Qship5
02-18-2010, 11:20 PM
So we had a Black Acura NSX dropped off the other day for a full detail. The car is a 2002 and looked like it had not been detailed since new. It arrived pretty dirty with lots or tar, bird dirt and general crud on it.
First step was to wash the wheels using P21s Gel Wheel Cleaner (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/p2wheelclean.html) and our trusty Daytona Wheel Brush (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/ezdebrfca.html) as well as a microfiber mitt. The tires were cleaned with Groits Rubber Cleaner (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/griots-rubber-cleaner.html) and then dressed with Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/piblontigel.html). The wheel well liners were cleaned with a dedicated brush and bucket using a mixture of rubber cleaner and water.
The engine bay was really dirty and needed a thorough cleaning. I washed it down with DI water and sprayed it with P21s Total Auto Wash (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/p2totautwas.html). After letting the P21s TAW soak in a little I used a small brush to aggitate the dirty areas and then rinsed the whole engine bay with DI water. Once dried, the engine bay was cleaned further by hand for any greasy areas and finally detailed with some Chemical Guys Fade to Black
Once the engine was clean, it was time to do the same thing to the front bay where the radiator, power steering resevior, etc are located.
Now it was finally time to wash the car itself. I rinsed the car off and then soaked it with a foam gun using DP Extreme Foam Soap (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/foam-gun-soap.html). I also loaded up my wash and rinse buckets with water and some Poor Boys Super Slick and Suds (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/pbss32.html). The car was then washed off using a microfiber mitt following the 2 bucket method. Once washed, the car was rinsed with DI water.
Once dry, it was time to claybar the entire car to remove any embedded contaminents on the surface of the paint. I used Speed Shine (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/griots-speed-shine-detailer.html) as a clay lubricant and proceeded to clean the entire car with the clay bar.
Now that the car was clean it was time to evaluate the paint condition. It quickly became obvious that the paint was in bad shape. It was filled with major swirls, scratches, etching spots and stains on pretty much every body panel. I knew this was going to be a challenge to correct! After looking over the paint and taking some measurements I decided to tackle this using a combination of several polishes/compounds and pads.
I used Meguiars 105 Compound (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/meguiars-mirror-glaze-105-ultra-cut-compound.html) with both purple and yellow pads for the real heavy correction and also Menzerna Super Intensive Polish (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/menzerna-super-intensive-polish.html) with Yellow or Oragnge pads for the moderate corrections. Paint correction took about 12 - 13 hours. Once I was satisfied with the correction, the entire car was polished with Menzerna Super Finish Polish (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/menzerna-nano-polish-po-106-fa-finishing-polish.html) on a white pad to bring up the gloss and remove any haze from the heavier compounding/polishing. This step took about 3 more hours and left the black paint looking awesome. I also polished all the door jambs, sills, etc in order to restore them to like new condition.
Once the polishing was complete it was time to apply some protection. I chose P21s Concours Carnauba Wax (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/p2concarwax.html) for this vehicle as it really looks great on black cars. (This wax is a great value too as it compares favorably with waxes costing up to three times as much.) The car was waxed by hand and buffed with microfiber towels.
Next up was all the little details like cleaning and polishing the exhaust tips, cleaning the headlight lenses, cleaning all the rubber trim and weatherstipping, etc. The weatherstripping was really dirty on this car so I cleaned it with a damp rag to remove the heavy stuff, then followed that with Groits Rubber Cleaner (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/griots-rubber-cleaner.html) and finally dressed them with Gummi Pfledge (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/1z-einszett-rubber-care-stick.html).
Next up was the interior...
I first dusted and vacuumed the entire interior. After vacuuming, it was clear that the mats needed to be shampooed. I pulled them out and gave them a thorough shampoo deep cleaning. All the leather was cleaned using either Lexol Leather Cleaner (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/lexsprayleat.html) or Leatherique Pristine Clean (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/leprcl.html). In a number off areas, I had to gently aggitate the cleaner with a brush to get the leather really clean. After cleaning, the leather was conditioned with Lexol Leather Conditioner (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/lexsprayleat1.html). All interior plastic was cleaned with Einzett Cockpit Premuim (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/1z-einzett-cockpit-premium.html) using a microfiber towel.
In addition to the detailing, the customer requested that we look into a musty odor in the trunk area, so we opend this up and quickly discovered that water had gotten into the trunk area. I removed all the interior liner panels, carpet, etc and let them sit out to dry. I dried up any remaining water from the trunk itself and finally used some deodorizer to get rid of the smell. The end result is a dry, clean trunk with no odor. The cause of the problem was clogged drainage holes in the sill around the trunk and engine area due to leaves, twigs, acorns, etc that were lodged in there. The car had a lot of this type of debris in pretty much every nook and crannie that I mad sure to remove and clean up.
In the end, I think I spent about 23 - 24 hours in total on this car. The end result is a car that went from fair condition at best to truly stunning! There are still some rock chips and one or two deep scratches that couldn't be fully corrected, but the transformation was truly night and day.
