Beater Car Detail

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The Critic

The Critic

Joined
Aug 30, 2004
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One of my good friends purchased a beater that will be used as his shop's loaner car. I offered to detail it for him so that the car will be more presentable. So, here we go...

Tools:
Rupes LHR 21ES Big Foot RO Polisher
Rupes LHR 75E Mini RO Polisher (headlights)
Brinkmann Dual-Xenon Sun Gun
Wheel Woolies - small & caliper spoke woolie
Mytee Extractor

Products:
Menzerna FG400
CarPro Reflect
Meguiars M101 (headlights)
Meguiars M205 (headlights)
Meguiars D140 Wheel Brightener
P&S Mag & Aluminum Cleaner
CarPro Iron-X spray
Nanoskin Medium Grade Wash Mitt
Optimum No Rinse diluted QD strength (used as Nanoskin lube)
Menzerna Power Lock Sealant
Blackfire Wet Diamond Sealant
Meguiars DMC6 Microfiber Cutting Disc
Rupes White Finishing Pad
Rupes Blue Microfiber Cutting Pad (headlights)
Rupes Yellow Microfiber Finishing Pad (headlights)
Various Wash Mitts and MF towels
Interior was cleaned up using APC, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and Carpet Extractor

These wheels were a nightmare to clean. They have many spokes and I am certain that they have not been thoroughly cleaned in many years. Despite using some very strong cleaners, it took lots of scrubbing and over 20 minutes per wheel.

Before:


DSC_0109 by thecritic89, on Flickr

After - not perfect, but a major improvement:


DSC_0113 by thecritic89, on Flickr

Picture of the car after tire/wheel cleaning, but before washing. Also take note of how yellow the driver's side headlight is:


DSC_0112 by thecritic89, on Flickr

Iron-X in action, qwertydude is going to cringe
56.gif



DSC_0114 by thecritic89, on Flickr


DSC_0115 by thecritic89, on Flickr


DSC_0116 by thecritic89, on Flickr


DSC_0117 by thecritic89, on Flickr

I originally hoped to do a one-step correction on this car and go home after a few more hours. But after taking a closer look, there was a moderate amount of oxidation and lots of deeper defects. In this case, a one-step would leave too much on the table from a both a gloss and a defect removal standpoint.

I decided to compound with Menzerna FG400 and a Meguiars DMC6 MF Cutting Disc, followed by CarPro Reflect on a Rupes White Pad to remove the haze.

Note: this car's paint was extremely sticky and I had to soak/foam the car with a strong dilution of car wash solution after the compounding step in order to safely remove the leftover residue. It seemed like this paint just hated Menzerna products in general; even SF4000 was sticking quite badly. There was no problem at all with CarPro Reflect.

In this terrible picture, I had already compounded the entire right side of the car. I started the final polishing at the front fender and worked my way towards the rear of the car. Can you see where I stopped? I made it about 1/8 of the way into the right-rear door....can you see the haze removal?


DSC_0124 by thecritic89, on Flickr

All done after 10 hours - but anything looks good under florescent lights:


DSC_0129 by thecritic89, on Flickr

Of course, I pulled the car out of the garage and started to head home....and it started pouring. I also left the car outside overnight. Today, I decided to re-wash the car. During the initial rinse, the sealant beaded great, but after soaping down the car and doing a final rinse, the beading turned mediocre.

My hypothesis is that an immediate exposure to water prevented the synthetic paint sealant from achieving a proper bond.

So after the wash, I applied a coat of Blackfire Wet Diamond Sealant and left it to dry for 45 min before removal. Here are the final pictures:


DSC_0145 by thecritic89, on Flickr

BTW - notice the significant improvement in the headlights? M101 made a huge improvement after just 60-90 seconds of compounding. That stuff is scary aggressive!


DSC_0136 by thecritic89, on Flickr


DSC_0139 by thecritic89, on Flickr

Thanks for reading!
 
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You likely had difficulty because Microfiber pads were meant for non-diminishing or SMAT abrasives. FG400 is a traditional diminishing abrasive. That combination especially shouldn't be used for softer clears like on Japanese cars.

The reason is the amount of polish load required to initially prime the microfiber pads overloads the pad with large abrasive particles which simply take too long to break down and then clog the microfiber pad with a lot of spent paint.

