Rusty Cavalier, black 540, M45, Excursion, MDX, Suburban

[Scottwax]

2002 Chevy Cavalier. Owners went out of town, left it in the garage, while they were gone, the fire sprinkler system dripped rusty water all over the back end. Here is the picture he sent me when he first contacted me:

I took these when I got there. He'd washed it and tried claying a small area but gave up after slow results.

This car made me glad I had stopped at Optimum when I went through Memphis a couple weeks ago. While I was there, David (the owner) asked if I would try a water spot remover he was working on. He was satisified with how well it worked on paint but he says it isn't as effective on heavily water etched glass as he'd hoped. Said it was a work in progress but I was welcome to try a sample. Damn glad I said yes.



I poured some onto a clean terry cloth towel and started wiping. In the lighter areas, it came off almost immediately, in the really heavy areas, I had to use some pressure but less than you'd use if polishing by hand. I was really happy how relatively quickly it worked.



Top of the trunk lid cleaned-

All paint cleaned-

Now the glass too-

All done, note all that crap on the towel...and I folded it over several times.

On a sad note, I set the bottle of water spot remover down and while finishing the Cavalier and also detailing the exterior of his 540, the bottle most have gotten knocked over because it rolled into the parking lot and someone ran it over. :hairpull



The finalized version of the water spot remover has a tenative release date of September.

 

[Scottwax]

After removing the rust, my younger boy rewashed the car, then hand polished it with Prime and sealed with Acrylic Jett Trigger. First time he had used either, remarked at how absolutely easy both are to use.

 

[Scottwax]

1999 BMW 540. Same owner as the Cavalier. Overall in decent shape but the hood was a repaint and horribly halo swirled. I had to step up to Optimum Hyper Compound and a yellow LC cutting pad to make any progress at all but even then I wasn't getting that much out, it appears some of the problem is under the paint-even hazing the paint wasn't doing a thing for some of the halo swirls. I then switched to Meguiars DACP with a yellow Meguiars polishing pad to remove some light hazing from OHC and to polish out the rest of the car...and DACP did a really good job, even in hazy sunshine on a mid 90 degree day. I followed with my 70/30 mix of Menzerna 106FF and Clearkote's Red Machine Glaze and my old boy sealed it (as you can see) using Poorboy's EX w/carnuaba.

DACP & 106/RMG worked well on the light swirls on the rest of the car...seemed to get out at least 95% of the swirls. Hood didn't end up as good but it was still noticably better.

Finished car shots:

 

[Scottwax]

I did the following 4 this afternoon. I wash and seal the MDX every two months and when I called him last week to set up an appointment, he said a few others at his office might want their's done too. I hadn't heard back from him, so I was only expecting the MDX when I got there at 1 PM. I figured I'd get his done then hopefully pick up my car at the shop (a/c compressor seized up) and call it a day. I get there and the secretary up front only has the keys for the MDX and said he'd left them up there so I wouldn't have to wait on him. My son and I go out to clean the MDX when the owner comes out with a handful of keys. Infiniti M45, Excursion and Suburban keys. :nervous2:



He said the M needed to be finished by 4 but he and the others would stay past 5 if I couldn't finish them all that quickly. We got right to work. My son did all the vacuuming while I cleaned and dressed all the tires and fenderwells, then he started in on all the door jambs while I washed the M and the MDX, at that point, it was around 3:30 so I went and waxed the M45 with Poorboy's EX-P while my son cleaned all the glass and then got busy washing the Suburban and Excursion. I started on the MDX with Acrylic Jett Trigger (last time it got AJ x 2, still pretty swirl free) and then Poorboy's EX w/carnauba on the Suburban and as my son finished washing the Excursion, I caught up to him with the wax. While I was removing the wax from the Suburban and Excursion, he finished cleaning all the glass on them and dressed the spoilers, trim, etc. We finally finished up around 6:20 PM. Luckily, the M45 and Suburban are pretty new and pretty much swirl free and the Excursion is regularly driven to the owner's ranch and it isn't worth it to him for me to do anything beyond waxing. Any polishing and we couldn't have finished probably before 8-9 PM. I did manage to remove the dealer badging from the three vehicles that had 'em.



