2015 Impala LTZ Corrected with Rupes UHS and Coated with Gloss Coat

The Guz

The Guz

Mike
This is my dad`s new car. It replaced his 2002 Camaro Z28 that was stolen a few months ago. The Impala was a former Enterprise rental car. It was purchased through Enterprise car sales. It has 30K miles on it. The interior is in very good shape. The exterior has minor scratches and chips from it`s abuse as a former rental car. The color is champagne silver metallic.

I was doing small things during the free time I had during the 4th of July Weekend and hit hard for 3 days during the week with day 2 being a majority of the work.

The goal of this task was not a show car finish but a finish worthy of a daily driver.

Products and tools used. Clickable links provided for ease of use on products available at Autopia.

Wash/Decon:

Meguiar`s Microfiber Wash Mitt
Grit Guard
Grit Guard Washboard
Optimum Car Wash
Griot`s Garage Fast Surface Prep Mitt
CarPro IronX
Adam`s Foam Gun

Paint Correction:

Rupes UHS Polishing Compound
Rupes UHS 6" pads
Rupes UHS 4" pads
Rupes Nano UHS 1.5" pads
Rupes Diamond Ultra Fine Gel
Rupes 6" White Finishing Foam Pad
Rupes 4" White Finishing Foam Pad

Paint Prep/Protection:

Optimum Gloss Coat
Optimum Paint Prep (currently available with a kit only)
Optimum Opti-Seal

Wheels:

Griot`s Garage Heavy Duty Wheel Cleaner
Clay Magic clay bar
Ameridepth Polish by hand on the face only
CarPro Eraser
CarPro DLUX
Wheel Woolies
Boar`s Hair Wheel Brush
Lug Nut Brush


Tires:

Meguiar`s D108 Super Degreaser at 4:1
Detailer`s Pro Tire & Rubber Rejuvenator
Detailer`s Pro Tire Coating
Tuf Shine Tire Brush
Metro Blaster SideKick


Glass:

Clay Magic Clay Bar
Optimum Paint Prep (currently available with a kit only)
Optimum Opti-Glass Coating
Optimum Opti-Glass Clean & Protect

Trim:

Meguiar`s D103 APC+ (Discontinued)
Mothers Detailing Brush
IPA
Soultion Finish
Optimum Gloss Coat

Headlights:

Rupes Keramik
Rupes Nano 1.5" yellow pads
Optimum Paint Prep (currently available with a kit only)
Optimum Opti-Lens

Tailights:

Rupes UHS 4" pads
Optimum Paint Prep (currently available with a kit only)
Optimum Opti-Lens

Chrome Trim:

Meguiar`s Fine Cut Metal Polish
Optimum Paint Prep (currently available with a kit only)
Optimum Gloss Coat
Optimum Opti-Seal


Tools:

Rupes LHR15 Mark II
Rupes LHR75e (Mini)
Rupes Nano Long Neck

Interior:

Adams Leather Brush
Meguiar`s Quik Interior Detailer
Meguiar`s D181 Leather Cleaner
Meguiar`s Leather Sealer Treatment
Meguiar`s D120 Glass Cleaner

First thing that was done was washing the wheels. The next thing was to wash the car. This was done using the Mike Phillips Aggressive Wash Method.

Ironx was sprayed onto the paint. It started doing it`s thing after a couple minutes

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This was followed up with a rinse and wash with a foam gun and wash mitt. Once that was complete the paint was foamed again section by section and clayed with the Griot`s mitt. I had gone back to clay as I was not impressed with the nanoskin fine grade sponge due to it not removing surface contaminants compared to clay. This Griot`s clay mitt did a great job removing the surface contaminants. I checked one area that was completed with the clay mitt with a clay bar and it did not pick up any additional contaminants. I was satisfied with the Griot`s clay mitt. This car has never been clayed since it was a rental car and thus I went with the more aggressive red mitt. The surface was very rough.

Mike`s aggressive wash method is a time saver.

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After this was completed I was able to get an idea of the paint defects. This was on the hood. The hood, roof and trunk showed the most defects compared to the doors.

