Metalic Blue Rav4 D151,Engine & Interior (pics)

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Whats up all,

I'm in the mood to do a write up so figured I'd show some work done with my Griots and D151 and what it's capable of along with an engine detail and a little interior clean up.

This guy hired us to do this detail for his wife. We cut him a pretty good deal and delivered even better results.

Here is a list of products used.

Exterior:

Dawn soap (to strip old wax etc.)
Stanley electric pressure washer
Megs APC 5:1 (for tires)
Megs mild blue clay
Megs D151 Paint Reconditioning Cream (the pink stuff!)
GG DA polisher
LC Orange flat 5.5" pads
LC White flat 5.5" pads
Megs #20 paint sealant
Megs Hyperdressing (tires and engine)
Megs Degreaser 5:1

Interior:
Megs APC
LGM extractor
Megs Ultimate Protectant

So as the title states...the paint was metallic blue...and swirled all to hell...with a few water spots...and to add a little fun to the game it was a nice 107 degrees or so outside Gotta love Arizona.

So here is a little peak of what we were looking at:



Along with a little of this:



And to top it off, some of this:




So....we washed it down with dawn...sprayed the tires with APC...pressure washed them clean and hit up under the wheel wells and then clayed it.

The tires were nasty...all kinds of stuff gets on them out in the desert, orange suds anyone?



A nice slow pressure washing of them after the APC was applied made them come out nice and clean...then applied Megs HD 2:1 to them and here is how they looked:



The paint was pretty heavily swirled...and was very apparent due to the color.
So i started with a LC white pad...primed it with the KB method and did a test spot.

It turned out well especially for a single pass...I used speed 5 and decent pressure..and here is how it looked before and after:



And after:




This is why i love D151....it really is a TRUE AIO...it cleans the paint...does decent correction and leaves a nice glossy (and smooth) surface. The wax finish is nice but I always top it with a sealant. It's a little extra time but i like to leave knowing i left my customer with some really GOOD and LONG TERM protection.

The drivers side passenger door was a bit more of a pain...i had to break out a LC orange pad to do it first and then go over it with the white. I know it was a 'single pass' job but it just wasn't correcting as much as I WANTED it to be..so it took some extra time but i felt better with the results.

here is the before:



As you can see the swirls are a bit DEEPER than the last photos...and thats why it took a little more of an aggressive approach to get it to presentable condition.

Here it is after:



As you can see a couple RIDS were leftover but the vast majority were removed...and the paint was really glossed up.


I ran into the same thing with the hood. A pass with the white pad didn't 'cut it'...literally...so back to the LC orange i went...



Nope...not pretty at all....but a couple passes later and here is how it turned out:



Again..a couple RIDS...but most of the swirls were removed...


Here is another nice shot of some swirls on the gas tank..

TIP: When taking photos for before and after...a 'marker' of some sort to show the exact spot of the swirls...and the EXACT spot AFTER the swirls are gone is really a big plus. I've seen posts where you see a close up of a spot of paint swirled and then a close up of a spot of paint swirl free...and thats all well and good...but i think showing EXACTLY the same spot really helps to depict the before and after transition that the person doing the detail...and the products/tools used are capable of..and how the final result showed up...

So in the pic above i used the window washing fluid sprayer as my 'marker'...this time I used the gas tank cut out:



Here you can see a ton of swirls...and if you look closely you can see a few deeper scratches too. THIS spot though, only took the white pad with D151 and a single pass to get pretty much full correction:



You can see it not only got rid of the swirls..but also got rid of that horrible hazy look that it had and left a nice bright finish


Now incase you forgot...we had some NICE water spot action going on at the passenger rear quarter panel. You see this community I was working in in Mesa,Az has a nice...lovely water system for the sprinklers. The community has man made lakes all over...and the water from the lakes is used for the ALL the sprinklers for the front yards of all the houses (since all front yards are kept by the HOA). Well this water loves to find ways onto cars lol...and leaves NASTY NASTY water spots. I've done window cleaning for a few people in there who had sprinklers hit their windows and the film left over was SO bad...they just had to replace the window...because the texture of the glass was like a brillo pad....well thats what THIS was:



Well once again...D151 did its job (and so did i if i say so myself ) and here is how it turned out




Water spots! We don't need no stinking water spots!



