Nighthawk Black Honda City

I had just purchased a Dual Action Flex 3401 VRG and was super eager to try it out. I finally had some time to bust out the machine on July 6th. I was lucky enough to have my father in law volunteer his NightHawk Black Honda City for my testing purposes. My detailing buddy Weng Shin was also on site to help me out on grinding the car.

Just a bit of a background about the City. The car is generally washed once a month and probably waxed once every 4-5 months. So, this was the perfect specimen for my test.

Here goes:

BEFORE WASH - Hood Views






DOOR VIEWs - Pretty nasty eh?







BEFORE WASH - Rooftop Views





REAR VIEW - You can actually see some watermark and swirls on the trunk





BEFORE WASH - The Stock Rollers




And so we started off by washing the rims. A General Paint Safe Multi-Purpose Cleaner was sprayed on to the rims and fender wells and left to dwell. A bucket of solution mixed with our dishwashing liquid GLO was then used to wash the rims. Here you see me using the MOTHERS Fender Well Brush to brush the fender wells as well as the rims.



After we got done with the rims, we rinsed down the car to loosen the dirt and to prepare it for a wash.



A 2 bucket system was used to wash the car.

Two Buckets - 1 Bucket containing Mothers California Gold Shampoo
- 1 Bucket of Clean Water



After the shampoo application was done. Observe how murky the water is in the Clean Water Bucket.



And the grit below in close up view.



A wash mitt was used to apply the shampoo.



The shampoo was then rinsed down to prepare for Bug & Tar Removal. The Bug & Tar Remover is then sprayed on all panels of the car.

Here are the before shots of the towels that was used to wipe all panels of the car.


After the wipedown. Check them towels out. Dirrrttyy...



The car was then rinsed again. Next step - Clay.
Diluted shampoo was used as a lube to clay the car. And here are a few pictures of the Clay and Claying Process







After the claying process the car was washed down again and toweled dry. The paint's surface is now properly prepped. With the help of the halogen lamp, here you see some pics of the paints condition.

SURFACE PREPPED - Hood



SURFACE PREPPED - Front Right Fender





SURFACE PREPPED - Roof



Doors





After those pictures were taken, the car was masked down to avoid polishing and buring those areas like trims, emblems, grill, rubber lining/ housing, etc. Here are the picture:







Finally I got to bust out the Dual Action Flex. We used my friend Julian's M83 DACP at first the the Lake Country CCS 6.5 inch White Polishing pads but it wasn't tough enough to remove the swirls on the hood. We then changed to the Orange Pads which didn't help much. We moved a step up and used the LC CCS Yellow Cutting Pad, which seemed to clear 80-90% of the swirls with just 1 pass.

Some photos of the Flex in action:





Some pictures of the Hood after machine work with the M83:




Front Right Fender pics After Machine Work:





Roof View After Machine Work



I have to apologize as I'm fairly new to machine work. I was too tired at the same time too excited that I bypassed taking pics of the other parts of the car. Here are some of the before and after pics of the Front Right Fender:





The City was then protected with a layer of MOTHERS PowerWax topped up with a final layer of MOTHERS Reflections Top Coat.







I would like to thank my father in law for letting me "guinea pig" his car using my newfound toy. Also my wife for waiting a whole 9 hrs and assisting me in various ways cleaning up the car. Last but not least thanks to Weng Shin for lending a hand.

Thanks to all for viewing.

As usual, any comments/ feedback is appreciated.

Regards,
Larry

Peugeot 206CC Moonstone

Hi all! Had some free time last Saturday so along with 2 other buddies of mine - Julian and Weng Shin, we decided to detail my wife's Moonstone Peugeot 206CC. The color is somewhat similiar to the Honda's Light Metallic Blue.

Just a little background on my wife's car. It's currently dressed in Standox Paint and Clearcoat. The 206CC has never been compounded before and has never had any machine work done on it before since it left the painters. Polishing was always done by hand so it was never really a clean job. So, I was very eager to work on this car (along with Julian and Weng Shin).

We started early and here goes.

206CC Untouched





BEFORE WASH - Watermarks on the Hood




BEFORE WASH - Watermarks on the Roof




BEFORE WASH - Scratches and Watermarks on the Trunk




BEFORE WASH - The Ever so Dirty Rims.




