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