I was very excited to do this car. I had heard that the paint was soft so I recommended that the owner have me protect it with Opti Coat. I was also looking forward to trying a few new products (UTTG and a C-G flexible bp and B & S pads) as well as a new method for wet sanding. Lots of neat things to try on my first detail of the season. The owner is a multiple repeat customer. He had hired me to do the paint only. The car is a 2009 with around 8500 miles on it. It had lots of little scratches as well as a few bigger ones and several chips. I got some touch up paint from our local paint supply shop. I arranged to have the car for over a week to work on it. I shot some pics of the interior too. It was OK, but the carpets needed shampooing and the seats looked like alcantara so I figured I'd clean them up for him too using my Gaia steamer. After getting the car here, we discussed taking the wheels off and protecting them too with OC. First up was the door jams. They were sprayed with Zep citrus and agitated with a mini Daytona wheel brush. They were then sprayed down with a pressurized sprayer containing ONR. They were then dried by hand. Following that was the engine. There is a cover underneath the engine compartment so the usual power washer method was not an option. Everything was cleaned with Zep Citrus if needed or ONR. The engine was dressed with PERL and the plastic panels were treated with UTTG. I really dropped the ball on pics and did not take any of the finished product. Next up was to clean the wheels and tires from the outside. I did not take too long doing this as I knew I'd be doing it in more detail in a few days. I used Zep Citrus on the wheels and Zep Purple on the tires. There is very little room to get into the wells so I did not do that at the time. The car was then washed with DG 901 with a 2bm. I pulled the car into the garage wet and proceeded to clay it with CM blue. There was surprisingly little contamination on it. Each panel was dried after being clayed. Next step was trying different combos of pad and polish to see what would remove the scratches in the least aggressive way and give me the finish I wanted. The complication? Readings as low as 78 microns in some areas. The highest readings were 150 microns. The winning combo ended up being a yellow B & S pad with M105 and a blue B & S pad with M205. I tried refining it further using 85rd but no noticeable difference was detected. It was looking absolutely gorgeous. This paint was so soft, and so easy to correct that I could chase every tiny scratch and attain perfection. I really worked both products for a long time at low speeds. It really did the trick! The C-G flexible backing plate was a joy to work with. Thanks so much Dave for bringing that to my attention! Scratch repair: There were 2 scratches that needed more than compounding. I wanted to try something that I had posted about a while ago and received mixed reviews, namely, using a MAGIC ERASER as a wet sand tool. I tried it by wetting it thoroughly and rubbing it gently across the scratch. I found it to be a very gentle abrasion. In fact it was not doing much so I switched to 2500 paper. Even that took some work but I did not want to go too aggressive. Once I leveled it sufficiently, I went back over it with the ME. I used a 4" pfw pad to take out the sand marks. And, yes, it does look like I went through the clear. I did not. I had wiped it down with water and shot the pic before it dried. That's my story and I'm sticking to it, hahahhahaha. Here are pics of the scratch and the ME abrasion: I also used this method (ME) to level some touch ups. Very effective. The wheels and tire removal came next. The owner included the manual so I could check the safe jack points as well as the proper torque specs for the wheel nuts. The wheels were removed, and the barrels cleaned with Zep Citrus and my RG wheel brush. The backside of each spoke was done too. A soft brush was used as a last step. The front was done quickly again too, to make sure it was perfect. Each side was thoroughly rinsed and dried with the leaf blower and then with a ww mf. The barrels were done first with OC and then the face was done a few minutes later. While that was curing, I then cleaned the wheel well with Zep Citrus and a long handled brush and the calipers. The calipers are Brembo and are a neat orange colour. They were degreased and dried with the leaf blower. The wells were dried the same way. The calipers were then sealed with CQuartz due to its heat resistance. (You can't even set it on fire!) The wells were treated with UTTG. The tires were treated to Opti Bond. Each wheel took 1.25 hours to do completely. It was worth it for sure! FINISHED WHEEL: The exhaust was polished with M205 and a mf and subsequently sealed with CQ. The headlights and tail lights were also polished with M105/205 and were sealed with OC. The complete car was then sealed with OC. It gave me some problems. The included foam app was causing scratches so I switched to makeup pads I use to apply CQ. It seemed to take a lot longer to cure than it ever had before. The temp in the garage ranged from high 50's to low 60's. The soft, soft paint seemed problematic for the OC. I even tried CQ on one panel and it was giving me grief too. It dried with a bad haze to it. A 2nd coat that was immediately removed seemed to cure the haze. I tried several different methods of cleaning the panel to see if that was the culprit. In the end, I blame the soft paint. The cars and boat I have done with OC were all easy to apply. Every vehicle I have used CQ on has been a dream too. I still think it was the right answer for the car and