This Harley was on a cross-country trip and had never been detailed before. I had to have the Harley detailed by a certain time, so the owner even helped out with some of the minor detailing. It took less than an hour to remove the swirls, scratches and holograms with an orange pad and a moderate polish. The real work came in for polishing the chrome by hand. I got help with the windshield cleaning, tire waxing and leather conditioning. When everything was cleaned up and polished out, I applied the wax and took the final pictures.
2006 Harley Davidson Sportster
June 23rd, 2010
June 2010 Cars & Coffee
June 5th, 2010On June 5th, I attended my first Cars & Coffee event at Brier Creek and saw a wide assortment of vehicles. As this was my first time at the event, I spent all my time checking out the different cars and inspecting the condition of the paint, exterior plastics and interior. Several of the car clubs were talking amongst themselves and watched as I passed by their cars looking at some the most unusual places. As beautiful as these cars were, sadly they all had their flaws. I’m not positive if the owners realize the condition of their car, but every car on the lot was complete with swirls, holograms and minor swirls that could easily be polished out. I stopped to listen to stories about restorations and installs and learned about the several different car clubs and enthusiasts. At the next Cars & Coffee event, I will bring information about OCDetailing, pictures of my work and products to show some sample work.
Here are some of the cars that caught my attention:
MINI Touch-ups and Scratch Removal
April 22nd, 2010This MINI came for specific work: remove boot scratches, remove door scratches, touch-up rock chips and remove the seat stain. After the rain washed the car of loose dirt, I put the MINI in the garage and clayed the areas I needed to polish. I dried the car off and put a lamp near the bonnet to dry the touch-up paint I was applying. While the paint was drying, I sprayed the stain and got my materials to hand polish the boot. With the microfiber towel and Prima Cut, I was able to polish the scratches out and get the shine back behind the door handles. Next, I agitated the stain with a brush to get the stain remover working more aggressively. Now that the touch-up paint was dry, I used a white pad and Swirl to remove the excess touch-up paint. By this time, my extractor had completely heated and was ready to extract the seat and remove the stain; I extracted the entire lower cushion to prevent the seat from having just 1 clean spot and put the MINI outside to dry in the sun. Not long after the sun started heating up, the rain came back and prevented the seat from drying. I couldn’t get a 2nd look at the seat as it was still damp when the owner arrived and would have to finish at another time. A few days later, the MINI was back and I completed another 2-3 rounds of stain removal to get the stain out for good. The sun was playing games again, so I had to use my work light to dry the seat after each pass with the extractor.
Kia Optima Carpet Cleaning
April 15th, 2010With stains galore, there was a lot of work that had to be done. First, all the carpet mats were vacuumed to reveal the full damage and a stain remover was sprayed onto the stains. After 10 minutes the stains were agitated and I began shampooing the mats until I got the ‘clean’ I was looking for. Then, I extracted the mats to remove the dirty water, hard stains and grit and left them to dry before putting them back into the car.
2005 Nissan 350Z
April 9th, 2010This Nissan has been a company car since purchase and has never been treated with TLC. The paint was covered in contaminants, swirls and scratches from front to back and when rubbed, made an awful noise. I spent several days cleaning and repairing the damage done both inside and on the paint. I washed the car with car wash soap in a swirl-free method and it wasn’t long before the water turned black. After cleaning the entire exterior, I pulled the Z into the garage and clayed off the contaminants, leaving the paint smooth and sound-free. A test spot was set up until I could find the perfect pad/polish combination, and from there on out it was smooth sailing. The swirls, holograms and scratches seemed to buff out with ease, leaving a nice shine behind. Once the polishing was over, I put a coat of wax on and began working on the small exterior details.
I was also recovering from a severe knee injury, so I had some help detailing the hard-to-reach areas and the interior. Together, we got the tires and wheels cleaned, waxed and sprayed. Next we got the chrome exhaust polished out ,the black trim protected, and the windows/mirrors washed streak-free.
I couldn’t bend my knee, so my help vacuumed the interior, cleaned and conditioned the leather seats, cleaned and protected all the vinyl and dusted out the vents. There was no need to extract the floor mats so the final touch was cleaning the door jams. After all the hard work, the Z was brought out for final pictures and keys were handed back over.
2009 Chili Red MINI Cooper S JCW
January 12th, 2010This MINI belongs to a proud pet owner and the inside showed it. There was dog hair on every surface and nose prints on all the rear windows. The MINI needed more interior work than exterior work. There were only a few scratches on the paint and the swirls weren’t as severe as they are on most cars.
