WS2K's Alablaster Silver JDM 8th Gen Honda Civic

I think this is becoming more of a routine (which is a good thing). WS2K's car was actually a last minute detail (I've been itching to detail a car for 2 weeks now). The detailing appointment I had was cancelled at the last minute and WS was kind enough to loan me his ride to play around with. Thanks bud! Here goes:

We started out the day as usual - 7.30am Breaking Fast at a nearby hawker food center - Nasi lemak as usual. Actual detailing started at around 8am sharp.

Here's some background about WS and his beloved ride.

Owner: Detailing kaki. Anal for details.
Wash: Minimum of 2-3 times a week
Wax: Minimum of 1 time a week

WS was kind enough to do a few things for me the night before we detailed (to save us some time)

What he did was:
1) Clean the rims thoroughly
2) Wash his car with Dishwashing liquid
3) Clay the entire car

Having said that, the story begins...................

FRONT CORNER VIEW



VARIOUS OTHER VIEWS



I really really hate dirty rims. Call me anal, but that's the first thing I notice when I look at a car. The travel from WS's house over to my detailing location resulted in brake dust on the rims.

And so, the tools & chemicals were busted out and the rims washed and cleaned thoroughly inside & out.




Since the car was washed last night, all we had to do was rinse it to remove all dust. Claying was also done the night before. As usual, we soaked the car with Bug & Tar Remover for a few minutes. Bug & Tar Remover was wiped down.

Look the the pictures below:

On the Left is the Before pictures before Bug & Tar Wipedown.
On the Right - the Stuffed picked up by the Microfiber after Wipedown.



While waiting for the Bug & Tar to settle on the paint, an APC was applied on all hard to reach areas.

The car was then rinsed to remove all the oils and cleaners to prepare for what WS refers to as "Parallel Activity".




Funny - This butterfly clinged on to WS's car after the Bug & Tar Remover application. I thought the stuff was supposed to remove bugs, not attract them. Anyways, moving on..........



PARALLEL ACTIVITY - WS's definition of an activitiy that can be performed by 2 or more people simultaneously. Anyways, moving on again - here are some pix of the taping process.

A hell of a parallel activity if you asked me. It probably took us 90 minutes to tape up all the rubber linings and plastic that we wanted to protect.




Pictures of the car taped up



NOTE: It is very very very very hard. Let me emphasize again. It is DAMN hard to locate scratches on a silver car and even worse on Alablaster Silver. These are the only shots we could get of identifying any markings on the car.



Can't see any scratches on this picture.



The old faithful is busted out after 2 weeks of hibernation. So began detailing work.

We started out on the Spoiler as we couldn't find a flat surface to work on it. We were going to remove it later in order to work on the trunk. My hunch was that there wouldn't be any leeway to work the polisher on the trunk due to the clearance between the spoiler and the trunk.

Anyways, what we did first was:
1) Couple of passes of M83 on the spoiler with the Orange CCS pad
2) Followed by a couple of passes of M80 on the spoiler with White CCS pad

We found out later that WS forgot to bring the allen wrench to remove the spoiler (This problem would be rectified later).



Some shots of application of M83 with the DA and then working the product onto the paint at higher speeds. If you noticed, the solution/ haze will turn clearer as you go on.




Midway into working on the car, we came up with an idea. WS's car had a corner that was scraped. He was planning on visiting the painters. Since I had bought some sandpaper a few weeks earlier, this was the perfect opportunity for me to test out the "Wet-Sanding" process.

No Guts no Glory!

The Equipment used for the Wet Sanding procedure:



Pictures of the Scratches on the rear right bumper:
(The Scratches were actually pretty deep as you can see from the picture)




Wet Sanding Begins
1) A generous amount of water is sprayed onto the "problem spot".
2) Water is sprayed onto the 1500 grit sandpaper first.
3) The 1500 grit sandpaper is worked on the "problem spot" until it is level with body paint.
4) 2000 grit sandpaper is then used to refine the area that was sanded.



RESULTS:

Left Picture: The Problem spot all sanded up and dried to a haze.
Right Picture: Problem spot AFTER it has been cleaned up with few passes of M83 then followed by M80 and then wiped down with IPA.




It may not be the best work you have seen (since I have no experience in wet sanding). However, the differences are clear and if you had felt the "problem area" by hand, you won't even notice that there are scratches.




ALL BEHOLD! WS The Mad Scientist at work. Remember that I mentioned that we would rectify the spoiler problem earlier? Well, not only is our friend a Mad Scientist - he's also a damn good Contortionist! Notice how he maneuvers around the spoiler and the trunk.



Hard to reach areas were hand polished with M83 followed by M80 like the ones below:



I was getting a bit tired at this point in time. However, no matter how tired one is, there's always room for amusement.

