Hey there Guys

It’s been a while since I posted anything anywhere at all  lately about car detailing but I did this job today which I was  quite impressed with that I had to post some of the results  that came from it. I was down at my motor trimmers to pick  up the wife’s run around heap after having the hood lining replaced and couldn’t help but notice the trimmers  workhorse looking a little worse for ware. Nothing special, just a run around for materials and going  to work. Upon discussion with my friend he suggested I just  give it a once over and just brighten up a bit. I said sure no  problem. So I took the car home and couldn’t wait to get  started on this little project. Once I inspected this car under lighting I quickly discovered  it was generally a car that was abused by coffee car  washes judging from the myriad of scratches in the paint work but, the scratches weren’t the problem. Typical fading, dulling, loads of surface webbing and stains.  This was TOOOO easy and I new the results were gonna  be stunning once completed. After all, paint correction was not on the agenda. It was just really a paint  clean. A once over, so I quickly conjured a combination  using old school Meguairs and Super Resin Polish.

I did do two passes just to make the guy happy. Besides, I wanted to see what this polishing combination could achieve. Initially starting out, this was some of the images before any polishing The two polishes involved were pretty simple considering there was no real paint correction involved. Good  old Meguiars swirl free polish to get rid of the fade and hairline swirls followed by Autoglym Super Resin  Polish to really fine down the finish.The paint fade on Micks car wasn’t really that bad from a car detailing effort so I knew it wouldn’t need all that much to remove the fade together with a lot of swirl marks and other light scratches. This ute is only ever a  workhorse so Mick wasn’t really that interested in levels of paint correction or turning it into a glass mirror with  pass after pass. Check out some of these before shots of this commodore that looked somewhat dreary

This is generally what happens  when you let go of your car’s  appearance and generally don’t  care for your car paint. Although  this car didn’t need any real or  serious paint correction, when  paint gets to this stage and is  left to proceed any further, it  quickly goes from looking like a  flat fade to looking like a  deteriorated fade. When it gets  to the deterioration level, it’s too  late and the only option left is to  respray the panel or car itself.  Luckily for Mick it wasn’t too late

The purpose of using Meguiars Swirl free polish was to eliminate all the swirling and dead paint that was hiding that killer shine  that was underneath all that crap. Little did Mick know what was  coming or what his ute really looked like under all that paint  fade. Paint fade usually isn’t an issue unless you turn a blind  eye to it and allow it to continue to the point where the paint starts to deteriorate. No amount of car detailing or paint  correction will save it after that. A respray will be in order.This initially wasn’t suppose to be any major paint correction procedure as stated before but merely a clean up. I didn’t even clay bar the surface as  there wasn’t any real contaminants or bad textures so I took to the paint straight with the swirl free polishing compound and it worked an absolute treat.  Looking at the pad here, you can see clearly that there is loads of dead paint on the paid. After any polishing the usual method is to apply a sealer but in this case what I was trying to achieve was the strongest possible gloss so I hit it a second time ( even though I wasn’t suppose to ) with Super resin polish. Now Super resin polish really isn’t what I call a polish in its own right but more like  a shining polish. It has excellent properties as far as putting a strong gloss on paint surfaces from a polishing perspective. In this case however I did not buff right off but let it set on the paint surface to give some sealing ability. For the stay at home guy who likes to polish his own car, this is a good polish to use if you’ve got a decent enough surface. With your general car detailing, apply this polish on the outside with an orbital buff, let it set for about half hour and then wipe off and you should find a nice glossy finish underneath but, if you want to do it the proper way, applying a proper paint sealer or wax is the right way to go. It must also be taken into consideration that Super Resin Polish is a filler so if you have swirls that you want to remove, you will have to use a swirl remover, not a filler like Super Resin Polish. I removed the swirls off this car and used SRP for its glossing properties which worked great.

After an easy no  struggle three to fours  of removing paint fade  and swirl marks from  bad bloody washing  from the surface and  doing all the end  detailing this is the  result that has been  produced. Some of the  images are inside the  workshop but where  the results really show  up is outside in real light. One would be  hard pressed to  believe all this bright  deep red paint would  actually be sitting  underneath all that  dead paint fade and  swirls.

