Aviatortroy
05-17-2014, 06:42 PM
Hello, first post, so be gentle. First of all, I'd like to thank y'all for excellent guidance, this is my first post but I've been lurking for quite a while. How I stumbled upon this website is sort of a funny story, so bear with me. I live in Stuart, and a couple times a year we have to kennel our dogs, and the place we use is right up the street from the Autogeek Mothership. I saw the place a couple times, and finally got around to googling it. Oooopsie, opened Pandora's box, and life will never be the same.
Now as for a quick background, I'm a little familiar with paint work, as I have restored and painted MANY vintage motorcycles, but not much work on car finishes and as I am learning, correcting finishes is a whole different ballpark than painting, sanding out, and buffing your own canvas, anyway sorry to digress again.
So getting on to the point, my wife got a new car so I kept her old one, a 2001 Volvo S40 to use as an airport car. This vehicle has around 130k miles on it and has never been garaged in its life. It has hauled us all around the country, been a chariot for 2 large dogs, and most recently our toddler. There are some defects that will never be correctable, but for the most part the paint is pretty good. Did the interior yesterday, a bunch of stain removal work in the carpet and then a shampoo and cleaning, no pics but it looks like, well, a clean car.
Today I went to work on the exterior. I had some products, and tried some new ones as well. The general order of things was...
Wash.
Clay with mothers clay bar set.
Tape off.
Compound and focus on RIDS removal with 3M Perfect It 2
Polish with Megs Ultimate Polish
IPA Wipe.
Finish with Blackfire Crystal Seal (wanted to try one of the new WOWA sealants. Wow, this may have changed my life.)
Buffing was done with a harbor freight DA polisher with LC backing plate and a couple LC white pads.
After the wash, ready to clay
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/bynaha5a.jpg
After clay
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/7ypeqyda.jpg
All taped up. This is why I could never be a professional detailer. Taping this car up took me almost 3 hours. A whole lot of black trim.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/7u2a2u3e.jpg
My test spot. Very hard to see on silver metallic paint, but there is a vertical line just to the right of the bird etching.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/me8y4ymu.jpg
After compounding.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/9y6a7ygu.jpg
After polishing and final IPA wipe.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/ysysuba6.jpg
Aaaaand, here she is, after the BF Crystal Seal
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/usuga8e3.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/jy3e7ava.jpg
Looking good for being almost 14. I know some of you do this every day, and you get mucho respect from me, this is hard, hard work. Thanks guys for all the amazing guidance once again!
Now as for a quick background, I'm a little familiar with paint work, as I have restored and painted MANY vintage motorcycles, but not much work on car finishes and as I am learning, correcting finishes is a whole different ballpark than painting, sanding out, and buffing your own canvas, anyway sorry to digress again.
So getting on to the point, my wife got a new car so I kept her old one, a 2001 Volvo S40 to use as an airport car. This vehicle has around 130k miles on it and has never been garaged in its life. It has hauled us all around the country, been a chariot for 2 large dogs, and most recently our toddler. There are some defects that will never be correctable, but for the most part the paint is pretty good. Did the interior yesterday, a bunch of stain removal work in the carpet and then a shampoo and cleaning, no pics but it looks like, well, a clean car.
Today I went to work on the exterior. I had some products, and tried some new ones as well. The general order of things was...
Wash.
Clay with mothers clay bar set.
Tape off.
Compound and focus on RIDS removal with 3M Perfect It 2
Polish with Megs Ultimate Polish
IPA Wipe.
Finish with Blackfire Crystal Seal (wanted to try one of the new WOWA sealants. Wow, this may have changed my life.)
Buffing was done with a harbor freight DA polisher with LC backing plate and a couple LC white pads.
After the wash, ready to clay
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/bynaha5a.jpg
After clay
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/7ypeqyda.jpg
All taped up. This is why I could never be a professional detailer. Taping this car up took me almost 3 hours. A whole lot of black trim.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/7u2a2u3e.jpg
My test spot. Very hard to see on silver metallic paint, but there is a vertical line just to the right of the bird etching.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/me8y4ymu.jpg
After compounding.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/9y6a7ygu.jpg
After polishing and final IPA wipe.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/ysysuba6.jpg
Aaaaand, here she is, after the BF Crystal Seal
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/usuga8e3.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/18/jy3e7ava.jpg
Looking good for being almost 14. I know some of you do this every day, and you get mucho respect from me, this is hard, hard work. Thanks guys for all the amazing guidance once again!