2011 Charger Daily Driver Spring Clean

[lokerola]

I knew I wanted to get my Dodge Charger R/T cleaned up this weekend. Being a black car, daily driver, with no garage, I knew there were swirls that needed to be polished out. It was also in the body shop last fall to replace the front passenger fender due to little fender bender I had. And there are some good buffer trails in the paint surrounding the fender from the body shop.

But...I didn't want to take 2 days to clay, tape, compound, polish, etc. I'm slow - what can I say?

I wanted to see how clean I could get the paint, how many swirls I could hide without polishing, and get a great shine and some LSP protection on her, all within 1 afternoon. Let's see what happened!

Let's look at some before shots. It was DIRTY. Hadn't been washed in, oh about a month. And we had taken a trip for spring break that sent us through bad weather. Needless to say - it was dirty city.

Salt and grime



Wash me!



Step 1: 2 bucket wash with Megs D111. I finally ran out of D111 this wash and I won't be buying it again. I actually prefer the Megs Gold wash. The D111 is odd - it's sort of "sticky" and doesn't like to rinse off very well. Anyway - it did get the job for me today.



Body washed. I always save the wheels for last. Opposite of what most people do - but oh well...at least most of the grime is gone.



Step 2: Klasse AIO on Orange pads with my GG. This really made the paint start to pop. I can't believe how much dirt and grime was pulled off onto the pads.



Now we're starting to see some reflections!





Man these things were dirty!



Step 3: I could have quit after the Klasse. This stuff just rocks. But, my goal was to not only get it shiny, but hide as many swirls as I could. So next step was Poorboy's Black Hole Glaze applied with GG and black 6.5" pads.



The reflections are getting deeper and swirls are hiding away!



Step 4: Collinite 915. The final step. This was my first time using 915 and my first time attempting to apply Carnuba wax with a DA and the first time trying to remove wax with a DA polisher. First of all - you can see the wonderful, cool garage I was working in LOL! I was working in direct sunlight on a BIG black car. Although instructions say to only apply in cooler temps, sometimes you just gotta get the job done. I found that the best method with the 915 was to use a smaller 5" flat pad and apply the wax to a small area and immediately wipe it off by hand. I tried switching the 5" pad to another 5" pad that had a bonnet on it - but it was too much of a pain in the rear. By the time I switched the pads out the 915 was solid as a rock. Doing the removal by hand just went a lot faster.



Wax on, wax off



Wait - whats' this? More Collinite wax? Yes! 476 for the chrome wheels.





Some final pics.



Interior got a quick once over too.



Even the ground is reflecting the 476 coated chrome wheels!





Well, that's it. The combo of Klasse, PB's BH Glaze, and the 915 hid a great number of swirls, cleaned up the paint, and made it pop like crazy. Is it perfect? Heck no! When I have 2 days to spare instead of one later this spring I'm going to hit the fender and surrounding areas with M105/M205. But in the meantime, the 1 day spring clean is done! Hope you liked!

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

Great results you achieved, sometime all-in-ones are the way to go on daily drivers. The wheels turned out especially shiny with the wax you selected for your application. Thanks for sharing.

[Pinpoint_Precision]

Nicely done. You can never go the extra mile on your car, specially being black and charger!

[lokerola]

Great results you achieved, sometime all-in-ones are the way to go on daily drivers. The wheels turned out especially shiny with the wax you selected for your application. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks ItalianGuy. I was suprised how nice it turned out. I"ve now used Collinite 845, 915, and 476. I have to say, applying 845 is the easiest, 476 is about in the middle, and 915 the hardest to apply. 845 is just so easy to use - warm it up and go town. 476 is a pretty soft wax; very easy to get out of the tin. But 915 is tough. It's crumbly, almost fragile. I had a tough time getting it out of the jar and getting the pad buttered with it. I was almost always dropping some on the ground. Now 915 does make the black paint pop. But is the harder application worth it versus 845? I don't think so.

Nicely done. You can never go the extra mile on your car, specially being black and charger!

Thanks Francsico! I thought I'd get it all done in 4 hours. 7 hours later I was nursing a sore back and cold beer. LOL

[Boudin]

You can soften the 915 just like you do the 845, put the tin in warm water for a few minutes. Makes it 10x easier to apply thin and removal is therfor easier.

[Fast Eddie]

Very nicely done and great write up. Black car + sun/no shade + wax = fun times eh. Been there done that.

[tapp1]

Nice work. I hear ya with the time factor. At the end of the day its a DD, not a show car.

[cartman57]

Stunning! Collinite 915..........pain to work with but great results.
Sun reflection off the rims is a very cool pic, must be something while driving it too.

[ntwillie1]

Nice work. I'm a big fan of klasse also. Love the stuff.

[jjj]

Very nice! Looks great!