At the end of the day, there are a myriad of car polishing products that you could use that would achieve this very same result. I myself use  Meguiars and Autoglym. That’s not to say that other quality polishing products wouldn’t achieve the same. They definitely would. These are just  two. However, I do stress that you use quality car polishing products, regardless of the brand as long as it is decent products. Poor quality car  polishing products will actually inflict damage than do any good. I used this combination because I was trying to achieve as much as possible from the paint given the condition to begin with wasn’t that bad. So  the polishing combination was easy and very effective. I got a strong deep rich shine with a quality gloss by using simple products and applied  with a DA buff

On recent conversations with good Ol Joel from Zas, I discussed with him what a good one pass product would have been that could be used with a Flex or even a general DA for the purposes of removing swirling, webbing or even marring from other compounds. Not using fillers. Clearly removing surface damage. Now remember, this was just for one pass. Joel was quick to recommend Optimum products as for my requirements. Never used these products before but without getting into all the details here, I think we all understand the basics. I never really took any process photos of this product because I had no intentions of posting anything about it. I now greatly regret this because it really is a fantastic product. I initially started with a CCS pad ( white pad ) and proceeded to commence over the Senator that I was working on. Now, I have very much been a rotary man pretty much all my life and have seen immense results using these complex machines. I have used DA plenty of times but with various conversations here and there and strong recommendations from other detailers in this industry of ours, I went and eagerly purchased the new Flex DA.

As stated earlier, having started with the new CCS pad ( white ) using the Flex and optimum polish two, I put this combination to the test. The Flex I have to admit is one wicked machine and really should stay strictly in Pro hands in my opinion anyway. It will definitely burn paint if ill abused by wrong hands. A lot of GRUNT for a DA. On initial inspection after doing one pass with the Optimum and the Flex, I have to admit it, it didn’t quite cut out as much as I would have liked. Obviously if the product has improved the surface remarkably but not quite there, the combination obviously stands to be in the way somewhat. This is obviously a change in speed or Pad requirement. I did not want to change the compound or the machine to further alter the test with this product. The idea is to remove as much damage as possible without inflicting swirl marks or using fillers.
I first initially took the speed of the Flex from 4.5 Straight to max speed to see if there would be an improvement I did notice some further cutting ability but still not quite enough. This tells me that either more speed is needed ( making the Flex not quite speed worthy for cutting damage ) or a change in the pad density or cell structure. When I tested the Flex at max speed using the Optimum compound in warm conditions, this actually stained the paint. Not good. So, to further test this product, I changed the pad and shifted straight to a cutting pad with still the Optimum polish and again reduced the speed to 4.5 from maximum. Results came up immediately just by changing the pad.

I’ve always said that if you have to run a DA at full speed to get cutting ability, then there is clearly something wrong with the combination. I also realise this anyway because when I ran the Flex at full speed with the Optimum cutting compound I discovered the cutting ability of this product ( in hot conditions ) dried up really quick and stained paint instead of cutting. I also find the Flex can be quite a machine to hang onto when using the Optimum products. It really drags because this is a non dusting product or oil based somewhat. Having  said this. Optimum on the other hand is an outstanding product for one pass procedures and definitely will be using this product even further.
The Flex on the other hand will definitely remove serious damage as much as a rotary but find you really need to increase the speed of the  machine to Max to get strong cutting ability ( and not in hot conditions ) because the Flex really warms up fast in hot conditions. it still doesn’t  quite cut serious damage as quickly as a rotary with speed and strong pads. Although you may save time with the rotary, you will inflict swirl  marks which just means you’ll have to do another pass to remove swirling. Catch 22 I suppose.

In our journy og being car detailers there often comes the odd job  that can tend to be somewhat challenging where the old ” tuff stuff ” needs to come out in order to produce the best possible shine  on a car utilising quality car polishes pads and the right machines This Ford XR6 was a typical example of such a little challenge. Absolutely covered in swirls holograms and some rather deep  scratches this had to have at the very least some serious paint  correction just to make it look good.
It’s these detailing jobs however that make car detailing  interesting. This wasn’t car detailing though but more paint  correction. Detailing was not going to fix this. It was actually  detailing using crap products and wool pads being used by a  shonk detailer that caused all this damage to begin with. The idea  here was to remove the swirls, scratches and holograms using the very same tools that put them there……but with technique.

The customer who owned this XR6 was clearly distraught at the onslaught of damage inflicted to his car and rightfully so. Who wouldn’t be ? Judging by the level of  damage here, it appears this car is clearly a victim of  coffee car washes. Not so much by the swirls or the holograms but more by  the un-uniformed depth of scratches in the paint. The  scratches were that severe, some wet sanding was  required It was just too obvious as I’ve seen this sort of damage  hundreds of times before with scratch damage like this and the usual culprits are cafe car washes or even  automated car washes. Many people believe that hand  car washes are better. Not really. Hand car wash staff believe that the rag they use to wash  car wheels, is the same rag they use to wash car paint.

Well, this is the result of that idea. Well obviously the first  thing I wanted to was to get rid of what ever I could without  resulting to wet sanding or any of the harsh cutting  compound stuff, so I started with the roof using some  Optimum compounds. I avoided the cutting compound and went straight to the  polishing compound on a hydropad to see what results I  would get. The results were impressive enough to  continue to the finishing point as that combination was  working quite well.

