Nasty Altima

[OCDetails]

This paint was absolutely destroyed. It is a '97 Altima and it had sat in the Phoenix sun for probably all ten years of its life. The paint was beyond restoration by any stretch of the imagination. The owner had taken it to a local detail shop and they apparently took a wool pad on a high speed polisher to the roof and really screwed it up. They told him that the paint was too far gone and there wasn't anything that could be done. I take that kind of language as a challenge, so I told him I'd take a look and see what I could do. :)

Here are some nasty before pictures.

Damage on roof:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/burns7-21-200712-07-44PM.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/before7-21-200712-08-14PM.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/nasty7-21-200712-08-06PM.jpg

I really did try and do my best on this one. I brought the PC and the UDM with me as well as an assortment of pads and products. I hit it with the yellow Edge 2000 pad and XMT3 to start with. I figured with paint this bad I couldn't really do much to hurt it. It seemed to do a fair job at first. You can see the difference on the driver side in this shot:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/1noflash7-21-20071-16-28PM.jpg

Then I took a picture with the flash on to simulate sunlight since I didn't want to pull it out of the garage just yet. It didn't look so pretty.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/1flash7-21-20071-16-13PM.jpg

That is why you can't always trust pictures. That is the exact same surface only one is with the flash. The clear is just lifting right off the paint and there isn't a whole lot you can do to correct it. I did make a difference in optical clarity though. These pictures show the hood reflecting the same object, but just on different halves of the paint.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/2cloudy7-21-20071-17-18PM.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/2clear7-21-20071-17-12PM.jpg

It was pretty much just screwed up beyond all repair. Even with the UDM I couldn't make a difference. In fact, I tried the PC on one side of the roof and the UDM on the other side. I spent the same amount of time with the same product and the same pad. Both machines were kicked up to 6 and they really couldn't make much of a difference. In fact, the PC did a better job of clearing up the paint than the UDM did, but that could have just been a matter of lighter damage on that side or something. The PC was used on the driver side.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/pcDriverudmPassenger7-21-20071-40-1.jpg

I did manage to clear up the headlights though. :) That was a good thing. I used the UDM and a Meguiar's red pad with XMT3 and a little Detailer's Pride glass restorer to give them a good shine. The driver side headlight was actually in worse condition, but I didn't get a good before shot on it. Anyway, it looks better.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/cloudy7-21-200712-34-51PM.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/cleared7-21-200712-38-23PM.jpg

Overall I think I made a positive difference to the car. The paint is still ruined, but it is at least somewhat respectable now. Here is a before and after on the clarity of the hood and then some more after shots. I used Danase Wet Glaze on the car as an LSP. I had wanted to use this new Diamondite wax that came with an Autogeek order, but that stuff was like concrete to buff off, so I switched to Wet Glaze.

hood before:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/nasty7-21-200712-08-06PM.jpg

hood after:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/notsonasty7-21-20072-02-58PM.jpg

car before:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/before7-21-200712-08-14PM.jpg

car after:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/after7-21-20073-50-22PM.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/respectable7-21-20073-50-36PM.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/July21/respectable7-21-20073-50-46PM.jpg

[mywifehatesclowns]

Looks great, compared to how it looked before...

Although you are brave...I would have turned him down.

[pirex]

You did a great job on the car, saved what was left! Its crazy that a car can be in sutch a bad shape, he should have got it detailed earlier :p

[mliebs8]

I think you did a great job with what you had to work with. I don't mean to get off the subject but that is a beautiful view from what I'm assuming is your front yard.

[Tonya]

Nasty Altima is right! :eek: I hope he paid you well. It looks much better considering what you started with. What was the owner thinking? :confused: By any chance did the owner say why they let it go so long or get so bad?

[supercharged]

:eek: :eek: :eek: Clearcoat failure???

[ltoman]

Well, it is messed up but your work sure made a substantial improvement!!! I am sure you busted your bootie on it!
Great work there.

[OCDetails]

Thanks for the feedback. :) It's always frustrating when you can't seem to make a dent in some things, but he was there and saw the transformation, so even though it wasn't perfect I think he was still happy with it. They had only owned it for a couple months, so they knew what they were getting into when they bought it. Personally I wouldn't have touched it. A '97 with 155K on the clock and that kind of damage to it was probably pretty cheap, but it was for his daughter to get back and forth to college in, so I really don't think I would have cut corners on something like this if I were him.

I did a full detail on his '97 Acura RL and a quickie wash and interior wipe down on their Nissan Quest as well as this Altima for $400. It was an 8 hour day of detailing, but it was worth it. The Altima didn't come out perfect, but the RL looks brand new and the Quest is a whole lot cleaner. He wanted me to do their Corolla too, but it was like 9:30 at night and I was ready to call it a day. lol

[Nica]

Now that's a damaged vehicle wow. Despite the damage you still turned that vehicle around, Ilike the way it finished off. Not much you could do to the severe damage but still good results.

Thank you for sharing.

[Mike T]

Nice job.

[ltoman]

Hey, OCD- what did you use on that nasty front windshield, may I ask? Thank you. The change n it is astounding - was seeing if I could implement any of your tips!

[lgtspecb]

Hey OCDetails, it's stewartg from the LGT forums. I know exactly how you feel about not getting the results you want. I am trying to clean up my wifes black Hyundai so we can sell it and get another Legacy, I spent 10 hours polishing yesterday it is black and shiny and looks great from 5 feet away, but there are tons of scratches all over it that I can't even begin to touch. My results are ALOT worse than yours, and to top it off a neighbor (after 8 hours) said he can't tell the difference (it was polished only 2 months ago). I'm so frustrated I want to throw my PC and product in the trash. I see all the amazing results you and everyone else get in just a few hours and I am just not getting the kind of results I know are possible.

Sorry to rant bro, the altima does look 1000% time better so you don't need to be down on it. All of your cars look very good.

[OCDetails]

Hey, OCD- what did you use on that nasty front windshield, may I ask? Thank you. The change n it is astounding - was seeing if I could implement any of your tips!

I polished the glass with the Detailer's Pride glass restoration product. We've had some lovely acid rain the last couple weeks and the paint and glass of any vehicle parked outside has suffered. I applied it with a green Edge pad and the PC.

And stewartg, don't be too down on yourself either. Some of us have been doing this for a really long time and have developed processes that make the job go quicker. This Altima took about three hours of exterior and engine work and an hour of interior work. The detail shop they took it to did a fair job on the inside, but I cleaned all the plastic and vinyl surfaces to help reduce the smoke smell for them. I think the key to efficiency when working on a project like this is to start small and check your work. Once you know exactly what the plan of attack is then you can use it over the rest of the car and just rest assured that your process is working without stopping to check it every two seconds. Or worse, without getting through the whole car and realizing that you have been absolutely ineffective. It just takes time to figure out the magic formula of pad, product, and speed to remove the damage you are dealing with. Sometimes it isn't your fault when the tools being used (meaning the pad and product) aren't up to the task. Sometimes you just need to break out the big guns to see what you can accomplish and then scale back to something that is adequate. It's not the way I'd suggest doing it all the time, but when you are dealing with heavy damage or when you want to make a big improvement, it is what you have to do.

[alban61]

Great job especially with the condition of that paint! Sheesh!! Talk about nasty CC failure! I don't think you could've made it look any better than what you already did. It looks "respectable" now, as you put it. Again, great job there!!

[OCDetails]

I think this would have been one of those situations where XMT4 would have come in handy. 3 did a pretty good job, but that roof was just nasty. I would have really liked to see XMT4 in action. Oh well... I'll think of that next time I guess. :)