Decided to spend the weekend giving my baby a good detail. I noticed over the month's the finish started getting some hard water spots etched into the clear. I'm very anal about my cars, ask anyone that knows me. This started getting on my nerves so I had to get down to business and remedy the situation. Being a pro detailer this was an easy chore, but as always I learn more and more each time I do a detail, even if it's on your own vehicle.
Wash:
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash
Dawn dishwashing soap2 x 4 Grit Guards
100% Sheepskin wool wash mitt
Autogeek Foam Cannon
Clay:
Detailed Image Medium grade clay
ONR diluted to clay lube
Paint Correction:
High Line II Paint Meter
Makita 9227C - Gloss it Backing Plate
PC 7424
Menzerna Super Intensive Polish - LC Orange pad
Menzerna PO203 | LC Cyan Hydrotech pad
Chemical Guys EZ-Creme Glaze
CM5300
Brinkman LED Spotlight
Detailer Domain Uber Towels
D.I. Microfiber Towels
3M Green Tape
IPA Wipedown
Protection:
Menzerna Powerlock Polymer Sealant
LSP:
Autoglym High Definition Wax
Exterior Trim:
303 Aerospace
Glass:
Stoner’s Invisible Glass
Wheels:
EZ Detail Brushes
Uber Spoke Brush
Swissvax Wheel Brush
Meguiar's APC+P21S wheel gel
Eimann Fabrik Black Sapphire Tire Gel
Exhaust:
Optimum Metal Polish
Starting off dirty, very dirty. Road grime, brake dust you name it, she had it.
Having a car with aftermarket performance brake pads can be a pain, but if the wheels are properly
sealed and regularly cared for they are easily maintainable with the right tools/products.
As you can see the front gets pretty caked with brake dust. This is from 2 weeks of daily driving.
You can clearly see what I'm working with here, Hard water spots. We'll get to that later..
Spider watching me work
Exhaust was fairly dirty as well.
Preparing all of my tools, bucket with a bit of car wash soap and some various wheel brushes. Each one has it's own specialty.
Started off by spraying the wheels down with P21S, my favorite wheel cleaner by far.
Left it to dwell for about 3 minutes, Sprayed the tires down with Meg's APC+
P21S doing it's thing!
Getting a full scrub down with the Swissvax wheel brush.
The inside of the wheels aren't missed, EZ detail brushes takes care of this nicely.
All finished and clean!
Time for more decontamination, next up is foaming the car down and a good 2 bucket wash.
Started off by foaming the car down with a mixture of Citrus Wash and Dawn to strip off the previous sealant/waxes.
Let the foam dwell for a few minutes to loosen the grime to run down the vehicle to prevent any marring to the clear coat.
2 buckets grit guarded ready to go, 100% sheepskin mitt and a Swissvax detail brush for hard to reach areas, i.e. emblems, window seals etc.
details, details..
Finally getting there, this is what no protection looks like, if you wash your car and no beading is present then that means there is no protection on your vehicle, which could lead to premature clear coat failure and oxidized paint = no Bueno.
Brought the car inside and clayed it down with D.I. medium grade clay with ONR lube. Since only the hood and roof needed correction, that's all I clayed. After claying the hood I realized the car didn't need any claying as the clay came up very clean. I keep my car washed and detailed almost weekly so the paint was still in great shape which made things a lot easier.
Water drops under the halogens, notice no marring or RIDS ( Random Isolated Deep Scratches). I took care of all of that when I bought the car last winter.
under the Brinkman LED's, which I'm still getting used to. Kind of hard to capture with the camera.
50/50, Right side uncorrected, Left side corrected.
For correction, I always try to use the least aggressive method possible. So I used my PC7424 w/LC Orange pad with Menzerna SIP. It corrected OK but I wanted more out of it. Knowing this paint well I knew I had to step to my Makita 9227 rotary. I used a Cyan Hydro-tech cutting pad with Menzerna PO203, which left the finish LSP ready.
All corrected!
Door pillars before
and after
Next up with correction out of the way, EZ-Creme glaze was used to cleanse the paintwork for better adhesion of the LSP's. Very easy on and off. It added a ton of depth and gloss. I love this stuff.
Next up I applied Menzerna Powerlock Sealant. Love this stuff also.
Lastly I waxed the car down with Autoglym HD. I know I went overboard with protection, but it's my car and I drive it daily so I doesn't hurt lol =)
Some afters! I was very impressed with AGHD, I'll be using it a lot in the future.
Intense deep, wet, reflections
That's it. Thanks for looking.
