First off...sorry for the poor lighting in the photos...These cars were all done at a local speed / race shop over the past week and they're very good to me so sometimes I make due with poor lighting and space limitations....that and I'm horrible with the camera...I tried to slow down the shutter speed to capture as much light as possible but the pictures are still pretty dark. Every time I try to use the flash...well lets just say I'm the suck with the flash.
first...1994 NSX. for a 10 year old black car this one was in pretty good shape and even had a pretty good coat of wax on it when I got my hands on it but as you can see under the Halogen it was still pretty badly swirled. Products for the paint were SSR1 with a white polishing pad followed by UPP.
Second Car 1984 SL 500 AMG (straight out of Miami Vice.) This car was in worse shape and was up for sale...one of those "Just clean her up for a sale" deals that requires more work than a regular detail. There was something in the paint of this car that I could not figure out. It was turning my clay black AND it turned my buffer pads Black. Not sure if this car sat in the back of a garage and got exhaust from other cars on it that was in the paint or what...but I went through 4 white LC pads on this car that all turned black with whatever residue was on the car. Process wash, clay, SSR2.5 with white pad, SSR1 with white pad, UPP with gray finishing pad.
Finally Ferrari 355 Spyder. Same owner of the Mercedes...much better paint. Wash, clay SSR1, UPP, Soveran (24 hours later while working on the mercedes).
Oh yeah...the NSX was loaded in a race trailor and the owner of the shop was prepared to deliver the car for $50 and the owner turned it down...picked up the NSX in the snow!!!
Also forgot to mention...there was obviously wash and clay on the NSX. Tire dressing was Megs high endurance on the NSX and both the Mercedes and the Ferrari got 303 as the owner hates shiny tires. he also asked me not to apply 303 fabric guard to the tops of the cars for fear of a glossy look.
I'm pretty sure that the benz was not single stage paint...this stuff not only gooped up the clay bar but it also smeared all over the place. so I'm pretty sure it wasn't paint transfer. Also it was only on the back half of the car. I polished the whole front of the car without any residue on pads other than polish...suddenly about half way back both doors is where I ran into this stuff.
Thanks for the compliments guys. It was -2 this morning here in Ohio this morning so I'm doubting here's gonna be much detailing work this week unless more comes from this shop!
Huh...I lived in New Albany until about a month ago when my house was finished in the Polaris Area (need to update my profile). I used to live in the Apartments located directly behind the Kroger in New Albany and fliered the crap out of that area. I am mobile...just working weekends right now due to sunlight restrictions. Call me if you're interested or just have any questions in general. 614-747-0002
Fortunatly with this shop...I'm friends with the owner and he contracts me to do all of their detail work. All of these are regular customers of theirs. This shop supports several race teams including a GT3-R Porsche 911 and a BMW Daytona Prototype car in the Rolex Grand American race series, and does most of the work for the buckeye region Porsche Club owners. Needless to say most of their clients have pleanty of money. I'd love to post more pictures of that whearhouse but don't want to without the owners permission.
Sean...SSR1 with a White 7.5' LC pad on speed 6 with a PC....no rotary for me. It actually took about 2 passes per area...but I'm a big believer in the least agressive approach first...esp on paint that old. I did the rear wing with SSR2.5 followed by SSR1 because it looked like the guy used it for a shelf for cardboard boxes but I have terrible luck with hazing using 2.5 so I'd rather do as much as possible with SSR1 unless it's required that I use 2.5 to remove a defect.
As a matter of fact I wish I had pictures of the 996 Porsche that I did for them a couple of weeks ago. (camera was ruined on my honeymoon and I was waiting for the replacement in the mail). The owner regularly drove the car through automated car washes and it was a swirly mess. I was astonished that SSR1 cleaned up the swirls in that car with only a single pass for the majority of the car.
Oh yeah...the NSX was loaded in a race trailor and the owner of the shop was prepared to deliver the car for $50 and the owner turned it down...picked up the NSX in the snow!!!
Also forgot to mention...there was obviously wash and clay on the NSX. Tire dressing was Megs high endurance on the NSX and both the Mercedes and the Ferrari got 303 as the owner hates shiny tires. he also asked me not to apply 303 fabric guard to the tops of the cars for fear of a glossy look.
Actually I always leave a checklist in the interior of the cars of everything that was done to the vehicle. The backside of this sheet has my own little tips and tricks to proper maintenance of the finish between services including links to many of the vendors here for quality microfiber. Unfortunatly I'm uncertain how many clients actually take this information to heart.
