07' Lime Dodge Charger a.k.a Dodge-Zilla! (pics and vid)

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Ok time for my second write up in a week. You guys have been keeping me busy!

This time around we tackled an 07' Charger...Lime color...nick named "Dodge-Zilla"!

Here is a little history on Dodge-Zilla. Scott (the owner), like most owners of sweet cars, is pretty crazy about the appearance of his ride. When he first contacted me he said the sides all looked nice and glossy, but the roof didn't have the mirror finish and that it felt rough.

Well to me, right away that spelled 'bonded contaminants'. He later went on to tell me that it was basically a garage queen and everytime he took it out, as soon as he got home he'd hit it with *gasp* The Duster! Noooo Scott no! Yes it was true...a duster along with QD was what he had been using over the years to keep it clean...no washing.
So everybody, say hello to Dodge-Zilla:





So after talking to him about how we'd go about getting it to ALL look like glass again, I explained that after washing that a clay bar would be needed to remove all of the bonded contaminants since dusting and quick detail sprays don't take car of all the lovely fall out, tree sap and all the other goodies that land and end up on our cars. We also told him about Optimum No Rinse since he lives in pretty tight quarters and doing an all out wash isn't exactly easy (thus the reason for the duster and quick detail sprays).

So we got there, looked it over...the sun was still behind his building when we first arrived, but i could see with our swirl light that it definitely needed a polish out badly. So, we got to work. First washing it down with ONR. Wasn't really dirty to be honest, just light dust. The real bad stuff was afterwards when we had to break out the clay.

You see, the roof, it felt like sandpaper, seriously. The sides you could feel SOME, but nothing more than what you'd typically feel. The hood and trunk were also in pretty bad shape. So while i worked away with the clay using ONR as my lube spray, my sister worked on cleaning up the rims and tires.

After the claying was complete, the sun finally came up over the building...and out here its STILL freakin' hot (was about 90 that day) so of course we had to get it back in the garage asap (and boy was it TIGHT in there!) because working on paint in the sun is, as we all know....a 'no no'.

But while it was still out in the sun, i got a few good swirl pictures to show the true condition of the paint. Take a look:



The roof swirls weren't horrible. Probably was impossible to scratch the paint much more since it had a good layer of contaminants protecting it lol.

The HOOD however was not so forgiving:



A little closer...



The Quarter Panel



The OTHER quarter panel:



Ah yes, thats what we were looking for. Dodge-Zilla was beat up pretty badly by the Duster, but its ok...we came to the rescue *que super hero music*

So we broke out our gear. Flex 3401, Griots, some 5" Meguiars Microfiber pads and some D300 compound. Primed the pads up and tried out a test spot.

Test spot, as always so far with the D300 (knock on wood) showed excellent correction. We had to of course be careful along the vinyl decals since you don't want to get compound on them or under the edges.

So we went to work buffing away. Scott came out after a little over an hour or so and was surprised to see we were not quite half way done. You see he'd never had any paint correction done so this was new to him. He was impressed with what he saw already to say the least...loved that the paint felt smooth again rather than gritty. He complimented us on what he saw so far and then went back inside.

A few minutes later we look up just in time for ...yeah he snuck back down and snapped a picture of us in the middle of buffing the paint lol. Needless to say he was pretty amped up about how the car was turning out...which in all honesty makes us that much more joyous to be doing it.

Now here's the thing, we were in a condo complex...narrow streets with 2 story buildings around us...and the sun goes from east to west pretty fast now, so we didn't have a lot of time for full sun pictures, but we did manage to grab a few after turning the car around to get the back half into the shade so we could buff it out (yes the garage was pretty tight like i said, one half of the car at a time lol)

So here we are in the sun. Remember, we took THIS:



and made it into THIS:



Oh yeah baby, its lime time!


Also grabbed a shot of the quarter panel in the sun too:



Its got a Hemi (LOVED the sound of this car).


And the roof looked sweet as well:



Note these were taking JUST after compounding with Megs D300. We hadn't even applied the finishing wax yet (D301).

We continued working on the back half, getting it up to par with the front. By the time we finished of course the sun was well behind the west buildings so no further sun shots were possible. BUT, thats why God gave us halogens!