However this didn’t apply to the whole car. That was too easy. When it came time to remove the swirls, scratches and holograms off the boot and rear wing this required full paint correction with wool buffs. Didn’t want to even waste time trying to use foam pads.
I needed wool pads to rip this stuff out real fast or I was going to be removing scratches all day long as these scratches were somewhat deep. If you look to the image on the right you can clearly see the depth of damage done to the boot of this XR6 The sides of the XR6 were able to be restored using just a hard cutting pad with a pure polish and then finished off with sealer. Although the scratch damage was still severe in these sections, it wasn’t as deep as the horizontal surfaces of the car which obviously always have much harder or heavier pressure applied when washing or carrying out butcherous detailing. The top surfaces always generally see much more wear and tear.  Although I avoided using serious compounds on the sides of the vehicle, it still did take some time to finish off using just a strong polish. I  sometimes winder in cases like this, if you are actually better off just going the extra mile and using cutting compounds to begin with so that  you don’t work as hard.

You get a great deal of satisfaction when customers bring you a car that looks like crap and you take this car and turn it into a glowing and  streaming butterfly that just screams in traffic ” HEY LOOK AT ME ” It’s absolutely incredible what can be achieved when you apply technique,  experience and effort to paintwork the right way.

The next phase of this operation had to be applied to the bonnet of the vehicle. This has turned out to be quite a car detailing process.  Different combos on different panels. The Bonnet however was the worst effected where some wet sanding was required. After having taken  paint measurements bouncing around the 128 microns, I figured I had enough to do the paint correction side of things and get this XR6 out of trouble. The bonnet actually took a considerable amount of time to restore. With loads of scratches,swirls,holograms it was a go slow process to get the front end of this car looking its best. Basically I wet sanded various areas of the bonnet that needed wetsanding in order to remove deeper scratches and started buffing with the wool pad to remove all sanding marks together with Meguiars 205.

Once done, I followed through with Meguiars 105 to remove any marring left behind by the pad and cutting compound. The results of this paint correction procedure were stunning to say the least

Every now and then the odd job comes along that only requires mild paint correction  procedures to restore that once fabulous lustre the said car use to have. It’s also these types  of car details that take little effort and produces some of the best results, similar to the TQ  ute. The majority of cars running around in Sydney are comprised of webbing damage.
Upon inspection the paint surface felt smooth to the touch so the necessity of clay barring  wasn’t really necessary, never the less, the customer didn’t want to spend big money on top  dollar treatments anyway, so I continued straight to the buffing anyway. Being one of those difficult blue colours I really had to drop the lighting to get any good vision of any swirls on the paint work. Scratches were only minor but it wasn’t the deeper scratches  this guy was interested in removing. More or less very many of the webbing marks  Looking at the car from these angles, deep scratches  were only very minimal. Even though I can’t use a  camera for shit, this is the best I could do but, take my  word for it swirling or webbing did require some attention.

Having this level of damage repair on my mind, I immediately realised that a swirl  remover would be all that’s required to reach the desired result of flattening the  surface just nicely to achieve a nice shiny finish. The customer was also going to  apply sealers by his own efforts. It was surprising how difficult it was to see some of  the damage on this car even though there was enough of it. Strong compounds or  pads were not required once I commenced buffing and noticed how easy the  damage was being removed, so I continued with the same process.I merely put to application a polishing pad with swirl removing compounds and continued throughout the entire vehicle. It didn’t take much to  achieve the desired result from this Rex. Even though I have heard of other detailers complain bout the paint posing issues with marring or  being sticky, I have never really encountered this scenario with Subaru’s except for one black liberty which had marring completely all over  the car. That particular car had to be completed once over again with finishing polish to restore the surface and then sealed with sealer. Ceramic coatings for cars today are also some of the best sealers money can buy. While you are here, check out the latest review on Toughseal QFX Ceramic coatings and if you still have questions, talk to us. We are the ceramic coatings Campbelltown specialist

They say that Black is a Bitch to deal with when it comes to polishing as it shows a lot of swirls and scratches which are basically Black is actually one of the best and easiest colours to work with. It clearly teaches you what works and what doesn’t so why run from it when it  can teach you what method works and what doesn’t.  Perfect black and you perfect every colour you’ll ever work with again.
This wasn’t a colour I ran from many years ago but rather a colour I embraced to learn what I know today about paint correction. The  vehicle in question here is a black XR6 Turbo which had apparently been through 5 car washes as the customer stated. What its been  through really is another thing. Many vehicles that come to me are usually the result of some car wash somewhere with repeated use.  Eventually , this takes its toll on paint.
Many car washes also use very cheap products which actually have some form of acidic effect on clear coats which over time eventually breaks down polyurethane coatings. The owner of this car didn’t want to muck around and just went straight for the gizzard in terms of  wanting the best that he could get from what was left of his paint and let me just add, the results were pretty good. The smile from ear to ear is even better. Just look at some of the damage in these images below.

