[Wes_R]

Hi everybody,

It's been awhile since my last write up here http://newbeetle.org/forums/new-beetle-detailing-cleaning/57703-wes_r-x-r8-113-pics.html but with winter here and it generally being a depressing time I thought I would cheer everyone up a little with this write up.

The opportunity to work on this Testarossa presented itself to me when the owners co worker saw some of my other work and referred me to him. I got a call from the owner saying that he wanted to get his car detailed for storage.



First off a walk around of the bella macchina.

lol yes that is a dog biscuit

In defense of the owner he said it was I while since it was detailed and the last time it was just a quick job

So starting with the interior I dusted the car down to get in the tight areas. At the time I was using a Meguiars Slide Lock Brush but it gave out on me and I had to take what was left and wrap it in a rubber band, but it still did the job

I then vacuumed the entire car with my Metro Vac n Blo and various attachments to get in the tight areas

Then gave everything a wipe down with Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner cut 50/50 with water to have a clean surface to work with

Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18 Show Content

At the same time I used my foam stick to get in the tight areas that my fingers couldn't reach

Got in the tight areas of the prancing horse on the hood and trunk latch and here are some before and afters

Before

After

Before

After

Got in the even tighter areas with a q-tip

Had to scrub a few areas with the fine side of my Meguiars Triple Duty Brush like...

The cassette tape holder buttons

 

[Wes_R]

And the "PRESS" on the seat belt

Before

After

Scrubbed the door sill

And the pedals, no dressing was applied after the clean up as common sense is I don't want the pedals slippery

Before

After

Pretty much everything in the interior is leather. So I leather cleaned and conditioned everything... the seats, dash, doors, and roof

Gliptone Leather Cleaner & Conditioner was what I used

Scrubbing away with my leather brush

Leather conditioned by hand and massaged it in to the leather

Doors

Seats

Roof

Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18 Show Content

I let it soak in for a bit then wiped off the remainder for a nice natural finish.



Did I mention it was cold!!!



Brought the tool bag, owners manual, and jack inside for a cleaning.

Tool bag was dirty and disorganized

Cleaned up the bag with some APC and the tools as well

Clean and organized

Leather cleaned and conditioned the owners manual bag

Cleaned the bag that held that jack etc and wiped down the jack and tools

And here they are ready to go back in the car

I took these pics at the final end of the detail but felt it was appropriate to put them here. These are the finished pics of the interior.

Now getting started on the exterior I start off with the wheels.

P21s Wheel Gel was used to clean the rims which is non acidic. I could leave this cleaner on the rims all night and no damage to the rim. Acid based wheel cleaners you can't say the same for and even a light application of them to ceramic brakes, anodized rims, etc and a beautiful rim or brake system is ruined. So no acid based wheel cleaners....ever!

 

[Wes_R]

Let the rims soak while I attended to the engine bay

I didn't get to aggressive on the engine bay but still did the best I could. I wiped down with Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner and then dressed it with Meguiars Hyper Dressing cut 20/80 with water for a nice natural finish.

Here is a before and after pic

Before

After (still a little wet from the dressing)

Artsy Fartsy

Moving on to the rims

Getting in the inner barrel with my handleless EZ brush

Behind the rim

Cleaned the rim face with a micro fibre mitt

And used a foam stick to get in the lug nut area

Rinsed down the car

And sprayed on Prep Wash to strip off any silicones which will if left on hinder the paint correction process because the silicones fill scratches and if not removed the polish will not cut out the swirl but just glide over them

Then washed the car using the 2 bucket method and a natural sea sponge.

The reason for 2 buckets when washing is simple, 1 bucket is only water, and the 2nd bucket is soap water only. After washing every panel or even half a panel you rinse off the dirt from your mitt in the water only bucket before putting it in the soap bucket, there by keeping your soapy water dirt free. Most people use only 1 bucket to wash their car and this one bucket ends up with dirt in it and this same dirt filled soap water is what is rubbed all over the car and in time a perfect paint finish gets all swirled up.

Rinsed my sponge off in the water only bucket after every panel or a half a panel

Dryed the car off and brought it in to clay bar it.



Riccardo Clay was used. The reason for clay barring your paint is it basically sheers out contaminants embedded in the paint. This can be raildust, fallout, or even just tiny dirt debris. If you wash your car and run your hands along the paint you will probably find that it is still pretty rough. What you are feeling is the surface contaminants.

Pretty contaminated

Measured the paint to see what I was dealing with and look out for any low spots. The owner had told me that the whole car had been repainted so I was dealing with fairly thick paint. Measurements were taken in microns which are a thousanth of millimeter.

Masked off the rubber trimmings

And here is what I was up against under 500w halogen lighting

Did a quick test spot to find a combination that worked and here are the results of a wool pad and Menzerna Super Intensive Polish which is a medium cutting polish.

