2001 Toyota Rav4 detail today

[Tom Weed]

Before pics



After washing, claying and taping it off, ready to be polished...

[Tom Weed]

After shots...

[Tim Lingor]

Hey Tom,

Fantastic work!!! The Rav looks great! I also really like the attention to the prep; very thorough!

Tim

[Tom Weed]

One more...

[IMG]http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/gallery/data/500/2261Car3.jpg[/IMG

My steps were:

Washed with Pro C-60 Car wash

Wheel Brightener for the caked on brake dust

ProSol to remove the Tar

Clayed with Meguiars C-2000 detailing clay and Last Touch as a lube (this thing wasted my clay, it was black super filthy)

Polished with M83 on the rotary (started with a polishing pad, then went to a cutting pad, this thing had swirls and the paint was dull). Not sure why this is, but maybe someone can help me, this thing was turning my pads black, I've never seen that happen before, on both the polishing pads and the maroon cutting pads. The owner of this vehicle lives in the woods, not sure if that has anything to do with it or not, but they have lots of trees around.

I then switched to M80 with a polishing pad on the DAP and went over the entire vehicle again. I followed up on the hood with M82 and a polishing pad and the DAP.

For Protection I used M21 with the DAP and a Finishing pad.

Dressed the tire wells with Hper Dressing and used NXT Insane shine on the tires.

Then drank a cold beer!

As far as all that taping I did, IMO, that's a pay me now or pay me later. It took me an hour to tape this thing off, but it saved me that time of trying to get all the wax out of the crevices when I was finished.

Any comments???

Thanks,
Tom

[Tom Weed]

Here's the last pic I meant to post...

[Teak]

Looking good. I like the attention to details even before starting to work the paint. What was your process?

Eric

[amg/md]

I love the photo of the hood with the tree reflection!! Excellent.

[Teak]

Thanks for the info on your process. As to the black on your pads, I think Toyota uses a SS black on their vehicles.

Eric

[Love My Ride]

Great work. I like the prep.

Originally posted by amg/md
I love the photo of the hood with the tree reflection!! Excellent.

Agreed. This is my favorite shot!

How long was the process?

[Blr123]

Hi Tom,

Nice very nice

I have a question for you and anyone else: -

How do you get to the paint above the door handles with a 6" pad, on my car there certainly isn't the room, I recon it's a case of giving tis area a vigerous go by hand with product being used?

Bryan

[Rob66]

Hi Tom

Great job on the RAV. The RAV has the same paint as my Toyota Celica, Astral Black non metallic and is as i'm sure you found out very very soft and swirls very easily. Mine has a few swirls and I do everything I can to minimise them.

It had a thin layer of dust over the entire car the other day and a well meaning collague at work pointed out how dusty it was by 'stroking' the bonnet and you guessed it scratch marks, came out with Scratch X but you get the idea.

I've also scratched the car with the Quick Clay system again even though i am so so careful.

Hyper dressing looks great on the tyres do you get any 'sling'.

Cheers

Rob

[Tom Weed]

Thanks much for the kind words everyone! I really liked how that vehicle turned out, and so did the owner...

Teak/Rob: Thanks for the advice on the SS paint, I wasn't aware that any factory jobs these days were SS. I guess that would explain the black on the pads and how crisp that paint looked when it was finished.

Rob: I am not a judge on paint hardness, but when I started out polishing it with 83/polishing pad and the rotary on 1200 rpms, it wasn't removing them fast enough, it wasn't until I switched to a maroon pad that it was removing them and leaving a nice finish. I guess I could have buffed at a higher rpm with the polishing pad, but I wanted to be super careful. I was planning on backing it outside in the sun to look at it until I figured out I had taped the doors shut! Good thing I bought one of those little Zenon lights.

As for the Hper Dressing, I only used it on the wheel wells and the motor, I used NXT Insane shine on the tires and I've never had a problem with it slinging. My car which is black is a good test bed for that, most everything I've used slings unless I make sure to remove the excess later. NXT almost becomes sticky, sprays on and your done.

Love My Ride: I had it all weekend, but Saturday I was going back and forth between the car and Football games, so I really wasn't working too hard on it then. I would say I put in 8 hours total, and that was doing the interior and extracting the carpet also.

Blr123: Usually I can reach it with my polisher. If I cannot reach it with what I am using, my options are to break out my 4" pads or do it by hand. Usually when I am finishsed, I remove the pad and use it by hand to go back the areas I couldn't reach.

Just an FYI, I've noticed something about M83, back in the summer when it was so hot and humid, I would have a hard time with the product drying up and not removing easily. This weekend the weather was perfect, low 70's and dry air, made a huge difference, product worked great and removed easily as well.

Tom

[spec]

really a nice job.
Ill try to follow your steps next time.

[Tim Lingor]

Hi Tom,

Just a couple of comments to add to my original reply....

When using the rotary, W-8006 and Meg's #83, I would suggest increasing the speed to ~1700 RPM first before using a W-7006 pad with the #83. The Cutting pad will definitely work faster but may also in some cases, especially on black, create a haze on the paint when used in conjunction with #83. Therefore, one will usually need to follow the #83/W-7006 with the #83/W-8006 to remove the haze and add more depth to the paint. Of course this all depends on the paint's hardness/softness. Further, the Cutting Pad does tend to get the paint hotter much faster than with the Polishing pads. As a result, buffer burn is possible.

As mentioned, if you are seeing paint transfer to the pads, you are dealing with SS paint. Yes, many modern and highend cars still use single stage black paint.

And again, great job on the Rav. Your thoroughness is awesome!

Tim

[Tom Weed]

Thanks Tim for the advice, I do appreciate all the advice I get here.

Glad to see your back also...


Thanks again,
Tom