This 2004 FX35 was the first car I ever bought brand new. I was so very proud of this car and took meticulous care of it. In fact, my next door neighbour had often told me "When you want to sell it, talk to me first". I did when it was time and he bought it. He has now owned it for 2.5 years, the same amount of time I've had my Lincoln. I had been using it as a test bed comparing OG and the original CQuartz. He was not as impressed with the CQ panels so every car I've done for him since has been with OG, just like the Lexus last week. Here is a shot of the old and the new together. Both dirty (shame on me!) He really tries hard to take good care of it and washes it often. I was surprised to see a fair number of light scratches in the hood. They didn't look bad, but man, oh man, did they ever give me a battle. Here is the condition of it: This was strange looking and I was hoping it wasn't some sort of clearcoat failure. Thankfully, it corrected very easily later on: This was going to be an inside job too: Anyway, first up was the wheels, wells and barrels. The barrels got sprayed first with Tarminator liquid and agitated with a Daytona brush, followed by a power washer rinse then sprayed with Zep Citrus and a wheel woolie in the wheel wash bucket. The tires were very, very brown. They needed a 2nd attempt with Zep 505. I followed that up with LATA to see if it would still get any brown off, but no, the 505 did the job. The wells were cleaned with LATA. The faces were shot with Zep Citrus and washed with a demoted wash mitt with DG 901. I shot the wheel opening mouldings with LATA at the same time and worked it in with a Raceglaze brush. Next up was a foam wash with a strong mix of DG 901 with some Megs HW mixed in: After washing it with DG901, I then rinsed it off and went over it a 2nd (I guess 3rd) time with a grout sponge and IX paste. It's amazing how economical it is to use the paste this way. Corey had recommended it over the soap gel and I'm glad (like I always am) when I follow his recommendation. After washing, it was brought inside and the wheels were blown dry with the Master Blaster. Then I clayed the paint and glass with my CarPro Elasto foam block. As I had mentioned earlier, the hood was a mess of light scratches, but they honestly didn't look that bad. I thought I'd give my B/S mf pad a go. It could not cut through the scratches, even paired up with M100. I then went to my usual scratch-killer combo: TB black wool + M100. Man, even THAT wasn't cutting it (pun intended), or at least not enough of them. I then went totally old school on it....I broke out my Megs burgandy wool, 8" pad! I forgot how much I hate using 8" pads, but to give the Devil his due, it worked. I followed that up with a yellow B/S pad and Sonax PF with my Flex. That was then followed up with my Rupes and a white B/S pad and M205. The final step was a blue B/S with the Rupes with DG Squeaky Clean. This last step is very quick and is just to check my work (it does that very well) and of course to ensure a proper bond with OG. I did have to give the vehicle an ONR wash due to the dust I was generating compounding the whole vehicle. The rest of the vehicle was not as bad. The roof got a single step of PF + B/S mf followed by SC. The rest of it got either TB wool if needed for worse scratches or the B/S mf + PF or M100 depending on what was needed then that compounding was followed by M205 + white B/S with Flex followed by SC + blue B/S + Rupes. There were quite a few paint chips that got filled too. That was done using touch up in a spray bomb, sprayed onto a plastic cap and then filled with a pointy toothpick. The paint from the spray bomb is absolutely the best as it dries the fastest, is very runny which makes it easy to get down into any chip or scratch. The door handles got M100 by hand with a mf followed by M205 the same way. Here is a shot of finishing up with those steps including SC (and one with a bug admiring his reflection too!): One thing I wanted to show, and most people on here probably already do this, but when you're working on a 90° angle, a safe way to make sure you don't burn the opposing edge is to put a bit of polish there too and work the area. Here's an example: Once the ONR wash was done, the glass, grille, head, tail lights and paint were all coated with OG. The windshield got the Optimum Pro glass coating. The trim got treated to DLux. The exhaust tips were cleaned with 0000 steel wool + Colli Metal wax. The wheels got hand polished with M205 and a mf and were coated too. I bought those wheels for the vehicle and loved how they made it jump (and still do). Interior: The rubber mats were cleaned with APC and then blown dry. The carpeting was vacuumed. A salt stain was shot with DG foaming carpet cleaner and scrubbed as well as being blotted with a white terry towel. The plastic was cleaned with a knock-off AG Interior pad (thanks Gianni!) and OPC. That was followed by Ultima UIGP. The glass was cleaned with the KD/CarPro glass mf. All in all, this vehicle took me 21 hours. It was wiped down with UWW before delivery and the tires were shot with DG Wet Shine and leveled with a tire applicator. Here's the finished result: Inside Shots (it was pouring rain so I didn't know if I'd get sun the next day or not): Love the look of DLux! Outside Shots (I got lucky, YAY!!) It really felt great to get my old baby back looking the way she should! Not bad for 9 years old now! As always, comments are appreciated. Thanks Rich
