Post Thanksgiving Details

[budman3]

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving :cheers:. I was able to detail two cars over the past tow days. The temperature never went above 35 for the details, so it was quite frigid. First up was a 2005(?) Nissan Maxima. The owners have two kids and it was quite evident because there were a ton of scratches and marring on the lower panels. The roof, on the other hand was almost perfect, funny how that happens :). I did a traditional wash with Optimum Car wash and the Ulti-mitt, and boy what a combo. There are still suds in the yard from yesterday (frozen now, but still amazing). I used Optimum Hyper Compound with a 4" CCS yellow cutting pad with a rotary followed by XMT2 via the UDM, speed 6 with 5.5" CCS white polishing pad. I finished off with the Surf City combo- Nano seal removed with Nano Shine glaze and some OCW.

Pictures:

Before-
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1631.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1633.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1632.jpg

After:
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1660.jpg

Before:
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1636.jpg

After rotary and UDM- not perfect but improved
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1638.jpg


Before- taped up for 50/50 shot (rotary only)
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1640.jpg

OHC worked in-

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1641.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1642.jpg

50/50 shot-
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1646.jpg


It was getting dark out so the afters aren't outstanding but you get the idea :)-
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1651.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1653.jpg

[budman3]

And up today was a fairly new Chevy Trailblazer. It had contanimation and rail dust like you wouldn't believe. It was 29 out today so I got to try out ONR. I have previously used QEW and didn't note all that much difference. The wheels and tires were also cleaned with ONR (after the vehicle was done) with a different sea sponge and took an hour. Next was a thorough clay job, with FK425 and that took a half hour. Since the swirls weren't too bad on the vehicle I decided to use Poorboy's PwS with a 5.5" light cut pad with the UDM on speed 5. I applied a line of polish on every panel around the vehicle and then proceded to polish and seal. I was able to polish and seal this Trailblazer in 13 minutes!! New record?! :righton:. I let that sit for a little over an hour while I did the interior. I removed the PwS and applied a layer of Optimum Opti-seal. The results were really nice, especially for white.

Pictures:

Talk about contanimation-
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/trailblazer/HPIM1664.jpg

Removed with Stuf clay (Erazer yellow) with FK425:
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/trailblazer/HPIM1665.jpg

PwS applied to the panels before (PwS in picutres was Beta version, same as production less color and scent):
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/trailblazer/HPIM1666.jpg

Even after ONR, clay and FK425, PwS was able to clean this off the vehicle... talk about a heavy duty cleaner!
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/trailblazer/HPIM1667.jpg

Outside Pics:
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/trailblazer/HPIM1670.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/trailblazer/HPIM1672.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/trailblazer/HPIM1674.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/trailblazer/HPIM1680.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/trailblazer/HPIM1679.jpg

[sparkie]

Wet Sanding next?
Is that 3 dents on the front fender?
Anyhoo nice job...35F now that's cold. You made her look new again...
Being that cold I bet you was like this little guy here:buffing::D
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/kmford8/maxima/HPIM1653.jpg

[carnut00]

i thought polish with sealant was yellowish? Cars came out real nice.

[Tonya]

Very nice job! Thanks for sharing!

[budman3]

Wet Sanding next?
Is that 3 dents on the front fender?
Anyhoo nice job...35F now that's cold. You made her look new again...
Being that cold I bet you was like this little guy here:buffing::D
The finish on the Maxima would probably need a wool pad to recover, wetsand on the bad spots (trunk, hood). Yea, theres a few nice dents on the fender, I guess a basketball hoop fell on it ...

It was cold outside but what's nice about washing in the winter is no humidity. It was also windy so the car dried in no time :). After it was washed it was put in the garage and a few halogens warmed it up in there a little bit.


i thought polish with sealant was yellowish? Cars came out real nice.

Yes, but this was a beta version I recieved last January, its the same as the production version minue the scent and color.


Very nice job! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for your comments :D

[Jimmie]

Both cars look great Budman. lol, about the suds from Optimum Car Wash. I just used it the for the first time last week. Lots of suds.

[budman3]

To say the least I am impressed with the car wash. With the Ulti-Mitt, I like to soak it in the bucket and then squeeze out all of the suds along the top of the doors to put suds on the whole side of the vehicle and then do a traditional wash after that... no need to buy a foam gun or cannon :). I'm looking forward to try out the rest of the Optimum line.

[joe.p]

The maxima looks nice.. but you did a great job with the white paint..

Budman3..i have used ONR and QEW as well..i found the ONR to be better wash..i found QEW can streak like no other and reeks havic on wool mitts...just my observation

btw..i noticed the new version of PWS is white..i have a bottle of the beta version which is orange and smells like dreamsicles..how much of a difference is there from the beta version to the finished product?

[supercharged]

Very nice job, both vehicles turned out great!
Question: how do you like Nano seal? Is it close to any other products AG carries?

[budman3]

Nano seal is a very nice product. I used it before on a dark blue Tundra and it looked great. The only problem was that I applied it with the UDM and it was very difficult to remove. I had to go over everything with OCW to remove the residue. So I'm not sure if the Nano Seal made the paint look good or the OCW. I then bought the Nano Shie glaze after Surf City recommended using that ontop of the Nano Seal for easier removal. I used this technique on the Maxima, both applied by hand and it was still a little hard to remove, thus another OCW wipedown. I wasn't overly impressed with the results of the Maxima, I'm not sure if it was just the lighting or what, but I was hoping for it to look better. It was probably just the lighting... but I am very impressed with the Nano Seal and OCW combo, it rivals the look of Wolfgang DGPS.

Joe- There were 3 different beta versions that were given out as samples to try. This was the third and PB added the orange and creamsicle scent to this formula to make the PwS that's on the market now.

[joe.p]

This was the third and PB added the orange and creamsicle scent to this formula to make the PwS that's on the market now.
the PWS i have is the one described in the above post..iirc i thought i had an earlier version..anyways you produced some very nice results with it

[killrflake]

I sure give you a lot of credit Budman for doing those winter details. I don't know how old you are, but those cold washings start to get to you after you get up in years. I'm 56 and never thought twice about cold car washes when I was a young sprout. Now, after several surgical disc fusions in my back and
my hands getting arthritic, I still get out there and try, but it takes a lot longer and I'll need a few days to recoup. In the end of the day I'm proud of the job I did. Take care of yourself today so you'll still be able to work tomorrow. Sorry to preach, just my .02.