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First off, some disclaimers: this is not my write up, it belongs to a member of www.crossfireforum.org, my hangout for all things related to my Crossfire. As you might image, I'm sort of the defacto detailing guy over there, what with me being a Meguiar's employee, teaching our Saturday & Thursday classes and having the role of Admin here on MOL. Anyway.... this particular member, Steve, was asking how to best take care of his black Crossfire SRT6 and was getting some good advice, when yours truly stepped in and made some product recommendations, suggested he read our 5 Step Paint Care Cycle, and generally coached him prior to and during his project. Mind you, "coaching" was done via email as Steve is in Alabama and I'm sitting here in California.
Now, these cars are notorious for having very hard clear coat, and my personal preference has always been to attack them with a rotary rather than a D/A, but that's primarily been due to lack of time and the fact that I'm comfortable using a rotary. Steve is brand spanking new to this whole thing, and even picked up a lightly used G110 on ebay. He had never done anything like this before, and what's all the more impressive is that he did it with 100% consumer line products (other than the G110 and a few W8207 pads - yes, nothing more aggressive than UC and W8207 pads). We're confident you'll agree that the work he did is not only outstanding, but it belies his novice standing when it comes to detailing. If this is a first effort, imagine what he'll be able to do with some real experience!!
We wanted to post this here as inspiration for all of you just getting started with machine polishing - with a little study and patience, this is what you can do with consumer products, even on very hard, black paint. Yes, black.
Steve gave permission for us to basically just copy and paste his thread from the Crossfire forum to MOL, so what you see from here on are his pictures, and you'll be reading his words.
Ok. over the entire course of the weekend I have been detailing my Crossfire. I was going based off of this guide: Meguiar's 5-Step Paint Care Cycle - Updated! - Car Care Forums: Meguiar's Online
The car came to me relatively swirl free. It had some, but it wasn't bad. I tried to keep it that way. Well recently someone washed it and dried it with very old cotton bath towels, and it destroyed the paint (I won't say who in case my dad reads this
Love ya dad!!) Fortunately I had just bought a Meguiar's G110 dual action polisher, so I set out to fix the paint. I took pictures after every step so you could follow me along. Unfortunately I couldn't get the sun to stay in the same place over the entire process, and some of the pictures are at different angles, but I tried to get the sun reflecting off of whatever I took a picture of.
First on the 5 step was washing. Nothing extraordinary here, just did a basic wash job like I would any other time. Soft microfiber wash mitt, two buckets, and Meguiar's Gold Class car wash. The car was very clean, but the swirls were... well you see.
Spoiler:
Plus there was this weird spot on the back that looked like something had been set on the bumper:
Next step was to clay the car. I did with Meguiar's clay kit, and took pictures, but there's not point in putting them up. I clay it very frequently, and the car was very clean on top of the paint. There was almost nothing that came off onto the clay over the entire car so it really didn't end up looking different. (but if you are doing this and haven't clayed your car, definitely do it, first time took a ton of stuff off)
After that came actually buffing out the swirls. First off let me say HOLY **** the clearcoat is tough!!! It took me what felt like forever. I thought it would be a quick thing to do this, but I was wrong. Some spots took many times of going over it before the swirls were gone. I would have never gotten this done by hand. The machine acted up on me once which slowed me down by a few hours, but after it got going again everything worked out. I ran out of sunlight Saturday, so I had to quit and continue this today. I used up an entire bottle of Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, but I eventually got it.
And whatever the bumper thing was came out nicely!
Step number 3 was a polish. I used Meguiar's Deep Crystal Polish, put on by hand with a microfiber applicator. For a dark car, this should be made a mandatory step. It gave the car a deep gloss that looked very nice. This was an easy thing to do, just put on and take off, but it made a big difference.
And because a very similar picture was on the guide, I decided to take this one:
And after all of that was done, I waxed the car with 2 layers of NXT Tech Wax 2.0. For the large areas I put the wax on with the polishing machine, and for the smaller areas I used another microfiber applicator. I let the wax dry for about a half hour before I took it off and applied the second layer. During this time I also cleaned out the inside of the car, but it stays clean so there wasn't much to that. After I wiped off the second coat, I took some finishing shots.
Back with a few of the products used:
Side with almost everything I used (minus microfiber towels other pads on the machine, wash mitt and Ultimate Quick Detailer for future use.
)
Like a mirror!!!
I owe pretty much all of this to my "sponsors" Mike Stoops and maxcichon. Without those two none of this would be possible, nor would I be as obsessed with the car as I am without their misdirection.
So, can't thank you guys enough!! I owe ya.
