2006 PT Cruiser Detail & Headlight Restoration

[FrankS]

This PT Cruiser belongs to my niece's husband. My niece and her husband always invite us over her house for Thanksgiving and she does most of the cooking. I told her that I would like to detail the PT Cruiser as a favor. Her husband went out of town this past weekend and so this was a good time for me to have the car for a couple of days.

Before shots

Clear coat failure on the front bumper and healights need restoration.
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Clear coat failure on the rear bumber too.
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Headlight Restoration

Before shots.
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Prep work.
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Cleaning the lenses.
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Method of choice - Dewalt drill with LC 3-1/4" thin foamed wool pad & DP All-In-One Headlight Restoring Polish.
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This is my neighbor Eddie - he wanted to help.
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Wiping off the polish.
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Final result, looking good - I was going to experiment and do a multi-step process with sanding on the driver's lens but since the passenger side looked so good after the DP All-In-One I just used the same process.
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Here's Eddie working on the driver's side - he's getting the hang of it.
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Final result - you may not be able to tell by the picture but it looks like new.
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BL Surface Coating on the Lenses - this was actually one of the last things I did but I wanted to show it here as part of the headlight restoration.
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Now for the wheels

Some before shots of the wheels and wells.
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Owner had been driving on some dirt roads.
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Used Megs APC+ (4 to 1) and a Mothers wheel well brush for the wheel wells.
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Used Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner on the tires - I suppose I could have just used the APC+ but I really like the TS Cleaner.
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Tires were dirty - repeated the process 2 or 3 times until the tires were cleaned.
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Used WG Uber Wheel Cleaner and a Mothers wheel brush on the wheels (actually plastic hubcaps).
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Gotta get around those lug nuts.

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Tires cleaned and dressed with DP Tire Gel - I actually applied the dressing after polishing but wanted to show it hear.
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Washing the car

Time to give her a good bath - foamed the car with CG Citrus Wash Red using foam cannon attached to pressure washer.
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Let the foam dwell for a few minutes, rinsed with PW, foamed again and then washed using 2 bucket method with Montana boars hair brush attached to a Shur-Line extendable pole.
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Decontamination

I knew decontamination was needed but did the baggie test anyway - felt like sandpaper!
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Some type of mold or sap on the roof.
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Tried a couple of things to get it off such as Stoners Tarminator and even mineral spirits but it didn't do anything. I thought I would have to use a plastic razor blade but I didn't have any so I went with a clay bar and ONR as the lube. I never thought the clay bar would do anything since the mold/sap was pretty hard. To my amazement the clay bar leveled it out really good.
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The clay bar worked good but I went through a couple of clay bars just on the roof alone and ran out of clay so I used the Nanoskin medium grade pad on a PC to do the rest of the car.
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Time to polish

My goal was to do a one step, all-in-one polish, since I knew this was a daily driver and probably wouldn't be washed every week. I just wanted some minor correction done, the paint cleaned up and some protection, all in one step. So I went with Optimum Poli-Seal since I've heard good reports about it and received a couple of bottles for Christmas as a gift. Since I already had my PC out, I decided to use it along with a 5.5" HT tangerine pad.

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Beauty shots

Really liked the Poli-Seal...easy to work with and better results than I expected. Hopefully the protection will last a while.
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Additional work (no pictures)


Also did the door jambs using the McCulloch Steamer
Did a light engine detail
Vacuumed and wiped down interior
Cleaned the glass with Stoners Invisible Glass and WW MF glass towels


Special thanks

Special thanks to Chris aka Chris@autocleanse and Robert DiTerrlizzi aka Impressions for their advice, particularly with what to use on the roof. Great guys and always willing to help out.

Special thanks to Mike Phillips for his articles on how to post on the forum. I have a new appreciation for the work he does on the forum. It takes a lot of time to create some good posts, editing and uploading pictures, etc.

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[AZ Mike]

Looks great. I will have to try the Poli-Seal.

[FrankS]

Looks great. I will have to try the Poli-Seal.

Thanks, the Poli-Seal is worth trying, got great results.

[Nick McKees37]

Excellent work Frank!

[FrankS]

Excellent work Frank!

Thanks Nick.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Beautiful work and dedication not only to the job but the write up as well. Turned out really well.

[FrankS]

Beautiful work and dedication not only to the job but the write up as well. Turned out really well.

Thanks Mike.

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

Beautiful work buddy. The writeup and picture taking along with the posting order was a great read. The subtitles were right on and it was a perfect order of documentation. Thanks for posting and sharing. Great job again Frank. Now you are ready for the next one. LOL

[FrankS]

Beautiful work buddy. The writeup and picture taking along with the posting order was a great read. The subtitles were right on and it was a perfect order of documentation. Thanks for posting and sharing. Great job again Frank. Now you are ready for the next one. LOL

Thanks Chris. You're right, I'm ready for the next one. I think I have the 2013 GMC Terrain this weekend.

[Klasse Act]

I love real car turnarounds, great work and I bet that guy was surprised when he got back home!

[FrankS]

I love real car turnarounds, great work and I bet that guy was surprised when he got back home!

Thanks, he was very pleased with the results when he came to pick it up. It was much better than he expected. I was surprised myself as to how well it came out with just an AIO product like Poli-Seal.

[dcjredline]

WOW nice work. I have some headlights coming in this weekend and I was nervous about the DP all-in-one...not any more! Those tires look fantastic!!

[FrankS]

WOW nice work. I have some headlights coming in this weekend and I was nervous about the DP all-in-one...not any more! Those tires look fantastic!!

Thanks Don, the DP AIO with the foam wool pad did a nice job on the lenses.

[DaVinciAutoSpa]

Great job, great write-up. I might have to try the Poli Seal.

[GenesisCoupe]

Nice work! Sad to see clear coat failure on a 2006. At least it's just the front bumper.