Twisted's Work

[maximus20895]

For cleaning you can use the products mentioned. For a protectant you can use ****pit Premium. It has light cleaning ability as well and gives a matte look.

Amazon.com: einszett 924705 ****pit Premium - 16.9 fl. oz.: Automotive

Amazon.com: einszett 924705 ****pit Premium - 16.9 fl. oz.: Automotive

[twistedframe]

Originally Posted by WhiteCivic10

I'm not really looking for shine, I'm looking for something to protect it from the beating sun it takes while I'm at work

If you want to use the best go with Ultima Interior Guard. Best interior product on the market. It's a little pricey, but a bottle will last a weekend warrior for years. A little goes a long way and it's lasts for 6 months. Oh and it's very matte.

[WhiteCivic10]

Nice, whats your taking on pre-soak foaming guns? And the best "sudsy" shampoo for it?

Would Meguiars gold class work with it? If so, what kind of mixture should I look at doing for the Civic?

[twistedframe]

Originally Posted by WhiteCivic10

Nice, whats your taking on pre-soak foaming guns? And the best "sudsy" shampoo for it?

Would Meguiars gold class work with it? If so, what kind of mixture should I look at doing for the Civic?

Heres how I look at it. Is a foam gun necessary? No. Does it serve a purpose? Yes. In my book the more dirt you can get off the vehicle before you put a mitt on the paint, the less chance you will induce swirls into the paint. I always foam the paint (different mixes depending on what I'm trying to do ie strip LSP) let it dwell for a few minutes, and then pressure wash it off. Now I know that there is as little dirt on the paint as possible before I start.

Any soap can be used in a foam gun. Lately I've been using gold Glass since I got a bunch on clearance at K-Mart. It foams well and I can add APC to it if I want to strip the LSP.

[WhiteCivic10]

How much soap do you put in that big 1/4th gallon bottle type of thing that connects to the nozzle?

[twistedframe]

Originally Posted by WhiteCivic10

How much soap do you put in that big 1/4th gallon bottle type of thing that connects to the nozzle?

I usually add 2 oz of soap and 2-4 oz of APC if I want to strip waxes. If I'm just washing I will add 2oz of soap and thats it.

[maximus20895]

What do you have, a foam lance/can't thing of name? What soap do you use?

[WhiteCivic10]

This APC you keep bringing up, is it a better alternative than using dawn soap before waxing a car?

Thanks Twist, you've answered a lot of my ?s I don't mean to thread jack at all..

[maximus20895]

Dawn dries out trim over time. You can use an APC called Optimum Power Clean or you can use Chemical Guys Citrus Wash.



Chemical Guys Citrus Wash - 128 oz | Detailed Image

[twistedframe]

So today we have a nicely modified 2007 Civic Si. This car is owned by a friend of mine who I met when I used to have the same type of car as this. He is headed to a big meet this weekend so he wanted his car to look its best. It was by no means in terrible shape, but did need some TLC to get it looking its best!!!

Products and Procedure

Wash and Decon
Foamed with Meguiars Gold Class mixed with OPC
Washed with Ultima Shampoo and 2 bucket method
Iron X applied to entire paintwork, let dwell, agitate, then rinse off.
Entire exterior clayed with Ricardo Yellow clay and Dodo juice Born to be Slippery for lube

Wheels, tires, and wheel wells
Wheels cleaned with Sonax FE and multiple brushes
Tires and wheel wells cleaned with OPC 3:1
Tires dressed with Muc-Off tire dressing
Wheel wells dressed with DP tire Gel cut 1:1

Correction and protection
Vertical panels corrected with Menzerna PowerFinish on a Cyan pad via PCXP
Horizontal panels compounded with M105 on Meguiars MF cutting pad via PCXP
Horizontal Panels polished with M205 on Tangerine pad via PCXP
Paintwork protected with Prima Banana Gloss then topped with Prima Hydro

Odds and ends
Exhaust tip polished and protected with Collinite Metal wax one 0000 steel wool, then terry cloth towel
Windows cleaned with Meguiars Glass Cleaner
Trim dressed with Muc-Off Tire and Bumper dressing

Ok, I guess that just leaves the pics!!!

Here is my helper for the day, getting in the way as usual!


First I attacked the wheels which weren't terribly dirty, but had some baked on brake dust.


Sonax FE was applied and allowed to dwell for 5 minutes. The change in color shows its working




And here it is after being cleaned, and the tires having been dressed.


This car is turbocharged, and laid down some very high numbers on the dyno. However running a little rich coupled with not being washed recently left most of the car looking like this. It's a good bit of road tar, embedded brake dust, and soot.




Here is the foam dwelling helping to strip the lsp and remove any loose dirt particles before we touch the paint.


After being washed I applied Iron X to the vehicle. He it is while it's dwelling, before being agitated, and then rinsed clean.




Following that the car was clayed and then dried. Here is what the paint looked like. Tons of before pictures were taken due to being short on time. Most of the car was covered with swirls just like this. The roof, hood, and trunk were a little deeper, but not much.


All the vertical panels only required one step to remove most of the defects. The horizontal panels got hit with two steps to get out most of the defects and leave a highly refined finish. I would say the car is 90% corrected, with a few RIDS left here and there. You will see some RIDS in the pictures, but the swirls were gone.











Next we moved to the exhaust tip. If you think the trunk was covered in soot, check this thing out!!!



