Had a chance to work on this gorgeous Ford GT for a new client here in the Metro Detroit area. It was actually a pleasure to work on and corrected very well. These cars, in case you weren’t aware, were hand painted by Saleen and were hand sanded & polished by them as well too. Paint wasn’t terribly soft; quite manageable actually, but pretty much all of the surface marring was able to be removed with just 2 easy polishing steps. Also has the pleasure of working with my long-time friend and old shop Manager Ted M. He’s a true die hard rotary guy, but after trying this DA thing became an instant believer due to how incredible the results we were able to accomplish. He picked it right up and ever since has been bugging me to borrow my gear!
Wash Step:
Pre-wash via Powerwasher @ 1500 psi/2GPM to remove all the heavy abrasive particles. As a bonus, this client had filtered water and we didn’t need to worry about leaving the paint wet in the sun! I can’t stress how important this step is for mitigating your exposure to unnecessary wash induced marring. When done properly, you’re basically left with a grit free surface with just some unthreatening road soiling. Makes for a much better canvas to start your hands on process to.
We then went on to cleaning the wheels. Here’s what we used:
Rinse:
Spray with 3D Yellow Degreaser:
Me getting down & dirty on the barrels:
Back side behind the spokes: (where nobody ever looks):
Around the lugs:
Then onto the door jambs:
Front:
Lower:
Back:
And don’t forget about the door itself:
After washing the body and rinsing, here’s how we dried things up:
Large Waffle Weave to get the excess puddling off:
Follow behind with the leaf blower:
Now onto the paint surface prep. We did a combination of the HD Nano-Prep Towel & HD Clay. Both were used with HD Touch quick detailing lubricant:
Couple of before shots to show you what we were working with:
Here’s how the paint looked after HD CUT via MF pad and then HD Speed via black HD Foam:
Some in-process shots:
Because HD Cut & Speed don’t really produce any troublesome dust, all that was really needed was a quick wipe with HD Free Waterless wash to make the paint perfectly clean and ready for finishing.
And here’s the icing on the cake…….HD Nitro Seal!!! It’s a unique 2 part paint sealing system that in theory is very similar to a traditional epoxy where the 2 parts mix together (in this case on the car) and create an incredible bond with each other. Creates an incredible amount of gloss and wetness!!!
Quick Fact: This product (when used with HD polishing compounds/detailing liquids) doesn’t require surface stripping to accomplish optimal bonding. Because the base components in all of the HD line use the key trade secret ingredients, you can go right to the sealing step.
Here is how the surface initially looks after spreading Part A:
While Part B was linking with Part A we moved onto the interior. Used HD TOTAL cleaner for pretty much everything inside. Here’s a 50/50:
I gotta admit that these seats were pretty grosse to say the least. Heavy accumulation of oily residue that melted away with a little bit of agitation. Take a look at this:
Here’s how everything looked after:
Finished up in the evening and pulled it inside for the night. Take a look at this GLOTH!!!
Came back the next morning to see it under the real light>>>
Wash Step:
Pre-wash via Powerwasher @ 1500 psi/2GPM to remove all the heavy abrasive particles. As a bonus, this client had filtered water and we didn’t need to worry about leaving the paint wet in the sun! I can’t stress how important this step is for mitigating your exposure to unnecessary wash induced marring. When done properly, you’re basically left with a grit free surface with just some unthreatening road soiling. Makes for a much better canvas to start your hands on process to.
We then went on to cleaning the wheels. Here’s what we used:
Rinse:
Spray with 3D Yellow Degreaser:
Me getting down & dirty on the barrels:
Back side behind the spokes: (where nobody ever looks):
Around the lugs:
Then onto the door jambs:
Front:
Lower:
Back:
And don’t forget about the door itself:
After washing the body and rinsing, here’s how we dried things up:
Large Waffle Weave to get the excess puddling off:
Follow behind with the leaf blower:
Now onto the paint surface prep. We did a combination of the HD Nano-Prep Towel & HD Clay. Both were used with HD Touch quick detailing lubricant:
Couple of before shots to show you what we were working with:
Here’s how the paint looked after HD CUT via MF pad and then HD Speed via black HD Foam:
Some in-process shots:
Because HD Cut & Speed don’t really produce any troublesome dust, all that was really needed was a quick wipe with HD Free Waterless wash to make the paint perfectly clean and ready for finishing.
And here’s the icing on the cake…….HD Nitro Seal!!! It’s a unique 2 part paint sealing system that in theory is very similar to a traditional epoxy where the 2 parts mix together (in this case on the car) and create an incredible bond with each other. Creates an incredible amount of gloss and wetness!!!
Quick Fact: This product (when used with HD polishing compounds/detailing liquids) doesn’t require surface stripping to accomplish optimal bonding. Because the base components in all of the HD line use the key trade secret ingredients, you can go right to the sealing step.
Here is how the surface initially looks after spreading Part A:
While Part B was linking with Part A we moved onto the interior. Used HD TOTAL cleaner for pretty much everything inside. Here’s a 50/50:
I gotta admit that these seats were pretty grosse to say the least. Heavy accumulation of oily residue that melted away with a little bit of agitation. Take a look at this:
Here’s how everything looked after:
Finished up in the evening and pulled it inside for the night. Take a look at this GLOTH!!!
Came back the next morning to see it under the real light>>>
