Halon
07-08-2020, 09:10 AM
Hi there, first time posting here. I'm an avid car enthusiast, but still a bit of rookie at detailing. Took a couple local classes put on by a local detailing company years ago and am finally starting to get into this. Being stuck inside from Covid with the family all day, I've found detailing as a way to escape the madness/boredom in the house and have some alone time. In the last 2 months I've detailed 8 vehicles so far, and am starting on number 9 which is my neighbors car.
Moving on to my neighbors 78 Firebird. It's a light blue metallic that he had repainted years ago. Really hard to see swirls with this color, but we did find some markings, especially this one spot on the hood. I watched him wash the car and he uses one of those store bought Eagle One soap canons that attach to a garden hose, and then he goes around the car with a soft brush once he foamed/soaped the car. I told him I think I know where these scuff marks came from...
Anyway, I taught him the 2 bucket method to use in the future. The plastic bag test the car was surprisingly smooth already. We skipped chemical decon and did a quick clay using detail spray and the Griots clay sponge. Pulled the car in his garage and setup a test area right on this worst spot we could find which was on his hood. I'll start by saying the protection product we decided to use on his car is the TW Hybrid line, and I'm using a Griots G9 machine. So I started with a 6" orange LC pad and the Hybrid Polish Wax AIO. It did OK, but we could still see the marks a bit. So I then switched over to M205 and an orange LC pad. Didn't see much of a difference over the AIO. Then switched to M105 and orange pad, which honestly for the small amount of experience I've had, the M105 + orange pad has taken care of pretty much everything I've worked on. To my surprise, it still left a lot to be desired on this particular scuffed area. I switched over to the most aggressive pad I own, which is an SDO blue pad. See the attached photo, but this was 3 passes with that pad + M105. You can see the scuff pretty clearly in the fluorescent light reflection. In general it looks much better then it did before, but still I can't believe how much of the scuff remains. I can't feel them with my fingernail or anything, I truly thought the 105 was going to erase it. This was a very flat part of the hood so I wasn't seeing any stalling on the machine. I had the speed set to the 4-5 range.
I ordered some stuff off AG last night, hopefully it arrives in a reasonable amount of time, but looking for any advise on why I'm not seeing better results. My M105 is almost out, so I ordered some Griots FCC, and I also ordered a 5" backing plate since I hear those run nicer with less stalling. And I ordered some 5" Uro-Fiber pads since I think those will have a little more cut.
For now, our plan is to compound all the horizontal surfaces tonight. Then follow it up with the TW Hybrid AIO application with orange pad over the entire car. The color hides swirls so well we just would rather not compound the vertical surfaces since they actually look pretty good with just the AIO. Then any remaining scuffs that we are not able to get out, We will come back and redo those spots once the new stuff arrives from AG. That way his car doesn't have to sit in detail jail for weeks potentially while we wait.
Any feedback for a rookie would be much appreciated, thank you!
Moving on to my neighbors 78 Firebird. It's a light blue metallic that he had repainted years ago. Really hard to see swirls with this color, but we did find some markings, especially this one spot on the hood. I watched him wash the car and he uses one of those store bought Eagle One soap canons that attach to a garden hose, and then he goes around the car with a soft brush once he foamed/soaped the car. I told him I think I know where these scuff marks came from...
Anyway, I taught him the 2 bucket method to use in the future. The plastic bag test the car was surprisingly smooth already. We skipped chemical decon and did a quick clay using detail spray and the Griots clay sponge. Pulled the car in his garage and setup a test area right on this worst spot we could find which was on his hood. I'll start by saying the protection product we decided to use on his car is the TW Hybrid line, and I'm using a Griots G9 machine. So I started with a 6" orange LC pad and the Hybrid Polish Wax AIO. It did OK, but we could still see the marks a bit. So I then switched over to M205 and an orange LC pad. Didn't see much of a difference over the AIO. Then switched to M105 and orange pad, which honestly for the small amount of experience I've had, the M105 + orange pad has taken care of pretty much everything I've worked on. To my surprise, it still left a lot to be desired on this particular scuffed area. I switched over to the most aggressive pad I own, which is an SDO blue pad. See the attached photo, but this was 3 passes with that pad + M105. You can see the scuff pretty clearly in the fluorescent light reflection. In general it looks much better then it did before, but still I can't believe how much of the scuff remains. I can't feel them with my fingernail or anything, I truly thought the 105 was going to erase it. This was a very flat part of the hood so I wasn't seeing any stalling on the machine. I had the speed set to the 4-5 range.
I ordered some stuff off AG last night, hopefully it arrives in a reasonable amount of time, but looking for any advise on why I'm not seeing better results. My M105 is almost out, so I ordered some Griots FCC, and I also ordered a 5" backing plate since I hear those run nicer with less stalling. And I ordered some 5" Uro-Fiber pads since I think those will have a little more cut.
For now, our plan is to compound all the horizontal surfaces tonight. Then follow it up with the TW Hybrid AIO application with orange pad over the entire car. The color hides swirls so well we just would rather not compound the vertical surfaces since they actually look pretty good with just the AIO. Then any remaining scuffs that we are not able to get out, We will come back and redo those spots once the new stuff arrives from AG. That way his car doesn't have to sit in detail jail for weeks potentially while we wait.
Any feedback for a rookie would be much appreciated, thank you!