will hopefully give that soft paint some extra protection, even though it took me a lot longer than it should have. For the interior, I steam cleaned the mats with a white terry towel wrapped around the head. The mats were treated to 303 Fabric Guard protection the next day. The interior carpet was vacuumed (wished I'd had my new one!) and the seats were steamed. The inside jams were treated with ReLoad spray sealant. For the exterior trim, UTTG was used on the front piece under the emblem and on the wiper cowl. I really, really like this stuff. Thanks so much for the sample Corey!!! The exhaust was polished with M205 and a mf and subsequently sealed with CQ. The headlights and tail lights were also polished with M105/205 and were sealed with OC. The complete car was then sealed with OC. It gave me some problems. The included foam app was causing scratches so I switched to makeup pads I use to apply CQ. It seemed to take a lot longer to cure than it ever had before. The temp in the garage ranged from high 50's to low 60's. The soft, soft paint seemed problematic for the OC. I even tried CQ on one panel and it was giving me grief too. It dried with a bad haze to it. A 2nd coat that was immediately removed seemed to cure the haze. I tried several different methods of cleaning the panel to see if that was the culprit. In the end, I blame the soft paint. The cars and boat I have done with OC were all easy to apply. Every vehicle I have used CQ on has been a dream too. I still think it was the right answer for the car and will hopefully give that soft paint some extra protection, even though it took me a lot longer than it should have. For the interior, I steam cleaned the mats with a white terry towel wrapped around the head. The mats were treated to 303 Fabric Guard protection the next day. The interior carpet was vacuumed (wished I'd had my new one!) and the seats were steamed. The inside jams were treated with ReLoad spray sealant. For the exterior trim, UTTG was used on the front piece under the emblem and on the wiper cowl. I really, really like this stuff. Thanks so much for the sample Corey!!! The exhaust was polished with M205 and a mf and subsequently sealed with CQ. The headlights and tail lights were also polished with M105/205 and were sealed with OC. The complete car was then sealed with OC. It gave me some problems. The included foam app was causing scratches so I switched to makeup pads I use to apply CQ. It seemed to take a lot longer to cure than it ever had before. The temp in the garage ranged from high 50's to low 60's. The soft, soft paint seemed problematic for the OC. I even tried CQ on one panel and it was giving me grief too. It dried with a bad haze to it. A 2nd coat that was immediately removed seemed to cure the haze. I tried several different methods of cleaning the panel to see if that was the culprit. In the end, I blame the soft paint. The cars and boat I have done with OC were all easy to apply. Every vehicle I have used CQ on has been a dream too. I still think it was the right answer for the car and will hopefully give that soft paint some extra protection, even though it took me a lot longer than it should have. For the interior, I steam cleaned the mats with a white terry towel wrapped around the head. The mats were treated to 303 Fabric Guard protection the next day. The interior carpet was vacuumed (wished I'd had my new one!) and the seats were steamed. The inside jams were treated with ReLoad spray sealant. For the exterior trim, UTTG was used on the front piece under the emblem and on the wiper cowl. I really, really like this stuff. Thanks so much for the sample Corey!!! BEFORES: SOME ISSUES: OUTSIDE SHOTS (NO COATING): FINISHED PRODUCT: That line across "Brembo" is the reflection of the spoke!
When I brought this topic up months ago, there was a lot of paranoia around using it. I had heard that it was roughly equivalent to 3000 grit. this car did not need heavy sanding plus I wanted to level some of the touch ups, so it seemed appropriate to use. Turns out, it was. I will be using it again for sure.
Great job Richy. I haven't talked to you in a while. I'll send you a PM later. I've been really busy with the house lately.
Richy that was a fabulous detail. I'm going to be sending you a pm shortly as well to talk about the B&S pads!
interesting feedback re applying cquartz I still have yet to do my GTR with it, think I'll do a test panel first before going through the hassle of LSP stripping and prep'ing the entire car
looks awesome rich. i must have missed your previous thread regarding the magic eraser as i could have provided some insight. i've used them a good amount on paint for light work back at the dealer. also found that it works well for removing painted on pinstriping.
Hey Richy- nice work! What you and billy had to say about the ME is intriguing, I will have to try it. It is a simple OTC product you can get at a variety of stores, right?
what a phenomenal job. Simply brilliant. Way to go sir! Glad to see a lot of this awesome inspiring work.
Thanks. I always give my feedback..good or bad. I've got a Solstice coming this weekend that's getting CQ. Looking forward to playing with it! Thanks Billy. It had been suggested to me and I posted it and got crapped on by a lot of people saying I was nuts for trying it. I have no problem thinking outside the box...there are some cool surprises that have happened for me doing so. Glad it worked for you too. It is definitely milder than 2500 grit paper. yes, at any supermarket. They even have them with varying degrees of abrasion now. I used a regular one. Thank you Aaron. Feels good to be back at it!!
