4u2nvinmtl
08-19-2015, 09:45 AM
Last night I did a detail on my friends very-neglected 1992 Pearl White Lexus SC400. The car was in terrible shape with heavily oxidized and flaky/scaly paint. As I didn’t have any experience with paint this old (yes, I’m a spring chicken) and I don’t own a paint thickness gage I knew this would be a real test of my skills/detailing knowledge. The owner (my friend) also presented me with a time constraint of 8 hours but agreed to help me out the entire time (not sure that was a good thing as he had zero experience).
*Unfortunately the owner asked I not post pictures of his ride online but consented to a few shots (will post later as they are in my SLR camera still).
Detailing supplies (tools & products) used:
2x Boar`s Hair Detail Brush
Carpet Brush
CarPro Iron X
Chemical Guys Leather Conditioner
Chemical Guys Liquid Extreme Shine
EZ Detail Brush
2x Five-Gallon Buckets with Grit guards
Folex Carpet Spot Cleaner
Klasse All-In-One
1x Lake Country Hydro-Tech Cyan Advanced Cutting Pad – 4 inch
4x Lake Country Hydro-Tech Orange Light Cutting Pad – 5.5 inch
Leatherique Prestine Clean
Lithium Grease Spray
Meguiar`s D110 Hyper Wash (4oz in foam cannon and 2oz in 3gal of water)
Meguiar`s D149 Detailer Quik Interior Detailer
Meguiar`s M101
2x Microfiber Glass Polishing Towels
Mothers Aluminum/Metal Polish
Porter Cable 7424XP
Pressure washer with foam cannon
2x Rag Company Dry Me a River
4x Rag Company Eagle Edgeless
Riccardo detailing clay (yellow)
Shop-Vac
Stoners Tarminator
2x Super Plush Micro-Chenille Wash Mitts
Ultima Waterless Wash Plus+
Wheel Woollies
Note: I used the aggressive wash technique outlined by Mike Phillips in one of his more recent posts for the first time on this car.
The process/story: I had my friend vacuum the entire interior while I set up the supplies. Then I applied a very generous amount of Iron X to the lower panels (un-rinsed paint). The Iron X starting reacting almost immediately (turning purple). The was the first time I had worked on an iron contaminated car so I sprayed Iron X in a few test spots to see if they would also react (i.e. roof, grill, trunk, bumpers) and they all started to turn purple so I knew the whole car needed a liberal dose of Iron X (not just the lower panels). I coated the entire car with Iron X 1/3 of a 1L bottle worth. The entire car proceeded to turn purple! My friend had never seen this before and insisted it was bad for the paint (he thought the car would stay purple). I let it dwell while I explained to my friend how all the products I bought out work. Next without rinsing (still), I foam cannoned the car with 4 OZ of Meg’s hyper wash mixed with hot water in the 32oz foam cannon bottle. I foamed from the bottom up so that the foam at the bottom could cling and support the foam above (works well) and because the car wasn’t rinsed yet the foam clung to the car very well (like Mike Phillips said it would). Then we pulled the two wash mitts from a 5-gallon bucket with grit guard, 3gal of water, and 2OZ of Meg’s Hyper Wash and started washing the car from the top down. We did not dip our wash mitts in the soap bucket again (to prevent any contamination of the brushes soaking in the soapy water). Instead (to speed things up) we used the shaving cream like soap that was still clinging to the car to wash and the second 5 gallon bucket with grit guard and 3 gallons of water to rinse our mitts as we worked (one brush was used on the tires and another on the emblems, grill, and lights). Then we pressure rinsed and this is when we noticed that the Iron X was still turning purple (a lot). Without drying we went on to clay barring the car using UWW+ as our clay lube and spot removing tar with Tarminator (I noticed the Iron-X was still turning purple despite a very aggressive rinse in some places). By the time we made it to the passenger’s side of the car we noticed that the iron-x was still hard at work under the passenger’s side mirror. We also noticed the iron pulled out by the Iron X had stained the paint with rust (my fault for letting it dwell so long). We tried to clay the rust stain off and it did remove 90% of the rusty mark. By the time, we finished claying night had fallen and I broke out the flood lights to re-inspect the paint. That’s when I noticed some panel’s appeared to have clear while others didn’t. The panels without clear looked and felt very different and the panels with clear were all in a process of clear coat failure. I had to break the bad news to my friend and explain the car needed a total repaint. As at least 1/3 of the car had been repainted at some point likely due to rust and accidents it was really hard to come up with a game plan at this point (lack of experience at play)…
I thought back to another Mike Phillips post about restoring a yellow car with single stage paint and decided not to compound and not to polish but to use an AIO paint cleaner. I only had one in my detailing product arsenal, “Klasse All-in-one”. My friend’s head was spinning trying to process all the information I was feeding him as I explained my game plan and explained the purpose of the test spot. I chose two test spots: one that appeared to have clear (the hood) and one that appeared to have no clear (matte white fender right next to the hood). The hood became bright white again and started to shine like new Pearl White paint again. The fender was totally transformed by the KAIO, as it ate right through the layer of oxidation and completely restored the original look almost matching the brilliance of the hood (even I was taken back by the dramatic change, as I thought it was beyond repair). My friend was happy with the results and didn’t want to use anything that would be more abrasive than that and I concurred (Note: I could not really see the scratches/swirls beneath the oxidization at this point).
