LawrenceSA
New member
It wasn't until I had polished red paint for the first time that I ever considered owning a red car one day. 
but since I have been fortunate enough to see it polished right, there is just something about it, along with black, that keeps me wanting to look at it :drool: :grin:
Unfortunately though they have been few and far between
(4 out of the 30 cars I have done since the 458 Italia in November last year) and so I was just as excited to see the paint at the end and the customer no doubt was. I get this feeling with any car, any color, but red and black are just a tad special.
Anyways....
Friday night I cleaned up the interior.
There was the usual dust
And there was grime, which was cleaned using Cyclo APC and various brushes and MF towels (damp and dry) and then then protected with AF Spritz.
And the grime (that's the shiny [read body oils, sweat and ....other.....stuff.....
uke: ] side in case you were wondering) was on the leather too.
So interior went from this
To this
Obviously all the carpets were vacuumed and the rubbers would be cleaned using Shield Heavy Duty Rubber Cleaner later on in the detail.
The door jambs were pretty dirty
They were cleaned during the wash with Cyclo APC via a foaming trigger head and various brushes, then cleaned/polished/protected using AF Tripple.
Obviously there was the usual dirt on the car
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Some bird droppings which caused a really nasty etching
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The wheels and arches were dirty
As were the brake calipers
But they cleaned up nicely
The badges also had some dirt
Which was cleaned off during the wash
Here are some pics of the damage to the paint
Driver rear fender had taken a knock
Passenger front door had too
Which was subjected to a crude touch up 'repair'
There were swirls and deep RIDS everywhere, as well as some lovely hologramming from a well know commercial outfit
So as usual the arches, tires and wheels were cleaned and decontaminated first. Products used were Cyclo APC + Mothers Fender Well Brush, Mothers Tire and Rubber Cleaner + Mothers Tire brush, Mothers FX Wheel Cleaner + Daytona Jnr + Valet Pro brush, Valet Pro Dragon's Breath, Valet Pro Citrus Tar Remover. They would later be sealed using Menzerna Powerlock and Optimum Tire Shine was used to dress the tires, with a coat of Glossworx Tire Shine being used for the front arches (the rears are 'çarpeted').
Once this was done the car was HP rinsed, the lower portions, front bumper and complete rear end pre-treated using Valet Pro Citrus Pre-wash and the car then pre-foamed using Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II which was left to dwell before being HP rinsed off again. A full 2BM wash followed using Lambswool wash mitts and AF Lather.
I then used Valet Pro Citrus Tar Remover and Dragon's Breath for the first 2 steps of the decontamination and Shield Heavy Duty Clay for the last step with ONR as lube.
I then took paint thickness readings which showed that for the most part the OEM paint averaged around 120µ with one thin'ish section near the sunroof at 90µ. It also revealed that the driver rear door had been repainted reading on average 250µ. The repaint had been blended into the rear fender, reaching up almost to the roof, and it was here that I discovered some clear coat failure.
It would seem that whomever was polishing out the sanding marks from the respray rolled over from the repainted area onto the OEM paint using the same (presumably) wool pad and rotary with an aggressive cutting compound, and effectively polished off the clear coat. :bang:
It blows my mind how people can have complete disregard for other people's possessions.
You can clearly see the faded/scratched base coat with no clear on the upper portion in this after pic. Nothing short of a repaint is going to fix that.
So anyway, on to to the actual paint correction. After a few test spots I settled on Menzerna FG400/ LC Cyan Hydrotech Pad followed by Menzerna SF4000 / LC Crimson Hydrotech, all using the Flex 3401 VRG.
This is a pic from one of the test spots, only after the initial cut.
The B-pillars would be corrected using Menzerna FG400/LC CCS Orange pad (4") followed by Menzerna SF4000 / LC CCS Grey pad (4") on a shield DA - the same approach was used on the tailights.
The paint was then protected using Soft99 Fusso Coat (Dark) before I got around to dealing with the rest of the items, such as they exhaust tips, whcih went from this
To this, after being cleaned and then polished using Meguiars NXT All Metal Polish
The glass was then cleaned using Glossworx Glass Cleaner. The exterior plastics and window rubbers cleaned using Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner and protected using Aerospace 303 protectant.
Here are a few shots I managed to grab before the owner arrived and the sun completely disappeared.
As you can see some deeper RIDS remained - I was not prepared to chase them on a relatively new daily driver.
