Mirror Detailing - Recent Work - Ford GT, '68 250SE and '11 2500 *Terrible New Conditon*

[Mirror Detailing]

Figured I would just make one thread. Since I have been busy lately and not posting up much, figured I would throw in some of my favorite recent details from the past month or so.

First was a Ford GT that the customer saw another Ford GT I did a month prior and wanted his done the same way.

Another Ford GT I got done. Customer saw the black one I did last month and wanted his done up the same way. This is my dream car down to the exact color combo and mods. Car was not in the worse of shape. Had some minor holograms from the previous detailer and light scratces/swirls across the whole thing.

Process:

Washed w/ Citrous Wash
Wheels w/ CG Diablo Wheel Gel
Clayed w/ Pinn Ultra Poly Clay w/ ONR Lube
Dried with DI Drying Towel & Air Blower
Taped with Meguiars Tape
Buffed w/ SIP via Flex Speed 6 w/ Uber Orange Pad
Buffed w/ Micro Finish via Flex Speed 5 v/ Uber Green
Smaller Areas w/ Microfiber 3" Pads w/ D300 & M105
Smaller Areas w/ Tangerine Spot Pad w/ M205

LSP:
WIndows w/ Stoners
Sealed w/ WGDGPS
Waxed w/ Blackfire Midnight Sun
Tires w/ Nature Shine
Wheels hit w/ V7 Hybrid
Body Wiped down w/ V7 Hybrid

Whipple w/ M205/105 Mixture
Sealed w/ Wheel Guard

What the car looked like when I first got there. Before washing it...






What the paint looked like before under my LED light...

















After washing the car...the sun popped over the trees and was able to get some sun shots before...









Once I finished getting the car dry, pulled it into the garage, tapped it up and did some test work to see what process would work best.




Once I got all the buffing done, got the interior done and sealed up the car. Put a heavy coat on the car so it had the whole night to cure before I came back to finish up the rest of the car.

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Once I got back the next morning, I finished up all the final things. Did another wipe down on the car, windows, rims/tires, engine bay and cleaned up the whipple and exhuast.

Engine Bay area before...




Whipple was looking a little dull, so did some polishing on it and sealed it up to give it a much better shine.



Once everything was done. I had an hour with the car till the owner got back. So I moved it around the front of his house and got all the pictures I want. lol.

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Once I was done getting the basics, I started wasting time getting more fun look pictures. I am not a amazing photograhper so I just got shots that I thought would look cool.

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Now for the first car that got dropped at my shop a few weeks ago.

Had a restoration shop call me last week about getting one of their cars done for it to go back to the customer. Shop manager was wanting to get the cars cleaned up after being finished, but wants them truly detailed. Did not have the time for any of his guys to learn...or who could truly do the work. Found me and had me come out last week and quote the car. Well everything was good and he dropped it off at the shop late Monday afternoon.

Car was to have the paint cleaned up to a good 90%+ correction, metals cleaned and sealed, interior carpets cleaned and interior cleaned. Car was a great piece to work on. It was restored by another shop some years ago and really had not been cleaned since. Normal scratches/swirls across the paint, plenty of holograms and interior was pretty grimy. Anyways....

No good before pictures as I did not have my camera. I went ahead and did a waterless wash and clayed the car the first night. Had it ready for buffing the next day, which is where the photos begin.

Process:

ONR Wash
Paint Clayed w/ DI Medium Clay via ONR Lube
Some areas clayed w/ Meguiars Aggressive Clay via ONR Lube
Paint taped up w/ Meguiars Car Masking Tape

Buffing
M105 via GG DA w/ Uber Orange Pad
Some Areas w/ SIP via Dewalt 849 Speed 1200-1800-1000 w/ Uber Orange Pad
PO87 via Dewalt 849 Speed 1000-1600-1000 w/ Uber Green Pad

Hard to reach or smaller areas done by...
M105/D300 via GG DA w/ Microfiber 3" Cutting Pad
M205 via GG DA w/ Tangerine Spot Pad

Metals w/ Optimum Metal Polish
Metals Sealed w/ Wheel Guard

LSP via WGDGPS
Windows w/ Meguiars Glass Cleaner
Tires w/ Optimum Tire Gel

Interior w/ Cleaned w/ Green Clean
Interior Seats/Panels wiped down w/ 303
Carpets via Steamcleaner by Meguiars APC+ Mixture





Starting on my test area to see what would yield the results I wanted.