Now that I had a solid game plan I got to work restoring/cleaning the paint with my trusted Porter Cable 7424XP, 5.5-inch Hydro-Tech tangerine pads, and Klasse All-in-one. I did six section passes (what I call 3 passes) on speed five per section. After finishing the front end (hood, fenders, bumper, windshield), I stopped to admire the car and the improvement was night and day. I let my friend take over the buffing and I went back to coaching him. This gave me a lot of respect for the guys I’ve learned from online because it’s not easy to teach someone how to correctly use a DA (I think of it like learning to ride a bike, once you know it’s easy but teaching someone is hard). I had to explain how the pitch, yaw and roll affected the angle of contact the pad makes with the paint and how this would affect “the cut” of the pad/product (I know KAIO has no “cutting” ability, but the pad does). After an hour or so he got the hang of it but he still wasn’t applying enough pressure (I could hear when he let off on the pressure and I’d keep reminding him to push down a little bit to improve the correction).
I worked on the interior while he continued to machine AIO the car. I started by doing the dash and doors with Meg’s Quik Interior Detailer (love this stuff, but not the smell). Then I moved on to the rear leather seats using Leatherique Prestine Clean and topping with CG Leather Conditioner (same for the front seats). Then I dry buffed the glass with one glass polishing towel and sprayed Stoners Invisible Glass on the other towel for a follow up wipe down (the glass was in dire need of cleaning and took much longer than expected to get clean on the inside). On the outside the glass had been clayed and treated with KAIO (looked great).
Once the interior was finished I got out and started polishing the exhaust tips with Mothers Metal Polish as my friend finished his last panel. It was approaching 2am and we were both totally beat and soaked with sweat (98f 80% humidity at night). We took a step back to inspect the car just as the rain started to fall (not forecasted). I rushed to bring everything back inside my house as my friend bid me fair well and thanked me profusely.
Choosing an AIO was a blessing in disguise because we ran out of time for a LSP and the AIO had us covered! I learned so many things about detailing (working with others, old paint, oxidized paint, iron contaminated paint, etc.). In hindsight I think in the end I gained as much as my friend did without even realizing it…
I can’t wait to do another car!
P.S. My thanks go out to Mike Phillips for his very informative posts. The aggressive wash technique and the single stage paint restoration posts were paramount to my success last night!
*Unfortunately the owner asked I not post pictures of his ride online but consented to a few shots (will post later as they are in my SLR camera still).
Detailing supplies (tools & products) used:
2x Boar`s Hair Detail Brush
Carpet Brush
CarPro Iron X
Chemical Guys Leather Conditioner
Chemical Guys Liquid Extreme Shine
EZ Detail Brush
2x Five-Gallon Buckets with Grit guards
Folex Carpet Spot Cleaner
Klasse All-In-One
1x Lake Country Hydro-Tech Cyan Advanced Cutting Pad – 4 inch
4x Lake Country Hydro-Tech Orange Light Cutting Pad – 5.5 inch
Leatherique Prestine Clean
Lithium Grease Spray
Meguiar`s D110 Hyper Wash (4oz in foam cannon and 2oz in 3gal of water)
Meguiar`s D149 Detailer Quik Interior Detailer
Meguiar`s M101
2x Microfiber Glass Polishing Towels
Mothers Aluminum/Metal Polish
Porter Cable 7424XP
Pressure washer with foam cannon
2x Rag Company Dry Me a River
4x Rag Company Eagle Edgeless
Riccardo detailing clay (yellow)
Shop-Vac
Stoners Tarminator
2x Super Plush Micro-Chenille Wash Mitts
Ultima Waterless Wash Plus+
Wheel Woollies
Note: I used the aggressive wash technique outlined by Mike Phillips in one of his more recent posts for the first time on this car.
