RedCelica

Had yesteday and today off work, so I decided to do a full exterior detail on the S.

Products:

Meguiars Car Wash
Lamb's wool mit
Grit-guard
Porter Cable 7424XP
Yellow, green, and red pads
Majestic Solutions (MS - Local detail shop) Vibra Cut 1000
MS Finish Cut
MS Glaze
MS Prem. Wax
2000 grit sand paper
MS Clay (grey)
MS Clay Lube
Blue masking tape
meguiars plastx
Misc sray bottles and microfiber towels
Probably some other stuff I'm forgetting...like the need for a freakin back brace.

Yesterday...washed and clayed





Today, went and bought $83 of more supplies and my clay was old, needed another yellow pad, and I needed some more microfibers.

Here's why I was contemplating wet sanding in the first place...look how bad my front end is!


Test:






So...the Vibra cut 1000 still left a haze, so I ponied up the finish cut to get back to a gloss shine:



Decided to do some more of the lip:







Decent results, tried some more of the front lip:



After that, and many hours later, the car was polished and needed wax...but first, I decided to polish the headlights too:






Wax applied, time to take it off. This wax has teflon in it...and I don't think I like it much, it seems to leave a film on the car (similar to a petroleum film) even after removal...I think I'm not going to use this wax anymore and find something better and applicable by hand. Used PC and Red pad to apply to large areas and a small applicator to get into the small places.



Starting to get dark...who's gonna clean all this up for me?!




Can you see the "film" left by the wax? Yeah...those white dots are rock chips I'm just gonna have to get the front end re-sprayed and cleared.



Door/crotch shot



Can I have my badge now?

EDIT: All clean...except the red pad's stains

wanabe

thats a great job! got your pm, but since i am now the "ex" wacko, i can not longer badge you... sorry about that- hopefully the new mod will see this and put up the badge

RedCelica

Thanks!

Used the air compressor to blow most of the dust off the car before applying the wax.

I sent a PM to Phil too to try and get some new product...this MS stuff isn't cutting it, or I seriously need to work on my technique. How many passes would you guys do on say a half-door section of our cars? I'm counting off 4, moving about 1in./sec left to right. Swirls are gone for the most part, but I've got to go back if I want to remove some of the deeper scratches. Wet-sanding the lip and polishing it back out was 1 hour in and of itself.

importkid

Are you using up and down and left to right movement for the door? Not understanding your question. The car looks good though, except that film over it. Looks hazy even in the photo.

I'm using the MTX line from pinnacle and I really like it, but my car isn't black so swirls are less visible.

RedCelica

Left to right on the door, then down, repeat 2'x2' sections.

jonner

Nice job....

ftpsk8

Good job man

Definitely get the front resprayed.. all those rock chips

RedCelica

Washed the film off tonight...hood could use some more work but other than that I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. Trunk lid looks flawless.

metros

I don't have a set number of passes that I go by. I continue to work the polish until it breaks down. You'll know this has happened as it flash dries after going over a spot and looks clearish again. If you don't work the polish long enough then it doesn't break down and do its job.

I like 1z polishes but they dust alot. I've tried the Meguires 105/205 combo and wasn't really thrilled with the results. I have 1 pinnacle step 2 polish that removes a lot of swirls considering its 1 step.

BTW, do you own an atom or did you buy into a track experience for atoms?

Vanishing Point

Try the Menzerna line followed by Lusso Oro on that BB car and you will be amazed at the results.