Test area before...



Half and half...



And test area after both buffs...



General condition of the paint around the car...





The areas of the front bumper as I was working on them...

Pass side before and after...




Driver side before and after...




Then some light on the hood after doing half of it. Hard to tell but you can see the line running half way through the lights...



Then the front hood scope before and after...




Here a shot of the hood and the fender. Hood has already been done, fender untouched...



Now after working on the whole car...here are some shots of the paint after everything was completed...







A shot of the wheels before and after...




After everything was done....got to the interior...

The amazing amount of floormatts that came out of this thing...



After cleaning them...



Driver door panel before and after...

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Driver interior before and after...




Pass interior before and after...




Pass door panel before and after...




And then inside waiting on the sun to come out, I snapped a few pictures...









Finally the sun came out...

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Now back inside to wait till it got picked up, I snapped a few more pictures...




Customer contacted me last weekend about fixing some scratches he thought he had induced into the paint. Owner had been using a Boars Hair Wash Brush and thought that he had done this. To me it looks more like a sandy wash mitt from a dealership. After dropping off the truck, I realized it was a good bit more, but had a slight feeling they were not light. Once I got started, come to find out, it was some light scratches covering loads of deeper scratches. The owner wanted the truck to look like a new truck and 99-100% correction. So, fast forward through 28 hours worth of paint polishing, the owner also wanted the tail lights fixed as they were just as bad as the body and all the plastic trim dressed and protected.

Process:
ONR Wash
DI Light Clay w/ ONR Lube
2 IPA Wipedowns

Large Panel Buff Process:
2x 6" Microfiber Cutting Pad w/ M105 & D300 via GG DA
M205 via Tangerine Pad via GG DA
1-2 PO85RD w/ LC Black Pad via GG DA

Small Areas:
3" Micro Cutting Pad w/ M105 & D300 via GG DA
3" Tangerine Spot Pad w/ M205 via GG DA
1-2 3" Tangerine Spot Pad w/ PO85RD via GG DA

After every step IPA Wipedown
More IPA Wipedowns

LSP w/
Sealed w/ Blackfire
Waxed w/ Mightnight Sun
V7 Wipedown
Windows w/ Meguiars Window Concentrate
Tires w/ Meguiars Hot Shine
Wheel Wells w/ CG Black on Black
Trim w/ Restore Refinish

Load of pictures for this detail...

Before I started, got some pictures of the condition of the paint. Not how a 2011 with 5000 miles on it should look.

From afar it looks nice and shiney, as the owner keeps it waxed...



Under a light...not so good.






To give you an idea of how deep the deeper scratches were, here is some polish rubbed over the area...



I started on my test area, to figure out what it would take...

Area before...



Half and half before any final polishing...



Area done...but the down side was, when I stoke by LED light on the paint, the process that got me this finish, was not going to work. The 500w lights were not showing the mass amount of holograms from trying to finish down with the Dewalt and Micro Finish.



Once I had to retrace my steps and figure out a different process. Even the other process gave me headaches, as this paint was really REALLY soft, with M205 leaving me this finish...




But luckily that was a simple fix.

Now onto the tail lights. Just like the body, they were in bad shape...




After...




Now onto working on the whole paint after all...

Pillars before and after...





Now once the body was done, got to the roof and this is what I found...





Owner did not want to wet sand them, as that was the only way to completely remove them, so I at least made them a lot less noticeable.



Once I was done with the truck, the owner wanted the plastic treated, just took one quick picture to give you an idea of the color difference it makes. This picture, the product was just applied so it was still drying.

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Now that everything was done, onto the after pictures.














Now outside into the sun this morning to get some final pictures.

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Man...that was a lot of pictures.

[toycar18]

Everything looks great.

Very nice work on Black truck!!

[shoeless89]

Fantastic work on all the cars! I see you got to use your new shop. If someone could help inform me, whats so great about a Ford GT? I mean, it is a bad A$$ car but for that kind of money wouldn't you want a Murcilago or something? I must just be un-informed or something lol You have a very nice house BTW