EX-P on the 2006 M45-sorry the pic isn't that good, I finished up about a minute before he was due to leave and didn't want to waste time moving it around.

EX w/carnauba on the 2005 Suburban and 2004 Excursion-for some reason, the Excursion looks a bit washed out in the pic but much better in the pic where it is next to the MDX:

Werkstatt's AJ Trigger on the 2004 Acura MDX:

 

[wytstang]

Wow that water spot remover worked great, man that saved you some time there. Great job like always.

 

[imported_cj99si]

Thats a good afternoon! What did you wash with? do you have a trailer or do you use waterless? My little girl is only 14 months old so mom wont let her help me yet. Very nice turn around time. they look great! hope your AC is fixed!

 

[Scottwax]

Thats a good afternoon! What did you wash with? do you have a trailer or do you use waterless? My little girl is only 14 months old so mom wont let her help me yet. Very nice turn around time. they look great! hope your AC is fixed!

We use Optimum No Rinse Wash.



A/C is not fixed. Okay, the compressor is but the switch on the dash won't turn it on but you can jump it directly off the battery so the new compressor is good. The mechanic couldn't find a bad fuse but the plug the a/c relay goes into has only 1 hot lead, the rest appear to be grounds. :think:



He's going to try and chase it down tomorrow. :bawling:

 

[03k20a2]

man ex w/ carnuba looks great on black...nice job as always scott

 

[Scottwax]

man ex w/ carnuba looks great on black...nice job as always scott

DACP and 106/RMG helped a lot. Funny thing too, after using DACP, I got out my 106/RMG and started on the rear fender and my older son asked what I was doing. I told him I was polishing the car again. He said "Why, it already looks great" and I told him I felt it needed an additional polishing step before waxing while I was removing the excess 106/RMG from the fender. The owner and my younger so both said (paraphrasing) "what an improvement". At that point, my older boy had to agree that the additional polishing was a good idea.

 

[imported_DARKSTI]

Looks great Scott! I just got my AJT also. Any tips on it? I know AJ can be a little harder to remove.

 

[Evenflow]

Great work as usual Scott. Do you apply EX by hand or machine?

 

[tomee]

the bottle most have gotten knocked over because it rolled into the parking lot and someone ran it over. :hairpull

that part made my laugh out loud for some reason



nice work as always

 

[jlynntc]

Amazing work as always. Makes the rest of us want to cry.

 

[serge03]

amazing transformation on that cavalier- what a mess!

 

[Gen2]

The 540 sure looks great, the next time when I detail a black car will try out the 106FF and RMG mix to see whether can I achieve the same kind of depth on the 540. Amazing work as always :bigups.

 

[Scottwax]

The 540 sure looks great, the next time when I detail a black car will try out the 106FF and RMG mix to see whether can I achieve the same kind of depth on the 540. Amazing work as always :bigups.

106/RMG gives seriously clear depth. I'm really happy with that mixture. Oddly enough though, the owner loved how the car looked after 106/RMG but when my son was removing the EX w/carnauba he had applied, the owner looked at his paint and exclaimed (happily) "sh!t!". EX over that combo is absolutely killer.

 

[s2skimon]

awesome as always.. Clearkote and Poorboys are always a good match !

 

[Rickrack]

Wow, great work Scott.



That Cavalier must have been fun!

 

[vdog0531]

you da man scott! i havn't been around in a while, but your posts are still the best! awesome work on all, especially that gross cavi!



Vernon

 

[imported_Picus]

Looks like that'll be another Opt product I'll have in my arsenal. Nice work; I was skeptical about the results of the Cav when I saw you post the before in another thread!