So, putting house things to one side I got on with giving the car some much needed love. Weather looked promising. Didn't take too many before and after shots as I just needed to get the job done and had limited time.
The paint was awful. Swirls everywhere. Looked like it'd been washed with a 1 bucket method of gravel when the sun hit it! 1 panel that I knew about had orange peel that needed sorting but one thing that went unnoticed was the amount of tar on the car. I know its an 11 yr old car but christ! Lower panels, arches, and a little above the door strips. Both front door lower panels were close to being half black with the stuff (no exaggeration).
So here's the armoury.....
Placed 3 pieces of clay in warm water to soften whilst I started washing with the 2 bucket method inc. grit guard working from top to bottom. Used a clay bar on the panels with heavy tar to remove some before spraying with Autosmart tardis, agitating then leaving whilst the rest of the car got the clay treatment.
Here's a picture of the tar spots. It's not great as you can't really see many.
And of the clay after a small section
I had to clay each panel around 4 or 5 times, each time getting a similar result.
Clay after passes on the rear bumper
Some of the tar was removed but around half still remained and required further work. Car was then washed again. The rear quarter that had orange peel got the wet sand treatment. 1500 then 2000 grit before being washed again and then polished along with the rest of the car.
Products used: Kestrel DAS6-pro with 6" and 4" compounding waffle pad with Menzerna power finish.
Gave the whole car a couple of goings over with this method. Then wanted to use the Menzerna final finish to make sure there were no holograms or blemishes in the paint before using Zaino Z-5 with Zfx accelerator. Unfortunately the rain was about to come at this point so without having any wax on the car quickly applied Zaino Z-8 to temporarily seal the paint til I have time to finish the job.
Gutted!!!
DAY 2Today looked good to finish the job and get some needed protection on the paint. As I was unable to use the Z-5 mix last night, I had to bin it and make another batch. Each batch only lasts for 6 hours after being mixed.
I put this on the panels, left to cure for half an hour and buffed off with a microfiber. To add a little more depth but primarily to fill some of the imperfections that were left (as I was unable to remove every imperfection) I gave the car a few passes with Poorboys black hole on a slow-medium speed with a 6" finishing pad as it breaks down easily. As a sealant, I used Auto Glym EGP, left to cure for an hour before buffing off and Auto Glym HD wax to finish.
Here's some finished shots.
This was the panel that had orange peel and had to be flatted. 1500, 2000 then Menz polish.
Panel on left is original paint, on right, the wet sanded panel.
Before anyone comments, I am aware the wheels are dirty. This was purely about the correction and rejuvenation. The wheels are coming off in a couple of weeks so the arches will be getting a full dressing then.
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