1st Detail: 1997 Honda Civic

T

tustah

New member
This car was so beat up with nicks, dents, deep scratches that I could only do so much to make it look better. Not to mention, it has never been washed! Took me about 2 days to finish on this car, but I'm not entirely too happy with the results. Not to mention, it was scorching in Houston (upper 90s).



Day 1:



9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

- Eagle One Wheen & Tire Cleaner w/ Meguiar's Tire Brush and Wheel Brush

- Wash w/ Optimum No Rinse, 2 bucket method

- Dress Tires w/ PB's B&B

- Clay car with Clay Magic

- Tape up the car



As I was getting ready to polish the car, I found my 25ft extension cord was not long enough so I came to a halt :furious:. Ended up taking a 4 hour break while getting a 50ft extension.



4:00PM - 9:00PM

- OC w/ Orange Edge Pad (No Good)

- OC w/ Yellow Edge Pad, PC @ 5

- OP w/ Green Edge Pad, PC @ 5

- Jeff's Werkstatt Prime Strong w/ Blue Edge Pad, PC @ 2



Sun went down. End of Day 1.



Day 2:



4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

- Remove all tape

- Wash w/ Optimum No Rinse, 2 bucket method

- Carnauba Jett via MF towel





My Cart:



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After:



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I should have taken pictures of the car outside BEFOREHAND to show how bad the car was. My towels got shreded up by all the nicks and dents on the car, but it was fun altogether. Please give me criticism so I can know what to do next time to do a better job, and work more efficiently.



What I learned:

- I was sweating profusely on my face and tried to wipe the sweat off while polishing the car. Had 2 incidents where PC came off the car and polish splattered everywhere. Worked it all out with PC right away though.

- Vertical panels are a pain in the (_(_). I need to get something to sit on while I work those panels.

- Optimum Polishes were easy to work with. I couldn't exactly tell when to remove the polish so I worked it in with the PC at 2, bumped it up to 5, and made about 8-10 passes on it. It came off very easily. Did I do this right?

- Werkstatt Twins were very easy to apply on and off.

- I need a lot of improvement.

- Would have liked to use Optimum Hyper Compound, but did not have it on hand and decided to just work with what I have.



People actually thought I painted the car. Must have been the tape or something. Again, critize me please and let me know how I can improve.



Thanks to everyone that answered my questions prior to detailing. Made a significant difference!
 
Nice work, great improvement on the car. You might be able to touch up the scratch in the trim with some Forever Black trim dye, you can get it at top of the line.



I've had good experiences with Optimum products as well, it sounds like you're using them correctly. You can bump the PC all the way up to 6, no reason to hold back. They are designed to have long work times, so you could get 8-10 passes out of them.



Great job, you're off to a good start- now you just need to find more cars to do!
 
Thanks guys. I'll probably be working on my own car next. Old shot of the car before I knew about Autopia. I know, it's pretty dirty.



mycar.jpg
 
Optimum was very easy on and off, but I could have used a product that was more abrasive. I heard hyper compound isn't very abrasive at all either, so I was thinking of getting a bottle of Mezerna or PB SSR 2.5. I saw the car again yesterday morning and it looked a lot better than the pictures. The flakes really showed, just wish I had taken better pictures at the right time.
 
I bring a little stool with wheels for vertical panels. My back was always :( the day after long jobs, so it helps a lot. You can grab them at Target, Walmart, BB&B, etc...



Also, weird but true - it helps to use your opposite hand on vertical panels (so if you're right handed, use your left to control the PC on the verticals), helps for me anyway!



Car looks great. I saw the befores and thought "ugh, why bother?" but you really made it worth the time invested!
 
gav'spurplez: I bought the cart from IKEA while they had the sale going on. I believe it came out to $22 total (cart + 3 wire shelves + 1 fabric shelf + wood top).



Picus: When I compared the pictures at first I thought the same thing, but I think it's because I made the mistake of taking the shots early in the morning UNDERNEATH my carport. If I had taken it out in the sun, it would have shown how terrible the car was. I also took aftershots while the sun was coming down. Lesson learned for me in photography.
 
Looks a lot better than most car with all that parking lot rash do! :)



If Optimum polishes come off easy (or really, any polish) come off easily after using them, you worked them long enough. I'd still bump the speed to 6 for defect removal though.
 
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