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
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