mjlinane
My name is Mike
I have mentioned before that I have a soft spot in my heart (head?) for BOGOs. With our water restrictions finally lifted, I was able to finally break out some of the deals that I'd bought over the last six months.
The victim: a Monaco Blue Metallic 2006 BMW 325i. It is a daily driver of one of my co-workers and arrived in a pretty common starting condition for my detailing subjects.
The plan was to simply clean and freshen the paint and interior.
Starting with the wheels - not sure these had ever been cleaned previously. Decided to start with Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner (a short-lived BOGO from last week). Sprayed on, let dwell for 5 minutes, agitated with Daytona Speed Master (covering me with brake dust splatter) plus sponges, MF, and other brushes then rinsed with power washer.
Before
During
After
Sonax did an admirable job but I still wasn't happy. Pulled out CG Sticky Gel Citrus (IMHO their strongest safe cleaner) and repeated the process.
I then rinsed and foamed the car with a slightly strong dilution CG CWC. (Silly me, I was thinking I might need to strip wax off of it - but the total lack of beading let me know there wasn't any and may never have been any.) Followed up with a 2 bucket wash (with 3 Grit Guards - 2 in rinse bucket). After the rinse, I sprayed on IronX (BOGO from last Fall) - including on the wheels again. Lo and behold, more bleeding.
Following the rinse, I pulled the car in the garage and proceeded with claying with my clay substitute sponge and ONR (clay lube dilution - I'm sure there was a BOGO sometime on that). With the paint now free of the grime cocoon, I could see what I was dealing with. Few swirls (due to ridiculously hard paint), some RIDS, heavy orange peel (due to extensive hail damage repair), and a partridge in a pear tree.
I chose to use Carpro Fixer (BOGO from a couple of weeks ago) because I was suspecting hard paint and it gave me a large range of correction ability simply by changing pads. On my test spot, went through white and orange and decided cutting MFs were in order. Originally wanted to use my new Optimum Cutting MF pad but the pad literally fell apart upon brushing following one section pass on the test spot!! I have generally been pleased with Optimum products and have used the original Polishing MFs since they were released. Hopefully I just got a bad one. I have one more and will give it a shot in the future.
I pulled out a well worn Megs Cutting MF and proceeded with leveling paint. I enjoyed working with Fixer. It doesn't dust (much), works quickly and leaves virtually nothing on the paint when fully broken down. A quick wipe with Carpro Eraser and I was rather pleased with the results. The heavy orange peel didn't let me achieve the perfect mirror I really wanted to get but that wasn't in the cards (or the job description). Worked my way around the car in a little over 2 hours.
For an LSP, I wanted to try UPGP. (I'd used it on my wheels but not on paint.) I put the first coat down and, while it was curing, started on the interior. Quick vacuum and then extracted the floor mats with DP Extractor PreTreatment and my Rug Doctor. While those were drying, I steamed the interior and cleaned the leather seats (Lexol Leather Cleaner and the Dupray). Then time for the next coat of UPGP. Back to the interior, dressed everything with Megs QID and cleaned the glass. Back to UPGP for the 3rd coat and on to the wheels (again) with steam and foaming glass cleaner. Dressed the tires with Muc-Off Tire and Trim and hit the wheel wells with Duragloss #265 (both currently on BOGO). A quick wiping down of the wheels with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Spray Sealant (couple of BOGOs back) and I was done.
Definitely want to try UPGP again. The paint just didn't lend itself to letting it show its stuff. I really do like WOWA sealants though.
All told, about 7.5 hours - a bit longer than I was expecting because I never thought I'd need more than 2 hours for the wheels.
Afters
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.
The victim: a Monaco Blue Metallic 2006 BMW 325i. It is a daily driver of one of my co-workers and arrived in a pretty common starting condition for my detailing subjects.
The plan was to simply clean and freshen the paint and interior.
Starting with the wheels - not sure these had ever been cleaned previously. Decided to start with Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner (a short-lived BOGO from last week). Sprayed on, let dwell for 5 minutes, agitated with Daytona Speed Master (covering me with brake dust splatter) plus sponges, MF, and other brushes then rinsed with power washer.
Before
During
After
Sonax did an admirable job but I still wasn't happy. Pulled out CG Sticky Gel Citrus (IMHO their strongest safe cleaner) and repeated the process.
I then rinsed and foamed the car with a slightly strong dilution CG CWC. (Silly me, I was thinking I might need to strip wax off of it - but the total lack of beading let me know there wasn't any and may never have been any.) Followed up with a 2 bucket wash (with 3 Grit Guards - 2 in rinse bucket). After the rinse, I sprayed on IronX (BOGO from last Fall) - including on the wheels again. Lo and behold, more bleeding.
Following the rinse, I pulled the car in the garage and proceeded with claying with my clay substitute sponge and ONR (clay lube dilution - I'm sure there was a BOGO sometime on that). With the paint now free of the grime cocoon, I could see what I was dealing with. Few swirls (due to ridiculously hard paint), some RIDS, heavy orange peel (due to extensive hail damage repair), and a partridge in a pear tree.
I chose to use Carpro Fixer (BOGO from a couple of weeks ago) because I was suspecting hard paint and it gave me a large range of correction ability simply by changing pads. On my test spot, went through white and orange and decided cutting MFs were in order. Originally wanted to use my new Optimum Cutting MF pad but the pad literally fell apart upon brushing following one section pass on the test spot!! I have generally been pleased with Optimum products and have used the original Polishing MFs since they were released. Hopefully I just got a bad one. I have one more and will give it a shot in the future.
I pulled out a well worn Megs Cutting MF and proceeded with leveling paint. I enjoyed working with Fixer. It doesn't dust (much), works quickly and leaves virtually nothing on the paint when fully broken down. A quick wipe with Carpro Eraser and I was rather pleased with the results. The heavy orange peel didn't let me achieve the perfect mirror I really wanted to get but that wasn't in the cards (or the job description). Worked my way around the car in a little over 2 hours.
For an LSP, I wanted to try UPGP. (I'd used it on my wheels but not on paint.) I put the first coat down and, while it was curing, started on the interior. Quick vacuum and then extracted the floor mats with DP Extractor PreTreatment and my Rug Doctor. While those were drying, I steamed the interior and cleaned the leather seats (Lexol Leather Cleaner and the Dupray). Then time for the next coat of UPGP. Back to the interior, dressed everything with Megs QID and cleaned the glass. Back to UPGP for the 3rd coat and on to the wheels (again) with steam and foaming glass cleaner. Dressed the tires with Muc-Off Tire and Trim and hit the wheel wells with Duragloss #265 (both currently on BOGO). A quick wiping down of the wheels with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Spray Sealant (couple of BOGOs back) and I was done.
Definitely want to try UPGP again. The paint just didn't lend itself to letting it show its stuff. I really do like WOWA sealants though.
All told, about 7.5 hours - a bit longer than I was expecting because I never thought I'd need more than 2 hours for the wheels.
Afters
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.
