Richy's New Ride!! (Also 1st time using Self Heal Plus)

[richy]

My old vehicle was a 2011 Lincoln MKX with the 3.7L (Mustang) V-6 engine. It was a great car and I had it for 6.5 years. I have also had 5 black cars in a row...it was time for a change! So, my non-negotiables on the new one were: white, 2.7L Ecoboost and the Revel Stereo. I had it narrowed down to 2 vehicles. A 2017 with the top line Revel stereo (19 speakers) and LED headlights or a brand new 2016 with the entry level Revel stereo (13 speakers). Even with all the extra incentives, it came down to the fact that if I bought the '17, I couldn't afford to purchase the extended warranty. For a guy that keeps his cars between 6 and 7 years, I feel like I need that especially with all the technology the car comes with. So, I bought a brand new 2016 white MKX with the 2.7L ecoboost, the 13 speaker Revel system. The car has cameras front and rear and can park itself both perpendicularly and parallel.

I cleaned up my old one (didn't take much) and retailed it by myself and put it through the dealer as a "convenience deal" to save on the tax.


I might have gone a little overboard on the new one, but what the Hell. It's mine and frankly I could care less how long it took me. Besides, unfortunately, I have no customer jobs lined up at all right now. It is the first time in a decade that I've had a dry spell. I'm hoping it ends soon, but it did afford me the time to work on mine without pressure or guilt. This is my first time owning a turbo engine. The car was produced in April of '16 so it had been on the dealer's lot for over a year. That's 5 seasons and temperature variances, etc. Screw it, time to dump the oil! Besides, I've always been an Amsoil fanatic, so the very first thing I did was change the oil and filter and switched to Amsoil synthetic. Now I felt better.

The engine was cleaned and then every plastic piece was treated with DLux.

I was not able to do all the things I wanted to at one time so I worked on it on different days. It was more of a pain to do it that way. The interior was done first. A thorough vacuum was followed by the carpeting and carpet mats all getting treated with CarPro Fabric and Leather. The leather seats were also treated with CarPro Leather coating. The metal pieces on the dash and door were coated with Ceramic Lite.

I did not take any "during" shots of any of the processes, sorry. The wheels were the first exterior thing to be done. They were pulled and the barrels were given an ONR wipe down followed by DG Squeaky Clean to chemically clean and prepare the surface. They were coated with Feynlab Wheel & Caliper and shot with an air gun and not leveled whatsoever. I wanted the strongest protection there. The faces were similarly prepared and coated with W & C but were leveled after being shot with compressed air. (I believe that makes it cure more prior to a light wiping and allows less product to be removed when wiping. That is just my personal opinion.)


For the exterior, I started off with a strong wash followed by a second Iron X decontamination wash. I then clayed it old school with Riccardo yellow. I used ONR as lube and not Prime since I was going to be polishing it in 2 stages. It was then compounded with a TB black wool pad and M100 followed by a polish/chemical cleaning stage of M205/DG Squeaky Clean mix. Then it had to wait.


Several days later I was able to get back on it. I washed it again, this time adding an ounce of Prime to the wash mix per instructions from John Parker of Texas who is a Feynlab genius (and trainer). What a brilliant idea!! I had no idea Prime could be used for more than just a clay lube. Because this is my car, I decided to coat it with Feynlab Self Heal Plus, which is their strongest and best coating. I don't even offer this product to customers due to what I'd have to charge them. I probably spent in the area of 8 hours just coating it. That's a lot of time! But, again, being my car, I could care less. The parts that cannot have Self Heal Plus (SHP) applied to them were coated with Feynlab Ceramic. That included head and tail lights, roof glass, side glass and door jams. The exterior trim was coated with Feynlab Plastic. The chrome strip embedded in the door exterior trim was wiped off after the Plastic coating had cured.

The paint was coated with the 3 step process of SHP and I added a 4th stage of Ceramic Lite as a topper to make it unbelievably slick (and did that ever work well!!). Again, that process took me about 8 hours but I was being extremely careful and it was my first time using it. I was anxious (anxiety in the true sense of the word) doing the procedure for about the first 3 panels when I figured out the sweet spot of timing, etc. I hadn't mixed products prior to use since the old days of using and testing Duragloss Enviroshield! I discovered a few tricks on making that easier too.

I am very proud of this car and want to have the best protection on it there is, including scratch repair. Here it is all done. (I had even driven it for a day and didn't bother with an ONR wash prior to shooting the pics, LOL).

















Kinda washed out, but a close up of the flake, which is blinding:


























I forgot to mention: the hood and the lip on the top of the back bumper were given 2 coats of SHP for added protection:





























Thanks for looking.

[LEDetailing]

Congratulations, your stress level just got cut in half going from black to white. Nice looking Lincoln.

That 2.7 has to haul. My father in law's F150 has the 2.7 and it accelerates very strong.

Nice reg. plate

BTW, great work and write-up as always. Hope your dry spell comes to an end soon.

[Rsurfer]

Nice ride Richy, congrats.

[RippyD]

Congrats on the new car - looks great. Couple of questions if you don't mind...

polish/chemical cleaning stage of M205/DG Squeaky Clean mix.

Can you explain? Are you getting more cleaning with SC in the 205? Does it make it easier to remove? Just trying to get head around this so I'll know when to use it. I'm a big SC fan for polish remover before coating.

...barrels were given an ONR wipe down followed by DG Squeaky Clean to chemically clean and prepare the surface. They were coated with Feynlab Wheel & Caliper and shot with an air gun and not leveled whatsoever.

Interesting. This seems pretty obvious now that I read it. Any high spots unlikely to be visible in wheels.

Lastly, any reason you're using ONR on a coating vs. something that doesn't leave polymers on it? I know that coating doesn't care but it seems as though it would mask or mute the coating beading/sheeting behavior(?).

[idriveblackcars]

White is nice but damn black would have popped

[JDGolden]

Very nice and congrats! I too am interested to hear how quick it is (although not it's intended purpose). The MKX has been an awesome model since they've come out. I love all of them.

[VISITOR]

[Sizzle Chest]

Congrats on the new ride Richy! Very nice...perhaps the nicest looking one around!!!!

[Paul A.]

Absolutely beautiful, Richy. Congratulations and I wish you the best of luck with it! Makes a nice rolling billboard too.

[fly07sti]

Looking good bud. Please keep us updated on how well it performs.