Showing off what I've learned. Paint correction in progress.

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tipnitty

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So I've been working on a paint correction on my car (did some work on my truck as well). And figured I would post some of my steps and before and after for those that are thinking about doing one themselves. I figured I would make a thread about my detailing adventures and the products I'll be using. I'll update this as I go along and am more than willing to answer any question I can. Also open to any advice anyone may have. I don't have pictures during most of the use of the products right now, but will in the future updates.


I've been researching for a few months on what I wanted to use. I wanted to do this on a budget, but do the best job that I could. There are other methods you can use. But here is the supplies I used.

Harbor Fright DA
Lake County Orange
Lake County White
Lake County Black
Meguiars M105
Meguiars M205
Colinite 845 sealant
Medium grade clay bar
Chemical Guys Clay Lube
Chemical Guy Grime Reaper
Chemical Guys Black on Black
Sonax Wheel Cleaner
2 Bucket Method with grig guards
A few orders with The Rag Company Home Page

So here is how my car started. As you can see the paint is swirled to complete hell and it looks just terrible. It was irritating from the day I bought my car, but I just kind of dealt with it.
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So my first steps were as follows:

-2 Bucket wash method
-Drying the car with a leaf blower

Once I dried the car. I clay barred the car. This Chemical Guy Clay Luber can be concentrated. I dilluted it to a 4:1 water : product. Be generous with how much lube you use and work each panel until the clay will glide with no resistance.
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Here is after the clay bar. You see all the scratches in the paint and just how horrible it looks.
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Before I started the correction, I primed each pad using the Kevin Brown method. This insures that the pad has product on it and you won't create more damage with a dry pad.

Next step was to test spot. I marked off a 1' x 1' spot and tried out the use of M205 with a white pad. The resulted in lot of swirls remaining in the paint. So I went to the more aggressive pad. When using these products, be sure to work in about 1.5' x 1.5' areas. Take your time and don't be afraid to use a good amount of pressure!

I used the M105 with the orange pad on half the door. I like the results of what I saw. So I switched back to the M205 and worked the same side of the door. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!! If you just use the M105, your paint can look like it is hazed and won't have a deep shine. So be sure to go back over the area you just worked with a less aggressive compound and pad. In the picture below you can see the my three steps. The left side what I worked with both steps. The right side was worked with only M205. And the middle part that was under tape had seen no product.

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As you can see, I'm VERY happy with how the M105/M205 combo worked. You don't have to work the entire car with the aggressive 105 if you don't have to. If you can remove swirls with just 205, save yourself the time and skip the 105! 105 can dust easily and be hard to work with, you'll find this out if you use it. So here is how the door turned out after using 105 then 205.

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Next step I used the Black pad with the Colinite 845. I also primed the pad with the KBM. While using this product, be sure to warm up the product and make sure its very thin, you won't need much to work with. About 3 drops will be plenty to work the entire panel! Here is how the quarter panel looks after.

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So here are some after picture of my car. I'm pretty happy with the results.

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EDIT: 6/19/2015 FINALLY AN UPDATE!

With all of the rain and construction around, my truck was pretty gross. And a PERFECT example of why the two bucket method is so important to washing your truck. So here are the products that I decided to use today. I have very low water pressure at my house, so I have to resort to bay washing my cars still. So here is what I did.

These are the products I used for this wash.

  • Sonax Wheel Cleaner
  • Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & GLoss
  • Chemical Guys Grime Reaper APC

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Lets start with the Sonax Wheel Cleaner.

Very easy process of use.
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Spray on a cool/dry wheel. You'll see it's a greenish color.
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Agitate.
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You'll notice that the product has activated on the brake dust by it's maroonish color. Wheels were dusty, but not a whole lot of brake dust on them, and virtually none caked on the inner wheel or calipers.
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Final result with a high pressure spray and cleaning them off with my wheel only mitt.
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Next lets use the Grime Reaper APC.
I like to use this to clean under hood and with stuck on dead bugs. Works quite well. I have it diluted to a 4:1 ratio.

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Not the best smelling product. But it will eat those bugs and stuck on grime. Don't really have a good after picture for this one.

Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Gloss
I wanted a new soap and hear this was pretty good stuff to use. So I started by using 1.5 ounces with my 5 gallon bucket. Created great suds, no picture of the suds as i had to cap it to get to the wash bay.

Nice color and great smell, ready to go!
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Dirty truck.
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Sprayed down before wash. I like to do this to knock off as much gunk before I actually wash the truck.
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Didn't take any pictures while I washed. But here are the results.
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Now here is what has me upset at the moment and why it is NECESSARY to have a grit guard while you bucket wash your vehicle. My truck has tar/asphalt down the side of the truck. If you don't constantly rinse your mitt on the grit guard, you will drag this all over the truck. This will create terrible damage and swirling. I was not able to get them off with the APC and washing. Truck is due for a sealant/wax soon, so I'll be using a clay bar to remove this crap before I work the paint again.

You can see all the specks of asphalt.
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So what do I think about these products?


