This vehicle was in for a full paint correction, three days was spent and I enjoyed every minute of it. The vehicle is a: 2004 Maserati Here is the vehicle as it was delivered to me: I should mention the day before the vehicle was dropped off to me it was at the track, hence all the bugs. Well first up the rims. First up Red P21S Gel: Inside of the rims received a healthy coat as they really needed it. Next the wheel wells and tires received a coat of P21 Total Auto Wash: This was left to dwell on the surface to loosen all contamination of the surface: With the help of my 2inch wool brush I agitated the inside of the rims: Wheel wells were scrubbed by hand with a demoted Zymol sponge and my hand barely fit in the wheel wells, the face of the rims were agitated with a Zymol brush. Tires were also scrubbed with a Meg’s tire brush and here is how all that scrubbing looked like at the end: This process is done to all rims, tires and wheel wells, once done with the ‘shoes’ of the vehicle it was time to concentrate on the rest of the body. The vehicle was in dire need of a good clense, so I sprayed P21S Total Auto Wash all over the vehicle: P21S Total Auto Wash was left to dwell on the vehicle, mean wile I got my CR Spotless System hoocked up: Vehicle was washed with the two bucket method and as for shampoo, I decided to use Meg’s Gold Class: Vehicle was washed, rinsed off many times. All lower panels of the vehicle were treated with Tardis: The inside of the rims had lots of tar, so they too were treated with Tardis: Here is Tardis hard at work :thumb: Tardis was removed and the vehicle was once gain given a thorough rinse. Next it was time to clay the vehicle, for this Riccardo Blue was used. The vehicles surface was rough to the touch so Yellow Riccardo was not going ot cut it on this vehicle. Vehicle was dried off with various waffle weaved micro fiber towels and brought inside for inspection. First it was very obvious that the vehicle had been detailed before and regrettably poorly detailed: Vehicle had wax/polish build up in every corner and was going to take a bit of time to completely remove but on with the show. Next it was time to take some paint gauge readings, first up is my PosiTector 6000: I’m happy to report the vehicle had healthy paint gauge readings: Next I used my PosiTector 200 to take readings on all plastic areas: One again healthy readings. Well now that I knew how much clear coat I had to play with, with the help of the 3M Sun Gun I inspected the surface and here is what I found: Vehicle came with lots of swirls and scratches. Once the car was taped up it was time to choose a polish/foam pad combo and here is the selection to choose from: First up I decided to try: Menzerna Polishing foam pad with Menzerna Intensive Polish. The test section was the trunk: Here are some 50/50 pictures of what this combo delivered: Good results with just one pass, I decided to use this combo even though there was an area in the trunk that required two passes to completely remove all deep scratches. Next, for those tight areas I decided to use: Ultimate foam pad with once again Menzerna Intensive Polish. This combo delivered exceptional results, before: After: Before: After: That was achieved with just one pass, like I said very exceptional results. The tail lights needed some attention as well, so same combo was used. Before: After: Before: After: Rear bumper before: After: Before: After: Before: After: This particular area required a second pass. Ater, take 2: Much better all deep scratches complete removed. Next it was the driver side rear quarter panel, 50/50: At this point I decided to switch to 3M UK Black Polishing foam pad with 3M UK Extra Fine Compound: The reason I switched was that Menzerna was acting up on me, so pressed on with my #2 polish :thumb: Well on with the detail, before on passenger side pillar: After: Passenger side fender before: After: This area also required a second pass to get it just right. Passenger door before: After: Driver side quarter panel, 50/50: Driver side pillar 50/50: A closer look: Driver side fender, before: After: Driver side mirror, before: After: Driver side door, 50/50: Again a closer look of the difference: Once the correction process was done it was time to refine the finish, for this my favorite 3M UK Blue Finishing foam pad was used partnered up with 3M UK Ultrafina SE: Before I began the vehicle had a bit of polish dust on it, for this my Zymol duster was used: The refining process took a few hours, once I was done tape was removed and final wipe down was cared