2000 Nissan X-Terra A.K.A. The Shortbus

Very long lasting, container is somewhat difficult to use (opening is too small), applies and buffs off like most other carnauba's, optical quatlities are not as good as some of the others.

Short take: <span class='bbc_underline'>very long lasting wax, if you're looking for a durable wax and aren't super obsesseed that "perfect super show-car shine", this is a good wax. It's not a bad looking wax, but it doesn't have the pizazz that a Pinnacle or P21S does. (for carnauba's)
 
Very durable for a carnuba. Probably more so than blitz. Shine was average for a carnuba....and it was not the easiest product to work with.
 
I use Collinite Marque d'Elegance No. 915 as a topper for Klasse.



I have used Blitz for a couple of years. I like the Collinite better.

I think it is easier to work with than Blitz and is more durable.



I'm not sure about the shine. Durability is my main concern.

I do know I get compliments all the time.



Then again most of the products talked about on this forum are better than 99% of all the other "over the counter" products.
 
My room mate had a bottle of this, when I was moving out I thought of swiping it since he never will use it but then I saw my blitz, meguairs, mother gold class and other products I had and just left it there.



If this is the stuff they use to clean keys are the car shows there is no way in kingdom come it would even touch my rims.
 
Collinite is family owned since 1912. OG Blitz 1933.

I like longevity in companies.



Strange, but I found that the Collinite Marque 915

diminished my swirls and spiders to almost nothing.



Tried many other things like 3M IHG, and other polishes

but swirley's always came back quickly.



Anyone else find this to be true with the Coll Marque?



This is why I use it in my 3 tier system.



1- Coll

2- Blitz

3- p21s
 
Most members of this forum tend to view that Blitz is a much easier wax to work with than the Colonite line of waxes. This is partly why Blitz is so popular. It is durable, gives outstanding depth and is such a breeze to work with. You can leave it on your car for 10 hours if you like and its still easy to buff out. The only minor drawback to Blitz is that you have to be careful with it around black rubber or trim. Laters
 
I use the Insulator wax, polyethylene-based, and their Super Double Coat (a serious workout for your arm). As DK notes, the shine is average but the durablity, IMO, is really quite good.



The Insulator Wax is their biggest seller and is somewhat easier to work with than their other products. I find these products to be great for the daily driver/winter car that you wish to protect but don't want to spend a huge amount of time trying to make look "perfect".



Better choice : Stick with the Klasse twins if you already own them...they offer superior durability, are much easier to work with and offer a nicer and clearer shine!
 
This X-Terra belongs to a new client and good friend of mine. He calls it "the Shortbus" I am sure you can figure that out. The Shortbus has been to every state in the USA including Alaska, it has also been all over Canada. The owner of the Shortbus is an avid cyclist, mountain biker, BMX racer, runner, hiker, camper, mountain climber, scuba diver and an excellent musician. The short bus has delivered him and his gear to all these venues for 150,000 hard miles. The owner also works around a lot of steel mills so it sees a lot of fallout and rail dust on a pretty much daily basis.

The color made it hard to capture all the defects in the paint in the way of swirls and scratches but it had plenty. The Shortbus also had tons if iron type fallout all over it. It took an entire 100 gram clay bar to get the contaminates out of the paint before the polishing began.

Washed with Meg's Deep Crystal wash

Clayed with S.M. Arnold purple medium clay and Clay Magic Red clay ONR as lube

Plastic, rubber trim and tires cleaned with Citra-Plus Citrus Cleaner full strength

Correction with M-105 Makita rotary Orange LC VC 5.5" pad for Flex Polishers 1000 RPM and yellow Genuine Cyclo 4" cutting pads 1200 RPM

Finished with M-205 Makita rotary Red LC VC 5.5" pad for Flex Polishers 1000 RPM then 600 RPM and Blue Genuine Cyclo 4" finishing pads 1000 RPM then 600 RPM

The stickers were all scraped off the glass except for one sticker then the glass polished with M-105 using my G110V2 and yellow Genuine Cyclo cutting Pad to remove all the oxidation and ghosting from the stickers.

LSP was DG #111

Plastic and rubber coated with Opti-Bond

Interior plastic and carpet was cleaned with Citra-Plus Citrus cleaner 20:1 dilution ratio

The duct tape adhesive was a bit of a challenge, I tried WD-40, Goo Gone and Prep-Sol with no success. I tested some naptha in an underdash area to make sure it would not dissolve the vinyl and it did not so I removed the adhesive with that. I would caution against using naptha though because it did disolve the coating on the black plastic piece that surrounds the instrument cluster so it was removed and painted black satin.

I tried a carpet extraction fluid made from ocean kelp that I picked up at a local discount store on the seats and it worked terrific at 5 ounces per gallon of hot water. I sprayed it on with a garden sprayer and then extracted with my wet dry vac. It took the seats forever to dry as the weather was cool with no real sunshine so I placed a space heater in the vehicle to assist in drying over night.

I lost track of the hours on this job but it was done over 4 days. If I had to guess I would say around 24 hours total.

Here are some before pics of the paint, note the specks of iron in the paint.

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Here are a few before pics of the interior.

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This job got to be very challenging so this little guy cheered me on.

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Once the Shortbus hits the 200,000 mile mark the owner is donating it to one of his favorite charities. So I will have a 2011 Nissan Murano to care for soon.

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This is the one sticker that I just couldn't bring myself to scrape off.

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Here are a few after pics of the exterior. The weather was total clouds so no real sun shots but the correction was at around 95%.

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On to the interior pics.

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Thanks for looking, TD
 
That is an excellent recovery Dave!

When you get a chance look into some ironX for paint with excessive metal contaminants.
 
Great job on the Xterra Dave. The shortbus was quite a mess both inside and out. I understand how the paint looked so bad with all those miles, but how did the interior get so bad. You did a bang up job!!!:thumbup:
 
That is an excellent recovery Dave!

When you get a chance look into some ironX for paint with excessive metal contaminants.
Thanks gmblack3, all throughout the claying process I was thinking about that ironX stuff, I'll have to get some because I don't think this will be the last time I detail for this particular client.

Wow Dave :notworthy::notworthy:

Trash to treasure for sure :money:

Thanks grungy!

Great job on the Xterra Dave. The shortbus was quite a mess both inside and out. I understand how the paint looked so bad with all those miles, but how did the interior get so bad. You did a bang up job!!!:thumbup:
This client reminds me of that commercial with the most interesting man in the world, he does so many different things and excels at all of them. Without a regular detailer that lifestyle can be tough on a vehicle. But...Now he has found his detailer so I think I'll be hearing from him on a more regular basis. Thanks for the compliment!

A major turnaround. It looks very nice now. Nice work.
Thanks Ron!

Wow David, that thing was super trashed. You preformed one heck of a job on that one for sure :wizard:
Thank so much Flash!! It means a lot!!:smile:
 
Dave

Absolutely beautiful work !!! :clap:

That paint looks better than when it was delivered to the Client new !!!

Your excellent work and attention to Detail is so evident - we are so proud of you !!!

Thanks for the awesome, hard, work, and pictures ! :)

You have done your part to beautify America - 1 car/truck at a time .....

Dan F
 
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