Here you can see the failed clear coat again
Total time spent = 27 hours
As always, thanks for looking and any comments or questions are welcomed :hi:
but since I have been fortunate enough to see it polished right, there is just something about it, along with black, that keeps me wanting to look at it :drool: :grin: Unfortunately though they have been few and far between
(4 out of the 30 cars I have done since the 458 Italia in November last year) and so I was just as excited to see the paint at the end and the customer no doubt was. I get this feeling with any car, any color, but red and black are just a tad special.Anyways....
Friday night I cleaned up the interior.
There was the usual dust
And there was grime, which was cleaned using Cyclo APC and various brushes and MF towels (damp and dry) and then then protected with AF Spritz.
And the grime (that's the shiny [read body oils, sweat and ....other.....stuff.....
uke: ] side in case you were wondering) was on the leather too.
So interior went from this
To this
Obviously all the carpets were vacuumed and the rubbers would be cleaned using Shield Heavy Duty Rubber Cleaner later on in the detail.
The door jambs were pretty dirty
They were cleaned during the wash with Cyclo APC via a foaming trigger head and various brushes, then cleaned/polished/protected using AF Tripple.
Obviously there was the usual dirt on the car
Some bird droppings which caused a really nasty etching
The wheels and arches were dirty
As were the brake calipers
But they cleaned up nicely
The badges also had some dirt
Which was cleaned off during the wash
Here are some pics of the damage to the paint
Driver rear fender had taken a knock
Passenger front door had too
Which was subjected to a crude touch up 'repair'
There were swirls and deep RIDS everywhere, as well as some lovely hologramming from a well know commercial outfit
So as usual the arches, tires and wheels were cleaned and decontaminated first. Products used were Cyclo APC + Mothers Fender Well Brush, Mothers Tire and Rubber Cleaner + Mothers Tire brush, Mothers FX Wheel Cleaner + Daytona Jnr + Valet Pro brush, Valet Pro Dragon's Breath, Valet Pro Citrus Tar Remover. They would later be sealed using Menzerna Powerlock and Optimum Tire Shine was used to dress the tires, with a coat of Glossworx Tire Shine being used for the front arches (the rears are 'çarpeted').
Once this was done the car was HP rinsed, the lower portions, front bumper and complete rear end pre-treated using Valet Pro Citrus Pre-wash and the car then pre-foamed using Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II which was left to dwell before being HP rinsed off again. A full 2BM wash followed using Lambswool wash mitts and AF Lather.
I then used Valet Pro Citrus Tar Remover and Dragon's Breath for the first 2 steps of the decontamination and Shield Heavy Duty Clay for the last step with ONR as lube.
I then took paint thickness readings which showed that for the most part the OEM paint averaged around 120µ with one thin'ish section near the sunroof at 90µ. It also revealed that the driver rear door had been repainted reading on average 250µ. The repaint had been blended into the rear fender, reaching up almost to the roof, and it was here that I discovered some clear coat failure.
It would seem that whomever was polishing out the sanding marks from the respray rolled over from the repainted area onto the OEM paint using the same (presumably) wool pad and rotary with an aggressive cutting compound, and effectively polished off the clear coat. :bang:
It blows my mind how people can have complete disregard for other people's possessions.
You can clearly see the faded/scratched base coat with no clear on the upper portion in this after pic. Nothing short of a repaint is going to fix that.
So anyway, on to to the actual paint correction. After a few test spots I settled on Menzerna FG400/ LC Cyan Hydrotech Pad followed by Menzerna SF4000 / LC Crimson Hydrotech, all using the Flex 3401 VRG.
This is a pic from one of the test spots, only after the initial cut.
The B-pillars would be corrected using Menzerna FG400/LC CCS Orange pad (4") followed by Menzerna SF4000 / LC CCS Grey pad (4") on a shield DA - the same approach was used on the tailights.
The paint was then protected using Soft99 Fusso Coat (Dark) before I got around to dealing with the rest of the items, such as they exhaust tips, whcih went from this
To this, after being cleaned and then polished using Meguiars NXT All Metal Polish
The glass was then cleaned using Glossworx Glass Cleaner. The exterior plastics and window rubbers cleaned using Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner and protected using Aerospace 303 protectant.
Here are a few shots I managed to grab before the owner arrived and the sun completely disappeared.
As you can see some deeper RIDS remained - I was not prepared to chase them on a relatively new daily driver.
Here you can see the failed clear coat again
Total time spent = 27 hours
As always, thanks for looking and any comments or questions are welcomed :hi:
