The owner of this vehicle is a very good client and I always enjoy chatting with him about vehicles, business..ect…ect. Well the owner of this vehicle wanted me to concentrate on the exterior, he wanted me to pamper this vehicle and most of all he wanted it looking as best as possible. Best part he was in no rush for it to be done, vehicle was dropped of to me and I could take as long as I wanted, music to my ears :thumb: Here is the vehicle as it was delivered to me: Oh these were some mighty fine rims on this SUV, couldn’t help but admire the rims :thumb: Exhaust tip was going to need some attention as well. Engine bay was to be pampered as well: Engine bay was in reasonable state, just needed a bit of work that’s all. Well, as always I start at the shoes of the vehicles, got the tools ready: The rims received a healthy dose of Red P21S Gel, agitated with my EZ Brush and my Zymol brush. Tires and wheel wells received some Meg’s APC agitated with various brushes. Here is how all that scrubbing looked like: This process was done to all the rims, tires and wheel wells…I’m always surprised how long it takes to get this area of the vehicle cleaned properly :shrug: Moving along, I decided to do to the heart of the vehicle, the engine bay. First I some sensitive areas within the engine bay then I sprayed some P21S Total Auto Wash and agitated with various brushes. Here is the engine bay during it’s scrub down: Engine bay was rinsed of and then the underside of the hood was also given a good scrub. The only thing left was to wash the rest of the vehicle, this was done with the two bucket method of course as for shampoo I went with Meg’s Gold Class Shampoo. Once washed the clay of choice was Yellow Riccardo, I used quite a bit of clay on this vehicle, lot of well bonded contamination on this vehicle. Next step was to take paint gauge readings. First up my PosiTector 6000: Vehicle had plenty of clear coat, the odd low spot but nothing to worry about. Next up my PosiTector 200: Glad I have this gauge, as the hood of this vehicle was a composite hood :thumb: Again healthy readings from all composite panels :thumb: Well once I had taken all the readings necessary I decided to tape up the vehicle, surprisingly not as much taping was required. Here is the vehicle all taped up and to be honest the washing process took longer then I had expected. The washing process took well over 6hrs I know I’m slow but this vehicle made me feel even slower but in my defense the rims and the paint were in need of a good cleanse. Besides, I was in no rush, owner was kind enough to say ‘take as long as you’d like Carlos’ :woo: Well moving along time to see what I was up against, for this I used my 3M Sun Gun: When I got to the hood I spotted this: A closer look revealed this: My guess is that it’s stress marks which have caused the paint to split but like I said that’s just my guess, the point is that there was nothing I could do for such defects, now for the lovely swirls and scratches now those I was eager to tackle :thumb: One thing that surprised me though on this vehicle and it’s the first time I see this, here take a look: The door pillars were with out a single scratch, no micro marring, no swirl…nothing! I definitely didn’t see that coming to be honest but no worries I had plenty of surface to correct..just though it was odd that’s all, moving along now :shrug: Now it was time to find a polish and pad combo, guess what I decided to go with? Oh come on guess? Okay I went with my favorite combo: Menzerna Intensive Polish partnered up with Menzerna Polishing pad. I selected a test section which was the passenger side fender and it looked like this before: Here are the results after just one pass with this combo: Here is a 50/50 of the results: A closer look: There is a reason why I favor this combo, it always delivers and best part it only removes about 1.24microns of clear coat. Now it was most definitely not finishing of LSP ready, far from it. Lots of buffer marks/holograms left behind but that’s okay as I expected this vehicle to be no less then a three stage paint correction, the fact I was able to get great results with just one pass was a bonus :thumb: Well I’d say I found a winner in the polish/pad combo, so I polished the rest of the driver side fender and moved on to the hood. Before: After: Now remember the hood is composite and composite tend to correct a tad easier but there were a few deep scratches on the hood that required a second or third pass to completely remove, like the one you see on this picture just above the 3M Sun Gun light…but like I said for a single pass, great results. Here is a 50/50 of the hood, well one section of it: Left side unpolished, right side after a single pass, not bad but a second pass was required to completely remove some of the random RIDS. Before: After: Before: After: One pass was sufficient to remove that bug etching….but not enough to remove some of the deeper scratches :shrug: Well hood and bumper took but moving along the driver side fender, before: After: :nod: again one pass and by all means far from perfect finish, if you look below the light you’ll see those lovely hazy lines, lots of buffer marks left behind…but that’s okay as this is only the paint correction step, that hazy look will be gone when I refinish the paint :cheerl: Next I decided to do the roof, boy was that uncomfortable. I had to use a reasonable sized latter to reach the roof and then I had to move around the roof rack…but results were worth it..regretably no picture of the roof being corrected as it was way to uncomfortable :sorry: Moving along, I decided to go to the rear of the vehicle, before: After one pass: Okay results for one pass so a second and third pass was required to completely remove those fine scratches you see here. Next the tail lights, before: After: Before: After: Now for the bumper, before: After: Again a second pass was required here. At this point I was feeling good about this vehicle, correction process was going quite smooth, no major issues…besides a second pass here and there..then comes the driver side rear quarter panel: Lots of swirls mixed with some deep scratches, the Intensive Polish combo hardly put a dent on this area, even the swirls were quite deep, before: After a single pass with Menzerna Intensive Polish: As you can see quite a bit of deeper scratches remained. Well Intensive Polish help up quite well but seeing these results I decided to step up to: First up a Menzerna Compounding foam pad partnered up with Meg’s 105, then followed up with Menzerna Polishing foam pad partnered up with Meg’s 105 again. This combo delivered these results: Much better results and that’s after a pass each. A second pass with Menzerna Polishing foam pad with Meg’s 105 removed the odd scratch that you see in the picture but overall a successful combo so found my self the next combo :thumb: Moving along, before: After: Now for the rear driver side door, before: After a single pass with Menzerna Compounding foam pad with M105: A closer look: Now with the Sun Gun: Like I said this side area seemed to have some deep, deep swirls. That’s okay though, a second pass was given, here are the results: Not bad but a the third one was the charm, followed up with Menzerna Polishing foam pad with M105. Well the rear driver side door took some time, now the driver door it’s self: Looks good doesn’t it :woo: well this door took a bit longer the rear door, it took 4 passes with Menzerna Compounding foam pad with M105 and one ass with Menzerna Polishing foam pad with M105. Boy these doors were taking quite a bit of time…:shrug: no big deal though I have all the time in the world :thumb: Since I had corrected the upper part of the doors, now came the lower parts of the doors, lucky for me the lower part of the doors had 3M installed in them, so I went back to my original polishing/foam pad combo (Menzerna Intensive Polish with Menzerna Polishign foam pad) and just as I suspected, before: After: Oh good, one pass and I was happy. Before: After: Well seeing as I had great success on the 3M with this combo I decided to use the same combo on the side view mirror, before: After: Well now do the same thing on the passenger side, I decided to start with the easy parts, lower panels with 3M, before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Well that was fun now for the hard stuff, the upper panels. Back to compounding several times…but it made for a neat looking 50/50 picture: Guess where I’ve polished :giggle: Give up okay I’ll show you, polished side: Not polished side: :flirt: that was the first compounding pass, three more were needed to completely remove all the deep swirls. This was done to both passenger side doors and that completed the correction process. I honestly don’t know how long I took to complete the correction process as I simply just loose track of time in my garage, if it wasn’t for getting hungry I would spend all day in my garage :thumb: Well now comes the gravy part of the detailing gig. The refining stage, for this I decided to go with: Menzerna 85RD with 3M UK Blue Finishing foam pad, I simply adore this finishing foam pad :worship2: Now out of all my details I hardly get any pictures of the refinishing process, most of the time it’s because it’s hard to capture in a camera but on this vehicle it was quite easy. Here is a 50/50 picture of the driver side fender refined and the importance of not taking any shortcuts when refining: See the difference? What’s that you can’t see the difference, okay lets take a closer look: Like I said the finishing step is simply the gravy part of detailing, it also helps that this vehicle is black, the color helps show the difference made to it :thumb: Well the refining step took several hours and when I was done I was left with this to clean up: Lots of dust all over this vehicle. I decided to use my Zymol duster: But it was taking too long so I decided to role the vehicle outside and give it a good wash, I actually got to use my pressure washer too connected to my CR Spotless unit :thumb: For shampoo I decided to go with P21S Total Auto Wash, just to make sure I remove all polish residue and oils. Once done with the wash, wile being outside and vehicle was dried the paint was inspected for any pesky holograms or heaven forbid swirls, luckily I found no such things :thumb: Vehicle was put back inside and it’s LSP time :woo: Now what to go with, I could use Vintage which I enjoy using so much but I decided to go with a different wax this time around. First up: Boy even applying Cleaner Fluid took an hour or more :shrug: Then comes the beast part of this whole process! I’m referring to the waxing, I decided to go with: I applied Crystal Rock with a foam applicator, wish I could say I applied it thin, even with a foam applicator I still say I put a thick coat on, here is what I mean: Can you see where I’ve applied the wax? It’s not as thick as it would be applied by and but still thick for foam application, but