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What Did You Wash, Shine, and or Polish Today


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  • 3 weeks later...

The hood of a 1912 American Race Car...(not certain if "American" is the brand, but there was an manufacturer with that name at that time)

 

The car was painted several months ago and the client has been agonizing about the holograms and swirls in the paint.  He was considering a repaint, but gave me a call.

 

I cleaned it with Waterless Car Wash and a Waterless Wash towel, then did a IPA wipe down.  I tried a few different polish and pad combinations, but PCP on a Orange foam pad, followed by PFP on a White foam pad gave the best shine.  Finished with an IPA wipe down to ensure nothing remained on the paint, then put on Americana to protect it.

 

It was not too bad, but could be improved upon:

Amercainhood009_zps12017ee0.jpg

 

A 50/50

58017547-6dff-4526-a318-e02a9d70d747_zps

 

 

and the After

Amercainhood012_zps8cb1eb3f.jpg

 

And the very cool work stand...

Amercainhood013_zps5b45a200.jpg

 

...a V-8 engine from an early 1900's airplane!

 

He is hoping to have the car completed in time for the Amelia Island Concours in March.  I will be polishing the rest of the car when he has it finished.  

It will look similar to this:

12%20National%20Joe%20Dawson%2010692.jpg

Edited by mc2hill
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My son was home for Christmas for a few days, so I freshened up his headlights and did a 2 bucket wash.  The car has not been washed since I did it in late September, but on the plus side no-one is adding swirls!

 

Left side is done, right is ready for it's turn:

headlingts12_25_13002_zpse6183b72.jpg

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Did a Rinseless wash on the wife's car when I came home from the gym.  Then cleaned up the headlights on my truck.  I have been putting it off, as I will be repainting my grill, and it is very easy to do them with it removed!

I have been slacking on the repaint, so I went ahead and taped them up.  I am testing a nano sealant vs. Adam's LPS, so I took a couple of shots to document the before & after.

 

Before:

Jan122014010_zps1cd58410.jpg

 

After:

Jan122014011_zps668c8446.jpg

 

Not a huge difference, but you can see how much reflection there is in the the After.

 

I plan to take pictures every 6 weeks to document the changes. 

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No pictures of what I cleaned, but I tore out my dash/center section and installed a new HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) gauge cluster and smokers package.  It basically cleans up the interior and makes it look more upscale.  I'M NOT A SMOKER!!! 

 

While I had the entire dash in pieces, I decided to tear the fan assembly out seeing that I was there and it was only 3 screws.  Since this was a smokers car, I thought it necessary to clean everything I could while in there.  So I grabbed my trusty Adam's Interior Detailing Swabs (15 Pack) and went to work with some interior and leather cleaner as my chemical of choice.  I got all the vanes cleaned and rinsed off and then sprayed some into the duct work and snaked some MF into them cleaning as well as I could.  Overall, the ducts were pretty clean.  The vanes were pretty dirty though.  NOTHING smelled like smoke before the cleaning which is a testament to the ozone generator IMO.  I DO have a fruity smell in the car I can't resolve to save my life so I took some leather scent spray I have from years ago, sprayed a towel and left it in the car.  I'd rather smell it then smell whatever the guy may have sprayed under the seats. 

 

Here are a few pics of the semi finished product. If you aren't familiar with the G8, it's hard to see what I did since these are all OEM parts.  The cubby in front of the shifter was an open hole before, and now it's got one of those cool slow open lids on it.   ;)   The back seat had the same thing.  Some goofy open cubby.  

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

I worked on my son's GF's mothers CRV.  She wants to keep her it after her lease expires next month and wants to it look as good as possible when she returns to the dealer.  

I cleaned the wheels with APC and diluted GWC, then did a strip wash with APC added to Car Wash Shampoo.  The interior needed some help - mostly just some light cleaning with TID, but the steering wheel and stalks needed some diluted LIC.  The seats had a few stains that CUC took care of:

 

passengers seat before:

Feb22012_zpsb34298cf.jpg

 

 

passengers seat after:

Feb22013_zps6dc8efd9.jpg

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I was finally able to find the time to correct my truck. Unfortunately it was vandalized June 2013 and needed a complete repaint and I just haven't had the time to fix the "final" buff from the body shop.

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post-5708-0-65071100-1393583560_thumb.jpg

Edited by William
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I cleaned up an MB GL350 - strip wash, apply sealant, and a interior clean up.  It was for a friends daughter, so I did a few extras - polished the hood to remove some spots that had been keyed and renewed the trim between the side windows.

 

I usually just use FMP, but these were worse than usual.  I used SHR first, then FMP.  I did not use Adam's pads for this (when you see the last picture you will know why).

 

50/50 shot

 07MBGL350009_zpsb408c924.jpg

 

It took 2 passes of SHR, and 1 pass of FMP to get the shine back.

07MBGL350014_zpsde59674a.jpg

 

 

 

And this is what the pads looked liked when I was done.  I did not want to trash my Adam's pads!

07MBGL350018_zpsfdcd3d15.jpg

 

 

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 Loving that insulated garage, I had it almost to 60 in there.

 

You need a bigger heater.  When I built my house my wife couldn't understand why I wanted the same windows that where in the house in the garage along with all the other extras that come with staying warm in the winter.  At times she uses it more than I do and appreciates it now.

 

Nothing washed, shined or polished here today.  Suppose to rain in the next day or two. 

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Plane landed at 1800 the previous day. Spent time with the family and proceeded to take my car out of hibernation. Two bucket wash w/ rinseless wash...only i small layer of dust on her. 0600 the next day off to C&C....dedication! Oh this was after a total of 26 hours flying.

post-5381-0-95445100-1394448726_thumb.jpg

Edited by Bigblue11
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  • 2 weeks later...

I wanted to do a full write up of this project but not enough of the photos came out, so I am putting it here.
 
A few weeks ago my neighbor asked me if I could help her.  She had washed her car and had some type of Scotch-Brite pad in her wash bucket.  She cleaned the hood and one side of the roof & the car before realizing  it!  It seemed like a great challenge.
 
I did a strip wash with Car Wash Shampoo with 2 oz. of APC added in.  Then clayed the hood and leading edges. 
 
So this is what we are looking at:
 
The hood:
  CorollaMAR22101_zpsa909a948.jpg
 
And a closer shot

CorollaMAR22105_zps94b56be0.jpg

 

I tried several different pad and polish combinations, but the winner was Menzerna FG400 and an Adam's MF pad.  Adam's PCP and a MF pad did ok, but something more aggressive was needed - it took three passes with FG400 on the hood to get it looking better.  I followed that up with PFP on a white foam pad and got the shine back.  

For the tight area on the door area between the window and the bottom of the door handle I did one pass with the 4" MF pads .  Then switched back and just did 2 passes on the doors and roof, since they are not as visible as the hood,  I did one pass on the trunk lid to take care of the regular 'wear and tear'.  To finish I did one pass of PFP on a white pad to the whole of the car.

 

Under the halogen lights the scratches were visible at the right angles, but they looked much better.  When I brought the car out into sun the next morning, they were very difficult to find.  

 

I topped it with a sealant, and gave her a mesh net bug sponge to use next time!  

 

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