MINI Cooper JCW GP Summer OCDetail

[paulharmo]

Over the past few days, the GP has gotten some attention - I had the opportunity to borrow my brother's 3" Griots DA, and my bumpers were very swirly, so I took the time to correct them... and then the rest of the car... And then some wax and plastic dressing... Yeah, it got out of control.

Products used:
Griots 6" and 3" DAs
Purple Power 10:1
Dawn Ultra
Menzerna SIP and SF4000
LC CCF 6.5" black pad and (??? Borrowed) 3" pads
Son1c ProtoWax ProtoBead
PERL 3:1
#0000 Steel Wool

In the middle of the initial Dawn wash. I sprayed 10:1 Purple Power on each panel, agitated it, and rinsed it quickly. Wax = Gone.


Hood, pre-correction (not a great picture, but swirls are visible):


Front bumper, pre-correction (...Dang phone):


A-Pillar, pre-correction:


Side of wing, pre-correction:


Side of wing 2:


Rear bumper, pre-correction:


Dirty tips:


Mirror cap, pre-correction:


Taping off the wheel arch trim (upper trim is getting replaced soon, didn't bother)


Taping off the front:


C-pillar after just SIP. Enormous difference, all swirls/RDS gone:


SIP in progress on the bumper:


SIP removed all swirls, but not RDS on the loading area of the bumper. C'est la vie:


B-pillars, same awesome turnaround:


Front end done.
[aside]
I HATE that ding, it was there when I bought the car. Really need to get it PDR'd and get the PPF replaced.
[/aside]


Roof done. Looks great so far:


Post-polish Dawn wash:


Paint flooded (love this trick!):


Now this got interesting. I decided to try applying the Son1c Wax by hand. Not on a pad... using my hands as the applicator. I probably wasted some wax getting the hang of it, but I loved the experience. All corniness aside, it was a great connection type of thing between the GP and I. 10/10 - would do again:


All buffed off. It was about midnight at this point, so good pictures were out of the question. The whole garage still smelled like blueberries in the morning!


PERL at 3:1 dilution being applied painstakingly to each honeycomb in the grill... why not, Phantom of the Opera wasn't finished on my iPod yet.


I'll have to get some good after shots tonight or tomorrow, but the car looks great! She's all ready to get covered in rubber this weekend at Pocono!

[paulharmo]

And here are the goods! The sun was already going down, but I snapped a few shots that showed the improvement and lack of swirls... and a few that just plain look good.

[DetailedTaco]

Lookin' good!

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Beautiful turnaround on that GP Mini. Loving that last picture.

[paulharmo]

Thanks, guys! I can't wait to get even more in depth next week with the Subaru and all its' beat up goodness.Hopefully it will come out just as well.