From water spots to looking like a nice cool pool of water...in the 107 degree heat...this image was a nice one i'll tell you that lol.


Speaking of cool images...the spare tire cover was swirled as well (come on you knew that though didn't you!)....looky looky



But the after shots were beauteous!



Check out the close up....

I call this...my Oasis in the Desert shot:




Cool blue palm tree in the reflection.

All in all the exterior turned out great..but had a sad ending...which i'll tell you about in the end...but for now....BEAUTY SHOTS!

The top gets love too...



Gotta do my pose lol


Hello down there...



Sweet sweet reflections:



This shot was pretty cool




Check out that gloss....from the right!





Slideeeeee to the left...now cha cha yall




(CONTINUED BELOW)...

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Now like i said we did the engine on this baby too...heres a quick before (btw we did this FIRST...would make no sense to do greasy engine AFTER beautifying the paint)




It was actually more dust that grease...but dirty nevertheless.

A light mist down washes away a good portion of the loose dirt...then some Megs Degreaser or even Megs APC+ ...and a little agitation and sprayed off...followed by liberally spraying the compartment with Megs HD 2:1 and here is whatcha get:




Pretty huh?


While i was doing this my sis was working the inside...it wasn't a full interior, didn't really need it, but she did shampoo the floor mats do a basic clean/vac of everything and then dress it...

Little more Az dust?




No more thank you veryyyyy much:



From another angle before:



And the after:



Ronald McNasty floor mats are a no no lol




She got that lookin better though:



This shot is awesome i thought...

2 tone seats with 2 tone carpet:



Door panels were a little bad...mainly dry...but came out sweet

before::



And after

Nice deep satin gloss



So all in all...this baby turned out quite nice...they hired us for a monthly wash which is nice cause...well...you get to maintain alllllllllll that work you put into it and insure that no swirls are ptu back into the paint...right?

Well...not totally...you see unfortunately there are other variables that cause swirls like...people! We went back to do the 2nd wash on it...and noticed 1/2 the hood was swirled all to hell...like nearly as bad as when we first did it....the other half was as we left it though. We were questioning ourselves wondering if it was just something we missed...or if the product filled the scratches and they were now reappearing...we'd never had that happen before though and we had done several maintenance washes for cars that we did the SAME D151 single pass on...

Well then...it happened...the owner came out, an elderly man..and said 'oh hey you guys check out what i got for real cheap at such n such a store'...before i could look up to see what he had...he was dragging whatever it was ACROSS the hood...the same part of the hood that was swirl city. I cringed and he went on to say 'Yeah this is an emergency light so if you get a flat out there with all these crazy drivers...this light should help them see you...and it magnetic, look!' (dragging across the hood CONTINUES). I told him 'yeah thats great but dragging it on the hood like that will scratch the paint back up', but he was too excited about his new light to care much about what i said lol. *sigh*...so after he left i looked at my sis and said 'well, I guess that answers the mystery swirl question huh?'

Can't win em all people...you just can't lol...but hey he's happy so thats good...

here is one last pic...we'll just put the hood up on this pic to try to NOT remember what happened to it after we left lol



Hope you enjoyed the write up and the photos...and if you haven't tried D151 for a single pass...you should. The correction ability alone is worth it.

Thanks for looking and reading!

take care all

[oldmodman]

Very nice work on a really hot day.

Don't worry too much about the owner installed damage. Some people just can't be educated.

Did a lot of the underhood dust come from that gigantic dust storm that ate Phoenix last week? I bet it got into everything.

