One of my best friends has a 2012 Civic. Unfortunately, her car sits outside 24/7 and she lives in an industrial part of the town. To make matters worse, her car has the Crystal Black Pearl paint -- which is known to be one of the softer paints on the market.
To the best of our recollection, her car has only been washed 4 or 5 times since new. I don't think the car has ever since a coat of sealant, let alone a clay treatment. After washing the car, it was evident that there was very heavy contamination on all of the surfaces. The paint felt like sandpaper, and I think it would have taken many passes with a moderately-aggressive clay bar (which would definitely require a one-step polish after) to remove the contaminants. The clay treatment would have probably taken hours.
I had recently purchased the Nanoskin Autoscrub 6" fine-grade DA pad, and wanted to give it a "torture test" on a heavily-contaminated car. This was clearly the good candidate. The pad performed admirably, and removed nearly all of the contamination in a fraction of the time of a traditional clay treatment. I did not notice any marring, but I attribute this to using lots of Nanoskin glide and rinsing the pad after each panel.
It is amazing what kind of a difference can be made in about 3 hours. I spent about 45 min on the wash, 1 hr with the Autoscrub pad and Flex, and 45 min on the sealant. Here was the process and the results.
Process:
Wash w/Meg's Gold Class Wash
Wash wheels and tires w/Simple Green 1:4
Removed dried sap with Turtle Wax Bug and Tar Cleaner
Nanoskin Autoscrub 6" fine-grade DA Pad w/Flex 3401XRG for paint decontamination. Used speed 3, 3-4 passes per panel, and Nanoskin glide at 1:6 dilution.
Sealant was a heavy coat of Collinite 845, which was applied with a LC Black Pad on the Flex 3401XRG at speed 2.5.
Tires were dressed with Optimum Opti-Bond, but I think my applicator pad was dirty as the tires did not turn out as intended.
Only took a few pics:
Prior to this, the paint felt rough, was very dull and had no shine whatsoever. Now, the paint feels slick and is fairly glossy. By no means is the finish perfect - it has a number of tiny water spots and some light swirls, but I think this is a major improvement compared to before.
BTW - the crankcase has Mobil 1 0w20 and a Fram Ultra filter. OLM still shows 70% remaining after 4000 miles.
To the best of our recollection, her car has only been washed 4 or 5 times since new. I don't think the car has ever since a coat of sealant, let alone a clay treatment. After washing the car, it was evident that there was very heavy contamination on all of the surfaces. The paint felt like sandpaper, and I think it would have taken many passes with a moderately-aggressive clay bar (which would definitely require a one-step polish after) to remove the contaminants. The clay treatment would have probably taken hours.
I had recently purchased the Nanoskin Autoscrub 6" fine-grade DA pad, and wanted to give it a "torture test" on a heavily-contaminated car. This was clearly the good candidate. The pad performed admirably, and removed nearly all of the contamination in a fraction of the time of a traditional clay treatment. I did not notice any marring, but I attribute this to using lots of Nanoskin glide and rinsing the pad after each panel.
It is amazing what kind of a difference can be made in about 3 hours. I spent about 45 min on the wash, 1 hr with the Autoscrub pad and Flex, and 45 min on the sealant. Here was the process and the results.
Process:
Wash w/Meg's Gold Class Wash
Wash wheels and tires w/Simple Green 1:4
Removed dried sap with Turtle Wax Bug and Tar Cleaner
Nanoskin Autoscrub 6" fine-grade DA Pad w/Flex 3401XRG for paint decontamination. Used speed 3, 3-4 passes per panel, and Nanoskin glide at 1:6 dilution.
Sealant was a heavy coat of Collinite 845, which was applied with a LC Black Pad on the Flex 3401XRG at speed 2.5.
Tires were dressed with Optimum Opti-Bond, but I think my applicator pad was dirty as the tires did not turn out as intended.
Only took a few pics:
Prior to this, the paint felt rough, was very dull and had no shine whatsoever. Now, the paint feels slick and is fairly glossy. By no means is the finish perfect - it has a number of tiny water spots and some light swirls, but I think this is a major improvement compared to before.
BTW - the crankcase has Mobil 1 0w20 and a Fram Ultra filter. OLM still shows 70% remaining after 4000 miles.
