I posted two days about about the recent detail I completed on my mother's Maxima here: http://www.autopia.org/forum/click-brag/138347-full-paint-correction-then-some-*56k-beware*.html
That was my 3rd detail ever. My first detail was on my car and then the second was my wife's car.
I didn't take as many pictures during my car's detail, particularly before pictures, but I hope this thread is interesting to some. I bought the car used with 50k miles. It had been maintained nicely and cleaned pretty well, but not to my standards.
This was my first every detail since I began reading up on proper detailing so there is plenty to improve, but it was a fun learning experience.
I initially became interested in detailing after reading the Adam's Polishes forums. I bought their starter wash/wax kit and then later bought a Porter Cable machine and their starter polishing kit. A lot of their products are great, but their pads and polishes are very underwhelming which forced me to try wet sanding in a few spots due to some RDS that I couldn't get out.
This was the first spot I ever tried to wet sand. 2000 grit, then 2500 grit, and then polished out with my basic Adam's kit.
And polished out:
Well, that gave me confidence and I proceeded slowly and carefully:
This is back before I had my halogen lights so I only had the garage lights to go by, but it looked pretty nice:
hood:
trunk:
I was pretty happy with these two areas, but realized it's dangerous to go around wet sanding the car when I don't have a paint depth gauge. I decided to do more research and this is one of the sites I found. I decided to go buy my halogen lights, Tuf Buf 5" wool pads, and Meg's 105. Wow! One set of this stuff was like 5 tedious sets of my most aggressive Adam's pad/polish. This totally changed the game for me.
I don't have a ton of pictures of 50/50 shots and what not as this was my first detail and I'm taking pictures with my iPhone. I don't know how to properly capture swirl marks like most are able to do.
Here are a few polished shots:
Under the halogens:
Reflection shots before any wax:
So before I actually started machining, I wanted to clean up the fender wells and wheels and paint the calipers.
Before and after wheel wells:
Cleaned up nicely:
The wheels looked pretty nasty too. Sadly, I cleaned these before I knew anything about deironizor, Tarminator, etc so I just used some APC and random de-tar product I found at AutoZone along with a LOT of elbow grease. I then clayed and sealed them with Adam's machine super sealant.
I also cleaned and machine polished the faces of my wheels. I need to go back and hand polish them as I know I can do better that way.
Cleaned the engine with APC, wheel brush, and Adam's Super VRT:
The interior wasn't bad, but I dressed it in Adam's Leather Conditioner:
I hated the gold colored Chevy Bowties on the car and some of the Malibu guys are buying factory color aerosol paint, clearcoat, and painting the Bowties themselves. I figured I'd give it a shot!
So I carefully taped around the Bowties, using a toothpick and razor blade to cover the chrome surrounding the gold portion. Then, I placed my $1 drop cloth across the car in the front and back, cut a little hole for the Bowties, and then taped around the hole to seal it to the plastic.
So I laid down 5 coats of paint and 4 coats of clear and let it dry. I knew I'd have to wet sand it down.
You can see how it's not level at all:
That's better:
I then hand polished it the rest of the way and was left with this. Please excuse the polish in the cracks. I picked it out with a toothpick once it was dry.
I also added this chrome strip on the middle lower front grill. I don't like tacky add-ons, but I feel it flows nicely with the rest of the front. Here's the overall look of the front of the car with the Bowties and strip:
A co-worker bumped my rear bumper and I had to take it to the body shop to get fixed. They did a decent job on the bumper, but look at the marks they left! I presume they were wiping off polishing dust with a dirty rag?!?
I'm glad I now have the skills to fix it!
This was my first effort at real detailing. I have just placed a large order for some new items and definitely plan on stepping up my game on this car. More to come and thanks for reading!
That was my 3rd detail ever. My first detail was on my car and then the second was my wife's car.
I didn't take as many pictures during my car's detail, particularly before pictures, but I hope this thread is interesting to some. I bought the car used with 50k miles. It had been maintained nicely and cleaned pretty well, but not to my standards.
This was my first every detail since I began reading up on proper detailing so there is plenty to improve, but it was a fun learning experience.
I initially became interested in detailing after reading the Adam's Polishes forums. I bought their starter wash/wax kit and then later bought a Porter Cable machine and their starter polishing kit. A lot of their products are great, but their pads and polishes are very underwhelming which forced me to try wet sanding in a few spots due to some RDS that I couldn't get out.
This was the first spot I ever tried to wet sand. 2000 grit, then 2500 grit, and then polished out with my basic Adam's kit.
And polished out:
Well, that gave me confidence and I proceeded slowly and carefully:
This is back before I had my halogen lights so I only had the garage lights to go by, but it looked pretty nice:
hood:
trunk:
I was pretty happy with these two areas, but realized it's dangerous to go around wet sanding the car when I don't have a paint depth gauge. I decided to do more research and this is one of the sites I found. I decided to go buy my halogen lights, Tuf Buf 5" wool pads, and Meg's 105. Wow! One set of this stuff was like 5 tedious sets of my most aggressive Adam's pad/polish. This totally changed the game for me.
I don't have a ton of pictures of 50/50 shots and what not as this was my first detail and I'm taking pictures with my iPhone. I don't know how to properly capture swirl marks like most are able to do.
Here are a few polished shots:
Under the halogens:
Reflection shots before any wax:
So before I actually started machining, I wanted to clean up the fender wells and wheels and paint the calipers.
Before and after wheel wells:
Cleaned up nicely:
The wheels looked pretty nasty too. Sadly, I cleaned these before I knew anything about deironizor, Tarminator, etc so I just used some APC and random de-tar product I found at AutoZone along with a LOT of elbow grease. I then clayed and sealed them with Adam's machine super sealant.
I also cleaned and machine polished the faces of my wheels. I need to go back and hand polish them as I know I can do better that way.
Cleaned the engine with APC, wheel brush, and Adam's Super VRT:
The interior wasn't bad, but I dressed it in Adam's Leather Conditioner:
I hated the gold colored Chevy Bowties on the car and some of the Malibu guys are buying factory color aerosol paint, clearcoat, and painting the Bowties themselves. I figured I'd give it a shot!
So I carefully taped around the Bowties, using a toothpick and razor blade to cover the chrome surrounding the gold portion. Then, I placed my $1 drop cloth across the car in the front and back, cut a little hole for the Bowties, and then taped around the hole to seal it to the plastic.
So I laid down 5 coats of paint and 4 coats of clear and let it dry. I knew I'd have to wet sand it down.
You can see how it's not level at all:
That's better:
I then hand polished it the rest of the way and was left with this. Please excuse the polish in the cracks. I picked it out with a toothpick once it was dry.
I also added this chrome strip on the middle lower front grill. I don't like tacky add-ons, but I feel it flows nicely with the rest of the front. Here's the overall look of the front of the car with the Bowties and strip:
A co-worker bumped my rear bumper and I had to take it to the body shop to get fixed. They did a decent job on the bumper, but look at the marks they left! I presume they were wiping off polishing dust with a dirty rag?!?
I'm glad I now have the skills to fix it!
This was my first effort at real detailing. I have just placed a large order for some new items and definitely plan on stepping up my game on this car. More to come and thanks for reading!
