My daily driver spring clean up

[Misterpaul]

My 2009 G8 GT received it's spring 'detail' this past weekend. The previous weekend had cold weather so I did the interior and under the hood at that time, sorry no pics of the interior. I keep the interior spotless, so all the interior needed was a quick wipe down with Meg's Interior Quik Detailer and Meg's Leather cleaner/conditioner on the seats. Under the hood I used APC on an old MF since the car is less than one year old and is still very clean. Afterwards I used Adam's VRT, again on an old MF. I apologize for the fact that Captain Off-Center took this photo.:doh:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj50/paulcr39/Our%20wheels/SpringdetailG8GT2010003LargeWebview.jpg

The exterior was washed with ONR using one bucket w/ Grit Gard since I planned a minor paint correction on the hood and trunk. A well meaning person brushed snow off my car this winter and left some long faint scratches for me to remove this spring. :buffing:
Wheels were cleaned with Meg's Wheel Brightener and treated with DP Wheel Glaze, tires cleaned w/APC and an old brush. Tires then got Meg's Hot Shine Tire spray applied on a foam applicator.
Starting Saturday afternoon I clay barred using clay from Meg's Clay Bar kit and ONR diluted to old detail spray dilution (6 oz per gallon). Since I keep my baby clean the clay bar didn't have a lot to remove. I then fired up my Griot's Garage DA polisher with Meg's M105 on a CCS 6.5" orange pad and attacked the trunk, then the hood. The trunk needed two passes, the hood only one. Afterwards the entire car was treated to M205 on a CCS 6.5" white pad. I called it a day and reacqauinted myself with my family.

Sunday morning I rinsed the car off, dried it and got out the Meg's M07 and a 6.5" gray CCS finishing pad and went to town. I finished up with two coats of NXT 2.0 on a 6.5" red ultrasoft wax pad. Finally, glass got Rain-X on the outside and just plain cleaned on the inside.

I have to give a big thumbs up to our friends @ Autogeek for putting together the Griot's Garage DA polisher and Lake Country CCS pad kits, they made this weekend in the garage fun! :dblthumb2:

Sorry, no "before" pics, see below for explanation and a plea for photographic help. Pics were taken today, Tuesday after I dusted the car with my California Duster.

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj50/paulcr39/Our%20wheels/SpringdetailG8GT2010011LargeWebview.jpg

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj50/paulcr39/Our%20wheels/SpringdetailG8GT2010008LargeWebview.jpg
^Here is the trunk with the 'light of truth' shining on it.^

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj50/paulcr39/Our%20wheels/SpringdetailG8GT2010016LargeWebview.jpg

^ And here is the roof.^ D'oh! I missed the trim piece!

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj50/paulcr39/Our%20wheels/SpringdetailG8GT2010017LargeWebview.jpg

^ And now the hood.^ Oh no! Dandelions!

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj50/paulcr39/Our%20wheels/SpringdetailG8GT2010015LargeWebview.jpg
Reflections....and yes those are twin car seats...we've got twins!

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj50/paulcr39/Our%20wheels/SpringdetailG8GT2010006LargeWebview.jpg


On a side note: A photographer I am not. In the before pics I took in the garage the flood lights I use over powered the camera to the point that all I got were white bars in the pics. Notice in the photo above the lines coming off the reflection of the sun? That's what I got, but because the garage was darker the white bars were much larger and made the pics unusable. What do I need to do to eliminate this from happening? My camera is a Canon PowerShot A560.

[Birdhunter]

Your car looks great:xyxthumbs:

[rohnramirez]

Holy cow..that's one hot DD i must say! Great job!

[sh4dowfax]

Great job! I just cleaned/waxed my DD too, but no camera to take pictures and the car is already dusty from sitting in the parking lot near my office. :P (It's only been one day)

[Adam]

Woot! Another Commodore driver! :props:

[Munich77]

Congrats that turned out well. I love the car too. My last car was a Pontiac and if this one had been available with AWD I would have bought it.

[crash93ssei]

Very nice! I love these cars :)

[ScottB]

nice car, nice gloss ...a great ride indeed !

[C. Charles Hahn]

I still want one of these BAD....

[Grizzly]

Nice work Paul!

[gewb]

On a side note: A photographer I am not. In the before pics I took in the garage the flood lights I use over powered the camera to the point that all I got were white bars in the pics. Notice in the photo above the lines coming off the reflection of the sun? That's what I got, but because the garage was darker the white bars were much larger and made the pics unusable. What do I need to do to eliminate this from happening? My camera is a Canon PowerShot A560.


Nice work!

As to taking pics, set to shutter priority (Tv), set the ISO to 80 (for bright lights), keep the metering on "eval" then do NOT meter on the light reflection - move to the side so the bright spot is in the outer third of the frame.

To do this, depress the shutter about 1/2 way and hold it there - the camera will set the focus. Keep the shutter slightly depressed and re-frame (just move back to the shot you want) then depress to shutter the rest of the way.

Setting the shutter speed will take some trial and error and will be based on the subject color and brightness (less the reflection of the light source). Speeds below 1/50th can get blur from your motion of depressing the shutter. Your camera can go up to 1/2000th which is very fast. At 1/2000 and ISO 80, you can shoot in very bright light.

Regards,
GEWB

[gtmatt]

Wow that looks great. I just received my Griots DA and a selection of polish. Really looking forward to trying to get my G8 looking as good. The MI winter was not kind.

[Misterpaul]

Nice work!

As to taking pics, set to shutter priority (Tv), set the ISO to 80 (for bright lights), keep the metering on "eval" then do NOT meter on the light reflection - move to the side so the bright spot is in the outer third of the frame.

To do this, depress the shutter about 1/2 way and hold it there - the camera will set the focus. Keep the shutter slightly depressed and re-frame (just move back to the shot you want) then depress to shutter the rest of the way.

Setting the shutter speed will take some trial and error and will be based on the subject color and brightness (less the reflection of the light source). Speeds below 1/50th can get blur from your motion of depressing the shutter. Your camera can go up to 1/2000th which is very fast. At 1/2000 and ISO 80, you can shoot in very bright light.

Regards,
GEWB

:urtheman: Im the MAN :dblthumb2:


Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Step by step instructions are what I was hoping for, but not expecting. Guess what I'm going to experiment with tonight???


To all that have commented a big thank you to you also. :thankyousign: