I recently picked up a 2017 hardtop and gave it a thorough detail. Figured I'd do a little writeup for anybody interested.

Wash with sun-friendly auto wash spiked with a little all purpose cleaner to start the decontamination process.




Sonax wheel cleaner





Iron decontamination wipedown on the paint




Mitt substitute for clay bar




Paint has now been decontaminated and is ready for correction. Time to see what we are working with. It's not bad. Car is pretty new but has a lot of miles (25k) for the year, so it was used plenty. Black trim and roof has some swirling, scratches, and watermarks. Body paint is in good shape but not as much gloss as I'd like.


Taped up and ready for polish.



Correction time. I wound up going with a yellow pad + light compound and an orange pad + finishing polish on the black paint, and an orange pad + finishing polish on the blue. The black trim on these cars is a PITA to work with--tough to correct but swirls incredibly easily. I managed to scuff it later on in the process just by buffing with a microfiber cloth.



Break from polishing to do an elbow grease cleaning of the neglected exhaust tips. Before and after:



Isopropyl alcohol + distilled water wipedown to get ready for ceramic coating.




Corrected and all ready for coating. Great reflection from the trim pieces.








Aaaand *record scratch*. I pull out my bottle of McKee's ceramic coat to find out that the sprayer bottle has completely seized since the last time I used it about 5 months ago, and the product has gone bad and immediately flashes when applied to the paint.

Fast forward a couple of days--I Primed a bottle of CQuartz (and got my windows tinted). Repeat wash and IPA wipedown process. Coat with CQuartz and put on an application of McKee's 10 Minute sealant to protect while the coating cures. Excellent gloss now, and the blue really pops. The smoothness of the metal flake in Electric Blue is unique.

With any luck, I'll get about 2 years of protection out of this coat, especially if I keep it refreshed with HydrO2 and the McKee's sealant.

 

Super clean. As a former detail and body shop guy, well done.