2012 Corolla Full Detailed and Pinnacle Black Label Coating

[Tato]

Good evening my friends,

This weekend I received a 2012 Toyota Corolla in Silver for a full detail and coating application. The car was needing attention in many spots I had to define a very precise strategy to tackle everything on time, since after every improvement any flaw started showing like a sore thumb.

What you'll watch next are just some pics of the extensive detailing I did on this car. Many steps couldn't be captured on camera and some pictures I haven't added to avoid making the thread longer than it's about to be. I may add some extra if asked to (and I have the image).

In advance, I'd like to say that I haven't took many after coating pics (received new customer just after doing it, night arrived, etc), but everybody here knows from where comes a stunning finish. What you'll see bellow is all about detailing, and mainly the preparation work.

This thread will be guided in picture form for easier follow up.

To the pics...

Car arrived, looking for the light at the end of my garage


Started inspecting, and found some 'day-to-day use damage'


Much of the lower pars were covered in road tar


Which took much clay work to come out


The wheels had large amount of break dust embedded on it


Closer:


Looking from this angle, looked like the car was begging for some help.


Trim and Rubber exhibited some kind of 'old dressing'


Inside Door handle and nail scratches


Keyhole grime (hope this is not a bad word!)


Taillight exhibiting it's swirls


Fuel compartment looked whitish and dry after fuel leakage from the pump, I suppose




---Inspecting paint condition---

This is using my swirl finder light


Now I'm using 'communitarian swirl finder light', aka The Sun. When swirls on silver are showing this bad, it means trouble...


Right?


More of the same, swirls on the hood under the sun


Closer to the front. Everywhere I looked, I saw swirls and scratches.


Glass was also covered in road film and waterspots


Driver's door opened, you can notice embedded dirty on frame


Leather seats were also needing attention, so were the whole interior


No need to do 50/50 on this, right?


--- What I did!? ---

Fight or Flight? No doubt I was really looking into starting this detail as soon as possible, since it was easy to notice car's full potential to be achieved at the end.

I decided tackling the wheels, first.

Conventional Cleaning methods


Using brushes, APCs and degreasers




Even after an extensive routine of cleansing, wheels still looked far from it's best.


To achieve the finish I was looking for I've stepped up to Iron-X paste (applied using a large detailing 'paint' brush)


Another wheel, same process:


Then Clayed every section of the wheels


After extensive cleansing and clay, the wheels were polished using Flex 3401, a 5" hybrid white pad and FG400 from Menzerna. Tricky spots where done by hand. This setup improved the wheel finish in little as 3 passes.

Time to foam the entire car


Get the brushes out...


... and in.


This process was realized everywhere brushes fitted the car.

The car was then CLAYED using Nanoskin fine Grade Mitt (no pictures). Finish felt and sounded like coarse sand paper before, totally clean and smooth after the claying approach.

---Time to get the polisher---

To start the test spot and further polishing, I've selected a Flex 3401 polisher and many white polishing pads in different sizes. My polish of choice was Menzerna SF4000.


Taped the trim, as important as boring...


Done some test spots


Although I've selected white pads, and they passed the test spot, car had so many RIDS that I stepped up to Blue Hybrid Pad on some areas.


From what I could observe, at least to the naked eye, finish was awesome with both pads, with slight better cut on the blue one.

Inside door handles was polished by hand using a Cyan HT applicator and FG400


Keyhole degreased (small details, big difference...), although this picture do not valorize my work, personally it looked much better.


Some 'in between' detailing, I've used Meg's #39, then followed with 303 aerospace protectant to maintain the finish


This kind of 'transfer' was first removed by hand, followed by machine polishing the mirror cases


Done


RIDS were everywhere. Here's a small test spot on scratched area to help me getting better knowledge about my process


The 'easier' part was removed


And this is what remained after the section done. Barely seen. The same process was repeated in at least 5-6 other RIDS around the finish.


50/50 on the taillights


Almost done polishing, from back...


to front.


