Just wanted to show you what I'm working on this week at the new shop.

Problems: Light Swirls, towel scratches/hologramming, misc. scratches in paint. Billet wheels are fogged and so is engine components which all need polishing. Interior is custom and doesn't need any help.

Proposed Resolution: Polish with orbital and Prima Swirl. I haven't tested hardness of the paint yet, not 100% certain whether I'll need my rotary or not. But with all the curves, it's not a simple polishing job.
Stay tuned for full writeup!

Richard









Outside the new shop


See Writeup as it UNFOLDS HERE

 

There's a lot of surface area on that hot rod. That's what she said!
Can't wait to see it finished.

 

Yes tons! And the paint has issues...cracks, chips, lots of thin edges. Paint is rough to the touch. I posted a link to the ongoing writeup on my site in the first post, but I'll post some progress pix here.

Richard

 

Ok I finished today. Here's the final pix. For all progress pix, go HERE


And under direct sunlight it's absolutely gorgeous!! What was once a 10 footer is now a 1 incher!
AFTER:


BEFORE: Not sure what you are seeing? Under direct sunlight the paint used to look like this. If nothing else, compare the color difference!












All done! Another example of why Prima is such a great product line. Regardless of whether it's on a MINI or 1940 hotrod, it really brings out the best in your paint especially when using "showcar paint polishing techniques". The customer said the photos really didn't do justice to how great the car looked after I was done.

Products used:
Swirl, Amigo, Banana Gloss
Tools used: Makita Rotary Buffer and PC
Pads used: White pads

 

Another incredible result, Richard. I'm sure the owner is ecstatic, even if you charged him a thousand bucks.

Say, did you not have to use the orange pad because that particular paint is a bit soft ?

 

Beautiful job. The owner's a lucky man that people like you exist. Personally, I'd have told him that if he wanted all that bare aluminum, then he could polish it his damn self!

Incidentally, what did you use on the aluminum? Metal polishes are one of the detailing products where I've never found one that absolutely "wows" me compared to all the others. On my shelf right now, I've got Flitz, Simichrome, Nevr-Dull, S100 Metal polish, Eagle 1 mag wheel cleaner, and about a half-dozen others, including some chemical-impregnated metal cleaning cloths that actually worked better than I expected, but still not extraordinary.

EDIT - I just saw the "products used" part of your post. Did you use the rotary buffer all the way through, or did you switch over to the orbital at some point? Also, what was the rationale for not putting anything more long-lasting/durable than Banana Gloss over the Amigo?

 

Hey, Scott, I'll be looking forward to Richard's reply also. But personally, I'm very happy with PS21 Finish Restorer. Easy to use and makes my chrome and other metal finishes look like new.

 

Thanks - I'll have to see if I already have some of that. If not, I'll give it a try. (I can't be sure whether I've already tried it, because I'm constantly getting P21S and S100 products confused.)

 

Awesome process and improvement, Richard. You da man.

I wish I had your patience.

 

I tested the paint with the PC and white pad first.


The results looked pretty great



But as you can see it still wasn't flawless. So I bumped it up the orange pad, and although the defects went away, the once shiny polished surface became hazy.

So then I decided to try my rotary with the white pad, and that was the combo I was looking for.







After the rotary work was complete, I used the PC to remove any buffer trails as well as polishing out the most delicate areas like above and around the pinstriping that was painted over the clear.








The PC is an essential part of my tool kit! I couldn't do what I do without it. Well I could in a pinch, but it's not the way I like to work...I was forced to finish with a rotary a few months back when I was in Florida and the PC's I had all broke, but that was white paint and very different circumstances.




Polished on left, unpolished on right

I ended up trying about 6 different metal polishing products including some new yet unreleased ones from Nanoskin. The one that gave the best results was the Meguiar's NXT All Metal Polysh. I still haven't found one that blows me away either...but compared to the other polishes I tried...none of the ones you mentioned...it got the job done.