Having posted these photos, I would need to explain that in most instances, photos do not really do before or after shots any real justice. The photos above are of course before shots and the damage in reality was actually far more severe. This is typical of car washes and  most vehicles that come to me are primarily because of issues like this. Naturally after washing down I had to mask up all dangerous  corners as this customer wanted the full hog as far as pads and compounds were concerned so maximum protection is required on  edges.

They say that whatever preparation you put in the beginning, you get  at the end and that is true so to speak so I always take car in the  beginning. The first stage of course was to rip the damage out of the  surfaces with a wool pad. As stated earlier, this customer wanted the  same job which I initially carried out on my own GT.
I had to explain the benefits and dis-benefits to him but once he had a  good understanding he was pretty fine with it so on I continued with  this treatment. I commenced in  using wool pads because quite frankly,nothing cuts nowhere near as fast as wool pads on a rotary.
Although this is a major benefit, it also has its down sides as it adds to  more work if your goal is to refine the end finish as much as possible.  We need to remember that there can not be any swirls or buffer trail at  the end of the process from any buffing equipment and wool pads (  although great for removing damage ) wool pads have a tendency of  doing this so refining the finish with necessary combinations is critical.

I had to take care of the entire vehicle with wool. There was no escaping any serious damage anywhere with lesser strength passes  in order to save material. This car was quite bad pretty much all over and really the only treatment that would have got this customer what he wanted was the top end of treatments. I was so relieved to see the damage just coming off and exposing new paint from underneath. There was also the stench of coffee  car wash products coming from the paint with heat build up from the buff. The initial pass with wool was to some degree quite a  nightmare because of car wash product on the surfaces that was being ripped off. The photos to the right and below just show the result from having used wool alone. I would not recommend anybody reading this post take to their cars with wool pads. If you do, I can guarantee you will be calling me for assistance after your car is riddled with swirl marks, so ” DON’T ” use wool pads on your car. These are strictly for experienced hands. There are other passes which have to follow in order to perfect the finish which is what makes this exercise expensive so always

Swirl marks or buffing trail tends to stand out rather strong on black and you really can’t hide it, especially all the fine hairline  wisps it leaves behind from wool fibers so it really is imperative that to get the best possible finish, it must be followed with what I  like to call a refined finish using a finishing pad. This is really just a measure for removing the thousands of wisps left behind by  the buff. Buffing trail will still be evident which is removed with more passes.
Again, the whole car must be completed exactly the same way. I’ve always said, the less passes you do may obviously save you labour but, the finish will not be as glossy or portray beautiful depth of colour as much as added
passes within reason. Lets not get ridiculous here.
That doesn’t mean we carry out six or seven passes. Effective combinations that work well should not exceed anymore than five passes ( max ) including sealers using a combination of Rotary and orbital  buffers. Different story if you are using orbital buffers alone. Orbital buffers can save a pass or two in time but where they lack is  in speed of cutting. No orbital I’ve seen cuts as fast as a rotary with wool with minimal passes. This car was a total of four including  paint protection. Anymore than 5 passes is obviously an error in paint correction where the combination just simply isn’t working  well enough. Talking about using buffers, My Makitta gave up the ghost after 15 years of buffing. Brushes were completely worn away and this being on a Sunday forced me to buy a makeshift buff from the local hardware purely to get me out of trouble without losing a days work on this XR6. As it takes a few days to have a buff repaired, I completed the entire car with the new Ozito buff which worked surprisingly well and took some punishment

By the end of the third day, the shine was starting to come through with the
ending of the final pass of swirl and buffer trail removal. This is where the fruits of your labour start to shine through after all the hard work of removing  damage. Many car enthusiasts in the pursuit of shine when it comes to  choosing car polishing products often always ask the question of what gets the  best shine. It would probably shock a few people if I was to state that shine  really is a b-product. In most cases when it comes to paint correction, the aim is to not achieve shine  but to rather achieve effective damage removal. The shine follows  automatically after that. Remove damage-you get shine. This is why I say that  shine is a bi-product. Waxes add shine by sealing. Paint correction adds shine  by removing damage. The final pass on this car which was with a finishing pad  and an orbital is what added the best possible shine before any paint  protection
Enjoy some of the images, however sadly the light for the final images was  really poor again so I couldn’t really capture the true colour. Regardless of all  the backbreaking work that goes into perfecting black, there is nothing more  gratifying than seeing a smile from ear to ear on the owners face with the  words ” HOLY CRAP ” being uttered from pure shock in a car’s transformation