot, dry days? Regardless of the dusting though, it really finished down nicely. I went over the car with Zaino Z-6 to remove the dusting and then applied Optimum Opti-Seal.

BigAl3 · 07-20-07, 12:11

i don't know how many times i've said it... beautiful job once again!

artikxscout · 07-20-07, 03:51

sigh... i wish my pictures would turn out like that. How is the cutting ability of Poly-Seal compared to OP? Would you still go to OP now that you have a light polish + seal polish on your hand?

ssmokn · 07-20-07, 05:39

Wow! Your work is impressive. Those vehicles look super!

tdekany · 07-20-07, 06:03

Beautiful details Scott!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The gto is awesome.

PS: At home I always use my pressure washer on wheels. What a difference.

mshu7 · 07-20-07, 07:11

You're work never ceases to amaze me!

qballjr13 · 07-20-07, 07:49

Scott your details on dark colors just amaze me every single time. I want to be like you when I grow up!