A lot of times I will use my little Metabo 3inch orbital for metals but this wasn't flat enough to use my machine so it was all done by hand.

As for why use Banana Gloss? Durability wasn't a concern in this case. I knew that Amigo would give me that Epic darkness and shine, and by topping it with BG would give me extra warmth from the carnauba as well as sufficient durability for the intended use of the car.

Thanks for all the complements...I spent in all about 35 hours on the paint. And the only polishes I used were Prima Swirl and Prima Amigo and a white pad on both the Rotary and the PC.

Richard

 

Richard, great job. Thanks for sharing with us.

Mark

 

This turned out very nice. Those pins are always a pain since most are just enamel over the clear coat. Very fragile and just cause for tape. The other area that is always tough is where the running boards meet the fenders or doors - how do you do 90 degree inside angles? The MINI has one spot like that too on the boot where the boot and bumper meet. Always a pain.
BTW I have used the Wizard metal polish with good results. Either on the Dremel with some cotton buffers or by hand using cosmetic pads.
Thanks for sharing here on NAM OG.

 

Yes those are tough to access. If I can put a 3 or 4" pad on my rotary and possibly tape off any nearby paint on the 90 degree so it doesn't get unintentionally buffed, I might do that. Sometimes it just needs to be done by hand! On the MINI, 3" pads work pretty well on the Metabo since it's so much smaller than a PC and the machine itself doesn't get hindered by any panels.

I'll have to try Wizards metal polish. Haven't tried that yet. I don't do a lot of aluminum polishing, but do any of these polishes do anything for the scratches in the aluminum? In the engine bay the radiator was shined up but still was swirly looking, and not sure if anything can even be done about that.

 

I've actually wet sanded scratches in billet and then just put a little clear on it after I'm done. Wizard Metal Renew doesn't do much for scratches since it is more of a chemical cleaner then gritty polish.
Might just have to pick me up one of those Metabos this summer.

 

Nice Job!

I have a couple of questions...

If you didn't want to brave the rotary, could you have stuck with the orange pad and PC, then switched to the white pad to take the haze out and gotten the same results?

I know Amigo has some slight fillers in it, were you able to get all the swirls out just using "swirl" so there were no imperfections when you put the Amigo down? So the Amigo is acting more as a gloss enhancer, not as a filler?

Thanks!

 

Similar results probably could have been had with the orange pad followed by the white pad for the swirls. However my concern was for the very delicate paint...to achieve the nearly flawless results would have meant spending a lot of time buffing each area. With some areas of the paint rusting underneath, and other areas were cracks, and very sharp/thin edges..I wanted to minimize how much I buffed each area.

I felt that using the rotary would achieve more thorough results in fewer steps. And with 30+ hours in doing this process...it probably would have taken 60-70 hours by PC alone.

As for my choice in Amigo...that's correct..the finish was already flawless, but I chose to take advantage of it's properties that would enrich the paints depth and gloss and surface slickness.

Richard

 

nice job OG! hey, you got a new shop too, huh?

 

Thanks! Yeah the new shop is soooo nice. It's smaller but newer--built last year, and further away from the freeway so that the freeway dust doesn't get into the shop, the lighting is much better. Still getting situated, but miles better than before!

Richard

 

ni~~ce!

 

Ok here are some pix. We don't have any signage up yet and we're still making things cozy but this should give you a good idea.

ShowCarDetailing.com
1055 N. Shepard Street
Anaheim, CA 92806
Toll Fee 866-707-9292

Richard

 

that's an awesome looking office/shop Richard congrats on the move and great detail on the hot rod.

 

Yeah Very Cool shop OG! Best of Luck with the new digs!

 

Thanks!!
Hey Phil, thanks for the kind words. It sure was a lot of fun working on this hot rod. With almost no flat surfaces, the polishing pad was rarely in full contact with the panels. Of course, once the true condition of the paint was revealed, the owner didn't even realize the paint was bubbling (rust) or notice the crack on the fender, lol. The positive and negative side to polishing paint, lol.

Richard