Here we go:



Yes, it felt as slick as it looks!
It was still Dodge-Zilla but minus the scaly feeling paint!

Here is another angle of the same panel:




Pretty...

Also a couple of halogen shots of the hood:






Yes sir, its back on track now.


This picture i managed to grab when the sun was just barely peeking between a couple buildings...it came through just perfectly onto the roof:



Sorry but, is that cool or is that cool?


We applied D301 finishing wax and carefully removed it...then fired it up, backed it out of the garage and pulled in onto the street. When i got out of the car Scott was on the balcony looking down asking "Is it ok for me to come and see it now!" Of course i told him to come on down and take a look...but from what he said, the view of it up on the balcony was just as nice

So after the three of us circled the car a few times i went ahead and snapped a few beauty shots...cause you know, i gotta do the beauty shots. A few sweet reflection shots too of course

So here you are folks:



Its pretty good when the paint on the trunk reflects just as well as the rear windshield!


This was a nice hood reflection shot. I love how the reflection just kind of rolls over the curves of the hood (you can see it even better in the video at the end of the post)



A close up reflection shot....lookin' all liquid:



Here is one of the hood shots i got in the sun earlier...but i wanted to save it till now just because its so cool




Its mean and green



The other side:



And of course a shot from the back:




Scott told us he's taking it to a show on Saturday. He said usually his friends with the $20k paint jobs win, but hey...lets see if the Lime can pull one out with its beautifully polished paint.


So, there you have it...Dodge-Zilla resurrected!



One last shot...Dodge-Zilla ready to come out of its cave:




Hope you all enjoyed the write up. And good luck to Scott tomorrow at the show!

For those of you who want to really see the transition of before to after, check out the video:

[Twister]

Great job. That garage does look tight. Almost looks like the car wouldn't fit

[shoeless89]

That color is actually one of my favorite colors . . . just not on cars. Great job!

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Great job. That garage does look tight. Almost looks like the car wouldn't fit

It was super tight. had about 3 inches on either side of the mirrors pulling it in...fun part was BACKING it in when i had to put the back side in the garage lol. You can bet i took it SLOW, dont want any 'oops' moments w/a car like this, or any car for that matter. Side panels were a PITA to do, but the wall did make a good 'back brace' when we had to squat down to do lower parts...just leaned up against the wall and buffed away lol

That color is actually one of my favorite colors . . . just not on cars. Great job!

lol what do you like it on then if not cars...life savers ?

[Spiney]

Will, thank you for a great informative writeup, images, and pictures. You did a great job. I too love that color. Chrysler has some hot colors on their musclecars. I'm a newbie here. We bought a creampuff 96 SVT Cobra Black of course in July. So I'm here to learn. It was so well taken care of i asked the previous owner what he did to maintain the paint so well. Besides being a garage queen he used a multitude of Meguiars product so that's what I bought. He also told us to get a CA Duster so we did. So please tell me why I shouldn't be using it. We don't use it exclusively, we do wash often two bucket method and Meguiar's Gold Class soap. 2nd question when drying is it wrong to use a silicon squeege? 3rd question: what is ONR and how is it used? And finallyand maybe this isn't allowed here, what is the going rate for the service you gave the challenger. If not allowed perhaps you could PM me. Thanks much, Spiney-Dave

[Klink10]

Excellent stuff there. I have to ask, In reading the story I am not understanding the process used. I got wash, clay and then D300. From there with nothing in between you went to wax? No wipedown etc? I guess I'm just not seeing between the lines.

[onlycodered]

Those Chargers look so nice in lime green. Almost wish I could have gotten my Mustang in that color! Great job on bringing the paint back to life!

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Will, thank you for a great informative writeup, images, and pictures. You did a great job. I too love that color. Chrysler has some hot colors on their musclecars. I'm a newbie here. We bought a creampuff 96 SVT Cobra Black of course in July. So I'm here to learn. It was so well taken care of i asked the previous owner what he did to maintain the paint so well. Besides being a garage queen he used a multitude of Meguiars product so that's what I bought. He also told us to get a CA Duster so we did. So please tell me why I shouldn't be using it. We don't use it exclusively, we do wash often two bucket method and Meguiar's Gold Class soap. 2nd question when drying is it wrong to use a silicon squeege? 3rd question: what is ONR and how is it used? And finallyand maybe this isn't allowed here, what is the going rate for the service you gave the challenger. If not allowed perhaps you could PM me. Thanks much, Spiney-Dave

Glad you enjoyed the write up. Let me see if i can get to some of your questions.

