Jngrbrdman
New member
A friend at work is selling their Trans Am and wanted to get it shined up before people come to check it out. This car used the baby of the family, but for some reason they let it go to pot. He bought a 300M and I guess this just wasn't as exciting anymore. I was looking forward to the challenge. :naughty
The back half was totally covered in hard water stains. This spoiler shot is a good example of what the entire right rear side looked like.
I washed with NXT, clayed with Four Star clay, and then gave it an ABC treatment. The ABC was necessary to deal with a lot of the IFO that was still left even after claying. I wasn't sure if it would be needed or not, so I washed and clayed it first before I broke out the big guns.
Once I got through the crap that was on the paint, that was when the swirls really showed up. I love it how people can call a car their 'baby' and yet they still don't know how to care for the paint.
I polished it out with SSR2 with a yellow Detail City pad to start with. There was some hazing left over, so I switched to SSR1 with a white DetailCity pad to clear that up. It worked out really well. I probably should have started with 2.5 to really get a good cut on the swirls. This still got out most of what I was concerned with, so it was good for me. I advised the owner that I could probably spend 5 hours polishing the paint, but he probably didn't want to pay me for that. He told me to do as good as I could for what he was willing to pay. I only charged him $120 for the exterior, so I figured spending three or four hours on the paint was good value for his money.
Here are the pictures of before the SSR2, after SSR2, and then after SSR1.
The fender was a little more forgiving with the SSR2 and didn't haze as bad. Here it is before and after the SSR2. I didn't take an after shot when I did the SSR1, but just imagine that haze being gone and you'll know what it looked like.
Here is the crusty spoiler after I got the crust off.
I also detailed the engine for good measure. I hate popping the hood of a car that I am interested in buying and seeing a mess. I threw this in with the hopes that this job would bring in some referrals. Guys with cars like this have friends with cars like this.
I applied the Wolfgang pre-cleaner and the Wolfgang Sealant to finish it off with. The hard water stains are all gone and most of the swirling is also gone. It looks a hundred times better than the heap they brought to me and they were really happy with the results. I wish I could have spent more time on it to get rid of all the paint imperfections, but sometimes all you can do is all you can do.
The back half was totally covered in hard water stains. This spoiler shot is a good example of what the entire right rear side looked like.
I washed with NXT, clayed with Four Star clay, and then gave it an ABC treatment. The ABC was necessary to deal with a lot of the IFO that was still left even after claying. I wasn't sure if it would be needed or not, so I washed and clayed it first before I broke out the big guns.
Once I got through the crap that was on the paint, that was when the swirls really showed up. I love it how people can call a car their 'baby' and yet they still don't know how to care for the paint.
I polished it out with SSR2 with a yellow Detail City pad to start with. There was some hazing left over, so I switched to SSR1 with a white DetailCity pad to clear that up. It worked out really well. I probably should have started with 2.5 to really get a good cut on the swirls. This still got out most of what I was concerned with, so it was good for me. I advised the owner that I could probably spend 5 hours polishing the paint, but he probably didn't want to pay me for that. He told me to do as good as I could for what he was willing to pay. I only charged him $120 for the exterior, so I figured spending three or four hours on the paint was good value for his money.
Here are the pictures of before the SSR2, after SSR2, and then after SSR1.
The fender was a little more forgiving with the SSR2 and didn't haze as bad. Here it is before and after the SSR2. I didn't take an after shot when I did the SSR1, but just imagine that haze being gone and you'll know what it looked like.
Here is the crusty spoiler after I got the crust off.
I also detailed the engine for good measure. I hate popping the hood of a car that I am interested in buying and seeing a mess. I threw this in with the hopes that this job would bring in some referrals. Guys with cars like this have friends with cars like this.
I applied the Wolfgang pre-cleaner and the Wolfgang Sealant to finish it off with. The hard water stains are all gone and most of the swirling is also gone. It looks a hundred times better than the heap they brought to me and they were really happy with the results. I wish I could have spent more time on it to get rid of all the paint imperfections, but sometimes all you can do is all you can do.
