2003 Mini Cooper S

[richy]

Some interesting things to follow:
1) 1st time IronX didn't work for me
2) Eraser worked like a charm
3) Red ClayMagic met its match
4) Tried all 3 new Optimum polishes


This car was a referral from this (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/35967-2006-corvette.html) job. I recommended that he go with Opti Guard as well as C4. He agreed to both. The car had some considerable chips (one could call a few of them craters). He supplied touch up in spray cans for the base and the clear. That is a great method for filling the chips. The only thing he didn't want me to seal was the wheels as he might be changing them.


Here is the car as I got it:

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The first step up was the wheels/wells and tires. They didn't look that bad, but knowing it was a Mini, it got treated to IronX for the wheel barrels and faces. The barrels were cleaned with Ken's RG wheel brush and the face with the AG brush. You can see the IronX doing its thing well here:


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The wells were cleaned with Zep Citrus and the tires with Zep purple. Just for giggles, I tried following the purple with Opti Clean at 3:1 to see if any more brown crud came out..it didn't.

The 2nd step as usual was to foam the car. This was done with a strong mix of Zep Citrus and DG 901.


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[Flash Gordon]

Mini Coopers are a PITA to detail. Don't let their innocent looks fool you ;)

Nice job Richy :)

[richy]

The car was beading water like crazy so that got followed up with a hand wash of a strong, straight Dawn solution. After rinsing, I observed a lot reddish brown fallout spots all over the bottom of each panel and heavily at the back. NO problem, I thought, break out the IronX again. The car was dried first and then liberally sprayed with IX. After a few minutes, it was not changing colours and the spots were still there. I then tried the IX soap gel and still it did not do anything. These appeared to be the same kind of fallout I have dealt with before that IX has dissolved, but not this time. It was ineffective on them. I can surmise only one thing: the spots were not a metal based problem. I know my IX is good as I just used it and then refilled my bottle with a brand new, sealed 1L refill bottle.

The next step was to chase these spots using Clay. Riccardo blue is supposed to be stronger than the yellow. It did nothing. Nor did the yellow for that matter. Out came the CM red. I figured it would whisk it right off the surface..not a chance!! I had to apply a LOT of pressure to get these spots off the surface. I don't know what they actually were; I'm suspicious it might have even been overspray of some kind. The red clay along with a lot of elbow grease finally got rid of them. For a little car, I was now 2 hours over where I usually was at this given stage.

Next up was polishing the roof. I did this Friday night after getting home from work. I started at about 10pm, along with a big cigar and some Rage Against the Machine. I tried the new Optimum Compound with a yellow B & S pad and my Dyna. There were some pretty deep scratches as you saw above. The yellow pad did not touch them. Out came the black TB wool. The combo of that pad and the Optimum was removing the scratches, but, it was not finishing down nicely at all. It seemed to have about the same cut as the M105 does. I then cleaned the TB pad and used M105. Scratches 85-90% gone and finished down as nicely as it always does for me.
I then followed up with the Optimum polish and a white B & S pad. It did a nice job. Good gloss, long working time. It seemed to need a longer working time than the 205 does, although to be honest, it could be that I was just not that used to its intricacies yet. I switched back and forth from it to the 205.
The home run for the Optimum trio is their final polish IMO. Wow. Neat stuff. It's really watery and beads up on top of the pad. Kinda weird. I massaged it into the pad and had at it. It even beads on the surface of the paint for a bit until it works in. And then...BAM. Man does it finish off beautifully. For this car it made a last little jump that was noticeable. It was done with a blue B & S pad and my Dyna. I do not own any mf pads yet, so that will be the next time I try these out. The other thing is that it works well to amp up the shine on chrome! I give 2 of the 3 thumbs "up".
There was some wet sanding involved in a few of the scratches on this car too with 2500 and 3000. The clear on this car was really hard and NOTHING at all like the Mini Clubman I had done earlier in the summer. Interesting. Pretty much the whole car got black wool as the first stage followed by the other 2 mentioned above.

Next came the OG phase. The paint was prepped by using ONR. I used my favourite application method which is the suede mf and block method. I did the paint, lights, every exterior bit of glass, and the chrome. I used less than 5 cc for all that. It was damned hard to see it on the silver though, so I did go over the surface with a mf a few minutes after to ensure no high spots. I know Chris doesn't like that method, but what else can you do at 3 am with just artificial lighting? It worked well anyway.

