mc2hill

To make the foam gun even easier to use I pre-mixed my foam gun solution in a gallon container.  It is mixed at 6 oz. Adam's Car Wash Shampoo to 32 oz. of water.  Just pour the solution in the foam gun  and you are ready to go.  If you want a heavier mixture, just add a little more Shampoo to the foam gun.
 

My client has been asked to bring his car to be the featured car at the duPont Registry Live Aeroport Reception on Friday night, before the Amelia Island Concour's d'Elegance on Sunday.  Needless to say, he is super stoked!
 
We have not touched it since a car show in early November.  It has been in his garage, covered most of the time, except when he is tweaking it.  He did have it out a few weeks ago for a 'thank you' party for all the folks that worked on the car.
 

 

 
 
This car does not look that big, but it takes a looong time to detail.  
 
I started with the wheels:  They took an hour each to clean the first time, but only 30 minutes each this time!  I cleaned them with Rinseless Wash, mixed a little bit heavier than recommended, and a Utility Towel.  24" tires, 12 spokes, 4 sides to each spoke, and 2 sides to each tire.  I dried them with a Waterless Wash towel, and finished them off with BG.

 
Then I started on the frame, which is the whole car...it is powder-coated gloss black, and looks fantastic.  When the car was being built, all the holes were filled, and it was smoothed to a glass-like smoothness.  The powder-coaters said it was the best work they had seen and done.  I washed it with the same dilution of Rinesless Wash, and a Borderless Blue towel, and dried with the Waterless Wash towel.  Then I applied BG to the whole thing.  
I used Detailing Swabs and popsicle sticks around MF towels to get into all the crevasses on the frame and in & around the hardware on the car.

 

 
Finally on to the paint.  Again Rinesless Wash and a Borderless Blue towel, and dried with the Waterless Wash towel.  There was some slight marring, so I used PCP with a 5" version of the white Adam's pad.  There was one scratch that did not come out with a single section pass, so I went at it for 2 more passes instead of going to a more aggressive polish/pad combo to make it look mirror-like.
 


 
I wiped it down with Revive to clean the paint, then appilled BG, and topped it with Americana.  

 
Sorry no pictures of the whole car, maybe after this show. 
 
Off to the show on Friday.  A quick wash when we get their should be all the is needed.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I always wondered what it would be like to detail a classic vehicle like this.  Enjoy the show and please share some pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Very cool Miike!  Enjoy the Concours.   One of the best shows in the country...

My client has been asked to bring his car to be the featured car at the duPont Registry Live Aeroport Reception on Friday night, before the Amelia Island Concour's d'Elegance on Sunday.  Needless to say, he is super stoked!
 
We have not touched it since a car show in early November.  It has been in his garage, covered most of the time, except when he is tweaking it.  He did have it out a few weeks ago for a 'thank you' party for all the folks that worked on the car.
 

 

 
 
This car does not look that big, but it takes a looong time to detail.  
 
I started with the wheels:  They took an hour each to clean the first time, but only 30 minutes each this time!  I cleaned them with Rinseless Wash, mixed a little bit heavier than recommended, and a Utility Towel.  24" tires, 12 spokes, 4 sides to each spoke, and 2 sides to each tire.  I dried them with a Waterless Wash towel, and finished them off with BG.

 
Then I started on the frame, which is the whole car...it is powder-coated gloss black, and looks fantastic.  When the car was being built, all the holes were filled, and it was smoothed to a glass-like smoothness.  The powder-coaters said it was the best work they had seen and done.  I washed it with the same dilution of Rinesless Wash, and a Borderless Blue towel, and dried with the Waterless Wash towel.  Then I applied BG to the whole thing.  
I used Detailing Swabs and popsicle sticks around MF towels to get into all the crevasses on the frame and in & around the hardware on the car.

 

 
Finally on to the paint.  Again Rinesless Wash and a Borderless Blue towel, and dried with the Waterless Wash towel.  There was some slight marring, so I used PCP with a 5" version of the white Adam's pad.  There was one scratch that did not come out with a single section pass, so I went at it for 2 more passes instead of going to a more aggressive polish/pad combo to make it look mirror-like.
 


