Let me start off by saying: I am not a professional, I will freely admit to making mistakes or not doing things "by the book".
This car belongs to my aunt, she bought it brand new in 2003 and it currently has 19,000 miles on it. The car has sat outside for the past couple of years and went to complete shit. I decided to take on this detailing project in the middle of winter to push the envelope of what I've restored and see if I can get this looking like a 19k mile car again.
This thread will have some progression as it's going to take me multiple days and I just ordered a new round of supplies from autogeek as I am low.
I'm currently using a PC 7424XP + M105 / M205. It's providing good results but honestly I think I'll need something a bit more aggressive, more on that later.
Here is an overview of how I got the car
This is what I've done so far:
Exterior: 2 bucket wash, foam lance, griots garage soap, iron-x on wheels and paint around wheels
Interior: Vacuum, simple green + interior brush
Engine: Sonax engine cleaner + soft bristle brush for plastic
It's coming along so far, and I realize most people aren't going to do an interior detail with simple green but this car was so stained and dirty I had to use something strong to get the stains out. It brought the seats back to a nice matte finish, I do intend on treating this with real leather products soon.
I also had a slightly used headlight sanding kit kicking around which I put to good use. I'd like to pop these out entirely one day and sand them with a new kit.
The hood had a ton of dirt on the sides, 90% of it is off. I figure I can claybar the last of it off once I have some spare clay that I won't use on the paint again.
I went ahead and started with the hood as IMO it was the biggest eyesore. Even after washing it looked like the paint was starting to oxidize. I used a 100G claybar on the hood and to my surprise it didn't come out nearly as dirty as I had expected. I was able to clay some stains out of the hood which is great, but I was expecting the thing to turn from white to brown since this car has never been clayed before.
Dirt stains on the hood
Not a great photo, but the bottom half is after clay, top is untouched
One thing I am noticing, the hood seems to have a brown tint to it compared to the fenders, I honestly think it's still dirt stained. This is more of why I figured I need to try something stronger than M105 on an orange pad with a PC7424XP. I ordered some yellow pads to try and see if that has any change. I'm not entirely sure how much I can do only using a PC7424XP and I have yet to step up to a flex. Might be something I try in the future when it's warmer out.
So if anyone wants to throw suggestions for methods or product my way, feel free. This is all a learning curve for me, I've never let any of my cars get near this bad. I am open to suggestions on products that work as well if not better as M105/M205 but are easier to buff off the car as well. I think buffing M105 off the car is the entire reason I hate doing paint correction.
This car belongs to my aunt, she bought it brand new in 2003 and it currently has 19,000 miles on it. The car has sat outside for the past couple of years and went to complete shit. I decided to take on this detailing project in the middle of winter to push the envelope of what I've restored and see if I can get this looking like a 19k mile car again.
This thread will have some progression as it's going to take me multiple days and I just ordered a new round of supplies from autogeek as I am low.
I'm currently using a PC 7424XP + M105 / M205. It's providing good results but honestly I think I'll need something a bit more aggressive, more on that later.
Here is an overview of how I got the car
This is what I've done so far:
Exterior: 2 bucket wash, foam lance, griots garage soap, iron-x on wheels and paint around wheels
Interior: Vacuum, simple green + interior brush
Engine: Sonax engine cleaner + soft bristle brush for plastic
It's coming along so far, and I realize most people aren't going to do an interior detail with simple green but this car was so stained and dirty I had to use something strong to get the stains out. It brought the seats back to a nice matte finish, I do intend on treating this with real leather products soon.
I also had a slightly used headlight sanding kit kicking around which I put to good use. I'd like to pop these out entirely one day and sand them with a new kit.
The hood had a ton of dirt on the sides, 90% of it is off. I figure I can claybar the last of it off once I have some spare clay that I won't use on the paint again.
I went ahead and started with the hood as IMO it was the biggest eyesore. Even after washing it looked like the paint was starting to oxidize. I used a 100G claybar on the hood and to my surprise it didn't come out nearly as dirty as I had expected. I was able to clay some stains out of the hood which is great, but I was expecting the thing to turn from white to brown since this car has never been clayed before.
Dirt stains on the hood
Not a great photo, but the bottom half is after clay, top is untouched
One thing I am noticing, the hood seems to have a brown tint to it compared to the fenders, I honestly think it's still dirt stained. This is more of why I figured I need to try something stronger than M105 on an orange pad with a PC7424XP. I ordered some yellow pads to try and see if that has any change. I'm not entirely sure how much I can do only using a PC7424XP and I have yet to step up to a flex. Might be something I try in the future when it's warmer out.
So if anyone wants to throw suggestions for methods or product my way, feel free. This is all a learning curve for me, I've never let any of my cars get near this bad. I am open to suggestions on products that work as well if not better as M105/M205 but are easier to buff off the car as well. I think buffing M105 off the car is the entire reason I hate doing paint correction.