out with Menzerna Top Inspection, I still had lots of polish to remove, specially around badges: Well now getting close to LSP for the vehicle, first up Zymol HD Cleanse Professional is applied, followed up with Zymol Vintage applied by hand: Like always, I put a nice thick coat: The first coat of Vintage was applied and allowed to bond/cure over night. The second coat was applied on the third day. Wile the second coat of Vintage was left to bond and cure it was time to concentrate on the interior, for this my steamer is filled up with Reverse Osmosis water and allowed to heat up to roper temperature: Wile the steamer was allowed to heat up here are a few pictures of the interior before: One thing to note about these vehicles, the interior is pure leather! :what: I was shocked at how much leather was in this vehicle, another thing to note that the owner brought to my attention was to not use any kind of chemical in the interior. Now I’ve read about this but owner confirmed it with me, owner informed me that all Ferrari/Maserati vehicles have some sort of coating on all interior buttons/knobs. This coating is removed if harsh chemicals are used to clean the surface. Basically it would remove all the labels that are on the buttons/knobs. I assured the owner that I would not damage the interior of the vehicle because all I use is steam. Well her are more pictures of the interior: Like all interior I start with a thorough vacuum: Once I’m done vacuuming the interior it’s time to steam all surface: Once area has been steamed it’s wiped off with a yellow micro fiber towel. All leather areas were steamed the following way: Once the interior is cleansed I always give the vehicle another pass with the vacuum, the reason is that during the steaming process small amounts of debris are released and fall on to the carpet, like so: (Sorry for the blurry pictures) The floor mats are also vacuumed and steamed: All leather, which just happen to be the entire interior of the vehicle were treated with Zymol Treat. Oh did I mention the head line was also leather :nod: this area also received Zymol Treat. The very small amount of vinyl trims in this vehicle received 303. Interior and exterior of glass were cleansed with Stoners Invisible Glass with a glass micro fiber towel. Engine bay was also dressed with 303. Well the last step to complete is to give the exterior of the vehicle a final wipe down and for this Zymol Field Glaze is used: Tires were dressed with Optimum Tyre, the exhaust tips were polished with Autosol and a yellow micro fiber towel. Well this concludes this detail and here are the end results after three days of detailing: Much better :thumb: Now for some outdoor pictures, lots of pictures to come: To finish it off here is a video I created: http://www.detailingbliss.com/downloads/desktops/2004 Maserati walk around video.mov Well that concludes this vehicle, hope you enjoyed all the pictures.
Your work is obviously spot-on, but once the sun came out....BAM! Your work turned out AMAZING. Your customer must have been absolutely floored.
Seeing a correction like that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside!!! You did an excellent job!! What was the owners reaction??
wow! carlos!! your detailing skills are just fantastic . your attention to detail is nothing but perfect.. thanks for sharing ... tom
thats was a very good detail :applause: u had to take alot of time on that i see ,u have a little jealous u have the vintage wax from zymol :applause2:
I was amazed at the results. I really didn't think my car was in that bad of shape until I picked up the car and realized how vibrant the paint should/could be. Carlos runs a first class operation and I haven't stopped telling people about the awesome job! :thumb:
Awesome work as usual! Can you explain that bottle of stuff next to the Positector? Never seen it before.
Awesome work, Carlos! I really enjoyed those pics and the video! By the way, is that your new garage flooring? I really like it and always wanted something like that at my garage...is it pressure washer safe (no water getting under neath of it)?
really nice work. How did you decide to use zymbol for this car instead of other waxes, sealants, etc...? also when is the p21s going to come out? where can we get the sprayers?
Carlos..that is a gorgeous car and you gave it the treatment it deserved. What an extra vote of confidence when the owner takes the time to register on the board to throw in his praise as well...that's very cool indeed! Well done, buddy, well done!!:applause2::applause::applause2:
