Jacob Harrod AUTOCLEAN
10-25-2020, 12:21 PM
I spent 18 hours on the exterior of this beautiful and luxurious Lexus 460
This was the first high end to me detail in "The Cathedral". Thanks to forum member Paul for giving AutoClean HQ it's name! This name has really caught on and whenever we refer to "The Cathedral'' people know where we are talking about!
The most important thing to me was that the customer was extremely pleased with the quality of his detail.
I went out of my way to make sure I gave the customer a truly amazing experience.
Check out this quote from this write up that I wrote a while back and here's a link to the write up as well.
Black Fire Bug Remover and Ammo FROTHE the bust bug remover combo? (https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/blackfire-wax-products/126683-black-fire-bug-remover-ammo-frothe-bust-bug-remover-combo.html)
One of the biggest rewards to me is knowing a technique / tip I've helped some one discover has helped them preserve and protect the car that they were so passionate about when they first bought their vehicle. Do you remember how you felt? I do. I re live it in my own way each time I see a customer pick up a car, truck, or SUV that I've just meticulously detailed, or my own vehicle that I've just detailed. My goal is to bring back memories and restore the emotion they've once had so they'll take care of it moving forward, after I've restored it, because some one with a passion, much like mine built that vehicle, not knowing who it was for. They made it just for you!
I was told that what he wanted were some horizontal scratches that ran along the passenger vertical panels repaired. There were also some deeper scratches on the trunk lid that I noticed.
I'll have one before pic for you later in this post, as I didn't have a whole lot of time to stop and take photos on this one, but from the remaining scrapes and scratches on the front fender lip and this pic I hope you can get the idea.
Of course not all of the scratches were that bad. I was actually able to remove a majority of the scratches with BLACKFIRE One Step.
The deeper scratches were compounded with 3D One and a 5.5 inch Blue HDO Cutting pad after working my way up from a polishing pad.
Horizontal scratches on vertical passenger side panels
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Horozontal_Scratches_On_Vertical_Side_Panels .jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139223/title/lexus-horozontal-scratches-on-vertical-side-panels/cat/4148)
I came up with a better plan...
I was told that the maximum budget was 500 dollars and that he didn't want the interior detailed. The deadline was Friday morning. I was told on Tuesday and I needed Wednesday to prep. I thought about it some and came to the conclusion that the best course of action was to perform a Custom Emerald Elite Exterior Package (This is my one step polish package.)I decided that I would perform the panel repair for free and also perform my Emerald Elite Exterior Package as well. I did it for half of his maximum budget.
I knew that this level of service would totally blow the customer away, and the overall appearance and quality of the job would be of the highest standard that I could offer.
I started by doing a waterless wash of the glass with the Sonax Glass Cleaner and then Polishing With the BLACKFIRE Water Spot Remover.
For more information check out Mike's review here:
https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews-by-mike-phillips/121692-review-blackfire-glass-water-spot-remover.html
I am so happy that I chose to polish the glass first because there was splatter all over. Next time I will use the 5.5 inch Blue HDO Cutting Pad rather than the 5.5 inch Force Hybrid Heavy Cutting pad as I feel that the pad that I chose was too stout for the task and caused excess splatter.
Even after the wash I had to clean excess polish, and splatter dots out of cracks, crevices, ETC despite my best efforts to blast the car down during the wash process. I even broke out the Tornador and filled it with distilled water to blast the glass polish out of some areas.
I had but one 5.5 inch Blue HDO Cutting Pad to spare, so I chose to use it for repairing the heavier defects on the paint.
I love the way that the BLACKFIRE Water Spot Remover wipes off!!! It wipes off like FROST!
https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/medium/Lexus_Front_Windshield_Polish_Removal.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139211/title/lexus-front-windshield-polish-removal/cat/4148)
Here is the rear passenger glass before
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Rear_Passenger_Glass_Before.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139224/title/lexus-rear-passenger-glass-before/cat/4148)
Here is the rear passenger glass after
https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/medium/Lexus_Rear_Passenger_Glass_After.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139215/title/lexus-rear-passenger-glass-after/cat/4148)
Here's another photo of the front passenger glass so you can get an idea of how bad the water spots were. At least on these two panels. The rest of the glass wasn't so bad but it did have lots of road film build up. My microfiber towels glided over the glass after the glass was polished.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Front_Passenger_Glass_Water_Spots.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139222/title/lexus-front-passenger-glass-water-spots/cat/4148)
After polishing the glass I adjusted all tires to the correct PSI
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tires_Adjusted_To_Correct_PSI.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139225/title/lexus-tires-adjusted-to-correct-psi/cat/4148)
Then I pulled the car out front and cleaned the wheels and tires
I cleaned the the face of the wheels once and the barrels of the wheels at least 4 times. The face of these wheels looked pretty clean but you couldn't even see the silver of the barrels. They were grimy and laden with brake dust. I cleaned the wheels and tires with a non AG wheel soap and Meguiar's Non Acid Wheel Cleaner diluted 2:1.
In addition to this I cleaned the tires 3 times with the Meguiar's Non Acid Wheel and Tire Cleaner and then I hit the tires one more time with the Pinnacle Black Label Gel Tire Cleaner.
My wife Amanda showed up and provided me with some company and conversation as I cleaned the last wheel. Mostly her telling me about some stuff about our kids and me telling her about how clean I was getting the wheels and about how awesome they looked, and then I demonstrated some techniques for her as we talked.
The wheels were sparkling clean when I was finished!
Here's a wheel before
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Wheel_Before.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139221/title/lexus-wheel-before/cat/4148)
Here's a wheel after
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Wheel_After.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139220/title/lexus-wheel-after/cat/4148)
After this it was time to perform the iron decontamination step with BLACKFIRE Iron Remover.
Great review of the BLACKFIRE Iron Remover:
https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews-by-mike-phillips/120974-review-blackfire-iron-remover-mike-phillips.html
The iron decontamination did indeed leave the paint looking brighter and since the car only had a light layer of dust on it I elected to perform the iron decontamination step before the wash as I really didn’t have any time to spare.
I pulled the car inside out of the 90 mile an hour wind, or at least that’s what it felt like, and shut the shop doors so that I could perform the most effective iron decontamination to the car.
I started with the wheels first and then moved on to the paint
Here you can see that even though the wheels were really clean there was still quite a bit of contamination to be removed through the chemical decontamination process
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Iron_Decon_Wheel.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139213/title/lexus-iron-decon-wheel/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Iron_Decon_Wheel.jpg[/url)
This is the rear bumper and as you can see the paint was pretty contaminated
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Rear_Bumper_Iron_Decon.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139214/title/lexus-rear-bumper-iron-decon/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Rear_Bumper_Iron_Decon.jpg[/url)
Here is a close up shot of the trunk lid. Even though the objective is to see no contamination watching the color changing bleeding effect is still quite satisfying.
Here’s another great write up explaining iron decontamination, except when it says, “Iron X” insert “BLACKFIRE Iron Remover”
https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews-by-mike-phillips/120974-review-blackfire-iron-remover-mike-phillips.html
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Trunk_Lid_Iron_Decon_Close_Up.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139219/title/lexus-trunk-lid-iron-decon-close-up/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Trunk_Lid_Iron_Decon_Close_Up.jpg[/url)
After the iron decon step and the back and forth of rinsing and shoving water out of the door with the floor squeegee it was now time for the wash
I don’t have any pics of the wash but I prepped my half gallon Foam Master with 48 oz of distilled water and 12 oz of BLACKFIRE Foam Soap prior to the wheel cleaning process as well as my wash buckets.
I washed the car and constantly rinsed it as the wind was blowing so hard that I had to keep rinsing the car so it wouldn’t dry.
My efforts were futile.
I sprayed foam on the car and commenced to claying with the Pinnacle Poly Clay, foaming and rinsing like some kind of madman as the wind blew and blew.
I quickly pulled the car inside, set up my Metro AirForce Express, grabbed my glass towel, dried the glass, then grabbed my guzzler and began to dry the car.
I blew out the cracks, crevices, door handles, emblems, etc.
There wasn’t much to dry as the wind had done a spectacular job of drying the car for me. All I had to do was dry some spots here and there and with my barely damp guzzler wipe out the door jambs.
Thankfully the door jambs were just barely dusty with some water in them from the wash process.
Once the car was dry it was time to get to tape’n
In the future I will probably do A LOT more tape’n and coverin’ because at the end when I was very tired and fatigued I found myself wiping off splatter dots and cleaning polish out of cracks and crevices, off of seals, etc.
This was very time consuming.
I taped off the sun roof and PPF on the side mirrors
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tape_Job_1.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139217/title/lexus-tape-job-1/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tape_Job_1.jpg[/url)
I also taped off the PPF on the hood, front bumper and rear bumper
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tape_Job_2.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139218/title/lexus-tape-job-2/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tape_Job_2.jpg[/url)
After the tape job it was time to polish the car
I polished the horizontal panels with BF One Step. After discovering that BF One Step wasn’t removing the deeper defects on the trunk lid, I compounded as much as I was comfortable doing, and then hit the trunk lid with BF One Step one more time. This made it so that you have to look really hard to see the remnants of the scratches that were once there.