And all cleaned up and protected



And finally here are some full after pics, and reflection pics.







And here are just two that I was having fun with. They are pretty heavily edited, but I think they look super cool.





Thank you for taking the time to look at my thread. I would love to hear your feedback!!! :dblthumb2:

[maximus20895]

Are you Flannigan on AG? I didn't know that.

[realxlai]

Hey Dave may I hijack those pics for my build thread(s)? lol

[twistedframe]

Originally Posted by maximus20895

Are you Flannigan on AG? I didn't know that.

Who me? LOL

Originally Posted by realxlai

Hey Dave may I hijack those pics for my build thread(s)? lol

Consider them yours!!! If you want the originals without borders let me know.

[PhilaCivic]

wow great work----- my vibrant tip looks somewhat bad at the very end, ill have to try the steel wool, awesome work!

[twistedframe]

Originally Posted by PhilaCivic

wow great work----- my vibrant tip looks somewhat bad at the very end, ill have to try the steel wool, awesome work!

Thanks! Yeah, just make sure you get the 0000 steel wool or you will end up making it look worse. Also try with a terry cloth towel and some metal polish first. no need to go to steel wool right away. Good luck!

[maximus20895]

Optimum Metal Polish is pretty good

[PhilaCivic]

its literally just the very end of the exhaust tip, ive tried turtle brand metal polish and it did ok but is there any specific method to get the best results?

[fawkinxd]

holly balls! Can i send you my car?!

[tigasTT]

Thread is alive again due to an awesome work

[twistedframe]

Haven't been on in a while, been super busy with detailing lately. Here is a GT-R I did recently. I'll post up some other jobs I've had too.

Hey everyone. This weekend I was lucky enough to get to work on a 2009 Nissan GT-R. I say lucky because this is one of my all-time favorite vehicles, from performance, to looks, to amenities. It's just got it all in my book. Anyway, this customer found his way to me through overtimedetailer here, so first I want to thank him for passing along my information! Ok let’s get started!

The GT-R was scheduled for a 1 step correction and Cquartz application. I picked up the car in the evening, and after an amazing drive to my place, got started on it. It was first foamed with XMT Shampoo and OPC to loosen and remove some of the big debris from the vehicle. Sorry, no before pictures, but it wasn't that dirty to begin with. Next it was washed with XMT soap, sprayed down with Iron X to remove and embedded iton particles, and finally clayed with the Ultima Clay Block to remove any other stubborn surface contaminants.

The wheels were next on the list, they weren't in terrible shape, but if you've ever worked on factory GT-R wheels you will know there are a lot of little areas that need to get cleaned. So I used a combination of Iron X spray, and Iron X gel to get the wheels spotless. They were then polished with M105 and M205 to remove some light swirling, and finally coated with Cquartz, after a wipedown with Eraser of course. The tires and wells were cleaned with OPC, and the tires were dressed with Blackfire Tire Dressing. Here is how they turned out. Again sorry for no before pictures, but it was dark. I will also mentioned the GIANT Brembo calipers were cleaned and coated as well





Next on the list was the engine bay. It wasn't dirty at all, just had a light coat of dust, and a some water spots on the plastic. It was wiped down with Ultima Waterless wash, then the plastic got a coat of Wolfgang Trim Sealant. The hoses and various other plastic pieces were dressed with Adams In and Out Spray.





As many of you who have worked on GT-R's may know, or if you have just seen them on the road like me..lol, the exhaust tips can get pretty nasty. These were no exception. I started out with 0000 steel wool and Collinite metal Wax, and then gave it another pass with a finger mitt and metal wax to clean them up even more.

Befores:




Afters:




Finally I got onto the paint correction. I had kept hearing how soft GT-R paint is, but I was very surprised with this one. The paint was hard as a rock. You will see the swirls really weren't bad at all, but I ended up having to get pretty aggressive with it to get them out. For this reason I ended up doing a two-step on this vehicle. I felt it was best for the car, even though only a one step was scheduled. For the first step I used the Meguiars MF pads with M105 on my PCXP and followed that up by Carpro Fixxer with a Tangerine HC pad, also on my PCXP. I would say this got about 85% of the defects out of the paint.

Here is how the swirls looked. Please note, I did edit the color levels on these pictures so you could see the swirls. It was near impossible to capture them even with the editing. The editing is not meant to deceive, only convey the true condition of the paint. That's why the paint almost looks silver in some of the following pictures.

Swirls Before:










A couple 50/50 pictures on the trunk and roof:




And finally some sun pictures after the correction was completed. These are all after a wipe down with Erasure, but before the application of Cquartz.








The following pictures are some reflection shots I took during the detail. these are before final clean up, so please excuse any dust or smudges here.










And finally, here are the completed shots of the car. This is all finished up, and coated with Cquartz. The glass however got Wolf's Glass Sealant since I was sent a sample by Keith (IOMCAMARO..thanks buddy!!!).










Lastly the interior was addressed. Like the rest of the vehicle, it was in great shape, with just a bit of dust. It was thoroughly vacuumed, then wiped down with Meguiars Interior Detailer. The leather, dash, and carpet received a layer of Ultima interior Guard for protection.






Thanks for looking everyone! This was one of the most enjoyable details I've done in a long time. It was an amazing car, and a very cool customer who had the reaction that we as detailers all love to see. I've had some tough jobs lately, and this one made up for all of them and then some! Have a great day!