**SMILE**




A Short Video on the Polishing Process:




After the M83 was done on the whole car, we then rinsed the car to remove all powdery residue.
After "Pat Drying" the car, we took a breather and had our lunch at around 3.30pm.

Polishing work begins as you can see from the pictures below.




As WS was machine-polishing the car, I simultaneously took the time to polish the exhaust tips (Using MOTHERS Magnesium & Aluminum Polish).

The Pictures as follows:



More Pictures of WS2K - The Mad Scientist



Pictures AFTER the M80 Application followed by IPA Wipedown followed by Rinse and Dry



The Trunk View



ROOF View



HOOD View



Some Pictures in Natural Lighting




Once that was done, came the last few steps for PROTECTION
1) MOTHERS SYNWAX
2) MOTHERS STEP 3 PURE CARNAUBA WAX - PASTE

MOTHERS Synwax was applied via Applicator Pads by Hand over the Paint by WS.



While he was busy getting his fingers Sore, I busted out an old friend - the ROB.
The ROB is paired up with LC's Blue CCS Pad.
I used the ROB to apply the Synwax while poor WS had to bust his fingers.
We then removed the wax residue using Microfiber Towels.



Since it was getting late, we decided to continue tomorrow. Or rather, WS would go on his own tomorrow in applying the Step 3 Carnauba Paste. Anyways, here are some pictures of his car. MY apologies as you can't see much - I think it was about 8.30pm when we finished with the first layer of wax application.





And so, WS applied and removed the Step 3 - MOTHERS Pure Carnauba Paste Wax the following morning and here are some shots of his pampered ride.













Today was a pretty good day. Weather wasn't that hot and I think we are kinda getting pretty accustomed to the workload. Nonetheless, it took us more than 24 man hrs to finish up the car.

CREDITS:

Weng Shin: For allowing me to work on your beloved ride.
Parent in Laws: For assisting me in various ways and loaning me the compound for a few hours.
My Wife: For being so supportive and giving up your alternate Saturdays so that I can work.
Chiat Hau: For some very good tips on detailing.
Lucky: For coming home after a 1 month vacation.

Thanks again for visiting! Please visit again soon.

Sincerely,
MCrusader

Julz's NightHawk Black Honda City

It's been 3 weeks since my last detail so I was really looking forward to this one. The ride belonged to Julian - one of my detailing kaki. We managed to sneak in some nasi lemak early in the morning before starting off this long and hot day.

As usual, we'll start off with the background of the car owner. Julian is an avid detail kaki.

Breakdown:

Washing frequency: 2-3 times a week.
Wax: Once every week - Once every 2 weeks.

His car was coated with MMC a couple of years ago - therefore the shine does look a tad better compared to most of the NightHawk Black Honda City's out there. I informed Julian that if we compounded his car, we would be removing the MMC as well. He understood all the consequences and he wanted to move on anyways.

To save some time, Julian clayed the car down 2 days before our detailing session (so we skipped that part for this detail)

Here we go.


BEFORE DETAIL

Front View



Trunk/ Rear/ Roof View



DETAILING BEGINS

Rims cleansing

We started off by cleaning the Rims. Here are some of the tools I have to clean the rims:

• MOTHERS Fender Well Brush
• MOTHERS Detailing Brush
• Melody Wheel Brush
• Some Tesco Floor Scrubber
  
• Some other stuff I stole from my mum's toilet cleaning arsenals
  

The Rims were first sprayed with Multi-Purpose Cleaner and left to dwell for a few minutes.
They were then rinsed off. With all available tools, me an Julian started scrubbing and scrubbing to remove all the grime in the wheel wells and between spokes. The rims were then finished with an application of Apple Scented GLO (to make sure the rims were extra clean).



Here are the Before & After shot of the rims.



SHOWERING THE BODY

As usual, a 2 Bucket System was used to wash Julian's car using a Microfiber Chenile Wash Mitt.

Each bucket consisted of:

a) Blue Bucket - Clean Water
b) Red Bucket - MOTHERS California Gold Shampoo




Shampoo is applied to each panel first. As soon as you finish on a panel, rinse immediately.

Work from a top down method meaning do the:
Roof > Hood > Trunk > Upper Panel of Doors > Lower Panel of Doors

The Wash Mitt is then rinsed on the Blue Bucket to remove any grit that was collected during the shampoo application process.



In the meantime, a General Multi Purpose Cleaner was then sprayed in between crevices, rubber linings, emblems, and whatever cracks we could find. We went over these parts with a regular paint brush - This is to remove any dirty stuff/ grit/ old wax residue that was trapped in between these super hard to reach areas.



The car was then rinsed down. Notice the 2 buckets - especially the Blue Clean Water Bucket used to rinse the Wash Mitt.

