Wills.WindowsAndWheels
11-06-2011, 02:55 AM
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Hood_Before_1_3.JPG
Do i have everyone's attention now? This was by far the most swirled car we've ever touched. And just as a little insight, the Flex 3401 and D300 earned their keep with this poor thing. But lets start with the beginning.
A lady emailed me wanting her car detailed. She was mostly just interested in a wash and wax on the outside and a full interior. We swung by her house after finishing another one of our jobs to take a look at it. She informed us it was a 1988 Honda Civic, very low miles for the age but needed some love.
So at first mainly what we were looking at was the interior:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Passenger_Int_Before.JPG
the dark colored carpet and seats hide the fact that there was a full sized poodle that was strewn across the entire interior...literally...she had a full size poodle...and as much fur as my sis was able to get out of these seats and carpets was amazing, coulda made a whole new poodle. When we went to empty out the shop vac it was just this HUGE blob...kinda crazy.
Anyway, after checking it out...she made a comment about "I'd have more done to the outside but I think it is beyond repair and not much can be done for it". To use that raised a red flag that said CHALLENGE! We told her that we could do more for it than she may think and asked her to let us have a go at it. She agreed.
So by the time the day of the detail came around, she decided to go ahead and have us do the engine as well.
SO, on the menu for the day was:
wash/clay/single pass and seal on the exterior
full interior
engine detail
Long day needless to say. So we started off with the engine. I tackled it while my sis was working on removing the poodle!
Heres how the engine looked like...i call this...23 years of Arizona!
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Engine_Center_Before3.JPG
Yeahh it was dirty. NOT greasy though, so that helped a lot. Only light grease in spots...so that was a time saver. After about an hour or so of spraying it with Megs Degreaser, agitating the dirt with different brushes, spraying it clean and wiping off excess water, and finally dressing it with Meguiars Hyperdressing 2:1 - here is what we came up with:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Engine_Center_Finished2.JPG
Doesn't even look like the same engine does it?
Another before and after:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Engine_Right_Before3.JPG
Turned into:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Engine_Right_Finished2.JPG
And a nice close up look revealed:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Engine_Close_Finished1.JPG
More beauty of course!
Back to the interior, here again is what my sis was working with:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Passenger_Int_Before_2_.JPG
A LIGHT coat of dust as you can see *haha*
Here is how it turned out after vacuuming (and more vacuuming), extracting, steaming and dressing the full interior:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Passenger_Int_Finished.JPG
Gotta say that old red interior looked very very good when she was done.
Here is a before from the drivers side
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Driver_Int_Before.JPG
and after...
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Driver_Int_Finished_2_.JPG
The back seats...aka "Poodle-Land" (actually got to see the poodle, very cool dog :) )
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Back_Int_Before.JPG
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Back_Int_Finished_1_.JPG
And a shot of the door:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Door_Finished.JPG
Meguiars #40 brought that vinyl back to life.
Cool cockpit shot!
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Dash_Int_Finished.JPG
This was a small car but doing all that interior took a LOT of time. Put it this way, was able to do the engine, clay the car (after both of us washed it) and finish about 3/4 of HARD CORE compounding by the time she finished the interior. But i must say, it was well worth it when you look at how it turned out.
Now the the horror project of the show...the paint. Heres a full shot of the car before we started:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Front_Angle_before2.JPG
The extreme dirt was the least of its problems i can tell ya that! The paint was seriously SERIOUSLY swirled. But hey, if it wasn't for those little suckers we wouldn't have a job.
Heres another close up.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Hood_Before_2_6.JPG
Yeah, did i mention it had water spot etching too? Well...it had water spot etching lol.
So originally I was going to hit it with D151 and a LC white pad. BUT after seeing the extent of the damage D151 never made it out of my bag. I went straight for Meguiars D300 and the cutting pad.
So like i said, I seriously had my work cut out for me. But to this i say....Bring It!
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Go_Time.JPG
I didn't even bother with the Griots on this one either. Straight for the Flex 3401...put my MF cutting pad on it, primed it and did a test spot. The Flex HAS WORKED for me so far with D300, i know some say it hazes...well so far not for me...just a side note.
After doing my test spot i was speechless to say the least.
Brinkmann before:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Brinkman_roof_before2.JPG
And after:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Brinkman_roof_finished2.JPG
No you're eyes are not fooling you, it came out THAT nice. I was so impressed, even though i knew it would take extra time, i taped the hood right down the middle and decided i'd do a little extra photo shooting.
