944 Turbo, 330ci, Elise, Z06, Mustang, Carrera

Scottwax · 10-14-07, 10:05

I've been absolutely slammed the last few weeks, just haven't had time to resize, compress and upload 6 rolls of film...probably finish up tomorrow but this is what I have so far.

1987 Porsche 944 Turbo-not the same one I've done in the past. Owner just bought the car up in the Chicago area and drove it down. The roof looked a bit faded but the rest of the car looked really good except for some spider swirls. Closer examination revealed the whole car had been repainted with a base coat/clear coat...except for the roof. Probably didn't want to have to mess with removing the sun roof to do it right.

Anyway, the repaint was some pretty hard paint, so I went with Optimum Compound and a burgandy Meguiars cutting pad, Clearkote's Pink Moose using a green Swirlbuster pad-roof got Meguiars #80 using a Meguiars yellow polishing pad and then Pink Moose/green combo and the paint was sealed using Carnauba Moose.

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2003 BMW 330ci. The owner had it detailed a while back by a shop in his town and figured it was time to do it again. He said the paint didn't look quite right the last time so he didn't want to take it back there. The sun was kind of in and out all day (even had to put it in the garage at one point when it rained) but it was out long enough to see what was wrong. Light holograms over most of the car. BMW jet black is reasonably soft paint, so Optimum Polish using a yellow Meguiars polishing pad did the trick. I followed with Pink Moose, also using a yellow Meguiars pad and sealed the finish with Carnauba Moose.

Scottwax · 10-14-07, 10:18

2006 Lotus Elise. Really small car, really hard paint! Some light spider swirls and holograms plus a couple areas the dealer butchered-probably a dirty wool pad, left some weird marring in the paint that absolutely wouldn't budge.

I started off with Optimum Compound using a white Swirlbuster pad. It was working well until I got to the door sill on the driver's side. I opened the door to get better access and was sitting down while buffing. All of a sudden, there was white foam everywhere and I turned off my UDM.

I'm looking at the pad thinking "damn, this pad is history" and then I look at the edge of the door sill...

The owner had already colored the area in with a Sharpie but when the pad burned through, the backing plate came in contact with the edge and took the paint down to the primer.

Anyway, I was kind of suprised at how calm the owner of the Elise was, he obviously realized that it was very abnormal for a pad to come apart like that. Anyway, I finish up with OC and a burgandy Meguiars cutting pad, followed by Optimum Polish using a yellow Meguiars polishing pad and sealed with a test LSP I got from Meguiars.

Scottwax · 10-14-07, 10:28

Since the owner of this '07 Z06 wants it waxed every two weeks when I wash it, I have tried a plethora of products on it but always seem to go back to the same three-Optimum Car Wax, Carnauba Moose and Souveran. Anyway, since I had (as far as I know) the finalized version of the new OCW, I figured I'd go ahead and use it. Full sun + concrete so I didn't even bother with sun shots, throws the contrast off and everyone complains....

I also used it on his girlfriend's '07 Mustang GT. I had last waxed it with Souveran (over Opti-Seal) a few months back, washed it once but then it was either not there when I'd go out to clean the Z06, or she had to go somewhere and just didn't have time to get it cleaned. During that time, someone else waxed the car because I noticed white wax residue in a couple of places. All I have used on that car is Werkstatt Prime/AJ, Opti-Seal and Souveran. None of those dry white. Neither he or his girlfriend were actually home (they had a BBQ to go to and were gone before I got there) so I'll have to find out what was actually done. Anyway, slickness was down but the paint still looked decent overall so I just used the new OCW on it.

I used a setting on my camera that stopped it down as much as possible so contrast is better than usual, I think.

Scottwax · 10-14-07, 10:40

1985 Porsche Carrera. I was contacted by the owner who is away in Europe but had the car at a Porsche/BMW/Mercedes repair shop near me. He wanted to know if I could detail it before he got back into town on the 19th. I said as long as the shop is fine with me doing the work there, no problem. He contacted the owner of the shop who okayed me coming out. The owner of the car let me know it had a lot of spider swirls but he'd only tried very light polishes by hand that weren't able to remove the swirls.

Since the paint was 22 years old, plus the owner was concerned about the paint thickness on the hood, I didn't want to get too aggressive with the paint, especially knowing that Porsche black tends to be soft. Optimum Compound and a yellow Meguiars polishing pad removed 80-90% of the swirls (the rear fenders were especially bad) with minimal hazing. I then followed with Meguiars #80 using another yellow Meg's pad, then Pink Moose, again with a yellow Meg's pad. I pulled it out into the sun before waxing to see how it looked. Of course, the sun kept popping back behind the clouds so I couldn't get any really good sun spot shots.

Whole car sun shot, pre wax...

I then pulled it back into the shade to wax it with Carnauba Moose, dress the rubber trim with Nascar Ultra Shine Tire Finish, etc. By the time I finished, the owner of the shop was itching to close up and leave...and since he was paying me for the owner of the car, I wanted to keep him happy so I took the final pics where the car sat.

BioKleen's Traffic Lane Cleaner on carpets, Woolite/water for leather and vinyl. Dressed with Optimum Protectant Plus (vinyl), Meguiars Gold Class Leather Conditioner on the leather.

Next day, I get a call from the shop owner, wanting me to do a detail for another customer's car...an '86 Carrera Cabrolet.

morarch · 10-14-07, 10:55

Great work Scott!

mA_c · 10-15-07, 02:53

OMG please go smack the Z06 guys girlfriend for me

that stang is in need of a drop BADDDDDD

it actually looks lifted now, thats awful.

but on a side note, outstanding details bro

fishbonezken · 10-15-07, 03:53

all those cars look immaculate!
nice photos, I'm sure the owner of the elise was happy with the detail, despite the mishap, thankfully it's only a small spot.

audicoupej · 10-15-07, 06:19

Nice collection of cars Scott! Great job as usual!

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mshu7 · 10-15-07, 07:30

Amazing on everything!!!

How do you get such a nice straight line on the outter tire tread when dressing them? Do you move the car when dressing the tires so you get the same coverage around the whole tire?

By the way, isn't that the 2nd Swirlbuster pad to fall apart?

cgage · 10-15-07, 08:31

Lovely details as always!

An off topic... I spend a ton of time in Dallas (about to step on a plane actually). Why do Texans have a bunch of stickers on their windshields? I see all sorts of luxury cars down there that look like they just left the college parking lot

JoshVette · 10-15-07, 09:56

They're all looking good Scott..... as usual.

It's raining right now, so I'll be online for the day.

Scottwax · 10-15-07, 10:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by mA_c

OMG please go smack the Z06 guys girlfriend for me

that stang is in need of a drop BADDDDDD

Not sure it can be dropped with those wheels. She's been taking it out to the Motorplex and living her life a quartermile at a time lately....

mshu7-this is what I use to dress tires: Griot's Garage 1-800-345-5789 - Car Care

Yes, I do move the car to make sure the dressing is applied evenly to the whole tire. It also makes sure I didn't miss anything while cleaning the wheels either.

This is the first Swirlbuster pad I've had come apart. Not sure if anyone else has had this happen.

cgage-you have your inspection and registration stickers on the inside of the windshield. There used to be a huge problem with people stealing stickers when they were affixed to the license plates so the state decided to move them to the inside of the windshield to make them harder to steal. In addition, many people have Toll Tags (so they don't have to stop at toll booths) that also mount on the windshield.

Josh-as far as I know, I still have that Porsche to detail at that repair shop. I did sleep in until nearly 11 am though.

We finally got a really nice run of good weather, I bet you were as busy as I was!