badly swirled/oxidized 2000 Black expedition resto

[sftempest66]

Hi guys, well to start off, the car was in horrible shape, seems like I always get the neglected cars to detail :angry but anyways, I started off with an Nxt wash, pinnacle poly clay then this

-Yellow cutting pad with Optimum compound, (whole car)

-Orange Cutting pad with Optimum polish (would apply this after yellow in bad spots like the hood/front fenders)

-White pad with optimum polish

-Poorboys EX with caranuba by hand, two coats on hood/roof, thick everywhere else



I tried my best with my products and I still could not seem to get all of the swirls out



meguiars exterior trim detail, carpet cleaned, dash/door panels/leather cleaned, etc etc etc, here are some before and after pictures, car took me about 9 hours



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[sftempest66]

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Notice the hood as compared to the fender

[sftempest66]

SORRY for all of the pictures, I kinda went crazy

[gmblack3]

I`d say you did a great job. It was really bad before you started.

[sftempest66]

I`d say you did a great job. It was really bad before you started.

thanks, I was still unhappy with some parts of the car, but I think it looks a lot better now! It has over 100k miles and was not taken care of so basically I did the best I could :nixweiss

[gmblack3]

thanks, I was still unhappy with some parts of the car, but I think it looks a lot better now! It has over 100k miles and was not taken care of so basically I did the best I could :nixweiss

Sometimes thats all you can do, I`m sure the owner thinks it look new.

[GrayHawk]

I agree with gmblack3a --you took that Ford a long way from where you started to where you ended, and it looks great! The owner should be delighted and, if so, you can`t be overwrought if you didn`t get every last swirl.

[sftempest66]

I agree with gmblack3a --you took that Ford a long way from where you started to where you ended, and it looks great! The owner should be delighted and, if so, you can`t be overwrought if you didn`t get every last swirl.

Thankyou GrayHawk, my main mission was to restore the paint to the color under the pinstripe, the owner had taken the pinstripes off about 2 days ago and I wasnt sure if I was going to be able to match it.... but the car came out a lot better than what I expected, and now you cant tell where the pin stripes were, so I`m happy with that!

[mblgjr]

Looks a TON better.



I`m in the same position with a friend`s car, I`m not sure that I can cut the remaining swirls out safely. I can get it to about the same point you got that truck.



The least people could do is wash their vehicle once a month.

[imported_themightytimmah]

Great improvement, thats about as good as its going to get via PC. For the future you might want to look into a good glaze for basket cases like this, a VM-RMG-CMW finish would probably cover up 95% of whats left behind.

[Scottwax]

Honestly, for just using a PC and nothing more aggressive than Optimum Compound, I`d say that is an incredible improvement!



You might want to let the owner know that regular polishing and waxing will only make the finish better. Kind of sneak up on the rest of the swirls without trying to do a 20 hour polishing marathon all at once.

[awahl63]

Very nice job for not having tough enough supplies

[sftempest66]

Honestly, for just using a PC and nothing more aggressive than Optimum Compound, I`d say that is an incredible improvement!



You might want to let the owner know that regular polishing and waxing will only make the finish better. Kind of sneak up on the rest of the swirls without trying to do a 20 hour polishing marathon all at once.

Thanks, yea I was pretty happy with the results, the Optimum Compound really isnt that strong, do you think the "hyper compound" would have worked any better in removing all of the defects? the owner is actually one of my best friends, and from now on I will be doing all of the detailing on his car, so hopefully over time they will gradually go away, I`ll be washing/waxing it every month or two for him, so its all good....



One more thing guys, I`m kind of new to this and I`ve done a couple of cars/trucks, probably 3-4 with all of my new supplies and the PC, and I`m still not sure what to charge, I charged my friend $200 for the whole detail on the expo...it took me 9 hours and I`m not sure if thats too much, too little? I`m only 17 and I`m not sure of the going rates for this kind of detail....any help would be appreciated

[sftempest66]

anyone? do you think 200 was a fair price?

[Thomas Dekany]

for what you did, $200 is a steal.



Excellent work!