I did 1/2 the hood and left the other 1/2 alone....and ended up with the best pictures of my detailing career, yes...on an 88' Honda Civic.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Hood_50_50_3_.JPG
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Hood_50_50_2_.JPG
More of a close up...
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Hood_50_50_1_.JPG
And...the prize for BEST photo thus far goes to....this little guy right here:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/50_50_no_tape.JPG
Anyone who may still be on the fence of trying D300, try it and love the results. I really liked D300 before, but after this detail I have even more respect for it...and hey I'm going to give myself some credit here too. I DID end up going over some spots 2x's even though it was a single pass. And D300 was HARD to remove on some spots, I'm thinking because the paint was super super dry.
One trick i found, product removes like product. I had a little hand foam pad with me to hand rub some areas out, and when i came across spots after using the Flex and the compound was hard to take off, i used the hand pad to slightly re-wet the compound left from the flex, and then it wiped off much easier. Just a little tip...but this was the ONLY time D300 was difficult to remove so far.
So after seeing that i was basically getting 100% correction with a single pass (with the exception of a couple of spots), i was pretty fired up. I kept working my way around the car while my sis finished up the interior.
When she finished up she treated the trim with some Ultimate Protectant and then cleaned the rims and dressed them with some Hyper Dressing. By the time she finished up with that i was able to start applying the sealant.
NORMALLY I'd just go with D301, but i wanted to give the paint a little bit more of a long term sealant so i went with Megs #20. I swear the more i use it the more i like it. I'll usually apply it, then go around and do little touch up things like the tires or windows or whatever just to let some time pass. If you let it set about 30 or 40 minutes it wipes off like butter. And the paint...it's left SOOO smooth, its just awesome. D301 leaves it smooth, but #20 beats it out in smoothness in my opinion.
So here is the sealant all spread:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Sealant.JPG
Sorry but i just thought that looked so cool :). I went ahead and did the windows and windshield...being warned by my sis to NOT mess up her rows on the seats or carpets! Then started to help pack some stuff up...and finallywent and removed the sealant. Man the paint looked SO awesome. I seriously could not believe it was the same car, and it was my crazy self that had just buffed it out.
So everyone...the time has come...are you ready?
Do i have everyone's attention now? This was by far the most swirled car we've ever touched. And just as a little insight, the Flex 3401 and D300 earned their keep with this poor thing. But lets start with the beginning.
A lady emailed me wanting her car detailed. She was mostly just interested in a wash and wax on the outside and a full interior. We swung by her house after finishing another one of our jobs to take a look at it. She informed us it was a 1988 Honda Civic, very low miles for the age but needed some love.
So at first mainly what we were looking at was the interior:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Passenger_Int_Before.JPG
the dark colored carpet and seats hide the fact that there was a full sized poodle that was strewn across the entire interior...literally...she had a full size poodle...and as much fur as my sis was able to get out of these seats and carpets was amazing, coulda made a whole new poodle. When we went to empty out the shop vac it was just this HUGE blob...kinda crazy.
Anyway, after checking it out...she made a comment about "I'd have more done to the outside but I think it is beyond repair and not much can be done for it". To use that raised a red flag that said CHALLENGE! We told her that we could do more for it than she may think and asked her to let us have a go at it. She agreed.
So by the time the day of the detail came around, she decided to go ahead and have us do the engine as well.
SO, on the menu for the day was:
wash/clay/single pass and seal on the exterior
full interior
engine detail
Long day needless to say. So we started off with the engine. I tackled it while my sis was working on removing the poodle!
Heres how the engine looked like...i call this...23 years of Arizona!
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Engine_Center_Before3.JPG
Yeahh it was dirty. NOT greasy though, so that helped a lot. Only light grease in spots...so that was a time saver. After about an hour or so of spraying it with Megs Degreaser, agitating the dirt with different brushes, spraying it clean and wiping off excess water, and finally dressing it with Meguiars Hyperdressing 2:1 - here is what we came up with:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Engine_Center_Finished2.JPG
Doesn't even look like the same engine does it?
Another before and after:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Engine_Right_Before3.JPG
Turned into:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Engine_Right_Finished2.JPG
And a nice close up look revealed:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Engine_Close_Finished1.JPG
More beauty of course!
