With the purchase of my new personal vehicle of course comes the Detailathon shortly thereafter. I think i had possession of the vehicle for about 24 hours before i put almost 12 hours total of work back into it. For a 4 year old car the paint was in excellent condition. With it being of course a silver metallic, to the untrained eye many would say it was in perfect condition. Thankfully under the right lighting, there were SOME defects for me to remove. Mostly light swirls, marring and some holograms. :applause2:

It took me a while at first to get the defects to show up on my Point and Shoot camera. Under natural sunlight, Fluorescent and LED the metallic flakes overpowered the light contrast and just ended up whitening everything out. After a few attempts i was able to get some before condition shots captured to my liking.

Started on the car about about 10AM and finished at about 8:30PM that evening with almost no breaks in between except for some water or a protein bar.







Car was beading up VERY well so whatever dealer prepared sealant/wax was in need of stripping.



So brewed up a strong mix of straight Dawn and CG Citrus and continued with the wash process. All in all in took 3 full wash/rinses in order to strip all the protection.







After everything was cleaned to my standards the car was given a last rinse before being pulled inside. Iron Cut was applied to the entire body of the car. To be honest this is the first time i have used Aquartz Iron Cut and i've gotta say i'm pretty impressed with the stuff. Not only does it show you that it's working but... It even works! Cut's out about 80-95% of the contaminants which mostly need a clay bar to be removed. But it's CRUCIAL to still come by after applying Iron Cut and clay bar the entire vehicle.







Look like the Kool-Aid man stopped by my garage.



As you can see there are still contaminants that it leaves behind which need to be removed before any further work is done to the paint.



After Iron Cut was applied i pulled the car back out to get rinsed off once more than fully dried.

A big thanks goes out to Phil at Detailers Domain for making the best drying towels in the world. You make my job much easier! :applause:



Car was then given a thorough claying. :headbang:



I make sure to open any trunk or overhangs so i can get all the way to the edge of the paint seam and remove as many contaminants as i possibly can.



Tarminator was used on a few small TAR spots on the lower rocker panels and behind the rear wheels. Careful because a big wiff of this stuff WILL get you pretty lightheaded.



Two full IPA wipedowns were performed then everything was taped and prepared for polishing.

Inside the garage with the lights out and only the LED and Halogens on i was finally able to capture the defects on my camera.

Here’s what i had to work with.









Some Holograms



Black B Pillars were pretty hacked up as they are SUPER soft paint, but thankfully they were a dream to correct out.





Rear deck had a heavy concentration of RIDS.



Some 50/50’s of the rear deck.





Rear Deck Finished





The rest of the vehicle was in a very similar condition as the rear deck. With lots of RIDS and some wet sanding marks from previous stone chip repairs. Rest of the vehicle was corrected out in the same fashion as the rear deck.





You can already tell the difference in Clarity from just the compounding step by using the overhead fluorescent lighting. :thumb:



How to prime a MF pad.

Step One: Apply product in such fashion



Step Two: Polish

Step Three:...



Black B Pillars coming out good.

 

50/50’s





Final shots showing the clarity and gloss of the paint now. These were taken after a final wipe down was performed to remove any dust from the polishing steps. There was no LSP on the car in these pics.











LSP was applied and then checked to see if everything was setup using the Wolverine Swipe Method. (W.S.M.)



Door jams sealed as well.



Tire dressing was applied and left to sit for 15 min before being buffed on with an applicator pad.



Now onto the final shots. It was rapidly becoming more like night time as i finished up the car so i hurried to get as many after pictures as possible.


































-Tim

 

"Cleaness" Tim, good job.

 

Thank you for the compliment Bob!

 

Love these kinds of threads! Rep.

 

Top notch work start to finish Tim, all that proper prep and polishing was well worth the time. You know now you have the cleanest TL in the country right, goes without question!