First being a new car owner and new to detailing, you'll have to train your eyes to pick up on swirls. On black, it shouldn't be too hard. I love Meguiars products so i think you made a good choice there....mind me asking what type you're using so far?

With the CA duster, it causes scratches. Just think about what it does...i drags dirt across the paint while removing it right? No soap or suds or anything slippery in between the dirt and the paint...and yes even though its paint, it will still lightly mar it with the duster. Same thing with quick detail sprays...it helps SOME, but really you need some water to use as your lubricant to serve as a barrier between the dust and the paint. So when you're wiping across the paint...it sliidddddddes, rather than drags (even if it doesn't feel like its dragging, it is to some degree because its dry). So thats why i always advise against the duster, and many others on here do as well.

For the squeegee, personally again, i'd advise against it. IF by chance some little speck of dirt gets on the paint after you wash but before you dry...and you use your squeegee there is again a chance it will dig it into the paint and cause a scratch. Now again i understand the point of the duster and squeegee is to make drying and maintaining easier and you're probably thinking 'crap i gotta drag out the hose every time to clean this?'....well not exactly , i'll get to that next.

ONR...Optimum No Rinse (look it up on autogeek.net). THIS is some great stuff. It takes the place of a duster but does a better and safer job. You set up your 2 buckets, but instead of using regular car soap you use ONR instead (note only use it for mildly dirty cars, if you just drove through a nasty storm and its really dirty, do a regular wash).

Now use your mit, dip into the ONR bucket, wash a panel (i usually start with the roof and then work my way down)...usually only do 1 or 2 panels at a time, then get a couple of good microfiber towels and dry the panel. I usually use one MF to dry it and the 2nd one to get any light streaks (which usually only happens once the first towel gets a little wet). Then, rinse your mit in your rinse bucket and move to the next panel. Thats it! No hose, no rinse down, no suds, and the rinsing again, Just a simple process. I used a little APC in my wash water just because i was trying to strip wax...i was going to clay afterwards anyway and i was then going to polish the paint. For a regular wash i wouldn't do that. If i had a rough bug spot, then i'd spray a little on just that spot, not actually put it in the water.

Depending on how cold it is, you'll go through a few MF towels, but its much faster and easier than regular washing...and WAY safer than using a duster. Now if you use a grit guard and your ONR water is still clean since you rinsed your dirt off into the rinse bucket, you can actually save your ONR water, just store it in the garage or somewhere convenient and later that week or whenever she gets dirty again, pull it back out and do another ONR wash. Should only take 15 minutes...20 tops. Also you can use ONR mixed in a spray bottle as clay lube...and i also use it on rims (i dont like rim cleaners as they are too harsh most times). Just spray the rims...let it set a little while then use a MF to clean them off (again if they're lightly dirty, if they are really bad i'll use the hose to get 90% of the crap off then use the ONR and MF to get the last little bit and get it spotless).

I'll PM you about the rest, but i hope the above info helped some.

Excellent stuff there. I have to ask, In reading the story I am not understanding the process used. I got wash, clay and then D300. From there with nothing in between you went to wax? No wipedown etc? I guess I'm just not seeing between the lines.

Sorry i kinda leave that part out but yeah we wipe off any dust etc from the compounding stage before we go to the finishing wax. The MF is set up with only 2 stages, compound then finishing wax (D301). The finishing wax serves as a light polish but finishes down as a wax for protection...and that was our final step for this job.

Those Chargers look so nice in lime green. Almost wish I could have gotten my Mustang in that color! Great job on bringing the paint back to life!

This was our first lime and it was a lot of fun. It's actually metallic...has like light gold metal flake all over. You can see it some in the sun hood shot...you could mistake it as light dust but its actually the metal flake showing through. Thanks for the compliments and i hope we get to do another one soon!