The Critic
07-29-2014, 03:28 AM
It has been about 10 months since I last gave my personal car any kind of exterior detailing.
While the Opti-Coat 2.0 was still working fairly well, I felt that I had greatly improved my paint correction skills since my car was last worked on (thanks JSmooth), and as a result - I think I could get my car`s finish to a much higher level.
In addition, when the car was last coated, I only did a light polish using a very light finishing polish, so there were still defects leftover from my tunnel carwash days.
So here we go...
Tools used:
Rupes LHR21ES - correction step
Rupes LHR12E - finishing step
Rupes LHR75E - used for the correction and finishing steps on the liftgate
Rupes Swirl Finder Pen Light
Products used:
Wash: Meguiars D110 Hyper Wash
Decontamination: Meguiars C2000 Fine Grade Detailing Clay
Clay Lube: Optimum No Rinse - Diluted 1:16
Correction Step: Meguiars M100 with Meguiars DMF6 Microfiber Finishing Discs (to remove Opti-Coat 2.0 and remove most defects)
Refinement Step: Meguiars M205 with Rupes Yellow Foam Polishing Pads
Pre-Coating Wipe-down: CarPro Eraser
Paint Protection: CarPro CQuartz UK, 2014 Edition. Two coats on the roof, one coat on the rest of the car.
Note: Also wiped down the car with CarPro Reload as per the application instructions.
Here`s a picture of the paint after the compounding step.
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3860/14785875143_ac37f722da_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/owztxM)DSC_1119 (https://flic.kr/p/owztxM) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
I used light pressure, speed 3 and a total of 3 passes in approx 16"x16" sections; I think the total work time was about 2 minutes per section. There`s a minimal amount of DA haze and some light to moderate micro-marring from the Meguiars microfiber finishing disc. I was getting 90% + correction with this combo and approach.
(For what it`s worth, I later used M100 with the new-style Meguiars MF Finishing Discs and found that there`s almost zero micro marring using the same approach, hmm...)
I did not take any additional pictures during the correction process, but I should mention that I tested multiple combos for the finishing step. HD Adapt wasn`t working too well with the heat and humidity, but M205 was. This is somewhat unfortunate since Adapt finished out a hair better than 205, but we`re splitting hairs here.
Anyway, here are some final pictures. My photography skills really do not capture the gloss and darkening effect that CQuartz UK added to the finish:
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2923/14765763012_8f307b2a78_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/ouNoUU)DSC_1141 (https://flic.kr/p/ouNoUU) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3849/14766085345_bb96706b27_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/ouQ3Jn)DSC_1139 (https://flic.kr/p/ouQ3Jn) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3853/14785911913_de769de6da_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/owzEtK)DSC_1147 (https://flic.kr/p/owzEtK) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2901/14743070086_cee72bdeac_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/osN66y)DSC_1142 (https://flic.kr/p/osN66y) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3917/14772345814_759b9e84ae_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/ovo8Ku)DSC_1127 (https://flic.kr/p/ovo8Ku) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3886/14588047988_7fda74874c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/oe6yqL)DSC_1131 (https://flic.kr/p/oe6yqL) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
- Critic
While the Opti-Coat 2.0 was still working fairly well, I felt that I had greatly improved my paint correction skills since my car was last worked on (thanks JSmooth), and as a result - I think I could get my car`s finish to a much higher level.
In addition, when the car was last coated, I only did a light polish using a very light finishing polish, so there were still defects leftover from my tunnel carwash days.
So here we go...
Tools used:
Rupes LHR21ES - correction step
Rupes LHR12E - finishing step
Rupes LHR75E - used for the correction and finishing steps on the liftgate
Rupes Swirl Finder Pen Light
Products used:
Wash: Meguiars D110 Hyper Wash
Decontamination: Meguiars C2000 Fine Grade Detailing Clay
Clay Lube: Optimum No Rinse - Diluted 1:16
Correction Step: Meguiars M100 with Meguiars DMF6 Microfiber Finishing Discs (to remove Opti-Coat 2.0 and remove most defects)
Refinement Step: Meguiars M205 with Rupes Yellow Foam Polishing Pads
Pre-Coating Wipe-down: CarPro Eraser
Paint Protection: CarPro CQuartz UK, 2014 Edition. Two coats on the roof, one coat on the rest of the car.
Note: Also wiped down the car with CarPro Reload as per the application instructions.
Here`s a picture of the paint after the compounding step.
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3860/14785875143_ac37f722da_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/owztxM)DSC_1119 (https://flic.kr/p/owztxM) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
I used light pressure, speed 3 and a total of 3 passes in approx 16"x16" sections; I think the total work time was about 2 minutes per section. There`s a minimal amount of DA haze and some light to moderate micro-marring from the Meguiars microfiber finishing disc. I was getting 90% + correction with this combo and approach.
(For what it`s worth, I later used M100 with the new-style Meguiars MF Finishing Discs and found that there`s almost zero micro marring using the same approach, hmm...)
I did not take any additional pictures during the correction process, but I should mention that I tested multiple combos for the finishing step. HD Adapt wasn`t working too well with the heat and humidity, but M205 was. This is somewhat unfortunate since Adapt finished out a hair better than 205, but we`re splitting hairs here.
Anyway, here are some final pictures. My photography skills really do not capture the gloss and darkening effect that CQuartz UK added to the finish:
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2923/14765763012_8f307b2a78_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/ouNoUU)DSC_1141 (https://flic.kr/p/ouNoUU) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3849/14766085345_bb96706b27_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/ouQ3Jn)DSC_1139 (https://flic.kr/p/ouQ3Jn) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3853/14785911913_de769de6da_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/owzEtK)DSC_1147 (https://flic.kr/p/owzEtK) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2901/14743070086_cee72bdeac_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/osN66y)DSC_1142 (https://flic.kr/p/osN66y) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3917/14772345814_759b9e84ae_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/ovo8Ku)DSC_1127 (https://flic.kr/p/ovo8Ku) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3886/14588047988_7fda74874c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/oe6yqL)DSC_1131 (https://flic.kr/p/oe6yqL) by thecritic89 (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
- Critic