Divine Detail - 2005 Nissan Altima

Well this vehicle was booked for our Ambassador Detail, this is our outmost, meticulous detail. A complete interior detail, with a full exterior paint correction, with engine bay. This vehicle was booked for a full three day detail. The vehicle:

2005 Nissan Altima

Here is the vehicle as it was delivered:











The speedometer along with the rest of the gauges were going to be interesting to detail as they have some tight spots to get into.




Vents were going to require a little extra.







Well this is how day one went.

The first day was spent strictly on the interior of the vehicle, so first up was to give the vehicle a full wipe down. For this a diluted Meg’s APC was used:


With the help of a yellow micro fiber towel the entire interior was given a wipe down:


All vents were treated with our interior Swissvax brush:


Followed up with air compressor to insure all dust/wipe down water is completely removed:


This process was done to all vinyl trims within this vehicle, this process took a few hours. Once the wipe down had been completed and satisfied with the end results it was now time to give the interior a full vacuum, first all floor mats were removed from the vehicle:


Once the entire vehicle had been completely vacuumed it was time to use our HP-60 extractor and extract the entire interior, including the seats of the vehicle:




The interior is just about done now, having the carpet extracted and the wipe down completed a final wipe was given to the interior to insure no water was left over during the extraction process from our heated extractor. Once the final wipe down was done the interior was dressed with Meg’s #40:


With the help of another yellow micro fiber towel, the interior was dressed and a final wipe down was also given with yet another yellow micro fiber towel. All that is left is the windows, windows are left for last.

This completes the interior and several hours have now gone by, before calling it a day the exterior is to be given a wash and clay including the rims.

For this the CR Spotless System is connected to insure we use nothing but pure Deionized water:


First up where the wheel wells, for the wheel wells P21S Total Auto Wash was sprayed:


The rims where then given a healthy coat of P21S Gel:


The tires received Amazing Roll Off (ARO):


Now it was time to go back to the wheel wells, with the help of Meg’s long handle brush the wheel wells were agitated:


Once the wheel wells were agitated to satisfaction it was time to move on to the rims, with the help of another Swissvax brush the rims were agitated:


Once satisfied with the rims, it was time to give the tires a good scrub. For this, a tire brush was used:


Here is how all that agitation looks like:

All that is left is to rinse everything off and inspect the results. This process was done to all the wheel wells, rims and tires.

Once satisfied with the wheel wells, rims and tires it was time to move on to the engine bay. First up, all delicate parts inside the engine bay were covered/protected followed up with a quick rinse. The entire engine bay along with the roof of the hood was given a healthy coat of P21S Total Auto Wash:


P21S Total Auto Wash was applied several times on the engine bay and left to sit for 10minutes. Then another coat of P21S Total Auto Wash was given and agitated with another Swissvax brush:


Once the engine bay along with the hood of the roof was scrubbed to satisfaction it was time to rinse the entire engine compartment and inspect the results. Once completely satisfied it was time to move on to the body of the vehicle.

To wash the body of the vehicle the two bucket method was used with grit guard, a Zymol sponge and shampoo of choice was Meg’s Gold Class Shampoo:


Once the entire vehicle was washed and rinsed off it was now time to clay the vehicle. The clay of choice was Ricardo:


Here is how the clay looked like after claying the entire vehicle:

Clay bar was discarded after this vehicle as there is no way such a clay bar would be used on another vehicle.

Once the vehicle had been clayed the vehicle was given a final rinse with Deionized water the vehicle is now ready to be dried off. First, as much water as possible is removed with the help of a air compressor and water that is left over is removed with our waffle weaved micro fiber towel:


Now it was time to take some paint gauge readings, fist up the PosiTector 6000:






Here are the readings taken with the PosiTector 6000 graphed:


Now it was time to take readings on the bumper with the PosiTector 200



Here are the readings taken with the PosiTector 200:


Now as you can see we have plenty of clear coat/paint on this vehicle, now to see what paint correction was going to be required on this vehicle. Now the following pictures were taking to show the state the vehicle was in, usually the 3M Sun Gun is brought out for inspection but there was no need to use the Sun Gun as the vehicle was modeling some incredable imperfections:









The worst spot was on the truck, well so far.

Now with the help of the 3M Sun Gun it was time to inspect the rest of the vehicle:



A nice long scratch on the hood of the vehicle.






These tail lights are going to require some good TLC

Well after the paint inspection it was decided to call it a day and this concludes day one, day two is going to be quite a long day based on the inspection.

Day two:

First on the list was to tape off the vehicle.

Several sections were taped off to test the pad/polish combo. Now having done several Nissans in the past, the clear coat was expected to be on the medium hard level but you just never know with these new vehicles. Well first up Menzerna 106FF with a blue 3M (UK version) foam pad with Metabo, partnered up with a 3M backing plate at 1500RPM. This combo didn’t do much which, was expected.

Next combo was Menzerna 85RD3.02 with a black 3M (UK version) foam pad with Metabo partnered up with the 3M backing plate at 1500RPM, this combo finally gave some noticeable difference, but it wasn’t good enough, here is the test area before polishing:


Here is how the first pass with 85RD3.02 with black 3M (UK version) pad combo finished off:


As you can see it made a significant difference but not completely satisfied with it, so a second pass was given and these were the results:

Much better results and this was the combo of choice. Certain areas required three passes but for majority of the part two hits with 85RD3.02 was doing the job.