 
I wiped it down with Revive to clean the paint, then appilled BG, and topped it with Americana.  

 
Sorry no pictures of the whole car, maybe after this show. 
 
Off to the show on Friday.  A quick wash when we get their should be all the is needed.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

My client has been asked to bring his car to be the featured car at the duPont Registry Live Aeroport Reception on Friday night, before the Amelia Island Concour's d'Elegance on Sunday.  Needless to say, he is super stoked!
 
We have not touched it since a car show in early November.  It has been in his garage, covered most of the time, except when he is tweaking it.  He did have it out a few weeks ago for a 'thank you' party for all the folks that worked on the car.
 

 

 
 
This car does not look that big, but it takes a looong time to detail.  
 
I started with the wheels:  They took an hour each to clean the first time, but only 30 minutes each this time!  I cleaned them with Rinseless Wash, mixed a little bit heavier than recommended, and a Utility Towel.  24" tires, 12 spokes, 4 sides to each spoke, and 2 sides to each tire.  I dried them with a Waterless Wash towel, and finished them off with BG.

 
Then I started on the frame, which is the whole car...it is powder-coated gloss black, and looks fantastic.  When the car was being built, all the holes were filled, and it was smoothed to a glass-like smoothness.  The powder-coaters said it was the best work they had seen and done.  I washed it with the same dilution of Rinesless Wash, and a Borderless Blue towel, and dried with the Waterless Wash towel.  Then I applied BG to the whole thing.  
I used Detailing Swabs and popsicle sticks around MF towels to get into all the crevasses on the frame and in & around the hardware on the car.

 

 
Finally on to the paint.  Again Rinesless Wash and a Borderless Blue towel, and dried with the Waterless Wash towel.  There was some slight marring, so I used PCP with a 5" version of the white Adam's pad.  There was one scratch that did not come out with a single section pass, so I went at it for 2 more passes instead of going to a more aggressive polish/pad combo to make it look mirror-like.
 


 
I wiped it down with Revive to clean the paint, then appilled BG, and topped it with Americana.  

 
Sorry no pictures of the whole car, maybe after this show. 
 
Off to the show on Friday.  A quick wash when we get their should be all the is needed.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Had a great time at Shelby American on Friday, 6 Mar, to attend part of Shelby Vegas Bash 2015 and pickup a friend's Super Snake. (I appreciated him letting me tag along.)
 
Really enjoyed a behind-the-scenes tour from Shelby staff members Ralph Hengelhaupt and Tim Pittsenbarger. There was no shortage of great cars or horsepower!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Car is fully done!!! I made a thread in the testimonials, I'll put up a couple teasers here
 
 
Starting the process

 
The end result:
 

Hi Brad - welcome to the forum. You are gonna have the paint on that truck looking 'paint-booth-wet' in no time.
You did many things right here: Norton Ice is a very highly regarded, commercial product that you will see in body shops. Same goes for the Dewalt Rotary - commercial grade body-shop tool. You didn't do anything wrong by identifying and gravitating toward the professional-grade products. Hey, if the full time pros at the local body shop use it, it makes total sense to say 'this myst be the stuff to use.' You also obviously spent a TON of time rasslin' that heavy torque monster rotary around a full size pickup WITH a flourescent light. That means you are really into this and made a substantial investment of hours, sweat, and probably a sore back the next day.
 
The Rotary polisher is a bear. I have a neighbor who is an artist with thse things. I offered to help him detail his Black Escalade a few summers ago and watched him gingerly 'finesse' the paint with this monster rotary. The paint on that escalade looked spray-booth-wet when he was done. He used the 3M Light Cut Compound, Swirl Remover, and Ultra-Fina with the color-matched 3-M Pads. He then 'coached' me through my own vehicle with the rotary one panel at a time.
 
It takes hours and hours of practice to get it right and one little hiccup can be disasterous. I offered to detail my folks Cadillac after getting my own rotary, pads and polisher. All went well til I got to the rear plastic bumper. I burned thru the paint and ended up treating my folks to an all-expense paid trip to the dealership body shop for a strip and re-spray of the bumper. The manager was SO cool about it. He knew how bad I felt and said 'there isn't one tech in this shop who hasn't done the exact same thing at least once if not twice.' He said any time a car commes in for a full re-paint, they assign the 2 newest body guys the job of full polish and detail on the existing paint before it gets stripped. That's how they learn and improve.
 