I was very satisfied with the way the trunk lid turned out.
Then it was time to tackle the problem side of the car. As mentioned earlier I did some testing, and compounded the heavier defects. I also edged the lip of the fender well with my 5 inch polisher as I found this was actually the better tool for the job, perhaps because I have more experience with the tool over the Flex PiXiE.
I topped with the Pinnacle Liquid Souveran after the one step polish
The fact that the PLS boast that it compliments lighter colors is what sold me this time around.
In the future I will keep it chemically synergistic by using the Pinnacle Souveran Jeweling Wax.
https://www.autogeek.net/pinnacle-jeweling-wax-32oz.html (https://www.autogeek.net/pinnacle-jeweling-wax-32oz.html)
https://www.autogeek.net/pinliqsouvwa.html
The final step was to apply the BLACKFIRE SiO2 Wheel Seal and and shine the tires
The BLACKFIRE SiO2 Wheel Seal is easy to apply yet slightly difficult to wipe off. I really didn’t mind though as it left the wheels shimmering and well protected.
If you want to get you some I highly recommend purchasing the kit because it comes with everything you need to get the job done.
I was really excited to try this stuff out because I’ve been wanting to try it for a long time now and I finally had the opportunity and the perfect car to STRIKE!!!
The wheels looked absolutely stunning
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_6.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139207/title/lexus-after-6/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_6.jpg[/url)
This is the one before pic I have
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Before_.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139210/title/lexus-before/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Before_.jpg[/url)
Here is the final result after final glass cleaning and a quick complimentary vac
I also placed a Cobra Forest Green Edgless Polishing Cloth on the center console as well as a business card and vent tool gift to the customer.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_1.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139202/title/lexus-after-1/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_1.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_2.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139203/title/lexus-after-2/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_2.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_3.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139204/title/lexus-after-3/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_3.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_4.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139205/title/lexus-after-4/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_4.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_5.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139206/title/lexus-after-5/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_5.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_6.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139207/title/lexus-after-6/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_6.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_7.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139208/title/lexus-after-7/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_7.jpg[/url)
Lastly here are all of the products and tools I used
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tools_And_Products_Used.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139226/title/lexus-tools-and-products-used/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tools_And_Products_Used.jpg[/url)
This was the first high end to me detail in "The Cathedral". Thanks to forum member Paul for giving AutoClean HQ it's name! This name has really caught on and whenever we refer to "The Cathedral'' people know where we are talking about!
The most important thing to me was that the customer was extremely pleased with the quality of his detail.
I went out of my way to make sure I gave the customer a truly amazing experience.
Check out this quote from this write up that I wrote a while back and here's a link to the write up as well.
Black Fire Bug Remover and Ammo FROTHE the bust bug remover combo? (https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/blackfire-wax-products/126683-black-fire-bug-remover-ammo-frothe-bust-bug-remover-combo.html)
One of the biggest rewards to me is knowing a technique / tip I've helped some one discover has helped them preserve and protect the car that they were so passionate about when they first bought their vehicle. Do you remember how you felt? I do. I re live it in my own way each time I see a customer pick up a car, truck, or SUV that I've just meticulously detailed, or my own vehicle that I've just detailed. My goal is to bring back memories and restore the emotion they've once had so they'll take care of it moving forward, after I've restored it, because some one with a passion, much like mine built that vehicle, not knowing who it was for. They made it just for you!
I was told that what he wanted were some horizontal scratches that ran along the passenger vertical panels repaired. There were also some deeper scratches on the trunk lid that I noticed.
I'll have one before pic for you later in this post, as I didn't have a whole lot of time to stop and take photos on this one, but from the remaining scrapes and scratches on the front fender lip and this pic I hope you can get the idea.
Of course not all of the scratches were that bad. I was actually able to remove a majority of the scratches with BLACKFIRE One Step.
The deeper scratches were compounded with 3D One and a 5.5 inch Blue HDO Cutting pad after working my way up from a polishing pad.
Horizontal scratches on vertical passenger side panels
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Horozontal_Scratches_On_Vertical_Side_Panels .jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139223/title/lexus-horozontal-scratches-on-vertical-side-panels/cat/4148)
I came up with a better plan...
I was told that the maximum budget was 500 dollars and that he didn't want the interior detailed. The deadline was Friday morning. I was told on Tuesday and I needed Wednesday to prep. I thought about it some and came to the conclusion that the best course of action was to perform a Custom Emerald Elite Exterior Package (This is my one step polish package.)I decided that I would perform the panel repair for free and also perform my Emerald Elite Exterior Package as well. I did it for half of his maximum budget.