Well on with the show, here are some 50/50 pictures of the paint correction:

Front passenger fender


Rear ¼ passenger panel and a closer look:


Now for those tail lights, before:


After:


Now the trunk was one of the worst areas of this vehicle so the process was a tad different, here is how the trunk was done:

First Menzerna Power Gloss with a black 3M (UK version) pad with Metabo at 1500RPM, followed up with Menzerna 85RD3.02 with a blue 3M (UK version) pad with Metabo at 1500RPM, finished off with Menzerna 85RD with a blue 3M (UK version) pad with Metabo at 1800RPM. This process gave the following results:




Very satisfying results.

Now to clean the pads, System 2000 was used:

This made cleaning the pads and that’s a good thing because all pads were cleaned quite frequently.

Now you remember this rear driver side pillar:


Well this is how it turned around:


Here is a 50/50 of the driver side door:




This completes the long paint correction process. Now one thing to note is that Menzerna behaved remarkable, no issues what’s so ever and the controlled ambient temperature was set at:

However, I don’t know what the humidity was like though.

All the tape on the vehicle was removed and it was time to remove all polish residue on the vehicle. The rest of the dust was removed with the Zymol duster:


This completes day two and the paint correction process.

Day three:

Now it was time to apply the LSP on the vehicle, the LSP of choice is Victoria Concors. First Victoria Light Cleanse was used, applied via foam applicator to the entire vehicle and removed with several micro fiber towels.

Followed up with Victoria Concors, applied by hand left on the surface of the vehicle for several minutes and removed with various micro fiber towels.

Windows were finished of with Stoners Invisible Glass with a glass micro fiber towel.

Engine bay was dried with our waffle weaved micro fiber towel and dressed with 303.

Tires and wheel wells were also finished off with 303.

Well now for the end results:





Trunk finished off quite nicely, very proud to see the turn around in this section as it was one of the worst areas.























Now for the engine bay.
Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Here is how the interior finished off:








Here is a walk around video:


This concludes this detail, hope you enjoy.

 

nice work and write up! man that car looked horrible

 

Awesome job! So many teasing shots! I think if I will ever visit Canada, I'm gonna visit that detailing shop of yours! Love your work!

 

Very nice Ambassador job guys!

 

that came out awesome !!!

 

incredible turn-around, that thing was abused! Looks better than new, now.

Pete

 

outstanding! the owner must have been very happy!

 

Very very nice job...great paint correction and interior work..car looks outstanding...

Al

 

That paint was horrible....Not any more, she looks like a new one......:applause:

 

That car really needed that kind of attention. You did an amazing job and the write up was amazing, you put a lot of time into it and it shows. The car in the afters looks like a completely different car.

I love those 50/50 shots :applause2:

 

Great job on this detail...yall turned a hammered car into beauty....what did you use to dress the grill? Looks great

 

Wow what a car to work on. Looks great I loved using those blue gloves during a detail but I came out with a bad allergy reaction, rashes on my hands and a lumpy throat :doh:

 

Nice job on the car and write up. Those 50/50 shots are great!

 

very very nice..:applause2:

 

WOW that looks great. Nice write up

 

Thank you LanceM, glad you enjoyed the write up :thumb:

super come on over any time buddy, my shop is your shop buddy :thumb: glad to hear your enjoying the lenthy write ups :thumb:

Thank you Gary, very much appreciated :hippie:

Thank you trhland, glad you enjoyed it :chest:

Thank you Pete, glad you enjoyed it but yes the vehicle had never been detailed before and well it showed it but we were pleased with the end results. I have to admit having a medium soft clear coat helped out quite a bit and best part no more then 3micros of clear coat was removed, so still plenty of clear coat on the vehicle :thumb:

Glad you enjoyed it devast8 :thumb: as for feed back from the owner, not sure just yet as the owner is out of town and wont see the vehicle till the holidays are done...but I have a feeling the owner will be pleased with the end results, I hope :beg:

Thank you big Al :hug: very much appreciated my friend. The paint correction took some time but well worth it :headbang: Glad you enjoyed it my friend eace:

Thank you Sparkmyster :chest: glad you enjoyed it buddy :thumb:

Thank you Smith, glad you enjoyed it. Yes, quite a bit of time was put towards this vehicle but the end results were well worth it. Even I had to stand back and admire the end results :druling: Glad you'r enjoying the 50/50 pictures :thumb: hopefully my ability to take better pictures will improve, slowly getting there...but I got a long way to go, but at least I'm on my way there :thumb:

Thank you J BELL, glad you enjoyed it :thumb: Oh yes, sorry I forgot to mention. All the exterior plastic trims received Black WOW. But what I did was I applied a small amount to the plastic trims and wiped off several times to make sure I got no shine, just a nice natural look....I used 3 yellow micro fiber towels to get it looking like that...it took a wile but I was really happy with how the grill finished off.

 

Yes, I have to admit these Nissans are quite nice. Interior and exterior. Glad you enjoyed it kluz. :nod: these gloves are great, they can take a beating and keep on coming :wicked: I go through them quite fast though but oh well, better the gloves then my hand...specially when using the chemicals very happy to have the gloves :thumb: Klumz sounds like you got bad alergies buddy? I mean a lumpy throat that's not good :shakehead: So does that mean you don't use gloves at all now?

Thank you for the feed back 1f1fan, glad your enjoying the pictures :thumb: Hopefully they will improve in quality, now I can't blame it on the equipment :giggle: as it's now user error :shakehead:

Thank you jake_b, glad you enjoyed it and thank you for the feed back eace:

Glad you enjoyed it sal329 :thumb: glad to hear you enjoyed the write up as well :hippie:

 

Looking great....

and a great writeup....

 

WOW WOW WOW heck of a job!! Very impressive!!!

 

One of my favorite details from Divine Detail!!