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This is a 2001 PT Cruiser that was ordered within the first few days that the general public was allowed to order one when they were first introduced. The owner had to wait 6 months to take delivery! The owner is a friend of mine and a member of our online PT Cruiser club. This car sleeps outside so it gets some pretty nasty exposure to SoCal extreme heat, dust, etc. The finish was pretty nasty, with the roof being especially bad. Horrid, really. It took three passes with the clay bar to remove all the bonded contaminants. After the first pass the clay looked like it had been dropped in the sand!
What I noticed as the most glaring defects in the paint were the obvious swirls, lots and lots of small water spotting, and several scratches and scuff marks. A couple of the scratches were deep enough to catch a fingernail so they couldn't be completely removed, but their appearance was greatly reduced. Two passes of M80 with a polishing pad on the DA just wasn't getting the job done in some spots. I tried using my new rotary with M83 on a polishing pad and it seemed to do the trick, but I have very little experience with this tool and did not want to risk screwing up my friend's car, so I upped the aggressiveness to M83 on a Sonus Swirlbuster pad on the DA. This did a great job of taking out the swirls and water spotting, but left some noticeable hazing behind. These areas were then gone over again with M80 on the polishing pad. The owner's boyfriend helped me out on the whole car - he's been to a couple of Meguiar's Saturday Clinics, owns a G-100 and was eager to practice.
The car was washed at an automatic wash on Friday evening and brought to my place on Saturday morning. We QD'd her down to remove any loose dust, then went at it.
Clay (3x in some areas!!)
M83
M80
M21 x 2
Hyper dressing on tires
M39 & M40 to clean the rear bumper step guard & other exterior trim
Here's the swirls and water spotting. The whole car looked like this, or worse.
Bad scratches and scuffs in several places.
This is from just a 1' x 2' section on the roof. Just disgusting!!!
This was after three passes on the roof, but we finally got things cleaned up. The rest of the car wasn't nearly as bad.
These were the chemicals used to get the job done.
With this much Meguiar's product on hand, you need an extremely vicious guard dog to watch over it!!
Here's the hood after taping off a section and then polishing out the mess.
Close up of front fender, all finished up!
Rear hatch, swirl free!!
Rear hatch, up close in direct sun. Niiiice!!!
Reflection in the hood.
Finished car (with mine next to it!)
Even though she watched the entire transformation and played the role of assistant to her boyfriend and me, the owner was still stunned when she saw the finished car in the sun. I love that!
What I noticed as the most glaring defects in the paint were the obvious swirls, lots and lots of small water spotting, and several scratches and scuff marks. A couple of the scratches were deep enough to catch a fingernail so they couldn't be completely removed, but their appearance was greatly reduced. Two passes of M80 with a polishing pad on the DA just wasn't getting the job done in some spots. I tried using my new rotary with M83 on a polishing pad and it seemed to do the trick, but I have very little experience with this tool and did not want to risk screwing up my friend's car, so I upped the aggressiveness to M83 on a Sonus Swirlbuster pad on the DA. This did a great job of taking out the swirls and water spotting, but left some noticeable hazing behind. These areas were then gone over again with M80 on the polishing pad. The owner's boyfriend helped me out on the whole car - he's been to a couple of Meguiar's Saturday Clinics, owns a G-100 and was eager to practice.
The car was washed at an automatic wash on Friday evening and brought to my place on Saturday morning. We QD'd her down to remove any loose dust, then went at it.
Clay (3x in some areas!!)
M83
M80
M21 x 2
Hyper dressing on tires
M39 & M40 to clean the rear bumper step guard & other exterior trim
Here's the swirls and water spotting. The whole car looked like this, or worse.
Bad scratches and scuffs in several places.
This is from just a 1' x 2' section on the roof. Just disgusting!!!
This was after three passes on the roof, but we finally got things cleaned up. The rest of the car wasn't nearly as bad.
These were the chemicals used to get the job done.
With this much Meguiar's product on hand, you need an extremely vicious guard dog to watch over it!!
Here's the hood after taping off a section and then polishing out the mess.
Close up of front fender, all finished up!
Rear hatch, swirl free!!
Rear hatch, up close in direct sun. Niiiice!!!
Reflection in the hood.
Finished car (with mine next to it!)
Even though she watched the entire transformation and played the role of assistant to her boyfriend and me, the owner was still stunned when she saw the finished car in the sun. I love that!
looks good
but it was all worth it.
Just giving you a hard time.
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