Major Detail - Exterior
28,796 miles
Did my first major detail on the paint today. I am a little bit familiar with cleaning cars for show; I had a '67 Austin Cooper S that was restored by a previous owner I took to a whole bunch of events when I lived in the UK in the mid-90s. I did the London to Brighton run in it a couple times, which was an awful lot of fun.
Anyway, this GT Silver on my car is easy to keep looking clean. For whatever reason the dirt doesn't show up almost at all, even though I know it's got stuff on it. I knew when I was putting the brakes on I'd need to get to the finish to clean it up.
For this detail, I washed with Dawn dishwashing soap, to try and degrease the car and get most of the previous wax off. I then did a clay bar treatment, lubing with water+a drop of Dawn in a spray bottle. The paint was pretty smooth at this point. I had ordered a Griot's Garage G9 orbital polisher and a 5.5" backing plate and pads from Lake Country:
Attachment 68019
This worked well. I ended up just using the black waxing pad and the all in one product I chose, HD Speed. This is basically a cleaner wax. After a hand application of the curves and fiddly parts I knew I could not get wiht the buffer. I applied the HD Speed in even passes until I got around the car all the way. This product cures fairly fast, after about a minute, and some light buffing, the finish is super smooth and glossy.
After about 6 hours work, I'm pretty happy with my first use of a buffer. It's definitely a more effective way to apply a product than a hand polish job. The Griot's buffer is soooo nice to work with; I'm very glad I upped my budget to buy this one. I can see why it's popular.
I finished up with some Rejex synthetic wax on the rims, and my usual low-sheen Chemical Guys Tire Dressing on the Michelins. Plus polishing the windows.
Attachment 68020
The finish "pops" a bit more now. The paint was in decent shape, for a four year old daily driver. I could probably have gone to use the slightly harsher blue polishing pad I'd ordered, but in the end, being a noobie, stuck with the black wax pad. I was more interested in seeing how this product worked for what was essentially a wax job. I really like this HD Speed stuff, the finish ended being very very squeaky and durable feeling; whether this was the product, or the claybar, or both, I'm not sure, but it definitely looks better.