that’s just the way I like it :nod: I left the wax sit for a bit, mean wile few things to finish off. Engine bay received a dose of: Exaust tip got: Before: After: Rims received a coat of DG#601 followed up with 105. I applied the same protection to the underside of the hood as well. Tires were dressed with Optimum Tire, the interior got a very quick vacuum, just a vacuum nothing else. Well that about does it, vehicle is now ready to be showed off. Here are the end results, lets start with the engine bay: Much better then before and best of all it actually reflected back :thumb: The rims finished off wonderfully, very pleased with the way the looked at the end. See why I’m so pleased with them :druling: Sorry I just couldn’t help but admire the rims, just makes the vehicle stand out so much more. Well enough indoor pictures, it was a gorgeous sunny day outside the day I finished the vehicle, now for some outdoor pictures: Crystal Rock doing what id does best. Not the greatest picture as the sun was literally reflecting back at the lens but I just like how the street looks in the bumper :thumb: Sorry just couldn’t get enough of the rims :worship2: Okay last picture. Well I had the pleasure of having the vehicle in my garage for six days, that’s how long it took for me to complete this vehicle. Mind you I didn’t work full days, I have a day job so when I got home from work I’d spend 3 or 4 hours in the garage working at the vehicle, I was under no rush, owner wanted his vehicle looking better then new and I was more then happy to do so. I enjoyed my self with this SUV, I spent lots of time working on it but it was all worth it, the end results were truly worth it..specially on the rims :druling: :druling: Well hope you enjoyed yet another lengthy write up as much I did eace:
Looks great Carlos! Man, that's a LOT of black real estate. I've got a question. It's not clear to me - did you polish the black parts of the grille by hand, or did you use the machine?
amazing transformation, Carlos!!! That Cadillac looks better then new! I kinda forgot how good Crystal Rock can look, and it trully is one of the very best waxes out there, and these pictures are proving it.
That is exactly what I was thinking when I saw the wheels. Great job on the SUV Carlos, came out looking amazing! Hopefully after a few years I could get results close to those myself.
:nod: lots of panels, roof was the worst area though, so uncomfortable...but with time anything can be done :thumb: Regarding the grille, I used my Metabo with small 4inch Ultimate foam pads worked great :thumb: Thank you for the feed back eace: Owner was very pleased with the end results :nod: I agree, I hadn't used Crystal Rock for a wile now and it was good to use it again, the vehicle wore Crystal Rock quite well too :thumb: Glad you enjoyed it eace: Hea, not sure why I liked the rims so much but they just went well with the vehicle....maybe it was the reflection of the rims that I enjoyed so much not sure but they sure look great :druling: Few years, no way. The more you practice the better you get at it, you start developing a process that works for you, you start getting a feel for the foam pads you use and the polishes...really the more you polish/detail the easier it gets. You'll see what I mean, before you know it you'll be detailing like the rest of us eace: Thank you for the feed back Rocket :thumb: A blue one huh, look forward to it opcorn:
Well I try to as much as I can but with school taking up much of my time I don't get that much time to polish so I can get that down. But you gotta do what you gotta do now so you can do what you want to do later, haha.
Amazing work Carlos... looks just fantastic! I really really like the 50/50 of the 85rd refining... I have never seen such a good example of why refining is important.
Damn, I don't normally like chrome rims, but HRE wheels, that's alright in my book!!! Beautiful work Carlos, that must have taken you a long time...
Someone has some bank, I would have to think that supercharging an Escalade would big some big $$$. Atleast now it looks proper.
Carlos, as an owner of a black Escalade I understand how hard it is to finish the roof with the luggage rack just one be pain. Great job as usual.
Nice job on the Escalade! Some swirls can be tough, but it looks like the pad combo and the ramp up to the aggresssive polish worked nicely. I like the stillness of the crystal rock as well.
I normally don't take pictures of the refining stage, mostly because it's really difficult to notice the difference but with this vehicle there were so many buffer marks/holograms left behind from the correction stage that when it was time to refine the finish the difference was shockingly visible, so I snapped a pic or two I agree, the rims just set the vehicle off, I normally don't like shiny but boy it was hard to ignore the rims and just loved the reflection :thumb: As for how long it took me, I had the vehicle at my place for about 6 days, so I spread it out through the 6 days :thumb: I was fortunate to drive the vehicle and it rides incredibly well, lots of power on this vehicle :thumb: :nod: you can say that again, the roof was the worst part, the rest of the vehicle was great to deal with but the roof :shakehead: Thank you for the feed back, glad you enjoyed the detail eace: lol...so why didn't you get HRE huh oke: oke: I agree, I was surprised by Crystal Rock....but I haven't used it for a wile...hard to choose from the collection some times :shrug:
