I'll try and keep this as concise as possible...
This pre-owned '06 SLK was purchased by my client for a family member recently. The car was "detailed" by the dealer before delivery. My client contacted me about "fixing the doors" on the car as they had some "marks" on them.
Upon delivery to my shop, and after washing about a gallon of wax/glaze off the car, it became apparent that, yes... most certainly the doors were hacked as was most of the rest of the car.
The horizontal planes of the car were not too bad, just badly swirled, but all the vertical surfaces had been pretty well "cookie cut" with a rotary. It looked like someone bounced a buffer down the sides of the car. I'm sure this was a product of a "45 minute buff job" without cleaning the paint properly... or using dirty/used buffer pads:
The holograming was so bad from all this very poor rotary work by the dealer that "ghost" images of my lights would actually appear in the paint: you'll see the light on the right is off, just the left one is on and there's a ghost image of the light to the left of that:
The Process:
Washing:
Foam Lance: Chemical Guys Citrus Wash and Clear/Meguiar's APC 50/50 mix and warm water.
Two Bucket Wash: Same CG soap with a little APC mixed in. I had to wash the car twice to get the wax and glaze off of it... the water in the rinse bucket was changed a couple of times, the first time it smelled strongly of Mirror Glaze, good ol' #7... and lots of it!
Wash mitts: Lambswool.
Drying: Metro Vac n'Blo to remove most of the water, followed by a Big Blue waffle weave drying towel from PAC.
Before and after claying the car, the finish was wiped down 2x with Dupont Prep-Sol to remove the remaining glaze... there was a LOT of glaze on this car.
The car was washed after compounding and final polishing as well.
Wheels:
P21S Gel Wheel Cleaner. This was left to dwell on the wheels for about an hour, after being agitated.
EZ Detail Brush was used for cleaning. The wheels weren't too bad and the brake dust wasn't baked into the finish, so cleaning was a snap:
Before:
After:
Clay Bar Paint Decontamination:
Clay: Clay Magic "Fine" grade clay was utilized.
Lube: ONR, mixed to 8oz/gal.
Polishing:
Meguiar's M105 via Purple Foamed Wool with a Makita 9227 for compounding the doors and all the other major areas where the swirls/RIDS lived, ie: most of the vertical surfaces.
M105, LC Orange flat pad, Flex XC3401VRG: 2nd step.
Meguiar's M205, LC flat white pad, Meguiar's G110v2 for the final step. The clear on this was rather hard and I love M205 for the last polishing step with hard clears.
Taping off the car:. I still have the emblem to do...
Being mindful of the plastic bits:
I did this test spot with all three steps to see how the finish would fare:
Interior:
The major focus of this detail was to get the paint on the car back to being presentable. The interior was blown out with compressed air, vacuumed, the mats/carpets cleaned and extracted using APC at approx. 10/1 ratio.
All surfaces wiped down with 15/1 APC.
Leather: Collinite 855 Leather and Vinyl treatment: I tried this for the first time on this detail. The product left the seats and all the leather feeling very soft/supple and well protected. Great product, I'm sold on this stuff!
Glass: All glass surfaces were cleaned with Stoner Invisible Glass, x2.
All the wood trim was cleaned with P21S Paint Cleanser and treated with 2 coats of Blackfire Wet Diamond, as were the door shuts.
Engine and Engine Bay:
The engine was very clean on this car, only requiring a wipe down with diluted APC, followed by a damp rag to spruce things up.
All rubber and plastic treated with 303 Aerospace Protectant.
Protection for the Exterior surfaces:
Paint: Blackfire Wet Diamond sealant, 2 coats via an LC red pad, PC.
2 coats Blackfire Midnight Sun wax, by hand.
Wheel Wells: CG's "Bare Bones."
Wheels: Poorboys World Wheel Sealant x2, after polishing with M205 by hand.
All rubber surfaces: 1Z einszett Rubber Care Stick "Gummi Pflege."
Tires: 2 coats of Meguiar's Hyper Dressing at 2:1 mixture.
Tailpipes: Optimum Metal Polish via a microfiber for the exterior of the pipes, the interiors were cleaned with the same polish and 0000 steel wool.
Here's a few "after" shots, sorry the sun wasn't out on this day. The car turned out very nice and the owner was
completely pleased... mission accomplished:thumbup:.
Thanks for looking!
