I guess pretty much everyone now knows that my '99 Mazda 626 was totaled when I was rear-ended back in October. I really liked the '02/03 Maximas, so I made one of them my first choice in my search for another car. Got a great price on an '02 SE, plus it wasn't black!!!
First thing I did when I got home was to get rid of the
headlight haze. First car I have had with HIDs and didn't want hazy
headlight covers getting in the way.
Half polished using Optimum Hyper Compound and a folded microfiber towel:
All polished. And yes, those are chips in the hood, very typical of Nissan paint.
The next day, I washed the car and then clayed it...for about 30-40 minutes. This is the left rear quarter panel's level of bonded contaminents!
Whoever detailed it for the dealer sucks at his job and should find a new line of work. Light rotary swirls and all that crap stuck to the paint? Hack.
At least the swirls weren't deep, probably just ran the rotary quickly over the car with a cheap one step that left white splatters on the wipers. Nothing I knew I couldn't easily fix though.
First things first though, I removed the "Maxima" emblem from the trunk. The "Nissan" emblem has holes behind it and I left the "SE" emblem on for now but I may remove it later. The dealer license plate frames found their way to the trash.
I started with Optimum Compound and a burgandy
Meguiars cutting pad via UDM. I was very pleased to see that there was no hazing at all with this combo, so the paint is definitley a lot harder than my 626. Completely removed all the rotary swirls and I'd say I got a good 90% of the spider swirls out too. Probably can get it to 98%+ swirl free but I really didn't have the time since the sun is setting so early now.
I followed with Optimum Poli-Seal using a yellow
Meguiars polishing pad. Really added some nice depth and wetness. I then applied 2 coats of Opti-Seal about 20-30 minutes apart and went over the wheels with Wheel Wax in those 20-30 minutes. About a half hour after the 2nd coat of OS, I went over the whole car with the upcoming new version of Optimum Car Wax. By then, it was getting pretty dark.
Today, I made the mistake of parking near a live oak and ended up with sap on my car. I did a quick Optimum No Rinse wash and applied another quick coat of the new OCW and then took these pictures.
The mighty VQ...
Didn't do anything to the engine other than a quick wipe down. 255 hp vs 170 hp in my 626...yeah, I notice the extra power! Romp on the gas right out off the line and it spins until it shifts into 2nd gear. Yahoo!
The interior was actually in decent shape but it appeared the mats had an extractor run quickly over them, so I tossed them in the tub with some BioKleen Traffic Lane Cleaner and let them soak about 3 hours. They are drip drying on my balcony rail right now, fixin' to toss them in the dryer so they will be nice and new looking. Dressed the interior with Optimum Protectant Plus but it was too dark for pics.
As you can see, the dealer's detailer didn't get the mats very clean...
Linear Mode
