First "detailing" attempt - 2005 GPW
 

This past weekend, I drove up to Tacoma, Washington to pay a visit to Griot's Garage flagship store. The appeal for me was that I could have someone actually take a look at the car and help determine what product(s) would best suit my needs. For as young as he appeared to be, the sales guy was quite knowledgeable, and definitely helpful. I returned home a bit poorer as I purchased a buffer along with some other products. When all was said and done I feel like the results were worth the time and money invested. To be truthful, the car was already in great shape when we bought it a couple of months ago. The only thing needed was some minor paint correction as I wanted to get the swirls out of the paint that were visible under certain lighting conditions. At some point I'd like to snap some better shots like some of you guys get that capture that nice glassy looking effect that the paint takes on at certain angles. If successful, I'll try to post them up later.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...c976e0f727.jpg

Sorry to bring back an older thread but it looks good and I had some questions.

What type of imperfections did you have?
What were the products that you used?

Thanks 08Marshmellow. I did not have any serious imperfections, as this car was very well taken care of before we purchased it. But I did notice some typical swirl marks and the like under certain lighting conditions. I wanted an S2000 in white because of the historic connection with so many of their previous racing efforts but I tend to think of white paint as being sort of a blessing and a curse in that while it's good at hiding most light scratches and that sort of thing it also doesn't generally have that much "pop" to it either. So my goals were to remove the scratches and give the paint as much of that glass-like glossy shine as possible. Still I really wanted to be careful to not overdo things in the process as i've repeatedly read on this forum how soft the factory paint is on this car.

I purchased the Griot's 6" random orbital buffer with the optional extended power cord. But I opted to go for the 5" backing plate and pads. I selected to go with the orange BOSS foam correcting pads and the red foam wax pads. I used these to apply the BOSS correcting cream and then the Best of Show wax. I bought a few different microfibre towels that they offered that were surprisingly much nicer than the microfibre towels that I had bought from Costco (as they should have been given the price difference). At any rate, I was very happy with the results. The photo that I shared doesn't really do justice to how the car turned out, but that's probably due to my lack of not using the best lighting/angles, etc.. I also purchased some of Griot's Speed Shine to use between washings. Needless to say, it was not a cheap visit to Griot's that day, lol. But I also know that you can get a lot more carried away with this than I did. Talking with the guys at Griot's Garage turned out to be incredibly helpful as I wasn't really very well versed in this stuff. I just really wanted to make sure that I was doing right by the car. I realize that this car is sort of old hat by now to a lot of guys here, but I'm still really fired up to own one myself and probably will be for quite some time to come.

I might eventually go to some sort of paint sealant that will provide longer lasting protection than the wax. But since I'm driving the car primarily on the weekends and don't daily it (and I have a garage to store it in when it sits) I think this works just fine as I don't have to wash it all that often. Besides, I actually enjoy spending time doing things like cleaning and waxing the car as it gives me a chance to stay on top of things like how the exterior of the car is holding up, etc.. Basically it gives me something to do and I certainly don't mind that the car looks great as a result of the time invested. If it weren't for a couple of things that existed when we bought the car like light scrubbing on the underside edge of the front lip and some minor curb rash on some of the wheels and a couple of tiny paint chips, this car pretty much looks like it's just a month or so old. I try to view those imperfections as honest patina, and as one less thing for me to freak out about so that I can get on with just enjoying the car for what it is.

Thanks for the response.

I have have an 2008 GPW and I have noticed how soft the paint is. A fingernail can cause a small scratch if not careful.

It looks like my car was run through the car wash and possibly used an silicon blade to dry or remove snow as there were many scratches of various depths that ran from the roof to the edge of the trunk. I have removed many of the scratches with my 1st generation Griot's random orbital, 6" pads, and the complete polish. I then followed up with Chemical guys white light and white wax. I was pretty happy with the results but this winter I might strip it all off and be a bit more aggressive with the polish choice and then use a perfecting cream before I coat/wax.

I love a clean white car! You may want to check your top straps, as it appears the top is not fully retracting (could be the angle of the pic, too).

Sorry to hear that. Like you, I also figured that I would go at things as gently as possible the first time around and then if needed could always use more aggressive products later on if I wasn't happy with the initial results. Fortunately the previous owner had a clear film/bra applied to the front of the car along with the mirrors and door edges to help prevent paint chips and the like so that also helps. But I do have to be careful that I don't end up with a build up of detailing product at the edge of the film. I tried not to get too carried away because I realize that it's pretty much at the point where I'm dealing with things that no one else notices but me. Plus I had other things that I wanted to attend to on the car while the weather was still nice (my garage is not heated) for my own peace of mind like replacing the fluids/filters and applying Shin-Etsu grease to all of the rubber bits, Leather cleaner and conditioner to the seats and the other leather bits as well as applying 303 protectant to the vinyl/plastic bits and the top. That all tends to add up pretty quickly time-wise. Good luck to you with your GPW S2K! I hope that you'll post up a photo of it around here sometime. (I never get tired of looking at these cars.)

Thanks! I'm guessing that it's probably the angle of the pic as I replaced my top straps a few months back for that exact reason (I figured this out the first time I attempted to install the "tonneau cover" for the retracted top. I'm pretty sure that was before this picture was taken, but that seems like such a long time ago now, lol.