(Regarding me anyways).



Well onto the detailing process. At first I didn't really know what I was dealing with so I put it under a 1200 watt halogen light ~




That's basically what it looked like throughout the entire car ~ minus the dirt and crap.

After I examined the car for a little bit, I washed down the car and used a clay bar so it would give my paint a sleek finish and to remove any dirt/contamination left behind.




Tried to take a better picture of the contamination; hard to capture with the iPhone 4 though. Oh well


After claying, I at FIRST used an Orange Pad+M105 and forgot to inspect my work with the halogen light. After 4-5 useless hours, I finally inspected to see I had gotten nowhere only getting rid of 50% of the scratches/swirls. I was upset, so I took out my Yellow Pad + M105 + LVL 4~5ish on the Flex and did some good damage. ~






It was hard getting use to the Flex because I've never ever detailed in my life, so I had splatter and crap all over the place. Plus, it kept trying to "walk away" sometimes, which made it a pain to detail because it would leave traces of polish behind that I would have to pass over again; making the process that much longer.





Lots of over-polish. Throughout the process, I learned better techniques to eliminate that. Definitely took a shiet load of patience/time, and if you don't have neither do not detail


Here are some shots with Blackfire Wet Diamond sealant, (I still need to wax my car [Pete's 53']; waiting for the sealant to cure). Will take some pictures when the sun comes out to see how good of a job I really did lol


(Tape still on the front because I need to finish the front bumper ~ clay/polish/fine polish/seal/wax)













(I kinda like this picture... )





And I officially LOVE this picture... such a nice reflectionnn








Anyways, I would like to give credit to mainly 4 people ~ Gamedog, BB, Greg @ DI, and of course... Google. Helped me a lot throughout the process.



I would say I worked on the car for at least 25-30 hours. I think I managed to get rid of about 90% of the swirls/scratches on my first go around ~ which I feel is really good for a complete beginner at detailing.



Please chime in for any questions/comments because it really took forever to do this detail and I'm sort of proud of how it's coming out so far I just need to add the wax and I'm good to go I think

 

Very very impressive for a first time job. Wow 30 hrs! Wish I had a garage to detail my car.

 

At first I thought the picture of the reflection of the sky was actually a picture of the sky. I was like why the hell is this guy taking a picture of the sky? Then I realized it was a reflection off your hood LOL. Great job! Looks awesome!

 

The learning curve using the Flex was probably a little more than you expected, huh? But you did the right thing by getting the Flex over the PC. It looks good. Glad to help.

BTW, is that general purpose masking tape? If so lose it. Use blue (or green) painter or detailer's tape. Regular tape can leave behind gooey residue particularly if you leave it on a long time.

Also, with the amount of correction needed on your car, I'd have suggested the M105 on orange first, followed by M205 on white. It might have saved you a lot of time and elbow grease.

 

Thanks guys .


@ BB ~ I actually meant to put M105 ~ not M205 :/. I'm on the iPhone now so I can't edit that part ~ could you possibly do that?

And yea ~ that tape wasn't the best choice. Next time I'll stick to blue tape

 

I'll edit it. I'm on my iPhone too, you can edit it.

 

great job!

 

Looks great man! I just detailed my ob! Wish I had a little more room in my garage but the work came out great

 

Man,You did a such Outstanding job on paint correction!

 

Awesome job for your first detail. Thinking about getting my own random orbital in a few months and doing my own detail...my car's condition is just as bad as yours used to be.

 

Thanks guys I appreciate it.

@ SRG ~ Yea, my garage is small too, had my dad direction my car in the garage so I would have enough space to work on both sides of the car since my garage is also small.


@ Emyrl ~ It's definitely worth picking one up IMO considering if you went ahead with a full correctional detail anyways, it would cost $500-1000 depending on who you go to I think.

 

Nice!...now come do my OB

 

Looks great man.

 

Good stuff Johnny

 

Lol come park your car in my garage and I'll see what I can do



Anyways ~ here's an update on the pictures since it's sunny out