Pictures & Videos: 2003 Honda Civic Extreme Makeover - Duragloss

[Mike Phillips]

Thanks for the response, mildly curious if you had chosen the products for a different reason or just to keep it simple. I agree with the KISS acronym, too many times people complicate life's tasks.

Picked products based upon the needs of the paint and the idea this is a Daily Driver that will always sit outside 24x7. In my article below I recommend to people to match their services to their customers and I try to practice what I preach.

Too many people get all caught up into doing a dozen things to the paint when all that's needed and all that's necessary are a few things.

A few tips on starting a part-time detailing business
Match your services to your customer

I hear you on the dog house, I'm in it currently. Sold a car to friends son a year ago. Nice kid needed a break getting his life on track sold it very cheap. Anyhow he called and asked a question about it, had him come over and showed him how to clean the paint up and the wifey drives up in the dirty a$$ truck and sees me cleaning this kids car. If looks could kill. She just dropped the keys on the shop cart I got the message loud and clear.

Ouch! Guess you'll be detailing the truck next...

Mike...thanks so much. I just wonder how anyone would ever be able to buff around that kind of stuff...especially when you
get small gaps between thin pinstriping. I don't think I'd ever do that to a rig, but curious in case I ever encounter this.

Thanks again!

You either work these areas by hand, buff on them with foam or let them go...

When people get pinstripes put on their car they never think about what this will mean down the road when it comes to polishing and waxing the paint. They do think about it when it comes time to polish and wax the paint and then they either find a forum like this and ask how to do it and get answers they don't like or they let it go...

Mike, did you use the same tangerine hydro tech pad to apply the 111 polish/sealant that used when you applied the 501?

No. We used the Crimson Hydro-Tech Finishing pads. The other guys were putting the DG11 on while I was coiling up extension cords and putting used pads and microfiber towels away. At some point, someone has to clean-up before you get the beauty shots either by camera or video and in this case it was me and thus no shots of the machine applied wax application were taken.

Look at any of my write-ups and when it comes to the beauty shots you don't see extension cords, pads, tools or clutter anywhere... someone has to do the clean-up...

Overall, considering the quality of the paint job, the end results were very impressive!

Buffing out neglected single stage metallic paints is tricky because if you buff in on area too long or use too aggressive of a product you will CHANGE how the paint looks because you're buffing directly ON the flake.

Tiger Stripes
This is a term that is used to describe what the paint looks like when someone using a rotary buffer and a compound buffs a panel too much with a compound and wool pad on a rotary buffer and leaves trails in single stage, metallic paint.

Only myself and Jeff used the rotary buffers and we only used them enough to cut the dead, oxidized paint off the hood and restore some shine and then we put these tools away and finished out using only DA Polishers on purpose to be safe and it was still a challenge.

When using DG501, what speed did they use the DA with?

6 on all the DA Polishers, Griot's, Megs and Porter Cable.

What products/machine/pads did u use on that 50/50 of the glass?

That was the Duragloss NuGlass with a Griot's DA Polisher and some 4" orange that come in our plastic and glass polishing kits.

I wish you included more footage on the glass water spots. I was going to pick up some nuglass on my next order. I didn't see any footage of you machine polishing the glass in the video, did I miss it?

Most of the video was showing the claying, the condition of the paint before and the walk-around-video of the after. When shooting with an iPhone you really need to keep your movies under 15 minutes or it become more time-consuming to get them to upload to a YouTube channel via the wireless manner. (Not sure if you've ever done this so I'm just sharing my experience)

I did post this, and I would have posted more except like I stated, the glass polishing pictures were all out of focus.

For some reason all of the glass polishing pictures were a little out of focus but as you can see we did machine polish all the exterior glass and this shows up in the video too.

We'll see Coral's Honda back down the road for some more projects and we'll see how well the DG 111 is holding up...


Thanks for all the comments and questions!

[richy]

Mike, thanks again for using DG products in one of your projects. I was surprised the 501 did so well to cut the oxidation. I would normally precede that and use the 501 as the cleaner stage after it but I understand why you did it that way. I, too, will be looking forward to its report card.

[Mike Phillips]

Mike, thanks again for using DG products in one of your projects. I was surprised the 501 did so well to cut the oxidation. I would normally precede that and use the 501 as the cleaner stage after it but I understand why you did it that way. I, too, will be looking forward to its report card.

The worst parts were the horizontal surfaces and for the hood and trunk lid we used rotary buffers as the DA's were going to be to slow for chopping off all the dead paint.

Can't stress enough to anyone working on single stage metallic paint to be VERY careful because it's all to easy to leave a mottled look. It doesn't help if the paint job is budge paint job to start with.

The sides cleaned up pretty nice with just the DA Polisher.