SO - I think you need a nice Dual Action (DA) polisher like the Porter Cable, the current iteration of Griot's polisher, or even the new Rupes. There is no direct conection between the pad and the motor with these units. You can literally grab ahold of the pad while its running (though not 'recommended') to stop the movement. This gives you a HUGE margin of safety when polishing. That doesn't mean you don't need to be careful, you just have a far wider safety margin while experimenting with different speeds, pads, products, etc. And thats really all this is, trial and error.
 
The FLEX is a direct drive like the DeWalt Rotary, BUT the post that the pad attaches to moves as it spins so it is a true 'dual action' machine. The direct drive gives you considerably more 'power' for correction, but at the cost of a lil' less 'safety margin' since it is constantly spinning as it moves around.
 
The cool thing about the 3-M polishes and Adam's Polishes is that they all have a specified 'cut' as opposed to the Norton Liquid Ice which is a single stage polish (realitively heavy cut) that is 'controlled' by the coarseness or softness of the pad and the speed of the polisher. Also, Norton's is a 'diminishing' polish in that it is supposed to break down into finer and finer polish as it is worked. So if you get a panel almost perferct, but need a touch more polish, you are adding full cut polish to a panel that has already beed worked, potentially introducing more of the very same swirls and holograms that you just struggled to correct. That's why the Norton/DeWalt combo is SO hard to get 'right' - it isn't just a matter of physical 'technique' with the tool - its also knowing exactly what speed to use with each pad for precisely how long as the cut of the product diminishes. You can avoid this learning curve with dedicated polishes and pads like Adams and a DA machine or maybe the FLEX.
 
Don't feel bad and don't get discouraged. Every near perfect car you see at a car show is the result of countless less-impressive results and even a few 'oops' moments along the way. Order either the PC kit or the Flex kit from Adams, watch all the tutorial vids, and get out there and have some FUN! Too bad we don't live closer, I am just heading out to the the spring 'Spa Day' treatment on the wife's BLACK SUV that gets all the slop duty during the winter months. You could bring that truck over and we would make a day of it.

I'll use this thread to post pictures and progress if my CTS-V Wagon.
 
So far the car had only been lowered and windows tinted. I started getting the itch to change a few things.
 
As always I start with a wash.
 
 

 
 
 
I started with pulling the bumper to get access to the headlights.
 

 
The headlights went to the oven to be separated. After disassembly I had access to the orange marker which was painted black. I will also be upgrading to LED daytime running lights.
 


 
While the bumper was off I was lucky to get a smoking deal on some ho fast parts.
Upper pulley, larger heat exchanger and dual oil catch cans.
 

 
The install is all still in work. I also picked up a ZL1 supercharger lid to replace the stock ugly one. It will add better cooling for the supercharger as well.
 

 
I had it milled to clear my hood the powder coated a matte textured red.
 

 
I'm still waiting on parts and should it mostly wrapped up next week.

Excellent write-up Dylan!
 
One additional tip is to make sure your washing machine and dryer are clean, so no cross-contamination occurs.  Before washing your MF towels, run a clean-cycle on the washer with some distilled white vinegar to break down the build-up of detergents and fabric softeners inside the machine.  Since MFR&B is a stronger detergent than regular laundry soap, it will break down the build-up in the washer and mix it into your load of MF towels, unless you clean the washer first.  The dryer can contain contaminants from other loads, such as rags, rugs or even worse, clothes with GLITTER!.  A quick vacuum of the dryer along with a wipe-down can prevent your clean MF towels from be contaminated with stuff that can cause damage when used on your paint.

A quick back story:  My brother in law Frank is the singer for "The Streetlife Serenaders", an acoustic Billy Joel tribute band.  I turned Frank on to Adam's products a few years ago, and help him out every summer when he does his paint correction.  Two weekends ago he was playing at Ale Mary's in Scranton.  I go to every show and he threw out a little surprise Adam's tribute in their rendition of Movin' Out (Anthony's Song). 
 
