Happy Chinese New Year to all my Chinese friends!



This C63 came to me after the owner had seen some of my write ups and inquired on what level of paint correction I thought his car might need. After a few conversations via text message we determined we would go with a 1 stage polish. And that we would do it on Jan. 20, 2013.



The day of the car came with a huge sheet of snow on the hood lol and here are the first pics.








Starting with the wheels as usual




Getting in the wheels wells




Next up was washing with the 2 bucket method




Cleaning inside the gas




While the car was still wet I clayed the paint


Paint was actually in pretty good shape.



Dried the car




Then took some paint measurements








Rubber trim was masked to prevent against burning the trim




And here are the before and afters. All in all I don't think the paint was in terrible condition and I think the 1 stage improved the paint to make it an 8 out of 10. It's never perfect as some scratches are too deep to take out. The combo I decided to go with was FG400 and a B&S Yellow Pad. Here are the results.

Before


After


Before


After


Before


After


Before


After


Here is a 50/50 shot. The left side is unpolished and the right side is polished.


Shot of me polishing.




There was also some sort of oxidization on the chrome piece of the trunk that I wanted to improve and was happy with the result.

Before


After




Unmasked the trim


Cleaned off the polishing oils with IPA


And applied a sealant via machine





While the sealant was curing I attended to other areas such as...

Dressing the tires


Cleaning the windows


And mirrors




And here the afters, just before the sunset. 4pm something sheesh!





















And finally my last two favourite pics






I hope you enjoyed seeing the process as usual and I wish everyone a healthful and prosperous year in the Year of the Snake.

 

Looks pretty good, was curious as to the reason for clay barring without drying the car first and using detail spray? I was always thought you dried the car first after washing then clay bar the car using detail spray as lube and then wash again and dry?

Also, the customer would have gotten better results with more of a cutting polish and a more aggressive cutting pad but I'm assuming the customer didn't want to pay for extra correction?

 

I've read people recommending to spray down the car with QD while wet, then clay barring accordingly and spraying more QD where needed. Bumping this for an answer from OP since I need to clay again soon!

 

Great work Wes!

 

What I normally do is I rinse the car with a soft stream, soap it down, then use the clean soap from the bucket with my claybar while the car is still soapy

You can also use QD but soap works perfectly for me everytime I use it, just make sure you buy a new claybar

 

Picked up a new kit today (Mother's - Decent OTC) since I had $20 Autozone reward credit. I was thinking of doing the soap method, but I plan on using Chemical Guys CWG with a strong dilution ratio to strip anything, I know I could probably dilute the second soap bucket a bit more to be less abrasive, but the kit came with a new bottle of Quick Detailer (plus I have another one lying around). Might try the soap method and if it glides well just continue with the rest of the car

Just wondering if I spray down the car with QD in a covered area, then spray extra wherever needed during claying would it be alright (while the car is still wet).

Can't wait for better spring weather

 

I would suggest only spraying the section that you're using, to spray the whole car would be overkill

 

^ That's what I use to do originally, think I'll just do that again this Saturday. Thanks!

 

very nice results.