Back to the interior, here again is what my sis was working with:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Passenger_Int_Before_2_.JPG
A LIGHT coat of dust as you can see *haha*
Here is how it turned out after vacuuming (and more vacuuming), extracting, steaming and dressing the full interior:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Passenger_Int_Finished.JPG
Gotta say that old red interior looked very very good when she was done.
Here is a before from the drivers side
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Driver_Int_Before.JPG
and after...
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Driver_Int_Finished_2_.JPG
The back seats...aka "Poodle-Land" (actually got to see the poodle, very cool dog :) )
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Back_Int_Before.JPG
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Back_Int_Finished_1_.JPG
And a shot of the door:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Door_Finished.JPG
Meguiars #40 brought that vinyl back to life.
Cool cockpit shot!
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Dash_Int_Finished.JPG
This was a small car but doing all that interior took a LOT of time. Put it this way, was able to do the engine, clay the car (after both of us washed it) and finish about 3/4 of HARD CORE compounding by the time she finished the interior. But i must say, it was well worth it when you look at how it turned out.
Now the the horror project of the show...the paint. Heres a full shot of the car before we started:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Front_Angle_before2.JPG
The extreme dirt was the least of its problems i can tell ya that! The paint was seriously SERIOUSLY swirled. But hey, if it wasn't for those little suckers we wouldn't have a job.
Heres another close up.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Hood_Before_2_6.JPG
Yeah, did i mention it had water spot etching too? Well...it had water spot etching lol.
So originally I was going to hit it with D151 and a LC white pad. BUT after seeing the extent of the damage D151 never made it out of my bag. I went straight for Meguiars D300 and the cutting pad.
So like i said, I seriously had my work cut out for me. But to this i say....Bring It!
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Go_Time.JPG
I didn't even bother with the Griots on this one either. Straight for the Flex 3401...put my MF cutting pad on it, primed it and did a test spot. The Flex HAS WORKED for me so far with D300, i know some say it hazes...well so far not for me...just a side note.
After doing my test spot i was speechless to say the least.
Brinkmann before:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Brinkman_roof_before2.JPG
And after:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Brinkman_roof_finished2.JPG
No you're eyes are not fooling you, it came out THAT nice. I was so impressed, even though i knew it would take extra time, i taped the hood right down the middle and decided i'd do a little extra photo shooting.
I did 1/2 the hood and left the other 1/2 alone....and ended up with the best pictures of my detailing career, yes...on an 88' Honda Civic.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Hood_50_50_3_.JPG
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Hood_50_50_2_.JPG
More of a close up...
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Hood_50_50_1_.JPG
And...the prize for BEST photo thus far goes to....this little guy right here:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/50_50_no_tape.JPG
Anyone who may still be on the fence of trying D300, try it and love the results. I really liked D300 before, but after this detail I have even more respect for it...and hey I'm going to give myself some credit here too. I DID end up going over some spots 2x's even though it was a single pass. And D300 was HARD to remove on some spots, I'm thinking because the paint was super super dry.
One trick i found, product removes like product. I had a little hand foam pad with me to hand rub some areas out, and when i came across spots after using the Flex and the compound was hard to take off, i used the hand pad to slightly re-wet the compound left from the flex, and then it wiped off much easier. Just a little tip...but this was the ONLY time D300 was difficult to remove so far.
So after seeing that i was basically getting 100% correction with a single pass (with the exception of a couple of spots), i was pretty fired up. I kept working my way around the car while my sis finished up the interior.
When she finished up she treated the trim with some Ultimate Protectant and then cleaned the rims and dressed them with some Hyper Dressing. By the time she finished up with that i was able to start applying the sealant.
NORMALLY I'd just go with D301, but i wanted to give the paint a little bit more of a long term sealant so i went with Megs #20. I swear the more i use it the more i like it. I'll usually apply it, then go around and do little touch up things like the tires or windows or whatever just to let some time pass. If you let it set about 30 or 40 minutes it wipes off like butter. And the paint...it's left SOOO smooth, its just awesome. D301 leaves it smooth, but #20 beats it out in smoothness in my opinion.
So here is the sealant all spread:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1304/Sealant.JPG
Sorry but i just thought that looked so cool :). I went ahead and did the windows and windshield...being warned by my sis to NOT mess up her rows on the seats or carpets! Then started to help pack some stuff up...and finallywent and removed the sealant. Man the paint looked SO awesome. I seriously could not believe it was the same car, and it was my crazy self that had just buffed it out.
So everyone...the time has come...are you ready?