Coral is incredibly happy with the results... that's what is most important... the customer...

[Jomax]

Amazing job, so would you recommend DG 105 as a one step polish?


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[Mike Phillips]

Amazing job, so would you recommend DG 105 as a one step polish?

You mean 501?

We didn't use 105. But to answer your questions, the 105 is a cleaner/wax, or if you want to be specific, a cleaner/sealant.

I use the term cleaner/wax as a catch-all term for any product that,

• Cleans
• Polishes
• Protects

Then that means...

• If the protection ingredients are wax then it's a cleaner/wax
• If the protection ingredients are synthetic then it's a cleaner/sealant

In most cases you'll find most products use both some type of natural wax and some type of man-made substances so most products that clean, polish and protect are cleaner/hybrids.


I didn't use the DG105 for this project because it's a light cleaner/wax and what this Honda needed was a strong cleaner/wax. Any product made to remove dead, oxidized material off of RV's and Boats, and this means for the most part off of gel-coat surfaces which means polyester resin, is going to be fairly strong.

So if you're looking for a one-step cleaner/wax for a neglected surface, especially a boat or RV then the 501 is a good candidate. If the finish is only lightly neglected, then you could try the 105.

The paint on this Honda was single stage and I would say that single stage is a lot more forgiving to work on than any clearcoat finish. Clearcoats are scratch-sensitive so always test any product NEW TO YOU on any car finish you've NEVER worked before to a small area before applying to the entire car and make sure you can make one small area look good with your product, pad and process, before buffing out the entire car, boat or RV.

Note: As I used the word process in the above paragraph, it means,

How you apply the product which can be by hand or machine and the TECHNIQUE you used with the tool or your hands. Lots of variable when it comes to process.

I have a lot of experience buffing on all kinds of paint systems including single stage paints and single stage metallic finishes. As I've posted on this forum in the past and even on MOL, the opportunity to buff on these old school type paints that are still in salvageable condition is becoming more and more rare. Anytime you're working on single stage metallic paint you need to be very, very careful, especially if they are old and neglected.

[mageA1]

really a terrific demonstration of products and technique! thanks mike!

[Jomax]

You mean 501?

We didn't use 105. But to answer your questions, the 105 is a cleaner/wax, or if you want to be specific, a cleaner/sealant.

I use the term cleaner/wax as a catch-all term for any product that,

• Cleans
• Polishes
• Protects

Then that means...

• If the protection ingredients are wax then it's a cleaner/wax
• If the protection ingredients are synthetic then it's a cleaner/sealant

In most cases you'll find most products use both some type of natural wax and some type of man-made substances so most products that clean, polish and protect are cleaner/hybrids.


I didn't use the DG105 for this project because it's a light cleaner/wax and what this Honda needed was a strong cleaner/wax. Any product made to remove dead, oxidized material off of RV's and Boats, and this means for the most part off of gel-coat surfaces which means polyester resin, is going to be fairly strong.

So if you're looking for a one-step cleaner/wax for a neglected surface, especially a boat or RV then the 501 is a good candidate. If the finish is only lightly neglected, then you could try the 105.

The paint on this Honda was single stage and I would say that single stage is a lot more forgiving to work on than any clearcoat finish. Clearcoats are scratch-sensitive so always test any product NEW TO YOU on any car finish you've NEVER worked before to a small area before applying to the entire car and make sure you can make one small area look good with your product, pad and process, before buffing out the entire car, boat or RV.

Note: As I used the word process in the above paragraph, it means,

How you apply the product which can be by hand or machine and the TECHNIQUE you used with the tool or your hands. Lots of variable when it comes to process.

I have a lot of experience buffing on all kinds of paint systems including single stage paints and single stage metallic finishes. As I've posted on this forum in the past and even on MOL, the opportunity to buff on these old school type paints that are still in salvageable condition is becoming more and more rare. Anytime you're working on single stage metallic paint you need to be very, very careful, especially if they are old and neglected.

I meant 501, but thanks for the great explanation on both!




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[Mike Phillips]

really a terrific demonstration of products and technique! thanks mike!

Like the saying goes...

Technique is everything....

But quality pads, products and tools are also key factors...

I meant 501, but thanks for the great explanation on both!

No problemo and to update this thread, I saw the Honda a few days ago and it's still looking great!

[Marc Hufnagel]

Would the Nu-Glass work to remove a failed install of aquapel? Applicator broke and had 3 streaks run down the windshield.

[Mike Phillips]

Would the Nu-Glass work to remove a failed install of aquapel? Applicator broke and had 3 streaks run down the windshield.

Yes.

As long as the streaks are merely topical stains the Duragloss Nu-Glass will remove them with ease...