I was able to see many advances on the reflection side, but it was now time to inspect results under the sun, where everything started.

[Tato]

Sun shots


from the front


middle of the hood


from it's 'upper' part


Here's a close-up / zoom from previous picture. You can notice a fine scratch which remained there (on lower right of navigation preview).


During polishing step, all glass was polished using Meguiar's D300 and an orange light cutting pad, followed by Pinnacle Black Label Cleansing Polish by Machine.

On other sections, Cleansing polish was applied by hand after polish residue removal.

External Trim and Rubber where cleansed using Meguiar's #39.

Wheel wells 'painted metal arch' (it's most external part) was polished by hand using FG400. This detail made a huge difference at the end.

After taking some sun pictures, I put the car back for the last wash.


On this step my plan is to remove polish dust, actual dust, and mainly any residue of my cleaners. I do this to all vehicles I'll coat, and I only have good return of this practice.

Start with a rinse


Foam the car


Bucket wash with my Gold Mitt which is dedicated for washing 'clean finishes'.


Rinse it thoroughly


Dried using 2 waffle towels, making an attempt to avoid any streaking.


I like the clean feel to start coating a car.

This glass looked horrible on the start... Now it's shiny and reflective, as glass!


Preparation is the key, I owe this to AG community


Can't keep myself from giving (at least) 50% credit of my work to my detailing partner, which some may know by 'Tata'.

Here she's drying intricate areas with her talent and technique.


She's also an awesome driver, and generally she maneuvers the cars in here (I'm not ashamed of saying this!). Back to detail, Car looked gorgeous that time.


Here's an after picture of the worst road tar contaminated area. Much better now.


Tires dressed using CG New Car High shine dressing. You may see some flaw on the wheels which are actually scratches from the sidewalk


It's possible to look through the glass now, and this fact was pretty much noted by customer.


After of rubber trim, cleaned to factory new finish. It was coated as well, afterwards, to maintain this look for the coming years.


Light won't disperse in waterspots no more


And door frames looks properly detailed now


Interior received full cleansing, thorough vacuuming, brushes, carpet, upholstery, every rubber inside doors, anything you can imagine. Solid trim received 303 protectant. Leather trim was treated with Mothers High Tech Leather Cream Moisture, a very quality product.

Leather interior was cleansed in 2 steps. First we used CG Extreme leather cleaner in 5 to 1 dilution. Next, leather was cleaned again using Mothers leather cleaner. After that, the protectant was applied.


Looks brand new, but the 'touch' this product leaves is really great.


Have I mentioned this car was Fully Coated (all painted parts inside and out, glass, wheels, trim) using Pinnacle Black Label Coatings? I've used an UFO applicator and a Gold Plush MF Towel.


See... I told this part was not the most important on this detail.

And a last shot I took prior taking the car back to customer:



Before finishing, I'd like to let my appreciation to everyone who followed this thread through the end. It's long, even though it's missing many parts of what I've actually done (ex: wet sanded front bumper scratch, improved many rids, polished around emblems, etc). This was a very intense work, but every drop of sweat, every minute invested worth it at the end.

Comments, critics, suggestions, questions? Always, always welcome.

Thanks for watching,

Kind Regards.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Wow! Incredible write up Rafael!! Nicely done sir! You continually raise the bar.

[Charger12]

Awesome! Awesome job,it shows u truly take pride in ur work!!

[richy]

Great job on that car!! My Corolla job was dealing with a much smaller budget and couldn't go to the extent you did on this one. Well done indeed!

[KneeDragr]

Hard to imagine a car only 2 years old needing that much work, but it sure did.

[jms493]

So you went right from Polishing to coating? No sealant or wax applied?

[KneeDragr]

So you went right from Polishing to coating? No sealant or wax applied?

You dont want to put a coating over a sealant or wax, it wont bond.

[Hazcat]

Nice turn around!!!!!

[Pinpoint_Precision]

Great work Rafael. Bom Trabalho.