 

[Wes_R]

Now for a few before and afters of the body panels

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

And a 50/50 shot

Single stage paint really clogs my pads up so I had to change them frequently

All the tight areas my rotary couldn't reach I did by hand with on orange lake country pad and Meguiars M105 then a white pad with Meguiars M205. They did not end up perfect but still a huge improvement to how they were before

This was a full paint correction so the few deeper scratched I wetsanded with Micro Mesh sand paper 2400 grit and then 4000 grit to refine and then finally polish out the sanding marks. Results were either to round off the edges of the scratch to make it less apparent or to completely remove the scratch.

After all the compounding and wetsanding I finally jeweled the paint with a white Lake Country pad and Menzerna P085rd. Here is a shot of me jeweling the paint.

And finally the results of my work

Unmasked the car

Dusted it down and got in the tight crevices.

Gave it an alcohol wipe down to clean off the polishing oils

Then double checked my work with my 3M Sun Gun which omits the same color spectrum light as the sun. So basically what I see with this light is how it will look in natural daylight.

Perfect

 

[Wes_R]

Applied Swissvax Concorso

While the wax was curing I attended to some other areas

Sealed the rim with Poorboys Wheel Sealant to protect against brake dust

Dressed the tires with Blackfire Long Lasting Tyre Gel which after being left on for awhile then wiped off leaves a beautiful finish

Here is an after pic of the tires and rim

I couldn't get the exhaust perfect but still made an improvement.

Before

After

Now finally after 50+ hrs of work, -10 weather, and the first snowfall of winter here are the finished pictures.

First up some shots of the sun on the paint

 

[Wes_R]

And my last 3 favorite pics.

I hope you enjoyed reading the write up .

Wes

 

[SMG]

Awesome write up thanks!

 

[CoriBug]

Great pictures! Thanks!

 

[TDI_bubble]

Damn nice job, I hope the owner thanked you immensely!

 

[TechnoTrix'd]

Damn nice job, I hope the owner thanked you immensely!

And with a nice stack of things that are green...

Wow, amazing detail to your work. This is a how-to on proper car detailing.

Thanks for posting.

 

[IggysMom]

:jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: Wow doesn't even begin to cover it, there really are no adequate adjectives. That is an amazing job. Wish I had the $/supplies to do that to my beetle.

I only have one question...what did you do with the dog biscuit?

 

[marvins_dad]

Insane work! Great documentation! :goodjob:

 

[bme]

Incredible job! Amazing scratch removal work.

Are you measuring paint thickness to see how much room you have to work out the swirls or are those before and after sanding?

Thanks for posting this.


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[Wes_R]

Awesome write up thanks!

Thanks!

Great pictures! Thanks!

Cheers!

Damn nice job, I hope the owner thanked you immensely!

He definitely did.

And with a nice stack of things that are green...

Wow, amazing detail to your work. This is a how-to on proper car detailing.

Thanks for posting.

I'm glad you enjoyed the write up.

:jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: Wow doesn't even begin to cover it, there really are no adequate adjectives. That is an amazing job. Wish I had the $/supplies to do that to my beetle.

I only have one question...what did you do with the dog biscuit?

Lol I ate it

Insane work! Great documentation! :goodjob:

Incredible job! Amazing scratch removal work.

Are you measuring paint thickness to see how much room you have to work out the swirls or are those before and after sanding?

Thanks for posting this.


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I am measuring to make sure that there is enough paint to polish etc.

 

[IggysMom]

Lol I ate it

Coming from a car like that it must have been a top of the line great tasting biscuit.




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[AceJay]

Oh geez. Mind blown. I don't think the best details around here even compare to yours.

 

[IggysMom]

All I did was a simple turtle wax to my Iggy today. New appreciation for what you do (as if it didn't look impressive enough already). I've never waxed a car before and I hope if I ever think of doing it again without a buffer or some other mechanical device somebody will smack my crazy ass and tell me not to. Thought I would never get the wax wiped off. It seemed like it would be simple enough before I started
I didn't finish until well into darkness. At least she's shiny now. I'm betting ill find a bunch that I missed tomorrow when the suns up. Told my hubby it seemed a lot easier to wipe off after dark. Didn't know if it was because the sun wasn't shining on it or if it was because I just couldn't see what I was missing. I'm betting on the latter. The can did say not to use in direct sunlight so at least I spent part of my time following instructions. Unless I have a big lit room to wax in I don't see how to wax when not in direct sunlight or total darkness?


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[05yellowbeetle]

Wow!!!!

Iggysmom, I use a big shade tree

 

[IggysMom]

I was under the only tree at our house. Big old oak tree standing in a 5 yr old subdivision. One of the few they didn't tear down for houses I'm sure. It just doesn't do much good in the late afternoon.


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