I knew that this level of service would totally blow the customer away, and the overall appearance and quality of the job would be of the highest standard that I could offer.
I started by doing a waterless wash of the glass with the Sonax Glass Cleaner and then Polishing With the BLACKFIRE Water Spot Remover.
For more information check out Mike's review here:
https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews-by-mike-phillips/121692-review-blackfire-glass-water-spot-remover.html
I am so happy that I chose to polish the glass first because there was splatter all over. Next time I will use the 5.5 inch Blue HDO Cutting Pad rather than the 5.5 inch Force Hybrid Heavy Cutting pad as I feel that the pad that I chose was too stout for the task and caused excess splatter.
Even after the wash I had to clean excess polish, and splatter dots out of cracks, crevices, ETC despite my best efforts to blast the car down during the wash process. I even broke out the Tornador and filled it with distilled water to blast the glass polish out of some areas.
I had but one 5.5 inch Blue HDO Cutting Pad to spare, so I chose to use it for repairing the heavier defects on the paint.
I love the way that the BLACKFIRE Water Spot Remover wipes off!!! It wipes off like FROST!
https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/medium/Lexus_Front_Windshield_Polish_Removal.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139211/title/lexus-front-windshield-polish-removal/cat/4148)
Here is the rear passenger glass before
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Rear_Passenger_Glass_Before.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139224/title/lexus-rear-passenger-glass-before/cat/4148)
Here is the rear passenger glass after
https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/medium/Lexus_Rear_Passenger_Glass_After.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139215/title/lexus-rear-passenger-glass-after/cat/4148)
Here's another photo of the front passenger glass so you can get an idea of how bad the water spots were. At least on these two panels. The rest of the glass wasn't so bad but it did have lots of road film build up. My microfiber towels glided over the glass after the glass was polished.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Front_Passenger_Glass_Water_Spots.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139222/title/lexus-front-passenger-glass-water-spots/cat/4148)
After polishing the glass I adjusted all tires to the correct PSI
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tires_Adjusted_To_Correct_PSI.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139225/title/lexus-tires-adjusted-to-correct-psi/cat/4148)
Then I pulled the car out front and cleaned the wheels and tires
I cleaned the the face of the wheels once and the barrels of the wheels at least 4 times. The face of these wheels looked pretty clean but you couldn't even see the silver of the barrels. They were grimy and laden with brake dust. I cleaned the wheels and tires with a non AG wheel soap and Meguiar's Non Acid Wheel Cleaner diluted 2:1.
In addition to this I cleaned the tires 3 times with the Meguiar's Non Acid Wheel and Tire Cleaner and then I hit the tires one more time with the Pinnacle Black Label Gel Tire Cleaner.
My wife Amanda showed up and provided me with some company and conversation as I cleaned the last wheel. Mostly her telling me about some stuff about our kids and me telling her about how clean I was getting the wheels and about how awesome they looked, and then I demonstrated some techniques for her as we talked.
The wheels were sparkling clean when I was finished!
Here's a wheel before
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Wheel_Before.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139221/title/lexus-wheel-before/cat/4148)
Here's a wheel after
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Wheel_After.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139220/title/lexus-wheel-after/cat/4148)
After this it was time to perform the iron decontamination step with BLACKFIRE Iron Remover.
Great review of the BLACKFIRE Iron Remover:
https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews-by-mike-phillips/120974-review-blackfire-iron-remover-mike-phillips.html
The iron decontamination did indeed leave the paint looking brighter and since the car only had a light layer of dust on it I elected to perform the iron decontamination step before the wash as I really didn’t have any time to spare.
I pulled the car inside out of the 90 mile an hour wind, or at least that’s what it felt like, and shut the shop doors so that I could perform the most effective iron decontamination to the car.
I started with the wheels first and then moved on to the paint
Here you can see that even though the wheels were really clean there was still quite a bit of contamination to be removed through the chemical decontamination process
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Iron_Decon_Wheel.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139213/title/lexus-iron-decon-wheel/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Iron_Decon_Wheel.jpg[/url)
This is the rear bumper and as you can see the paint was pretty contaminated
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Rear_Bumper_Iron_Decon.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139214/title/lexus-rear-bumper-iron-decon/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Rear_Bumper_Iron_Decon.jpg[/url)
Here is a close up shot of the trunk lid. Even though the objective is to see no contamination watching the color changing bleeding effect is still quite satisfying.