I'm exhausted now, but it was totally worth it. It's awesome to have it looking so clean. I had about 10 people comment on how nice it looked and how well I take care of it. Even my roommate, who had previously made fun of me for cleaning off swirls and said no one could see them, was amazed at the difference. Even before I got them all off he came out and looked at it and said, "holy ****, I can actually see exactly what you were talking about!" I knew it would make a difference, but until I finished I didn't realize exactly how much. For anyone who is thinking about doing this, do it. Set aside a weekend and make your baby look like new!
I'm in love all over again!
Now, these cars are notorious for having very hard clear coat, and my personal preference has always been to attack them with a rotary rather than a D/A, but that's primarily been due to lack of time and the fact that I'm comfortable using a rotary. Steve is brand spanking new to this whole thing, and even picked up a lightly used G110 on ebay. He had never done anything like this before, and what's all the more impressive is that he did it with 100% consumer line products (other than the G110 and a few W8207 pads - yes, nothing more aggressive than UC and W8207 pads). We're confident you'll agree that the work he did is not only outstanding, but it belies his novice standing when it comes to detailing. If this is a first effort, imagine what he'll be able to do with some real experience!!
We wanted to post this here as inspiration for all of you just getting started with machine polishing - with a little study and patience, this is what you can do with consumer products, even on very hard, black paint. Yes, black.
Steve gave permission for us to basically just copy and paste his thread from the Crossfire forum to MOL, so what you see from here on are his pictures, and you'll be reading his words.
_________________________________________
Ok. over the entire course of the weekend I have been detailing my Crossfire. I was going based off of this guide: Meguiar's 5-Step Paint Care Cycle - Updated! - Car Care Forums: Meguiar's Online
The car came to me relatively swirl free. It had some, but it wasn't bad. I tried to keep it that way. Well recently someone washed it and dried it with very old cotton bath towels, and it destroyed the paint (I won't say who in case my dad reads this
Love ya dad!!) Fortunately I had just bought a Meguiar's G110 dual action polisher, so I set out to fix the paint. I took pictures after every step so you could follow me along. Unfortunately I couldn't get the sun to stay in the same place over the entire process, and some of the pictures are at different angles, but I tried to get the sun reflecting off of whatever I took a picture of.First on the 5 step was washing. Nothing extraordinary here, just did a basic wash job like I would any other time. Soft microfiber wash mitt, two buckets, and Meguiar's Gold Class car wash. The car was very clean, but the swirls were... well you see.
Spoiler:
Plus there was this weird spot on the back that looked like something had been set on the bumper:
Next step was to clay the car. I did with Meguiar's clay kit, and took pictures, but there's not point in putting them up. I clay it very frequently, and the car was very clean on top of the paint. There was almost nothing that came off onto the clay over the entire car so it really didn't end up looking different. (but if you are doing this and haven't clayed your car, definitely do it, first time took a ton of stuff off)
After that came actually buffing out the swirls. First off let me say HOLY **** the clearcoat is tough!!! It took me what felt like forever. I thought it would be a quick thing to do this, but I was wrong. Some spots took many times of going over it before the swirls were gone. I would have never gotten this done by hand. The machine acted up on me once which slowed me down by a few hours, but after it got going again everything worked out. I ran out of sunlight Saturday, so I had to quit and continue this today. I used up an entire bottle of Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, but I eventually got it.
And whatever the bumper thing was came out nicely!
Step number 3 was a polish. I used Meguiar's Deep Crystal Polish, put on by hand with a microfiber applicator. For a dark car, this should be made a mandatory step. It gave the car a deep gloss that looked very nice. This was an easy thing to do, just put on and take off, but it made a big difference.
And because a very similar picture was on the guide, I decided to take this one:
And after all of that was done, I waxed the car with 2 layers of NXT Tech Wax 2.0. For the large areas I put the wax on with the polishing machine, and for the smaller areas I used another microfiber applicator. I let the wax dry for about a half hour before I took it off and applied the second layer. During this time I also cleaned out the inside of the car, but it stays clean so there wasn't much to that. After I wiped off the second coat, I took some finishing shots.
Back with a few of the products used:
Side with almost everything I used (minus microfiber towels other pads on the machine, wash mitt and Ultimate Quick Detailer for future use.
)Like a mirror!!!
I owe pretty much all of this to my "sponsors" Mike Stoops and maxcichon. Without those two none of this would be possible, nor would I be as obsessed with the car as I am without their misdirection.
So, can't thank you guys enough!! I owe ya. I'm exhausted now, but it was totally worth it. It's awesome to have it looking so clean. I had about 10 people comment on how nice it looked and how well I take care of it. Even my roommate, who had previously made fun of me for cleaning off swirls and said no one could see them, was amazed at the difference. Even before I got them all off he came out and looked at it and said, "holy ****, I can actually see exactly what you were talking about!" I knew it would make a difference, but until I finished I didn't realize exactly how much. For anyone who is thinking about doing this, do it. Set aside a weekend and make your baby look like new!
I'm in love all over again!
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