Four Vehicles made beautiful for summer

[TTQ B4U]

Crazy busy over the past several weeks and with just about everything packed up including my camera gear, I'm struggling just to get things organized let along pics taken.

Had four vehicles in here recently all getting ready for summer. Forgive the lack of and lessor quality pics. Making due with what I have including time. I'll try and post up some before shots as they are the real story of transformations but for now a couple beauty shots will have to do.

Let's start things off with a true BEAST. This 2015 Dodge Challenger packs 700+HP and sounds as mean as that number. I must have started and rolled this one back 10 times for the pure joy of it's sound.

This one is a true daily driver and the owner admitted he "lived in it" for a while. This was an interior and exterior detail which came with a chocolate milkshake spilled in the back seat even. The wheels were so bad the calipers were black and the paint looked like it was never washed even though the owner said he only hand-washed it. The great news is that it cleaned up and perfected very nicely.

Single Step Correction which worked fine given Dodge/Jeep have excellently tough clear coat. 100% correction achieved:








Up next was a New Car Prep on a CR Members new 2017 Focus ST. Steve aka Wonderboy has a new to him brand new car and wanted her protected and ready for summer. I'm jealous of white and love getting them to shine, even though my pics here really do zero justice to how well this car turned out. ZERO flaws in the paint now and fully Ceramic Coated she shines you'd never believe. AGain, pics do it no justice so perhaps Steve can chime in.

I'm showing off the B-Pillars as they were the only real area of his concern as they tend to be soft and were rather scratched up upon delivery.








Up next is perhaps one of the nicest Kia's I've been inside for a typical Daily Driver. This 2013 Kia Optima Turbo came in loaded with light scratches (before pics coming) and needed a re-coating done to it. In the end this car came out as nice as I have my Audi done and it attracted a lot of attention as it's just plain very sharp looking. If I owned an Optima Turbo, this would be the exact combo package. The paint has minimal if any orange peel and shines as nice as can be. Ceramic Coated and now ready for another years use as a daily driver.

2013 Kia Optima Turbo








Lastly, welcome back to 1989 and the first year for Porsche to introduce an AWD 911. This one is courtesy of my friend David. He always seems to find rare beauties and this one while needing some real love on the outside, is fantastically clean on the inside.

The challenge here with Guards Red is that three of the panels were sprayed over the past decade with something close but not spot-on and that includes them being clear-coated vs single stage like the factory paint. Add in the fact that the original paint measured in at a razor thin 3.5 mils thickness, there was no chance I was going to do much other than remove the oxidation and restore the shine.

That said, even though there are some flaws in the factory paint, the vehicle turned out about 85-90% perfected and shines like new now! I'll have to edit this post with pics of my Orange Pads that looked like they were part of a bloody crime scene clean up when I was done with them.

All in all this baby turned out awesome! Thanks to David and everyone for the continued trust in my work and I hope they all enjoy the upcoming summer!!

1989 Porsche

[jkrig]

Great work as usual!!!

[TTQ B4U]

Some additional Information, some of which is my standard go-to stuff:

• Meg's Gold Class Car Wash
• CarPro Iron X
• Nano Sponge Decon - Medium
• Bleach White for the tires
• Griot's Wheel Cleaner
• Meg's 205 for the Polish
• Typically Orange Hybrid Force Pads & Green Hex Logic Pads used
• McKee's 37 Coating
• Flex 3401 Polisher
• WETS for the Trim
• CarPro ECH20/Reload aka my "blue juice" as a detail spray/wipe down
• Stoners More-Shine for tire dressing
• SONAX Rim Shield for the wheels

• Hellcat was done with Essence / Hex Logic Green Pads / Reload as LSP
• Porsche was done with HD Speed / Orange Hybrid Force Pads
• Porsche I used Solution Finish to restore the black Trim
• Optima I used Meg's 205 / Orange Hybrid Force Pads
• Focus I used Essence / Hex Logic Green Pads / McKee's 37 Coating

[Mike Phillips]

Nice work on 4 very different cars.

They all look brand new!


Lucky car owners to have someone that actually knows what they are doing to work on their cars.

[Marc08EX]

Great work on all 4 cars!

How long did the polishing step take for each vehicle and how much % correction was achieved with M205?

[Hammer77]

Very nice work man!