The sound quality is horrible because the place was packed, so you hear a lot of "atmosphere".  I think this was recorded on my sister's phone as well, so it totally doesn't do them justice.  Here's the clip on youtube for anyone interested:
 

 
If you want to skip to the tribute, it's from about 2:00 - 2:12.  And for those that want to know exactly what it is, the line was supposed to be "at least he can polish the fenders".  Instead he sang, "at least Shawn can Adam's the fenders". 
 
Shameless plug:  if you like Billy Joel and are in the Scranton area, they are playing at Dooley's Pub & Eatery this Saturday (3/7).  Even though I'm just south of Baltimore, MD - I'll be there.    Check out their page: 
 
http://www.facebook.com/streetlifeserenaders

To make the foam gun even easier to use I pre-mixed my foam gun solution in a gallon container.  It is mixed at 6 oz. Adam's Car Wash Shampoo to 32 oz. of water.  Just pour the solution in the foam gun  and you are ready to go.  If you want a heavier mixture, just add a little more Shampoo to the foam gun.
 

To make the foam gun even easier to use I pre-mixed my foam gun solution in a gallon container.  It is mixed at 6 oz. Adam's Car Wash Shampoo to 32 oz. of water.  Just pour the solution in the foam gun  and you are ready to go.  If you want a heavier mixture, just add a little more Shampoo to the foam gun.
 

I wish! Would be nice splitting the car up and you could show me some pointers. I'll wake up tomorrow early and start the steps. I'll get to see how the flex compares to a PC too. 
 
You'll get to see how I did in a few weeks!

Opposite version for me - I take my vehicles to an independent garage.  The owner and I have talked a few times about ME being the 'on call' detailer for his clients.  

To make the foam gun even easier to use I pre-mixed my foam gun solution in a gallon container.  It is mixed at 6 oz. Adam's Car Wash Shampoo to 32 oz. of water.  Just pour the solution in the foam gun  and you are ready to go.  If you want a heavier mixture, just add a little more Shampoo to the foam gun.
 

I forgot to post this.  I was bored on saturday and cleaned up the exhaust tips.  Non Adams product used. 
 
Driver Side
 

 
Passenger Side
 

Well…. The frame is sold, but in great hands! With Porterbuilt parts being in demand right now(12 weeks out) and knowing the frame was just going to collect dust in the garage for a while, I put it online to see if I get a bite. I did from a builder out of Miami(juankybuilt if ya'll have Instagram). He is building a pretty badass C10 now and lots of builds in the past. He asked if I could deliver to Miami and me being tired of cold weather, I loaded it on the truck and headed out! 
 

 
This is a build he is working on and a feature he had in the past..

 
 
So I figured while I was down there, might as well check off a bucket list item… Drive to Key West! That morning I dropped off the frame and headed South. Well it ended up being a lot longer drive than I thought, 150 something miles down a 2-lane road doing an average of 40mph take a lot out of you. Not to mention the town of Key West is not designed for full size crew cab trucks pulling a 20ft trailer!! But none the less, I drove by the buoy, took in the views and headed back North. It ended up being a 2,156 mile trip I did in 3 days with 45hrs of seat time. 
 

 

Well guys, she's home!!! It's been a hard 9 weeks waiting for this car... Finally in my drive way!!!
 

Very cool to see some Aussie muscle thrown in there too!  Thanks for sharing Joseph.

To make the foam gun even easier to use I pre-mixed my foam gun solution in a gallon container.  It is mixed at 6 oz. Adam's Car Wash Shampoo to 32 oz. of water.  Just pour the solution in the foam gun  and you are ready to go.  If you want a heavier mixture, just add a little more Shampoo.
 

These throwback bottles were too good to go into a cabinet in the garage, so I gathered up a few items and created....
 
A Shrine unto the Shine
 

 

 

Just to chime in about using the bucket with the Gamma Seal lid.  I use it sit on while polishing, etc. and, when I am mobile, I put my used pads in them to soak on the way home.

I would do it opposite.
 
Sealant on bottom, Meg's quick wax on top as needed to use it up.