Now, do we still want to wash the car using traditional methods? I hope not!



We proceeded to spray the whole car with a Bug & Tar Remover. It was left to dwell for a few minutes and then wiped down. The purpose for doing this is to remove any old waxes, tar, and whatever grime that got embedded onto the surface of the paint. Also, it prevents these "contaminants" from sticking to the machine pads (promotes longer pad life).

Check out the before & after pictures below (Not too bad as Julian had clayed his car 2 days ago):



Since Julian clayed the car 2 days before, we skipped that part and went on to taping all rubber linings/ emblems/ plastic parts or stuff that we didn't wanna screw up when performing the machine work.

This probably took us a good 1 hour.



BEFORE COMPOUNDING

I am not very familiar with taking pictures using the halogens to identify the scratches. Therefore, please bear with me. I just managed to take pictures of a few significant panels. Julian had a heavier workload of lifting the Hot halogen lamp to allow me to get these shots. Thanks man!

Anyways, here are the pictures beginning with a shot from the rear left passenger door.



A further away shot of the same door - the swirls or spider-webs were horrendous on this car.



Swirls and water marks on the roof.



The Left A-Pillar



The trunk - check out the lower portion of the photo. It looked like an aged person's skin.



The Hood View



Another shot of the Hood.



My favorite angle of the Honda City - swirls galore.



MACHINE WORK BEGINS

Compounding

The FLEX 3401 VRG is busted out. Since we didn't want to waste time (by testing which chemicals paired with which combo of pads), we fitted the Lake Country 6.5 inch Orange Pad used for light cutting. We paired this up with DACP M83 to remove the swirls. Thus began the tedious compounding work.

1. The Orange Pad is then primed initially with a lot of M83 to ensure that the friction between the paint's surface and the pad. As this goes along, less product is used (a primed pad no longer needs that much of a product to work smoothly).
2. Product is then dabbed onto the paint's surface.
3. Next, a slow speed was set on the Flex to spread out the product to a 2x2 feet section.
4. Once product is spread, the Flex was set to ferrari speeds to work the product onto the paint.
   

Here's 1/4 of the roof view after it was done with the M83. I noticed a lot of powdery residue which puzzled me as the previous NightHawk Black Honda City detailed did not produce that much of residue. We would discover the cause of this much later...................



Some pictures of me grinding the A pillar. Notice the combination of M83 + LC Orange Pads produced what they call "Micro-marring".



Here you see Julian hard at work, grinding away on his beloved ride. The end result looks good right? Hop on over to the next picture.



Excited to see the real results? After rinsing the car, we shined the halogen on the rear left passenger side door. Say hello to massive "micro-marring".



Remember when I mentioned earlier that it was weird that the M83 was producing so much dust? Well, we totally forgot about the MMC. As we compounded the lower panels of the car, more and more dust and powdery residue was appearing and I'm very sure we were removing the MMC or at least part of it. Going through each panel, there was MMC Residue appearing everywhere. When we grinded the trunk - it appeared as if fibers were coming out.

An additional thing I noticed was that with MMC applied paint, the surface is very sticky ( you can actually hear the pads squeak when you work your way ) compared to traditional paint non MMC coated - which feels much slicker.

Check out the trunk to view these fiber-like substance.



After rinse pictures of the trunk. More Micro-marring.



The 50:50 view of the Hood. For comparison purposes, the Right hand side of the Hood was compounded and the left part of the hood was left untouched.

If you notice - The untouched portion's swirls are more evident compared to the portion done with the DACP.




Front Right Corner View



POLISHING

Next came the Polishing Step.
In order to remove the "micro-marring", the combo used were White LC CCS Polishing Pad + Menzerna's P106FF.



Julian hard at work again



Some shots of the Panels after Polishing/ M6000 wipedown. As expected - all of the micro-marrs were removed.
























PROTECTION LAYER

Waxing

The final step was the protection step - Wax. This step is a traditional last step process in order to protect your paint.

1. We applied MOTHERS Reflections Advanced Wax as a first layer of protection.
2. Next, we applied MOTHERS Top Coat as a Last Step Product for maximum protection.
3. All of this was done via hand application.
   

And the results speaks for itself:











There's no shine like Mothers!






I can say this is probably the hardest car that we have done - probably because of the MMC factor and also the heat. I don't know why, but I noticed everytime we detail a car - conincidentally it's a super hot day. Not to mention - we took almost 12 hours to complete this car!

Anyways, here are the credits:

To my wife and in laws - For putting up with me during this hot day (me incurring so much noise with the machine)
To Julian - For allowing me to practice on his car
To guru Kenneth - For providing me some tips on some detailing work

Till the next detail.