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Very nice work on a really hot day.

Don't worry too much about the owner installed damage. Some people just can't be educated.

Did a lot of the underhood dust come from that gigantic dust storm that ate Phoenix last week? I bet it got into everything.

Man that dust storm was INSANE...but no, this detail was done a few months back but i just now got around to doing the write up...thats just from normal everyday Az dust lol.

I sure hope to get a few more calls for clean ups thought after that storm...got a couple...but the weather is still crazy so im not sure if ppl are holding off or going to the enemy (drive thru washes) to get their ride done.

Like you said...some people you just can't educate....or most?

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Nice job, Wills.

Did you do an IPA wipedown before taking the after pics? D151 will fill big time!

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Nice job, Wills.

Did you do an IPA wipedown before taking the after pics? D151 will fill big time!

In this case not the whole car but enough to know it wasn't filling. I KNOW where the scratches came from lol...and it wasn't from us not doing our job. Ive also seen other threads of ppl doing an ISP and the results were good...which is why i like the stuff.

[mdb917]

What a fun and informative review!

One of your comments got me rolling: "Ronald McNasty floor mats...."

[kronos]

That's a sweet turnaround. Have you tried D151 with the tangerine or cyan hydro-techs?

TIP: When taking photos for before and after...a 'marker' of some sort to show the exact spot of the swirls...and the EXACT spot AFTER the swirls are gone is really a big plus. I've seen posts where you see a close up of a spot of paint swirled and then a close up of a spot of paint swirl free...and thats all well and good...but i think showing EXACTLY the same spot really helps to depict the before and after transition that the person doing the detail...and the products/tools used are capable of..and how the final result showed up...

That's a good tip. That's why I like seeing the 50/50's. It shows the correction on one side and the swirly mess on the other.

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

What a fun and informative review!

One of your comments got me rolling: "Ronald McNasty floor mats...."

Hahaha yeah i laughed a little to myself when i went back to re-read my article and check for mistakes...Im a musician man, goofy stuff just pops into my head lol

That's a sweet turnaround. Have you tried D151 with the tangerine or cyan hydro-techs?

I HAVE! My mistake when buying the HT pads is i got the thicker ones...i JUST got some low profile ones that I'm anxious to try out on our next single pass job. The Tangerine i tried out..and it worked well....but i don't know if i got a bum pad or what...but it would NOT CENTER...i reset it several times and the wobble it gave me was a pain in the ass...so i havent used it in a while...kinda sucks cause i only got one use from it.

I also used the Cyan one on this HORRIBLE ...and i mean HORRIBLE black dodge truck with D151...it did decent..but i opted to break out the 105 and Surbuf pads as the D151 was just leaving too many swirls for me to live with. I want to say i used that combo on another detail...on a couple bad spots and it worked well...but i can't say for sure.

D151 is my favorite single pass product...the only thing i also have tried and REALLY liked was Pinnacles XMT Swirl Remover. I used #2 on this Suburban HUGE Suburban Turn Around -LOTS of pics

and man did it do a nice job. The only thing with the XMT is you spend like $15 for 12 oz of it lol. You get a Suburban and your bottle is gone bye bye, maybe enough left for a SMALL car. With D151 you get a gallon for $25....so i might have to work a little more with D151..like changing over pads on certain spots...where as with the XMT #2 i used ONE pad to do the whole job...a polishing pad...and got awesome results...but if a little pad changing is all i have to do...i'm ok with that.






That's a good tip. That's why I like seeing the 50/50's. It shows the correction on one side and the swirly mess on the other.

[WRAPT C5Z06]

In this case not the whole car but enough to know it wasn't filling. I KNOW where the scratches came from lol...and it wasn't from us not doing our job. Ive also seen other threads of ppl doing an ISP and the results were good...which is why i like the stuff.

I'm not saying you put the scratches there. Just wondering of you did an IPA wipedown on the pictures you posted,