  • Sonax Wheel Cleaner - While the product seems to work pretty well, the price of it is a definite downfall. I would not use this to routinely wash your wheels, but only to get stuck on brake dust or road grime off of them. I would look into a different wheel clean for you weekly washing. But I'll keep this in my supply for after winter cleaning for sure.
  • Chemical Guy APC - Diluted 4:1 proved effective on removing bugs from the front. Some people like to use simple green as a related product, but I'm a fan of the Chemical Guys product as it's concentrated and very good price. I'll continue to use this.
  • Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Gloss - This product smell FANTASTIC! Was a competitive price and provided suds very well. While washing the product lubricated the surface very well and cleaned the surface to my expectations. Surface after washing was slick to the touch and left a nice shine to truck. I recommend this product for a nice wash. I would like to buy a foam cannon, and use the CG Mr.Pink with it. I believe that would be a great combination.

So that's it for today. I hope you guys enjoyed. I know not everyone likes Chemical Guys products, but I've had good results.

Until next time fellas!
 
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tipnitty

tipnitty

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Update for 5/28/2015:

Got my supplies in.

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Got a red pad from Detailed Image for the application of wax and sealant.

Decided to redo both of my cars. Was looking at methods of safely removing wax/sealant. So I bought the CG Citrus wash. Read pretty good things about this products ability to remove old protection in order to redo it.

Also wanted a good, quality, wash for my cars. Since there isn't any word if the water ban will be lifted yet, decided to hold off on the foam cannon just yet. So I bought this CG Wash and Gloss. Once again, heard good things about it.

I know there is A LOT of Chemical Guys hate in the detailing community. But they do have good products. Their service leaves something to be desired and youtube videos are awful, but I'm excited to try them out.
 
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jub jub

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Nice job! Black paint is such a ***** but, you seem to have it tamed!
 
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tipnitty

tipnitty

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Thanks! Was kind of nervous at first, but once you get the hang of it you really make progress.
 

Pull Ya

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Have you considered using a Sealant before you wax. I use Wolfgang 3.0 Sealant first and then wait for it to cure 24 hrs. and then top it with Collinite 845. The sealant will give you app. 6 months of protection whereas just using wax will usually only give you about a month protection, although IMHO you have picked the best wax around. Your car looks great--hard work pays off---
Jay
 
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tipnitty

tipnitty

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Have you considered using a Sealant before you wax. I use Wolfgang 3.0 Sealant first and then wait for it to cure 24 hrs. and then top it with Collinite 845. The sealant will give you app. 6 months of protection whereas just using wax will usually only give you about a month protection, although IMHO you have picked the best wax around. Your car looks great--hard work pays off---
Jay

I have been looking for a good sealant, but there are many of them around and I couldn't make up my mind. Since the car sits in the garage most of the time, I knew I could get away without a proper sealant and just use the 845 as a sealant/wax. I missed some spots so I'll be going back over the car in the next few months so I'll definitely look into the wolfgang. Appreciate the input!
 

SETEX 6.4

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Wow, great job. I'm subscribing so I can follow. Thanks for being so detailed in your thread.
 
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tipnitty

tipnitty

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Thanks for the compliment! If you ever have questions I'll do my best to help you out!
 
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tipnitty

tipnitty

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Thanks! Took a long time to pull the trigger on products, but I'm glad I did! It's kind of becoming an addiction lol
 

petesnchz

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Nice job! I'm so scared to mess up my paint but I think I'm going to have to give it a try one day. How much do you have invested in your detailing supplies if you don't mind me asking?
 
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tipnitty

tipnitty

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Nice job! I'm so scared to mess up my paint but I think I'm going to have to give it a try one day. How much do you have invested in your detailing supplies if you don't mind me asking?

I have about $200 in supplies right now. Which is more than necessary, and you can get other supplies for cheaper. It can get a little pricey, but if you do a friend or co-workers car, you can charge them $100ish and have a good amount of your money back. That's what I've been doing!
 

EWC88

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Results look great, good job! I've been doing so much research so this coming spring/summer I want to do a full detail to my truck. Did you change the back plate on for DA and if so with what brand? I was looking at getting that DA and saw a lot of people on autogeek recommend changing back plate and also removing/adding new grease inside it. This allows it to run quieter and smoother apparently.
 
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tipnitty

tipnitty

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Results look great, good job! I've been doing so much research so this coming spring/summer I want to do a full detail to my truck. Did you change the back plate on for DA and if so with what brand? I was looking at getting that DA and saw a lot of people on autogeek recommend changing back plate and also removing/adding new grease inside it. This allows it to run quieter and smoother apparently.

I just used the original backing plate. Wasn't sure I was going to get good results so I didn't want to spend more than I had to. I hear so many hit and miss things about the harbor freight DA. But now that I use it, it'll work fine until it craps out. Then I'll buy a nicer orbital. Again, I've read if you can use low end equipment and products well, higher end equipment and products will yield even better results.
 

DavidRam

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Thanks! Took a long time to pull the trigger on products, but I'm glad I did! It's kind of becoming an addiction lol

The other day I found out that Chemical Guys has a new showroom about 10 minutes from my home. One of these days I am gonna spend some time (money) there. :naughty:

The combination of the right products, the right sequence of use and some practice can really render awesome results...
 
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tipnitty

tipnitty

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Damn thats lucky. if i was near i would have a large collection of supplies by now!!
 

OptimusRAM

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Wow awesome job man. You have convinced me to do this to my ram when i debadge it. Killer !
 
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