Here’s another great write up explaining iron decontamination, except when it says, “Iron X” insert “BLACKFIRE Iron Remover”
https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews-by-mike-phillips/120974-review-blackfire-iron-remover-mike-phillips.html
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Trunk_Lid_Iron_Decon_Close_Up.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139219/title/lexus-trunk-lid-iron-decon-close-up/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Trunk_Lid_Iron_Decon_Close_Up.jpg[/url)
After the iron decon step and the back and forth of rinsing and shoving water out of the door with the floor squeegee it was now time for the wash
I don’t have any pics of the wash but I prepped my half gallon Foam Master with 48 oz of distilled water and 12 oz of BLACKFIRE Foam Soap prior to the wheel cleaning process as well as my wash buckets.
I washed the car and constantly rinsed it as the wind was blowing so hard that I had to keep rinsing the car so it wouldn’t dry.
My efforts were futile.
I sprayed foam on the car and commenced to claying with the Pinnacle Poly Clay, foaming and rinsing like some kind of madman as the wind blew and blew.
I quickly pulled the car inside, set up my Metro AirForce Express, grabbed my glass towel, dried the glass, then grabbed my guzzler and began to dry the car.
I blew out the cracks, crevices, door handles, emblems, etc.
There wasn’t much to dry as the wind had done a spectacular job of drying the car for me. All I had to do was dry some spots here and there and with my barely damp guzzler wipe out the door jambs.
Thankfully the door jambs were just barely dusty with some water in them from the wash process.
Once the car was dry it was time to get to tape’n
In the future I will probably do A LOT more tape’n and coverin’ because at the end when I was very tired and fatigued I found myself wiping off splatter dots and cleaning polish out of cracks and crevices, off of seals, etc.
This was very time consuming.
I taped off the sun roof and PPF on the side mirrors
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tape_Job_1.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139217/title/lexus-tape-job-1/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tape_Job_1.jpg[/url)
I also taped off the PPF on the hood, front bumper and rear bumper
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tape_Job_2.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139218/title/lexus-tape-job-2/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tape_Job_2.jpg[/url)
After the tape job it was time to polish the car
I polished the horizontal panels with BF One Step. After discovering that BF One Step wasn’t removing the deeper defects on the trunk lid, I compounded as much as I was comfortable doing, and then hit the trunk lid with BF One Step one more time. This made it so that you have to look really hard to see the remnants of the scratches that were once there.
I was very satisfied with the way the trunk lid turned out.
Then it was time to tackle the problem side of the car. As mentioned earlier I did some testing, and compounded the heavier defects. I also edged the lip of the fender well with my 5 inch polisher as I found this was actually the better tool for the job, perhaps because I have more experience with the tool over the Flex PiXiE.
I topped with the Pinnacle Liquid Souveran after the one step polish
The fact that the PLS boast that it compliments lighter colors is what sold me this time around.
In the future I will keep it chemically synergistic by using the Pinnacle Souveran Jeweling Wax.
https://www.autogeek.net/pinnacle-jeweling-wax-32oz.html (https://www.autogeek.net/pinnacle-jeweling-wax-32oz.html)
https://www.autogeek.net/pinliqsouvwa.html
The final step was to apply the BLACKFIRE SiO2 Wheel Seal and and shine the tires
The BLACKFIRE SiO2 Wheel Seal is easy to apply yet slightly difficult to wipe off. I really didn’t mind though as it left the wheels shimmering and well protected.
If you want to get you some I highly recommend purchasing the kit because it comes with everything you need to get the job done.
I was really excited to try this stuff out because I’ve been wanting to try it for a long time now and I finally had the opportunity and the perfect car to STRIKE!!!
The wheels looked absolutely stunning
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_6.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139207/title/lexus-after-6/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_6.jpg[/url)
This is the one before pic I have
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Before_.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139210/title/lexus-before/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Before_.jpg[/url)
Here is the final result after final glass cleaning and a quick complimentary vac
I also placed a Cobra Forest Green Edgless Polishing Cloth on the center console as well as a business card and vent tool gift to the customer.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_1.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139202/title/lexus-after-1/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_1.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_2.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139203/title/lexus-after-2/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_2.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_3.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139204/title/lexus-after-3/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_3.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_4.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139205/title/lexus-after-4/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_4.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_5.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139206/title/lexus-after-5/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_5.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_6.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139207/title/lexus-after-6/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_6.jpg[/url)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_7.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139208/title/lexus-after-7/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_After_7.jpg[/url)
Lastly here are all of the products and tools I used
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tools_And_Products_Used.jpg (https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/139226/title/lexus-tools-and-products-used/cat/4148]http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/4148/Lexus_Tools_And_Products_Used.jpg[/url)