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I pulled the car into the garage. This was a wheels off detail. So I worked on the wheels and tires first. The wheels were not to dirty considering I had washed them initially prior to washing the car. I coated the wheels with CarPro DLUX and the tires with 2 coats of DP Tire Coating. Just an idea of how the wheels and tires came out.

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In full sun

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I ended up restoring the trim on some spare time over the 4th of July prior to going to see some family. It was cleaned with APC, prepped with an IPA wipe and restored with Solution Finish. I ended up doing the same thing to the trim on the lower rear bumper and on the mirrors. I coated over both areas with Gloss Coat. The photos are further down below.

I also coated the remaining glass with Optimum Opti-Glass Coating during the 4th of July. The windshield was done 2 weeks prior as that was my test spot. The remaining glass was clayed and protected.

Before

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After. Much needed considering the car is only 1 year old

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I began the paint correction part. I broke out the nano to correct the pillars using the 1.5" UHS pads and Rupes UHS polishing compound. The speed was set to 3.5.

Before

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After. Not bad for the nano. There was some RIDS left in the paint.

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Prior to me working on the paint, I did a test spot. I used the Rupes UHS combo on the LHR15 mark II one one side and I had received an order of the Griot`s Boss pads. I used Meguiar`s D300 on the Boss microfiber pads. Side by side the Rupes UHS removed more defects with less passes. I would have had to go over the areas with D300 and the boss microfiber pads another few passes. It was a bit hot here (about 80 degrees) and I had virtually no dust with the Rupes UHS. I did get some with D300. I opted to go with the Rupes UHS for this one as I wanted to not deal with to much dust and a one step was accomplishing what I was looking for.

There was some deep RIDS that remained. I was not planning to chase them down. In the end it is a daily driver and not a show car. Overall I would say the paint is 95-98% defect free.

Here is the passenger side door.

Before

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After

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A various shot of the nano on the shark fin antenna

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Once I was done polishing the paint, I followed up with a couple of wipedowns using Optimum Paint Prep. One that was done I moved to applying 2 coats of Optimum Gloss Coat. I waited 1 hour between coats. I let that sit for aonther hour and applied 1 coat of Optimum Opti-Seal. This was recommended by Yvan Lacroix as it protects Gloss Coat from abrasion. chemical and water spots during the cure time of a week. After a couple weeks, Gloss Coat will shed opti-seal.

Here are the final results


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In the garage looking glossy

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Pulled outside to check out the paint. Paint defects are gone other than some deep RIDS.

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Excuse the mess. I was also packing up old clothing to donate to charity.

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The chrome had some water spotting that was removed. The shine was restored and protected with Gloss Coat as well

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The tips were also cleaned, polished and protected with Gloss Coat. The trim pieces that were restored with Solution Finish were topped with Gloss Coat to add some additional protection.

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I had cleaned up the interior a couple weeks prior to working on the paint. So it received a minor wipedown with Meguiar`s Quik Interior Detailer. The seats were cleaned with Meguiar`s D18! Leather Cleaner and sealed with the sealer from the Gold Class Leather Sealer Treatment kit. It was also vacuumed.

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Comments and questions are welcomed. Thanks for looking.


-Mike
 
Amazing work as always Mike! The initial condition was trashed. Pretty bad for silver but you made it look like new.
 
Great job. I really like those wheels. Nice design. You would never know there were 30 k on that car now.
 
Looks great. My first car I bought on my own was a grey 2008 Impala with 30k miles, also from Enterprise. It was before I knew anything about detailing... wish I could have made it look like this!

It was a very good car to me though - not a single problem the entire time I owned it, plus everyone seemed to get out of my way because they thought I was a cop
 
Fantastic work as usual. Showroom new or better. I`ve praying for 80 degrees here. It`s 78 at midnight with almost no breeze.
 
Beautiful result! These are very nice cars. I have rented one 6 times in the last 2 years and have put a lot of miles on them. Your Dad will love this car....I do. Looks great!! They are just as nice as my CTS DD - in and out.
 