If you're going to be using diminishing abrasives stick with wool for aggressive correction and foam for finishing. Leave the microfiber for SMAT/non-diminishing only.
 
Also you may find that softer paints respond very well to non-diminishing polishes and compounds.

This is one of the cars I'd have used M101 or M105 on since I know it'll respond very well and won't stick to the paint.
 
Once again California and The Critic's beaters would be showroom fresh up my way.
 
Really nice job! I noticed gas is cheaper in CA. than NY. LOL

If you don't mind me asking, how much would someone expect to pay for a detail job like that? Thanks
 
Originally Posted By: bigt61
That's a beater?


That`s what I was thinking. That is a NICE car! Definitely not beater status in my book
11.gif
 
For me a beater is a car I basically fill with gas and do the basic maint. to keep it going. Not too worried if my clothes are dirty when I drive it, leave some stuff on the seats or spill a few crumbs from a Big Mac that I eat while driving. Maybe used tires. The rain washes it.
 
Thanks guys.

Originally Posted By: qwertydude
You likely had difficulty because Microfiber pads were meant for non-diminishing or SMAT abrasives. FG400 is a traditional diminishing abrasive. That combination especially shouldn't be used for softer clears like on Japanese cars.

The reason is the amount of polish load required to initially prime the microfiber pads overloads the pad with large abrasive particles which simply take too long to break down and then clog the microfiber pad with a lot of spent paint.

If you're going to be using diminishing abrasives stick with wool for aggressive correction and foam for finishing. Leave the microfiber for SMAT/non-diminishing only.


The paint on this car was actually quite hard. It wasn't your stereotypical soft Japanese paint.

The Meguiars DA Microfiber system was only approved for use with D300. Period. So using M101, M105 or FG400 with it would be using the system outside of its intended use.

However, FG400 has been used successfully with microfiber by many top detailers. I've used it many times before with no sticking issues on other paints.

I actually used a minimal amount of product on the pad. I try not to prime when using the MF pads with diminishing abrasives. The FG400 breaks down very quickly - I used 3-4 small dots, two very slow/med-pressure passes at speed 5. At this point, I stop and blow/brush out the pad to remove the accumulated paint debris, then go back and do two more slow/no-pressure passes at speed 3-4 to finish.

I am not in agreement about using M101 or M105, both of those products are far more aggressive than needed. Just look at what M101 did to those headlights.

As for SMAT and soft paints, I know that Kevin Brown and a few others are able to finish well on soft paints with M205, but it is not easily achievable by most people. Most detailers get better results on troublesome paint systems with diminishing abrasives.
 
Most detailers get their good results on soft paint with diminishing abrasive because they're locked into old habits of working the polish for far too long. Works with diminishing abrasives but not with SMAT.

SMAT does require a different technique. When working by machine you generally do single passes at a time, wipe off and reapply polish to the pad and do another pass if necessary. You don't want to get into the habit of overworking SMAT polishes because you actually reduce the quality of the finish. That's the trouble people have with SMAT they use diminishing polish techniques.

Basically you'll get the proper finish on the first pass, if the defects aren't corrected by then, then you simply reload more polish and go for a second pass. The technique is quite easy compared to diminishing polishes. If you can break the old school habits you'll end up with just as good a finish even on softer paints.

As for what works with microfiber any high lubricity SMAT polish will work very well with it on most any paints. People using microfiber and diminishing abrasives basically are pretty lucky to get the results they have and likely are working with more modern harder finishes.

This is an old beater with older paint technology But M105 or M101 on a single pass might have been the better route because you can control the amount of paint removal better which is important if the paint were already in an oxidized state and still leave an acceptable finish especially if you were going to two step it.

Microfiber while able to break down the FG400 you're locked into removing as much paint as is necessary to break down the polish.
 
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Critic,

I have to say out of all the posts on this site, for detailing yours are the best. The proof is in your pictures.

What type of brushes do you use to clean the rims? Those rims must have been testing your patience.

Regards, JC.
 
Critic, you've got mad skills and attention to detail my man.

In my area, brand-new cars don't look that good when customers pick them up.

At best, my Dodge (when picked up new) had tire shine wiped over the whole thing. Right over any small grease, tar globs, bugs.

The new Soob? Maybe it was washed. LOL.

Like eljefino said above, that sucker would sell for a premium in the Buffalo area for sure.
 
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