[SpecC]

I don't know what color to call this, so it's just going to be an ES300.

Car was pretty clean to begin with since it had been washed a week ago, and its color hides dirty very well. There is a lot of chrome on this car, and I'll be looking for a better metal polish after seeing minimal results on all of this.

I need to be more careful with this wash process though! I let some citrus wash and gloss water get into my gloves during the wash process and now my fingers' skin is all peeling! Nasty!

Materials

Wash&Dry
CG CWG
Micro-chenille mitt
Grit Guard
Waffle Weave Drying Towel

Clay
CG Clay
CG CWG as clay lube cause I'm out of QD and lazy to refill soap

Glass
CG CWG for wash
Stoners IG to clean up
Jetseal 109

Engine Bay
CG Grime Reaper diluted 5:1
Costco MF

Metal Bits
Exhaust tip, trim, grille, door handles (yes, door handles)
CG Metal Polish

Wheels & Tires
CG CWG
EZ Detail brush - best wheel brush out there!
Swissvax Wheel Brush - this one's for the wheel face and made my job a lot easier
Jetseal 109
Swissvax Pneu - tire shine

Paint Correction
Hitachi rotary polisher
Menzerna PO106FF
Menzerna SIP (trunk only)
LC White Pad (with 106FF)
LC Orange Pad (with SIP)
50/50 Isopropyl and water mixture

LSP
Jetseal 109 - cured overnight
Meguiar's Quick Detailer
All purpose MF towel

Now for pictures. I didn't take before ones because I was being lazy, and it wouldn't have made much of a difference for this color. My camera is pretty crappy and I'm looking to upgrade that anyway.



Engine bay before





As you can see, I had a pretty hard time actually capturing the swirls on camera.



my test section



taped up for a 50/50 shot!



This is the best I could do in terms of actually capturing the paint correction I was doing. I'll let you guess which side I actually polished. The polished side was passed with SIP and 106FF.



Finished one side of the car and half the roof. Time for a break!

After Jetseal 109 and finished engine bay pictures.





Yeah it's not completely clean because there were some areas I tried to avoid. Crappy Toyota cooling! I sprayed some Grime Reaper on it and it just started to steam and smell like death! Same happened to the wheels. He drove it for 7 minutes and the brakes were so hot, the water evaporated right away!





SV Pneu is awesome! It's a good shine in person, but it's not a OMG THAT IS TOO SHINY kind.




My attempts at the "FMINUS shot"












Jea! super dark tint!

After working on this car, I bought a 3M backing plate right away. Just look at that hood my fellow detailers!

[E90SLAM]

there's no way this car can be any cleaner like this....

[!Xoible]

u wont get any compliments from me until u start attaching pics hahaha

[to_riffic]

damn, thats awesome... oh shit, i got drool on the car, u're gonna hav to redo it now

[SpecC]

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

there's no way this car can be any cleaner like this....

i try, i try

Originally Posted by ///Mantis

u wont get any compliments from me until u start attaching pics hahaha

i'll link it to you at night then you needy little girl!

Originally Posted by ra2fanatic

damn, thats awesome... oh shit, i got drool on the car, u're gonna hav to redo it now

hahaa no worries, even the car's paint is happy about this

[SpecC]

Originally Posted by AoshichanX

WOW were your FMINUS shots before LSP! Either way they look really amazing, especially since it is silver. Great before and afters also! 3M backing plate will probably just reduce the amount of time you spend since the your polishing is already top notch

it was actually after LSP. I just don't have as many things around to reflect off the hood. Taking time off my detailing process would be great! This stuff takes me all day to get results up to my standards!

[JOYRIIDE1113]

Man. Great work. Can you imagine how awesome it would be if we had a whole group of "real" detailers doing a volume/product job for a day. Imagine 5 detail geeks working on one car at a time. We'd be able to knock out a days worth of a job in like 2 hours. Hmmm. I'm thinkin trip to cali.

[blakjack23]

I just bought some Citrus Wash and Gloss. Should I not be washing my car with this and bare hands?

[SpecC]

Originally Posted by JOYRIIDE1113

Man. Great work. Can you imagine how awesome it would be if we had a whole group of "real" detailers doing a volume/product job for a day. Imagine 5 detail geeks working on one car at a time. We'd be able to knock out a days worth of a job in like 2 hours. Hmmm. I'm thinkin trip to cali.

haha we might get angry at each other on subtle differences because you know how OCD each one of us is

Originally Posted by blakjack23

I just bought some Citrus Wash and Gloss. Should I not be washing my car with this and bare hands?

my skin on my fingers are shredded and the bucket dilution was considerably lower than washing dilution, so i'd advise against it. 2 days and my hand seems to be fine, but it's still peeling a bit

[blakjack23]

So you used a lower dilution because the car was already pretty clean? I use the regular wash dilution everytime I clean my car, which is usually twice a week. Is that bad? Should I lower the dilution if the car is not that filthy and I'm washing that regularly? If I remember correctly the regular wash was like half ounce to one gallon of water and the stripping dilution was like 2 ounces to 1 gallon of water. Sorry if thats a stupid question, it early in the morning and I haven't had enough coffee yet

[SpecC]

Originally Posted by blakjack23

So you used a lower dilution because the car was already pretty clean? I use the regular wash dilution everytime I clean my car, which is usually twice a week. Is that bad? Should I lower the dilution if the car is not that filthy and I'm washing that regularly? If I remember correctly the regular wash was like half ounce to one gallon of water and the stripping dilution was like 2 ounces to 1 gallon of water. Sorry if thats a stupid question, it early in the morning and I haven't had enough coffee yet

1. That particular bucket had a lower concentration because I used it as my rinse bucket. I used a full concentration to clean the car and to strip anything that might've been on it.

2. Citrus wash and gloss isn't one of those regular washes unless you dilute it A LOT. I'm not sure what the dilution is to get it to not strip protection, but I think you want to look for something else for your regular wash.

Don't worry about your paint though. It's paint safe, but it just strips all protection which is why I'd suggest against it unless you are doing a full detail or just trying to strip off the rest of the sealant.

[blakjack23]

Thanks! I just did a full detail with sealant and wax a couple weeks ago so I better stop using the CW&G on a weekly basis. Or dilute the hell out of it like you said. I don't wanna strip off all my hard work....if I haven't already. I haven't been using a lot per bucket, so hopefully my sealant is still on there.

[SES_D]

good work

[JOYRIIDE1113]

Originally Posted by blakjack23

Thanks! I just did a full detail with sealant and wax a couple weeks ago so I better stop using the CW&G on a weekly basis. Or dilute the hell out of it like you said. I don't wanna strip off all my hard work....if I haven't already. I haven't been using a lot per bucket, so hopefully my sealant is still on there.

I would assume that dilluting it too much (in order to mae it safe) would reduce its other characteristics such as lubricity.

[blakjack23]

Yeah that makes sense too. So what do you guys suggest for washing on a weekly basis that won't strip any of the seals/waxes off? A Mothers product from the local hardware store?