Dodge Challenger Detailed

[wolfpacker92]

Co-worker bought this about 6 months ago and was interested in getting it protected. He had been reading up on coatings and asked me about doing the car so his investment could be protected. Took us a while to get it planned but this weekend I was finally able to do the detail. Here's what I did:

Wheels/Tires/Wells: Wheels looked pretty good, but it didn't take long to realize how dirty they actually were. I used SCG Code Red along with Valet Pro long reach wheel brush for the barrels, Carrand lug nut brush, and MF chenille wash mitt for the faces. Used the Code Red on the brake calipers and a Famous Detailing Brush. Wheels and calipers were coated with Gtechniq C5 Wheel Armour.

Tires were cleaned with MS Super Green Stuff @3:1 and a Tuf Shine tire brush (this thing is so simple but yet so awesome). The tires got 2 coats of McKee's 37 tire coating 30 minutes apart. The shine that his gave is exactly what I like but I knew he would want a little more so after I finished everything and just before returning it to him I gave the tires a coat of Carpro Perl @1:1. Gave a perfect shine for him. Wells were dressed with Stoner's Trim Shine. Here are before/during/after pics:




Engine: Started with a quick rinse with the CR Spotless, sprayed it down with MS SGS, agitated and rinsed. After the rinse I dried with a leaf blower, then sprayed the engine bay down with Megs Hyper Dressing @ 3:1, and then let the engine run for about 20 minutes to get the Megs to "set".


Exhaust: Exhaust was cleaned with SCG Beyond Steel and Scotch brite. Exhaust was coated with Gtechniq EXO.

Decontamination: Sprayed the car down with Carpro Iron-X, let it set and do it's thing then rinsed with the CR Spotless.

Wash: Bugs got CG Bug and Tar remover and the AG bug sponge. Loaded up the foam cannon with 3 oz of SCG Professional Surface Prep Wash and 25 oz of water and washed with a Supreme Micro-chenille wash mitt and a rinse bucket with a grit guard. This wash had the paint feeling squeaky clean and I knew any remaining LSP was gone. Car was rinsed with the CR Spotless and dried with a leaf blower. Here's a pic of it all foamed up:


Clay: Used my favorite clay, Bilt Hamber Regular Clay, on this one and used the CR Spotless water for lube.

Paint: This was my first time using Carpro Essence and I must say I was impressed. It corrected some minor scratches and swirling and a left an incredible shine. I have been using coatings since around 2010 and the very first Opti Coat and had been searching for a product that would really clean the paint and provide a little protection but was coating friendly. When I came back to AG after being away for a while I read up on Essence and I think it was in one of my first orders since coming back. Needless to say I was not disappointed. Essence was applied via my Flex 3401 and a Lake Country 5" Hybrid White Polishing Pad on the 4" backing plate. Just purchased the backing plate and pads and like all my recent purchases from AG, I'm really pleased. After the Essence was buffed off I wiped down the entire car (paint, glass, wheels, trim, and exhaust) with Carpro Eraser. Paint looked great and was now ready for the coating:


Glass: Glass was coated with McKee's 37 Glass Coating. I love this stuff! When I started out in detailing I used a lot of the Detailer's Pride line and I know it morphed into the McKee's line but man I'm really impressed with every McKee's product I've tried. I have several gallons of various products on the way to me as I type! I used this Glass Coating on my Camaro and recently rode about 30 miles on the interstate in heavy rain and never used my wipers. This product is really good.

Coating: I decided to go with Carpro Cquartz since this is the one he had been reading up on. I've used Opti Coat, GTechniq CSL, and Cquartz and I have to say Cquartz is my favorite. After the coating I waited a few hours and applied a coat of Carpro Reload. Paint was looking phenomenal and owner was thrilled with the outcome. Here are some before and afters:







Couple of randoms:



I know this was long so if you made it to here thanks for sticking it out.

[DETAILROOKIE]

Wow, looks great. Nice work!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Autogeekonline mobile app

[Marc08EX]

Great job!! Very nice write up too.

[Paul A.]

Nice work, wolfpack! Thanks for sharing it with us.

[wolfpacker92]

Wow, looks great. Nice work!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Autogeekonline mobile app

Great job!! Very nice write up too.

Nice work, wolfpack! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks guys. Really having fun getting back into this and doing cars other than my own again! I've learned a lot about some new product lines but that's also led to me spending more money LOL!

[Tico]

Looks great. Outstanding job. I did my Challenger yesterday and I'm still wore out. I should have bought white (lol).

[Sicoupe]

Awesome job! Looks great.


Kyle

[osiapstndp]

Great job. I work on Challengers more than anything else and I absolutely love them.

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

looks great. love the challengers

[wolfpacker92]

Looks great. Outstanding job. I did my Challenger yesterday and I'm still wore out. I should have bought white (lol).

Thanks so much. I'll tell you there's a lot of hood on this car. Never realized it until I started working on it.

Awesome job! Looks great.


Kyle

Thanks, a lot of good info on some of the new products really helped me out here.

Great job. I work on Challengers more than anything else and I absolutely love them.

It was truly a fun car to not only detail but I had to drive it about 60 miles round trip and I must admit that was a bit more fun than the detail!

looks great. love the challengers

Much appreciated!

I forgot to put in my original write up but I found a trick with the McKee's Tire Coating that seemed to work for me. First time I used it on my car I seemed to waste a good deal of product because of the way it comes out of the dispenser. I had a Carrand brush like many recommend but I really didn't like that at all and lots of product seemed to find it's way on my driveway as opposed to my tires. I switched to a dedicated brand new foam tire applicator and that worked better but when it came out of the bottle would want to roll right off the applicator some. I put a sprayer in the bottle (like you get on some of the trial sizes) and that worked great. I didn't waste any product and it atomized it enough that it just soaked into the foam applicator. Anyway just something that worked for me.