Quick update. It`s been 6 weeks and gloss coat is holding up great. It`s seen mostly washes with ONR and one standard bucket wash with optimum car wash. The beading and sheeting is impressive. The self cleaning effect is also impressive. I have used opti-seal as a drying aid once but have mostly been using a quick detailer to remove any remaining residue from ONR.

Here`s one from today`s ONR wash and opti-seal as a drying aid once again.

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At 5 weeks the car was washed with a standard bucket wash and a foam gun as it had not been washed in 2 weeks prior to this. Car Pro DLUX is just as impressive on the wheels. Dirt is easily washed away with soap and water. DLUX sure makes cleaning the wheels very easy.

 
What are you noticing, in terms of durability, from the Solution Finish? I added my first bottle ever to my Order today and I`m excited to see what it can do.
 
Migue said:
What are you noticing, in terms of durability, from the Solution Finish? I added my first bottle ever to my Order today and I`m excited to see what it can do.
Click to expand...

Seems to be doing fine. But I did coat over it with gloss coat. So the beading on the plastic trim is great.
 
Mike -
You posted this beautiful work and car on my birthday !
Awesome, perfect, attention to Detail !

There is not another 2015 Chevrolet LTZ around that looks that nice !

Too bad the Rental places don`t hire a great Detailer to go over their Inventories..

Your mad skills with everything and especially pictures, write ups, and editing - you`re the Best !

Thanks for all the hard, exacting, work you did for your Dad, and then for sharing it with us..
Dan F
 
5 month update.

Decided to give the car a decon wash. I messaged Dann Williams of optimum on how he does a decon wash. So he gave me some pointers. So thanks to him. For those that are interested in his decon wash process it is ferrex, wash, fine grade clay with optimum car wax.

First thing was spraying down the paint with optimum ferrex. I sprayed it onto the paint dry to not dilute the product. This was the first time I used ferrex as I have been using ironx for the longest time. Ferrex has been stated to also remove tar based on it being discussed on the optimum synergy podcast. No way for me to test that as the car had no tar.

Ferrex doing it`s thing

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While I was at it, I performed a little test on the hood. I applied ferrex on the passenger side of the hood and the remaining ironx I had on the drivers side.

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Close up of the ferrex side

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Close up of the ironx side. Don`t mind the red needles. They are from the trees on the street. The wind has been blowing them around.

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Both iron removers work. I felt ferrex performed a little better. Can`t go wrong with either product.

I did not take too many photos but I also mixed 2 ounces of Meguiar`s D103 APC+ into my car wash solution (both in the foam gun and bucket) of optimum car wash to aid in removing the heavier built up road film. The sheeting of gloss coat is doing very well. The glass has a base layer of opti-glass coating that has been maintained monthly with opti-glass clean & protect.


These are the products I used. Stuck with some synergy.

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Final shots after drying the car with the DP car dryer and a final wipe with optimum instant detailer.

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So within this 5 month time frame, the paint had developed contaminants. The car sits outside 24/7 so that is expected. It was not a lot as the car was not bleeding from using the iron removers. Ferrex performed well and removed a majority of the contaminants where I did not decide to clay. Paint felt smooth with my hand before I used the detail spray. Routine decon washes will work just as well until I decide to clay it. By the way gloss coat can be clayed with a fine grade mitt and optimum car wax.

I will mention that within the 5 months, the car has been washed with ONR weekly. I did use carpro reset about 2-3 weeks ago just to break up my rinseless wash routine. I did use opti-seal once as a drying aid but I have gone to just using the instant detailer as gloss coat doesn`t need any toppers. So far I am happy with gloss coat up to the 5 month mark.
 
Thanks for the update. I had missed the OP before, so I went through that. It was neat that you included links to the products. Thanks for taking the time to do so.

Nice too see an update, as I`m planning on using Gloss Coat on my own daily driver soon. Started the decon process last night :)
 
Great write up, Great shots, Great swirl removing and Great coatings. Your Dad must had been blown away by this detail, and to top it off a return to freshing it up. Looks Awesome!
 
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