I washed the MINI with my lambswool washmitt and removed all the road dust from the surface. Once I finished drying it, I clayed the surface to remove any and all bonded contaminants. Once all the contaminants were gone, I polished the MINI with Prima Swirl and an orange polishing pad. When the swirls were removed and the paint was glistening, I applied wax and began working on the interior.
First up was to clean and protect all the plastic and vinyl. The dash and doors were covered in dust and dog hair. Next I cleaned all the interior glass and mirrors and finished with a thorough vacuum. Once I finished the interior, I removed the wax residue and set to work with the plastic trim and chrome. All chrome was polished up and the black trim was protected from further UV and weather damage. When everything looked spotless, I took my finished pictures and returned the car to another happy customer.
2007 Lightning Blue MINI Cooper
September 11th, 2009This MINI was in decent shape. I started off by washing the car and removing the dust and dirt from the paint, wheels and engine bay. When all was removed, I moved the MINI into the garage and dried it off. I clayed the contaminants off the car and set a test spot.
I polished the MINI with an orange pad and Swirl to remove the defects and applied Epic. While the wax was curing, I waxed the wheels, dressed the tires and protected the plastic trim. I washed the windows and then began to vacuum the floor and protect the interior vinyls and leather seats. Finally, the wax was ready to be wiped off and the exhaust tips were polished up. I took pictures and the owner came by to pick it up.
2007 Mazda 3
August 19th, 2009This Mazda was taken care of! There were no swirls and scratches were scarce. This car only required a maintenance detail.
I washed the car and found the Mazda only needed clay to remove all the defects. I spent a decent amount of time claying off the contaminants and then waxed the paint. Next I dressed the tires, waxed the wheels and cleaned the windows. Afterwords, I cleaned and protected all the interior vinyls and cleaned and conditioned the leather. I vacuumed out the floor and trunk and finished with some last-minute touches. When everything looked perfect, I delivered the car to it’s owner.
2001 Honda CRV
August 14th, 2009This Honda CRV had been taken care of very well with minimal issues. The paint suffered from little to no severe issues, the biggest issue was cobweb swirls across the entire vehicle and pine needle “Bird nests” in 4 locations across the car.
I removed all the pine needles and washed the SUV to uncover all the defects of the paint. There were some major contamination spots, but no serious problems. Next I clayed the CRV and removed all the contamination from the paint. Now the CRV was ready for polishing, so I set a test spot up and discovered it had a soft paint. All I needed to polish was a white pad and Swirl. After several hours of polishing, the paint looked beautiful and was ready for a coat of wax – I used Epic.Next I applied a dressing to the plastic trim, then waxed and dressed the tires. The exterior was now complete and it was time to work on the interior.
The CRV’s interior was spacious, which made for an easy cleaning. I cleaned off all the vinyls and followed behind with a protectant to prevent UV damage. Next, I vacuumed out the carpets, floor mats and seats, and shampooed the stains out of the front mats. The interior now looked brand new, so I cleaned the windows, wiped the wax off and returned the CRV to it’s owner.
1999 VW Jetta
August 8th, 2009This Jetta was in definite need of some TLC. The interior was filled with a blinding smoke stench and other oddities while the outside was oxidized and smothered with clearcoat failure and swirls.
I washed the car and clayed off all the contaminants that were left behind, I was lucky as there weren’t too many. Next I made a test spot and discovered that since the clear coat had been damaged, that I could use my least abrasive polish and pad – Swirl on a white pad. The oxidation wand swirls were quickly removed, leaving behind the battle scars from the clear coat failure. As you can see in the pictures, the clear coat gets a small crack and the elements can get below the clear coat and into the paint, once this happens, cracks begin to appear underneath the clear coat and form massive paint damage that can only be repaired by repainting. Several hours later and the car was swirl free and smooth, so I waxed the car with Prima Epic and let it cure. Next, I dressed the plastic trim and set to work on the tires and wheels.
Then I began to work on the interior – I had let the interior air out while I was polishing and could now sit without watered eyes. I vacuumed out the debris and quickly noticed that there were a lot of drink spills, so I got my extractor plugged in and let it sit to heat up. While my extractor was heating to 200*, I started cleaning the interior vinyls. Smoke, sweat and dirt had layered itself onto every surface and made everything feel sticky. Once the grime was off the vinyls, I protected them to help prevent further damage. By this time, my extractor was heated and I extracted the carpets and removed all stains. The mats had to be shampooed to remove set in stains and smoke. I then cleaned the windows and let the car air out for another hour and returned the car to the owner smoke-free with a gleaming exterior shine it hadn’t seen in awhile.
I then explained clear coat failure and how it could be prevented in the future, as well as pointed out some interior care.