[Fink132]

Nice work. I need to do the B pillars on my 2016 ST

Sent from my LG-H831 using Tapatalk

[Sicoupe]

Beautiful work as always my friend!

[TTQ B4U]

Great work on all 4 cars! How long did the polishing step take for each vehicle and how much % correction was achieved with M205?

Thank you sir. These were a fairly ease set of cars effort and time wise. M205 does well for Mild to moderate scratches. All of these were able to be done with that level of product. Anything more and I move to M101 Foam Compound and an appropriate pad for the paint/brand/level of defects. I hope that makes sense.

The Porsche has about 6hrs total in it. It's a relatively small car so that helps. The front was tough as it's the majority of the surface area. Kudo's to the Flex as I can't see doing it in nearly the time I did with a non-forced rotation unit given it's all curves up front.

The Hellcat had a lot of surface too but it wasn't bad at all as the clear seems very durable and the few times the owner did wash it, he did so by hand and with care. The hardest part was the 2.5hrs of decontamination and washing (prep prior to buffing). I tend to put a strong focus on the clean up and prep phase as that enables the buffing to go faster and cleaner for both paint and my pads.

The Optima I actually did in record time for me. It didn't need much decontamination as the owner kept it very clean. They just need to avoid tunnel washes and need to learn drying technique. I polished it with M205 and wool pads to help blast through the marring. I then hit the panels with M205 on Orange Force pads to help really bring out the shine. Honestly, I saw very little difference when doing the second pass with the orange pads. It was really for my own peace of mind. I put in a total of 5hrs on her.

The Focus was pretty quick as she is small and was really just a "New Car Prep" package for me. I include a Ceramic Coating on my new car packages thus really insuring the paint is clean and polished well is key there.

I've learned a lot from so many here, I'll over-share more than you asked for to pay-forward the good things that have come my way by others and welcome any insight or thoughts on how I look at things.

Overall, I have been working methodically to refine my processes to insure I can move quickly. It all depends on the starting point and goal as to how much time I put in. I may put together a nice Excel Matrix with tabs at the bottom as I have the framework for it. I base my packages on vehicle size:

Not everyone may agree, but this is how I structure them and am always open to new ways of looking at it.

Sm to Med 2-5dr: (Fit, Civic, Accord, Cruz, Golf, Altima, A4, Fusion, Vibe, WRX)
Large 2-5dr: (Charger, Avalon, A6, 535, Taurus, Genesis, G8, E-Class, Tesla S)
Small-Midsize SUV: (Escape, CR-V, Rav 4, Rogue, Forester, Edge, 2 row seating, etc.)
Large SUV/Van/Wagon: (Explorer, Pilot, Yukon, Wagons, Wrangler, 3 row seating, etc.)
Extra Large SUV/Van (Full size truck/van, Chevy Suburban, Toyota Sequoia, etc.)

Upon inspection I usually rinseless wash a panel or two for an initial appraisal overview ranking the starting point as Clean, Mild, Medium, Rough. Those stages help me determine the amount of time I may need. I price everyone at Medium and only note in my details that there may be an up-charge if the vehicle comes out really rough as compared to initially thought. I've had this a couple times and customers understand. Otherwise, the targets are really for my goals and extra savings.

Here's an example of a vehicle I did which is what I deem "rough" http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/...pss0kfqmji.jpg

I like working on Honda's, Toyota's and Subaru's as they are usually a breeze to correct and I can often do them in short-order time-wise.

Package Wise I offer:

New Car Prep and Protection Coating Package - Self Explanatory
Option 1: Basic Clean & Protect Detail - Similar to the above prep wise but no real correction, just a quick clean/polish
Option 2: Premium Enhancement - AIO, 1-step process, goal of 75%+ reduction of imperfections
Option 3: Elite Enhancement - Compound and Polish, goal of 90%+ reduction of imperfections
Option 4: Signature Elite Enhancement - Compound/Polish/Refined to near perfection/full correction - show car focus stuff

^^ with the above percentages it's actually quite typical that I can come darn near 95% or better correction. Again, all depends on the car. The black Optima, I sold as a Option 2 noted it as mild and got nearly 100% correction out of it. Great value to the customer.

Hope the above helps.

[custmsprty]

Great work, they all look excellent.