Pictures to follow...
First step was to wash the wheels using P21s Gel Wheel Cleaner (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/p2wheelclean.html) and our trusty Daytona Wheel Brush (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/ezdebrfca.html) as well as a microfiber mitt. The tires were cleaned with Groits Rubber Cleaner (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/griots-rubber-cleaner.html) and then dressed with Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/piblontigel.html). The wheel well liners were cleaned with a dedicated brush and bucket using a mixture of rubber cleaner and water.
The engine bay was really dirty and needed a thorough cleaning. I washed it down with DI water and sprayed it with P21s Total Auto Wash (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/p2totautwas.html). After letting the P21s TAW soak in a little I used a small brush to aggitate the dirty areas and then rinsed the whole engine bay with DI water. Once dried, the engine bay was cleaned further by hand for any greasy areas and finally detailed with some Chemical Guys Fade to Black
Once the engine was clean, it was time to do the same thing to the front bay where the radiator, power steering resevior, etc are located.
Now it was finally time to wash the car itself. I rinsed the car off and then soaked it with a foam gun using DP Extreme Foam Soap (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/foam-gun-soap.html). I also loaded up my wash and rinse buckets with water and some Poor Boys Super Slick and Suds (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/pbss32.html). The car was then washed off using a microfiber mitt following the 2 bucket method. Once washed, the car was rinsed with DI water.
Once dry, it was time to claybar the entire car to remove any embedded contaminents on the surface of the paint. I used Speed Shine (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/griots-speed-shine-detailer.html) as a clay lubricant and proceeded to clean the entire car with the clay bar.
Now that the car was clean it was time to evaluate the paint condition. It quickly became obvious that the paint was in bad shape. It was filled with major swirls, scratches, etching spots and stains on pretty much every body panel. I knew this was going to be a challenge to correct! After looking over the paint and taking some measurements I decided to tackle this using a combination of several polishes/compounds and pads.
I used Meguiars 105 Compound (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/meguiars-mirror-glaze-105-ultra-cut-compound.html) with both purple and yellow pads for the real heavy correction and also Menzerna Super Intensive Polish (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/menzerna-super-intensive-polish.html) with Yellow or Oragnge pads for the moderate corrections. Paint correction took about 12 - 13 hours. Once I was satisfied with the correction, the entire car was polished with Menzerna Super Finish Polish (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/menzerna-nano-polish-po-106-fa-finishing-polish.html) on a white pad to bring up the gloss and remove any haze from the heavier compounding/polishing. This step took about 3 more hours and left the black paint looking awesome. I also polished all the door jambs, sills, etc in order to restore them to like new condition.
Once the polishing was complete it was time to apply some protection. I chose P21s Concours Carnauba Wax (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/p2concarwax.html) for this vehicle as it really looks great on black cars. (This wax is a great value too as it compares favorably with waxes costing up to three times as much.) The car was waxed by hand and buffed with microfiber towels.
Next up was all the little details like cleaning and polishing the exhaust tips, cleaning the headlight lenses, cleaning all the rubber trim and weatherstipping, etc. The weatherstripping was really dirty on this car so I cleaned it with a damp rag to remove the heavy stuff, then followed that with Groits Rubber Cleaner (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/griots-rubber-cleaner.html) and finally dressed them with Gummi Pfledge (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/1z-einszett-rubber-care-stick.html).
Next up was the interior...
I first dusted and vacuumed the entire interior. After vacuuming, it was clear that the mats needed to be shampooed. I pulled them out and gave them a thorough shampoo deep cleaning. All the leather was cleaned using either Lexol Leather Cleaner (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/lexsprayleat.html) or Leatherique Pristine Clean (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/leprcl.html). In a number off areas, I had to gently aggitate the cleaner with a brush to get the leather really clean. After cleaning, the leather was conditioned with Lexol Leather Conditioner (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/lexsprayleat1.html). All interior plastic was cleaned with Einzett Cockpit Premuim (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3596920-10509474?url=http://www.autogeek.net/1z-einzett-cockpit-premium.html) using a microfiber towel.
In addition to the detailing, the customer requested that we look into a musty odor in the trunk area, so we opend this up and quickly discovered that water had gotten into the trunk area. I removed all the interior liner panels, carpet, etc and let them sit out to dry. I dried up any remaining water from the trunk itself and finally used some deodorizer to get rid of the smell. The end result is a dry, clean trunk with no odor. The cause of the problem was clogged drainage holes in the sill around the trunk and engine area due to leaves, twigs, acorns, etc that were lodged in there. The car had a lot of this type of debris in pretty much every nook and crannie that I mad sure to remove and clean up.
In the end, I think I spent about 23 - 24 hours in total on this car. The end result is a car that went from fair condition at best to truly stunning! There are still some rock chips and one or two deep scratches that couldn't be fully corrected, but the transformation was truly night and day.
Pictures to follow...