The process/story: I had my friend vacuum the entire interior while I set up the supplies. Then I applied a very generous amount of Iron X to the lower panels (un-rinsed paint). The Iron X starting reacting almost immediately (turning purple). The was the first time I had worked on an iron contaminated car so I sprayed Iron X in a few test spots to see if they would also react (i.e. roof, grill, trunk, bumpers) and they all started to turn purple so I knew the whole car needed a liberal dose of Iron X (not just the lower panels). I coated the entire car with Iron X 1/3 of a 1L bottle worth. The entire car proceeded to turn purple! My friend had never seen this before and insisted it was bad for the paint (he thought the car would stay purple). I let it dwell while I explained to my friend how all the products I bought out work. Next without rinsing (still), I foam cannoned the car with 4 OZ of Meg’s hyper wash mixed with hot water in the 32oz foam cannon bottle. I foamed from the bottom up so that the foam at the bottom could cling and support the foam above (works well) and because the car wasn’t rinsed yet the foam clung to the car very well (like Mike Phillips said it would). Then we pulled the two wash mitts from a 5-gallon bucket with grit guard, 3gal of water, and 2OZ of Meg’s Hyper Wash and started washing the car from the top down. We did not dip our wash mitts in the soap bucket again (to prevent any contamination of the brushes soaking in the soapy water). Instead (to speed things up) we used the shaving cream like soap that was still clinging to the car to wash and the second 5 gallon bucket with grit guard and 3 gallons of water to rinse our mitts as we worked (one brush was used on the tires and another on the emblems, grill, and lights). Then we pressure rinsed and this is when we noticed that the Iron X was still turning purple (a lot). Without drying we went on to clay barring the car using UWW+ as our clay lube and spot removing tar with Tarminator (I noticed the Iron-X was still turning purple despite a very aggressive rinse in some places). By the time we made it to the passenger’s side of the car we noticed that the iron-x was still hard at work under the passenger’s side mirror. We also noticed the iron pulled out by the Iron X had stained the paint with rust (my fault for letting it dwell so long). We tried to clay the rust stain off and it did remove 90% of the rusty mark. By the time, we finished claying night had fallen and I broke out the flood lights to re-inspect the paint. That’s when I noticed some panel’s appeared to have clear while others didn’t. The panels without clear looked and felt very different and the panels with clear were all in a process of clear coat failure. I had to break the bad news to my friend and explain the car needed a total repaint. As at least 1/3 of the car had been repainted at some point likely due to rust and accidents it was really hard to come up with a game plan at this point (lack of experience at play)…
I thought back to another Mike Phillips post about restoring a yellow car with single stage paint and decided not to compound and not to polish but to use an AIO paint cleaner. I only had one in my detailing product arsenal, “Klasse All-in-one”. My friend’s head was spinning trying to process all the information I was feeding him as I explained my game plan and explained the purpose of the test spot. I chose two test spots: one that appeared to have clear (the hood) and one that appeared to have no clear (matte white fender right next to the hood). The hood became bright white again and started to shine like new Pearl White paint again. The fender was totally transformed by the KAIO, as it ate right through the layer of oxidation and completely restored the original look almost matching the brilliance of the hood (even I was taken back by the dramatic change, as I thought it was beyond repair). My friend was happy with the results and didn’t want to use anything that would be more abrasive than that and I concurred (Note: I could not really see the scratches/swirls beneath the oxidization at this point).
Now that I had a solid game plan I got to work restoring/cleaning the paint with my trusted Porter Cable 7424XP, 5.5-inch Hydro-Tech tangerine pads, and Klasse All-in-one. I did six section passes (what I call 3 passes) on speed five per section. After finishing the front end (hood, fenders, bumper, windshield), I stopped to admire the car and the improvement was night and day. I let my friend take over the buffing and I went back to coaching him. This gave me a lot of respect for the guys I’ve learned from online because it’s not easy to teach someone how to correctly use a DA (I think of it like learning to ride a bike, once you know it’s easy but teaching someone is hard). I had to explain how the pitch, yaw and roll affected the angle of contact the pad makes with the paint and how this would affect “the cut” of the pad/product (I know KAIO has no “cutting” ability, but the pad does). After an hour or so he got the hang of it but he still wasn’t applying enough pressure (I could hear when he let off on the pressure and I’d keep reminding him to push down a little bit to improve the correction).
I worked on the interior while he continued to machine AIO the car. I started by doing the dash and doors with Meg’s Quik Interior Detailer (love this stuff, but not the smell). Then I moved on to the rear leather seats using Leatherique Prestine Clean and topping with CG Leather Conditioner (same for the front seats). Then I dry buffed the glass with one glass polishing towel and sprayed Stoners Invisible Glass on the other towel for a follow up wipe down (the glass was in dire need of cleaning and took much longer than expected to get clean on the inside). On the outside the glass had been clayed and treated with KAIO (looked great).
Once the interior was finished I got out and started polishing the exhaust tips with Mothers Metal Polish as my friend finished his last panel. It was approaching 2am and we were both totally beat and soaked with sweat (98f 80% humidity at night). We took a step back to inspect the car just as the rain started to fall (not forecasted). I rushed to bring everything back inside my house as my friend bid me fair well and thanked me profusely.
Choosing an AIO was a blessing in disguise because we ran out of time for a LSP and the AIO had us covered! I learned so many things about detailing (working with others, old paint, oxidized paint, iron contaminated paint, etc.). In hindsight I think in the end I gained as much as my friend did without even realizing it…
I can’t wait to do another car!
P.S. My thanks go out to Mike Phillips for his very informative posts. The aggressive wash technique and the single stage paint restoration posts were paramount to my success last night!