The wheels were sprayed with Permanon Platinum for the barrels and the faces and then were dried with the MB. The tires were dressed with Opti Bond neat. The wells were dressed with Adams US.

The exterior trim had marks on it from all the tape. There were a few late nights spent on this car and I took no chances. I used a lot of tape as cheap insurance. It did leave the usual adhesive marks on the trim though. What a perfect test for my new, and yet unused, bottle of ERASER. It did a marvelous job at cleaning the trim and preparing it for C4. I finished my bottle of C4 on the trim. The front lip got done with UTTG.

Interior was vacuumed, carpets steam cleaned, glass cleaned with Zep as well as the plastic. The seats and plastic were done with PERL other than the front which were done with UIGP. DG nano polish was used on the interior gray trim as well as the door jams.


FINISHED PRODUCT:


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One of the filled-in craters:

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[Flash Gordon]

I told you the Minis were a pain. Be glad you didn't have the racing stripes to contend with too

The car looks great now Richy :)

[dad07]

The Mini looks GREAT Richy as always great work.

love the fall color reflection.....bout time to get the leaf blower out? :D

[richy]

Mini Coopers are a PITA to detail. Don't let their innocent looks fool you ;)

Nice job Richy :)


I told you the Minis were a pain. Be glad you didn't have the racing stripes to contend with too

The car looks great now Richy :)
Thanks very much Flash. That's the 2nd one I've done and luckily no stripes on either. But you're right, it is a PITA for us old guys having to get up and down off the low stool so many times. My knee was killing me after this one!


The Mini looks GREAT Richy as always great work.

love the fall color reflection.....bout time to get the leaf blower out? :D
Thank you Tim. That's what I was doing today as a matter of fact! I'm in as much pain now as I was after finishing this Mini!!

[BMW]

How do you like the C4...what kind of longevity have you seen? I am a UTTG user, but I am being tempted by C4's claims...

[Pats300zx]

Great job Richy. That silver is "glowing" !!!!

[richy]

How do you like the C4...what kind of longevity have you seen? I am a UTTG user, but I am being tempted by C4's claims...
I have used it on another Mini which is holding up well after a few months and also on my wife's Durango. The claims are true. I will be getting some more. I love UTTG also. I just bought the Wolfgang version on BOGO a few weeks ago.


Great job Richy. That silver is "glowing" !!!!

Thanks very much Pat. He was very pleased.

[embolism]

ever figure out what those red spots were? Maybe artillery fungus?

just reading the list of stuff you use/have at your disposal leaves me breathless dude.

also never considered an ONR wash before a coating. I would be worried about it leaving behind something that provides gloss of some sort.

[RaskyR1]

Great work Richy! That little bugger definitely looked worse than the one I had to do.

Interesting about the Optimum Finish II though...with the sample I have the consistency seems to be about the same as the Polish II, only blue in color???

[richy]

ever figure out what those red spots were? Maybe artillery fungus?

just reading the list of stuff you use/have at your disposal leaves me breathless dude.

also never considered an ONR wash before a coating. I would be worried about it leaving behind something that provides gloss of some sort.
Because I had used the Optimum finish polish as a last step, it is OK to go over that with ONR before sealing. I have done IPA wipedowns and then followed that up with ONR as well with good results. There was no problem with it bonding at all. That's the advantage to using their products too is the compatability of the line.


Great work Richy! That little bugger definitely looked worse than the one I had to do.

Interesting about the Optimum Finish II though...with the sample I have the consistency seems to be about the same as the Polish II, only blue in color???
She was a bit rough, no doubt. I shook it well, but it is very watery. It had a sticker on it saying "new formula". I'll have to ask Chris about that.

[BMW]

Well with your recommendation...looks like I will have to pick up some C4 (not the detonatable kind)

Excellent job by the way...looks like a pain to detail like my X5...all that plastic trim, odd shapes and corners...

[SkateForGirl]

Awesome turn around! Looks like Mini's are a pain in the but to work on.

[richy]

Well with your recommendation...looks like I will have to pick up some C4 (not the detonatable kind)

Excellent job by the way...looks like a pain to detail like my X5...all that plastic trim, odd shapes and corners...
Thank you. Now, if we can only convince AG to start carrying it! (If enough people ask and bug them, they do eventually get on board).


Awesome turn around! Looks like Mini's are a pain in the but to work on.
Thanks. I've got an aritficial knee, so that is the hard part for me is doing a low car.