My son and my daughter-in-law stopped by to visit this last weekend. They are both traveling nurses and are on their way from Albany, Georgia to a new assignment in New Haven, Conn. They will be working for 3 months at the Yale teaching hospital there and looking forward to their new assignment.
They took off for a wedding in Colorado Springs, CO. and left my son`s Element parked in the driveway. So this morning I had a chance to work on it.
During his travels my son has hit a few bugs.
A wood pole.
And a concrete pole.
This car needs bodywork, but my goal was to make it look as nice as I could without major repairs. This is a 2004 Element EX with about 45,000 miles.
Washed:
Z7 shampoo using a chenille microfiber mitt and the two bucket method.
Sprayed bugs and lower panels with Surf City`s Road Trip Grime Destroyer (worked great on the bugs!)
Sprayed wheels and tires with Eagle One All Wheel & Tire Cleaner.
Sprayed wheel wells with S100 All Cycle Cleaner
Clayed with Zaino clay and ONR clay lubricant. Clay did not pick up a lot.
Removed paint transfer:
Used lacquer thinner with a terry cloth wash cloth. Easy and fast, thanks David Fermani for the tip.
Polished:
Damaged areas with Meguiar`s M95 compound using PC with Cyclo/Edge 4 inch orange pad.
Whole car with 1Z High Gloss Polish using PC with Cyclo/Edge 4 inch green pad. Love the 1Z polish. There were very few swirls as the car has probably never been hand washed.
Trim:
Used Poorboy`s Trim Restore on the acres of unpainted surfaces.
Tires were dressed with Optimum`s Opti-Bond Tire Gel.
Wheel wells dressed with Armor All Spray.
Glass with Meguiar`s NXT glass cleaner.
Paint:
Optimum Opti-seal
Optimum Spray Wax (OCW 2)
And I replaced the mirror, took less than 10 minutes
Befores:
Wheels:
Damaged paint repair:
Before (Driver`s door- wood post)
After Lacquer thinner:
After M95
Before (Passenger`s rear door-concrete post)
After M95 (no paint transfer from concrete post)
Afters:
Added a couple sun shots. The level of correction was not bad.
The total detail took me 5 1/2 hours with no breaks. The engine was not cleaned and the door sills were just wiped with a towel, not thoroughly cleaned. No interior cleaning as everything they own is stuffed in the Element.
Thanks for looking. Have a good weekend.
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