First, let me say that this is NOT a glamorous thread full of high dollar hardware. I detailed my sister's 12 year old Honda Civic that has 120,000 miles on it. It's been stored outside it's entire life, she has bad washing habits, and for the 6 months prior to my detailing the car, it was parked outside under a tree because she had a new car she was driving.
Second, I used Prima. Any number of products would have probably worked. All I'm trying to say here is that if your car looks this bad, it can be saved (and you should be beaten with a wash rag), and Prima can do it. I can't compare it to other polishes because I haven't tried them. I'm not a pro, this is the 2nd time I've used my Dewalt orbital for anything.
This was a "detail it to sell it" operation, so I didn't go all out, but it turned out well. You can still find a scratch here and there under direct light.
I did the usual Dawn wash (which was extensive due to all the algea and crusty stuff on the car), followed by claying it with Meguiar's blue professional clay.
Once prepped, I hit it with Prima Swirl and an orange pad with my Dewalt DW433 Random Orbital
Once polished I applied Amigo by hand
Finally I applied Epic.
In between all of this I applied many coats of Black Wow to the plastic, which was in really bad shape.
I also scuffed the paint on the wiper arms and repainted them with Trim Black
On to the pics:
After prep, prior to polish. Notice the color difference between the hood and fender. They are both metallic black. But the hood was repainted a few years back due to rock damage so it didn't have the level of haze and swirls. The gray fender looks that way because of the swirl marks and other damage.
In this photo you can see that in diffuse light (it was cloudy when I started) at off-angle viewing. The paint has plent of gloss despite the mess of swirls. Note lower plastic that is faded
The paint on the wiper arms was completely failing
Wiper arms after painting with Trim Black (and the cowl trim after BW)
Hood full of swirls and water spots (remember, the hood was the better looking part in the first photo)
Hood after Swirl w/orange pad (no amigo yet)
Remember the grey fender? Here's what it looks like under the light. Swirls anyone?
After swirl w/orange pad (there are no fillers, I wiped it down with a water alcohol mix to make sure)
Applying first coat of BW to the grill:
Grill after several coats of BW over 2 days
After the whole process (note lower trim after many coats of BW)
Another shot of the finished product. Note the area behind where the rear license plate goes. The whole car looked grey like that before in the sun.
Gratuitous MINI reflection shot
Thanks for viewing!
Mosman
