Nth Degree
New member
Okay, here's another one.
This car was far from neglected. It was incredibly clean, always garaged, and only driven in good weather. Yet, every vehicle can develop minor scratches and swirls from even the most careful washing processes.
Unfortunately it was a stormy, rainy morning when this process began, so there was no opportunity for before shots in the sun. The owner washed the car the day before, so this is the condition of the car upon my arrival. Very few flaws are noticeable from 5-10 feet away.
Since the car had already been washed I began with a wipe down with a 50/50 mix of Isopropyl alcohol and water to begin stripping the multiple layers of wax that were previously applied to the car. Even though the paint was very smooth and there were no obvious bonded contaminants on the paint the next step was claying the surface to remove anything that might get picked up by the polisher and create any further marring. The majority of what was lifted from the paint was on the lower rocker panels where the tires picked up and distributed road debris.
I then did another Isopropyl alcohol wipe down. With the several coats of wax removed I was able to see the real condition of the paint. Still, overall it was not bad, but the wax had been concealing a lot of the minor scratches and marring.
I then taped off the trim. Since this car lives in a carpeted garage towels were laid down to protect the carpet from dripping or sling of polish.
After a lot of testing on the frustratingly soft paint I settled on Meguiar’s 205 on 7” and 4” LC orange and LC white pads with a Makita rotary @ 1200 rpm, depending on the work space.
Some 50/50 shots of the correction:
The tail lights had some light swirls as well. A light polishing took care of most of those as well. This was difficult to capture in photos because of the reflectivity of the lights.
I followed up with Menzerna Po85rd finishing polish with a 6” white Lake Country pad with a Porter Cable DA polisher. I then did another wipe down with 50/50 Isopropyl alcohol taking time to clean polishing dust out of all crevasses and door jams. Extra care was taken, as the clear was soft and marred very easily.
The car was then backed out into the very revealing sunshine for a close inspection. At the owners request we did a side by side comparison of products on the spoiler. The differences were tough to see with only one coat. That was proof positive that the shine is 90% preparation and only 10% product choice. After deciding on the final product to use, the car was pulled back into the garage.
For the LSP we went with Black Fire Wet Diamond paint sealant to be followed by 3 coats of Black Fire Midnight Sun carnauba wax. I love this wax for the depth it creates when layered.
The smooth, hard plastic trim was hand polished with Klasse AIO.
This car was far from neglected. It was incredibly clean, always garaged, and only driven in good weather. Yet, every vehicle can develop minor scratches and swirls from even the most careful washing processes.
Unfortunately it was a stormy, rainy morning when this process began, so there was no opportunity for before shots in the sun. The owner washed the car the day before, so this is the condition of the car upon my arrival. Very few flaws are noticeable from 5-10 feet away.
Since the car had already been washed I began with a wipe down with a 50/50 mix of Isopropyl alcohol and water to begin stripping the multiple layers of wax that were previously applied to the car. Even though the paint was very smooth and there were no obvious bonded contaminants on the paint the next step was claying the surface to remove anything that might get picked up by the polisher and create any further marring. The majority of what was lifted from the paint was on the lower rocker panels where the tires picked up and distributed road debris.
I then did another Isopropyl alcohol wipe down. With the several coats of wax removed I was able to see the real condition of the paint. Still, overall it was not bad, but the wax had been concealing a lot of the minor scratches and marring.
I then taped off the trim. Since this car lives in a carpeted garage towels were laid down to protect the carpet from dripping or sling of polish.
After a lot of testing on the frustratingly soft paint I settled on Meguiar’s 205 on 7” and 4” LC orange and LC white pads with a Makita rotary @ 1200 rpm, depending on the work space.
Some 50/50 shots of the correction:
The tail lights had some light swirls as well. A light polishing took care of most of those as well. This was difficult to capture in photos because of the reflectivity of the lights.
I followed up with Menzerna Po85rd finishing polish with a 6” white Lake Country pad with a Porter Cable DA polisher. I then did another wipe down with 50/50 Isopropyl alcohol taking time to clean polishing dust out of all crevasses and door jams. Extra care was taken, as the clear was soft and marred very easily.
The car was then backed out into the very revealing sunshine for a close inspection. At the owners request we did a side by side comparison of products on the spoiler. The differences were tough to see with only one coat. That was proof positive that the shine is 90% preparation and only 10% product choice. After deciding on the final product to use, the car was pulled back into the garage.
For the LSP we went with Black Fire Wet Diamond paint sealant to be followed by 3 coats of Black Fire Midnight Sun carnauba wax. I love this wax for the depth it creates when layered.
The smooth, hard plastic trim was hand polished with Klasse AIO.
