Richy`s New Ride!! (Also 1st time using Self Heal Plus)

[richy]

My old vehicle was a 2011 Lincoln MKX with the 3.7L (Mustang) V-6 engine. It was a great car and I had it for 6.5 years. I have also had 5 black cars in a row...it was time for a change! So, my non-negotiables on the new one were: white, 2.7L Ecoboost and the Revel Stereo. I had it narrowed down to 2 vehicles. A 2017 with the top line Revel stereo (19 speakers) and LED headlights or a brand new 2016 with the entry level Revel stereo (13 speakers). Even with all the extra incentives, it came down to the fact that if I bought the `17, I couldn`t afford to purchase the extended warranty. For a guy that keeps his cars between 6 and 7 years, I feel like I need that especially with all the technology the car comes with. So, I bought a brand new 2016 white MKX with the 2.7L ecoboost, the 13 speaker Revel system. The car has cameras front and rear and can park itself both perpendicularly and parallel.

I cleaned up my old one (didn`t take much) and retailed it by myself and put it through the dealer as a "convenience deal" to save on the tax.


I might have gone a little overboard on the new one, but what the Hell. It`s mine and frankly I could care less how long it took me. Besides, unfortunately, I have no customer jobs lined up at all right now. It is the first time in a decade that I`ve had a dry spell. I`m hoping it ends soon, but it did afford me the time to work on mine without pressure or guilt. This is my first time owning a turbo engine. The car was produced in April of `16 so it had been on the dealer`s lot for over a year. That`s 5 seasons and temperature variances, etc. Screw it, time to dump the oil! Besides, I`ve always been an Amsoil fanatic, so the very first thing I did was change the oil and filter and switched to Amsoil synthetic. Now I felt better.

The engine was cleaned and then every plastic piece was treated with DLux.

I was not able to do all the things I wanted to at one time so I worked on it on different days. It was more of a pain to do it that way. The interior was done first. A thorough vacuum was followed by the carpeting and carpet mats all getting treated with CarPro Fabric and Leather. The leather seats were also treated with CarPro Leather coating. The metal pieces on the dash and door were coated with Ceramic Lite.

I did not take any "during" shots of any of the processes, sorry. The wheels were the first exterior thing to be done. They were pulled and the barrels were given an ONR wipe down followed by DG Squeaky Clean to chemically clean and prepare the surface. They were coated with Feynlab Wheel & Caliper and shot with an air gun and not leveled whatsoever. I wanted the strongest protection there. The faces were similarly prepared and coated with W & C but were leveled after being shot with compressed air. (I believe that makes it cure more prior to a light wiping and allows less product to be removed when wiping. That is just my personal opinion.)


For the exterior, I started off with a strong wash followed by a second Iron X decontamination wash. I then clayed it old school with Riccardo yellow. I used ONR as lube and not Prime since I was going to be polishing it in 2 stages. It was then compounded with a TB black wool pad and M100 followed by a polish/chemical cleaning stage of M205/DG Squeaky Clean mix. Then it had to wait.


Several days later I was able to get back on it. I washed it again, this time adding an ounce of Prime to the wash mix per instructions from John Parker of Texas who is a Feynlab genius (and trainer). What a brilliant idea!! I had no idea Prime could be used for more than just a clay lube. Because this is my car, I decided to coat it with Feynlab Self Heal Plus, which is their strongest and best coating. I don`t even offer this product to customers due to what I`d have to charge them. I probably spent in the area of 8 hours just coating it. That`s a lot of time! But, again, being my car, I could care less. The parts that cannot have Self Heal Plus (SHP) applied to them were coated with Feynlab Ceramic. That included head and tail lights, roof glass, side glass and door jams. The exterior trim was coated with Feynlab Plastic. The chrome strip embedded in the door exterior trim was wiped off after the Plastic coating had cured.

The paint was coated with the 3 step process of SHP and I added a 4th stage of Ceramic Lite as a topper to make it unbelievably slick (and did that ever work well!!). Again, that process took me about 8 hours but I was being extremely careful and it was my first time using it. I was anxious (anxiety in the true sense of the word) doing the procedure for about the first 3 panels when I figured out the sweet spot of timing, etc. I hadn`t mixed products prior to use since the old days of using and testing Duragloss Enviroshield! I discovered a few tricks on making that easier too.

I am very proud of this car and want to have the best protection on it there is, including scratch repair. Here it is all done. (I had even driven it for a day and didn`t bother with an ONR wash prior to shooting the pics, LOL).

















Kinda washed out, but a close up of the flake, which is blinding:


























I forgot to mention: the hood and the lip on the top of the back bumper were given 2 coats of SHP for added protection:





























Thanks for looking.

[Ronkh]

Beautifully done!!

Enjoy and be safe!

[richy]

Beautifully done!!

Enjoy and be safe!

Thank you my friend!

[Sizzle Chest]

Congrats Richy! Very nice! Nicest one around!!!

[LEDetailng]

Man, is it me or does that Lincoln look better on the Autopia site vs. AGO?

Is your decal magnetic or vinyl sticker?

It is a great logo/design btw.

[Reeeko99]

Outstanding work.. Great choice of vehicle and color also. VERY sharp.

[WaxAddict]

Thanks for sharing!

[richy]

Congrats Richy! Very nice! Nicest one around!!!

Thanks very much Scott! I`m thoroughly enjoying it so far.

Man, is it me or does that Lincoln look better on the Autopia site vs. AGO?

Is your decal magnetic or vinyl sticker?

It is a great logo/design btw.

Of course it looks better here!! LOL. The sign is magnetic. I actually haven`t used it in a few years. I wanted to see how it looked against the white paint. I got it from Got Print. Thanks for the comment on the logo too. Back when I was starting this business, I wanted a logo that looked kind of retro. I hired a kid who was in design school at the time and he did it for me for a very reasonable price. He has gone on to quite well for himself I believe.

Outstanding work.. Great choice of vehicle and color also. VERY sharp.

Thanks kindly. I`m very pleased with it and I honestly think that white shows off the car very well.

Thanks for sharing!

My pleasre; thanks for taking the time to comment!

[BadgerRivFan]

I really like the body style of those Lincoln SUVs... the wheels were also a great choice Richy. Congrats on the new ride!

[OzzieMike]

Richy,

I`ve got a brand new "poor man`s" version of your ride...a 2017 Ford Edge Titanium, white platinum trim-coat paint and 2.0 Ecoboost engine.

I`ll be using HD Polish and FK1000P on her later this week, as I`ve been kind of "limping" by with Meguiar`s Ultimate Fast Finish since I bought it a month ago.

Your ride looks awesome!

[JSFM35X]

My friend enjoy it in the best of health. Beautiful truck and even my favorite color !

[RTexasF]

As I said on AG it`s gorgeous. AWD with the twin turbo was a very wise move. That engine with front wheel drive is a handful of torque steer and rapid takeoff traction is non existent. I have a Blizzard White Pearl V-6 RAV4 and it`s really quite ugly, nothing like that Lincoln.

[ShakingHorizons]

Beautiful as always Richy! Glad you were able to get a SHP under your belt - and on your own NEW vehicle none-the-less!

Hopefully your dry spell doesn`t continue for too long, but enjoy it while you can!

[Bunky]

Congrats on the new ride!

[WT Taggart]

Richy, Great job and good luck with the new vehicle. You can see you work and thanks as always for sharing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk