Just needs some wax- 13 hours on a Smart CAR

I got a call from a friend of mine saying he had just gotten a new car. The car had just been resprayed and wetsanded / polished about 2 months ago. Just needs a wax he said. That should have been the first clue. Here we go.

Jambs cleaned with AG Powermax3
Foamed with AG Powermax3 with a little Blackfire Carwash Shampoo to make it really foamy.
Washed with AG Bodywork Shampoo and a new Raceglaze(uk) sheepskin wash mitt.
Inner fenders and tires cleaned with AG Custom Wheel Cleaner
Wheels were cleaned with a mild acid solution to get rid of the brakedust buildup.
Dried using my new Raceglaze(uk) One Pass Drying Towel
Polished with a variety of 3M(uk) pads, LC CCS Pads, Menzerna Compounding pad and Menz polishes.
Lsp was 3 coats of Werkstat Acrylic Jett Trigger
Jambs and interior paint got Werkstat Prime Strong
All glass cleaned in and out with 0000 steel wool and AG Glass Polish
Wheels sealed with Poorboys Wheel Sealant and dressed with Blue Dew tire dressing
All rubber and plastic trim got Poorboys trim restorer. Very nice product

This is what showed up at my shop. I've worked on motorcycles larger than this. Was supposed to get a wash / wax and interior clean up. 5 hours max.




Wheels looked like they hadn't been cleaned in a while.




Some shots of the jambs and interior. Suprisingly, after wetsanding and polishing, the bodyshop didn't leave any polish residue anywhere. Kudos to them.








Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner at work


Lots of road tar on the wheels. Had to use some AG tar and adhesive remover.


And now for the bad news. Really bad news.










Scratch on rear fender. This came out about 90% in the end.




Remnants of wetsanding


More swirls for you




Scuff on ds door sill


Even more buffer trails


Had to remove the wiper arms and vents to polish out all the marring around the windshield




Little rust on the tailpipe


Owner left the car with this and no key. That was fun getting it in the shop.




Time to try the 3M(uk)pads that Rich sent over


After one hit with with the yellow 3M pad and Power Finish


Marks left after the same combo. The green 3M compounding pad and Power Finish cleaned it up.


You can see more wetsanding marks left along the edge of the door.


A couple 50/50 shots of the hood. This was so badly scratched, I had to use the 3M compounding pad again with Menz Power Finish. The yellow pad wasn't abrasive enough and Power Gloss would have been too much. Interestingly, the compounding pad and Power Finish left virtually no buffer trails.




The subtle flames were sprayed in blue metallic


The flake


After one stage of polishing




Taillight before Menz 85RD...


...and after


Mirror before Power Finish...


...and after


Some 50/50s of the hatch


After a round of 85RD on Black CCS and Blue 3M










Raceglaze(uk) Alutech metal polish


Exhaust tip after Alutech - not much of a challenge but worked well nonetheless.


A few after shots including 3 coats of Werkstat Acrylic Jett Trigger








Wheels got PB Wheel Sealant


More afters






Interior was blown out with an airline to get rid of bodyshop dust, vacuumed, and wiped down with Autoglym Interior Shampoo.
All glass, in and out, was cleaned with 0000 steel wool and AG Glass Polish


All interior paint got Werkstat Prime Strong


















Total time on this car turned out to be 13 hours. A few observations on some of the new products I tried. I found the 3M pads to be very nice to work with. The compounding pad, although firm, was quite manageable. It left very little in the way of buffer trails, regardless of the polish. I didn't get a chance to use it with Powergloss to see how that would work. The yellow pad is fine for light marring. After a couple of panels, I switched back to my favorite, the German Green CCS from PAC. It had just that much more cut than the 3M Yellow. I noticed that the 3M pads would sling polish if you put a little too much on the pad and they are easily saturated. I don't mean I was using a lot of polish, but same amount I would use on a CCS pad. The CCS pads seem to control excess polish a lot better. The yellow 3M pad did produce a slightly better shine than the Green CCS when using the same polish. I didn't see any difference between the finish from the Blue 3M and Black CCS pad after using PO85 RD with both. The Raceglaze(uk) One Pass Drying Towel worked fantastic. I didn't wash it first, I just ripped it out of the bag and had at 'er. Its smaller than most WW drying towels but had no problem soaking up all the water. I even did all the glass last, and after minimal wringing out, it left the glass streak free. Great towel. This was my second big job with Power Finish and as I get more comfortable with it, I am liking it more. With the right pad selection, it could be used if you had time for a single stage of polishing and you would have no problem going to an LSP. These pics didn't do the car justice. It looks amazing in real life.

Thanks for looking

 

Ken that looks awesome, glad to see you in the shop! You still have a lot of snow left, most of it melted in Vancouver already!

 

Funny how a small vehicle can turn out to be a big job huh.

Those 50/50 pictures look good :cheerl:

Job well done and boy those were some mighty good swirls/defects on that vehicle :thumb:

I bet the shop made this car look even smaller then it actually is :giggle:

 

Our yard still has so much snow we can't see our grass yet!

 

Makes me want to move to the UK so I can work on stuff like this all the time. Even with the time involved, it was such an easy job. No ladders!! :thumb::thumb:

 

Great job Ken.

 

Looked like it was washed with a brillo pad before it was brought to you. :gasp: Nice work bringing the shine back.



Where do you get your 0000 steel wool from?

 

Not to nab Ken's question, but you can get steel wool 0000 at walmart..by the paint stuff is where it is here :thumb:

Man that is a neat looking car, you did a great job on the detail..it looks like instead of parking the car, you could just pick it up and put it in your pocket

 

Very nice job Ken.

How do you find the Jeffs lasts in terms of protection?

Must have been great to work on something smaller than some of those boats you do.:thumb:

So when are you going to give some of the 3M polishes a go?

 

I shouldve asked about JW as well...i just got Acrylic Jett in a trade and thinking about picking up the Carnauba trigger to top it with...you like these products?

 

Not to hijack but I have Prime, Acrylic, Gloss, and Prot. Im super happy with all of them. No idea on durability yet but Ive read 3-4 months.

 

Great detail there Ken! I sure would enjoy detailing on of these little things, hehe.

 

Awesome job Ken. Looks like a fun car to work on.

 

Great job!! I keep telling my wife that when her lease is up on the Hummer that I'm getting her one of those.

 

"Just needs some wax..." yeah right!

Awesome job on that Smart. Interesting that you removed some bits of trim to get around the windshield. That's the sort of thing that I'm usually afraid to do, having removed plenty of plastic trim on my cars over the years, only to have the snaps break off. I'm scared to do it with a customer car.

I assume you like Power Finish as much as I do? I think it's wonderful. It's as though it can be "tuned" with pad selection, leaves behind a great finish, and has a nice long working time. I think it's wonderful.

 

Looks great. Nice hat, too!!

Can you explain the process of using steel wool on glass please.

 

I usually get it from Home Depot. I have 000 and 0000. The 000 cuts quite a bit more and is great if you have a stainless exhaust like on Mustangs etc.

Minimum I've gotten from two coats of AJT is 4 months. I know Rich at Polished Bliss likes to put a dozen coats on before the winter so all he has to do is foam his car though till spring. Yes I'll be trying the 3M Polishes, soon I hope. I've got some Scholl on the way first, though.

Products are wonderful. Very easy to use and they last. Durability isn't as good with the Carnauba Jett, but adding an extra coat of it I'm sure would give it the durability of the Acrylic. You can add a coat to your car in about 20 minutes so adding extra layers every few weeks if you like is not a big deal.

If I don't know how to remove a panel, I won't for that reason. Happiness is never having to say your sorry. I have friends in the car audio and bodyshop industry I can call to find out how to remove items safely, if need be. I am quite pleased with the Power Finish. I've always played with pads and polishes to see what works and PF is excellent in that it can be used with different pads to achieve a desired result.

 

Wow, very nice work getting it back to 100%!

 

What a turn around!

 

Beautiful job and terrific write-up. Thanks!
One question - what are those lines on the seats? They look like chalk lines.