And the Ever So Dirty Wheel Wells that complement the Dirty Rims.




We started out by cleaning the Rims first. First of all, a General Paint Safe Multi Purpose Cleaner was sprayed on the rims and dwelled for a couple of minutes. A Melody Wheel Brush dipped in diluted GLO was then used to brush out the wheel wells.



The Fender Wells was also cleaned with Multi Purpose cleaner. Here you see a picture of Mothers Fender Well brush - which can also be used for rims and tires because the bristles are fairly soft and won't scratch.




After Hosing down the dirty rims - This is how it looks




The 206CC is then rinsed and thus begins the surface preparation.



The body is then pre-soaked with a shampoo concentrate. This is actually done to loosen the dirt embedded onto the paint.



Here you see me using a small paint brush multi-purpose cleaning all the creases and cracks you can find on emblems, holes, between rubber linings and etc.



We then hosed down the car and prepared it for a thorough wash.

We washed the car using a 2 bucket system.
-1 bucket filled with Mothers California Gold Shampoo
-1 bucket filled with Clean Water

The reason why the 2 bucket car wash system was used is because we wanted to prevent or minimize swirling the car during the wash process.

How the 2 bucket system works:
1) Dunk a wash mitt or sponge onto the bucket with the shampoo solution
2) Apply the solution gently to the surface on a particular panel
3) Rinse the wash mitt in the Clean Water Bucket, rubbing it top down to remove and grit gathered from the application process
4) Repeat Steps 1 to 3 for each panel starting from the top of your car to the lower parts.




You can clearly see how murky the water is after the whole car is applied with Shampoo.



Here you can see how much grit you actually have gathered in the Clean Water Bucket. Imagine if these grits are rubbed onto your paint!



The car was then rinsed of all the shampoo. After that, Bug & Tar Remover was sprayed onto all panels of the car. Bug & Tar Remover was then left on for 5-10 minutes.

Below you see pictures before Bug & Tar Remover was wiped down.



After Bug & Tar Remover was wiped down - See how dirty those microfibers got.



The car was then rinsed down.

Next Step and one of my favorites - Claying the Car.
Here are some pictures of the Clay



We used diluted shampoo as a lube to clay the car. Here you see Julian gently rubbing the clay on the car's surface.



We toweled dry the car and here are some of the pictures:




Swirls in macro mode with the help of some halogens.



Next - In preparation for compounding the car, we had to tape up all plastics, emblems, rubber trims and whatever you can see on the following pictures:




Julian masking off some parts of the side mirrors



Car fully taped up - excuse the brightened number plate



Rear View



I guess I was too excited or I don't really recall. We were all to focused on working on the car that we forgot to take pictures of the process.

Anyways, my apologies for that. Here are what we had used.

Compounding
- Julians Meguiars M83 coupled with Lake Country's 6.5 inchCCS Yellow Cutting Pad on my Flex 3401
- It took around 3 passes to actually remove 80-90% of the swirls and water marks. (Comparing with the ClearCoat for Honda's I worked on earlier - 1 pass was sufficient to remove similiar swirls, I guess Standox is a harder Clear Coat)

We took a much deserved break after we compounded the car

This was followed by the Polishing Step:
-Julian's Menzerna P106FF was used along with Lake Country's 6.5 inch CCS White Polishing Pad using the Flex

Followed by the Finishing Steps:
- 2 layers of hand application of MOTHERS FX Synwax
- buffed and then removed
- 1 final layer of MOTHERS Step 3 Carnauba Wax - Paste - applied using the Flex with 6.5 inch CCS Blue Pad
- Removed using a Microfiber Bonet using the Flex

Anyways, I apologize again as we were too worked up. Will try to do a better job of documenting the working process.

Here are the pictures after the Finishing Steps:

Front view



Trunk View



Ass View



Another Rear View



Roof View



And Finally !!



Thank you to my dear wife for letting me work on your car (I know you were very reluctant for me to touch your baby). Thanks to Weng Shin & Julian for spending the whole Saturday detailing this car with me when you could be doing something more productive. And last but not least, thanks to Kenneth Tang - detailing guru from Wet Shine Detailing for giving me some tips on photography. (even though I missed out a lot of pix)

Till the next detail.

Thanks for looking.

Please feel free to leave me any feedback/ comments that you may have.

Larry