GDII's Detailing

[GDII]

I have always been quite keen on keeping my car clean and also learning as much as I can about cars in general. This has lead me down the path of detailing and paint correction. Over the last 15 years I have done some form of detailing and paint correction starting with a basic wash of the exterior and vacuum of the interior.

Then came compounding the paint by hand and polishing at an amateur level as a teenager not knowing much about paint except it was a coating with some colour and it clearly had a thickness to it.

Over the last 11 years of owning my red SW20 MR2 I have polished it and compounded it many many times. Learning as I went then understanding different paints as I moved onto helping others with their cars. Turns out the early generation SW20s have very soft paint and are also single stage. So as I found out in recent years, polishing your car too much removes paint and now there are patches with primer showing through, although shiny primer as it would be from polishing it.

I now have a small list of cars I have worked on to clean, inside and outside and the engine bay plus doing paint correction. I haven't documented some of these cars that well but this last project I have a few more photos (read heaps) to show the process of restoring a car back to or beyond it's former glory.

Below is a list of cars I have worked on and the paint colour and type. The colour and type of paint matters as some are harder to correct fully than others.
AE111 Toyota Carib. White Single Stage
E36 BMW 318Ti. Black with clearcoat
REV1 SW20 MR2. Red with many repainted panels. Single stage.
REV2 SW20 MR2. Red. Appears to have had a full respray. Single Stage.
REV3 SW20 MR2. White Single Stage.
GEN4 Subaru Outback. Black metallic (green and blue fleck) Clearcoat
2001 Holden Cruze. Silver Clearcoat
Honda Logo. Green clearcoat
Maserati Ghibli S. I only wash this car, no paint correction. It's a brilliant Blu Emozione with a clearcoat and paint protection film on some panels.
2006 Mazda 3 MPS. Grey metallic clearcoat.
MKIV Golf. Red with a respray and peeling clearcoat.
1996 Ford Probe

I'll cover some of the cars above with photos in subsequent posts but for now I want to focus on the last project I worked on which is the REV2 SW20 MR2. This one was an interesting and challenging car to work on. You'll see why below.

I had the opportunity to look at the car about 6 months ago to gauge what needed done and did a quick test spot by hand to see if it would be repairable. Luckily it was so I agreed to do the work.

Starting off, here are some shots before I washed the car. It has been sitting outside for a while and then in a garage for a bit too but even though the owner told me he had never washed it since it was purchased 2 years ago as a rolling shell it was surprisingly clean.
I apologise in advance for some of the shocking photos. Old phone tech and not holding it still enough.

The front right guard in desperate need of attention. As you'll see most of the car was like this.

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Tail lights were just the typical red faded but not too bad. A light polish brought them back to being nicer and fitting well with the rest of the car later on.

Left over wax from a previous attempt at trying to make it look better.

Engine lids on turbos are rather difficult to polish out the grille. All by hand, makes a mess of your fingers.

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Genuine REV5 spoiler in factory red. I took off the side caps to clean inside and to take a look at what interesting things might be hiding in there. It's the first REV5 spoiler I have been able to get my hands on to take a look. Learn all the things....

Looks like Olaf has got his hands on the light controls again!

Quick spray of water made it look a bit better. Time for washing!

All clean. Looking better already.

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First pass on the front guard. Quite a significant change but needed more work.

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That's a bit better.

Note the tape on the trim. This is used to prevent cutting compound getting into the old trim. Once it is in there it's almost impossible to get out. Using a pencil eraser helps but not always perfect. Best to stop it completely before it even has a chance.

The lower side of the car done except the front bumper.

Half and half shots showing the difference.

This corner of the car was the old section that still had a shine and red visible. Half is down to it being polished previously and the other is this car is a REV2 so has had the spoiler side pod holes welded and then painted this rear quarter panel. It still needed a good going over as it was all scratched up from people leaning on the car doing engine work.

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The internals of a genuine REV5 spoiler side cap.

Engine lid done by machine polisher. I came back the next day to do the grille by hand. By the end of the 9 hours I worked on the car on the Saturday I was a little worn out.

Roof almost done. A big change here. The roof and bonnet are normally the hardest parts to get right as they are large flat panels that show any incorrect work.

Half and half bonnet and bumper.

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Bad photo I know but this is it completed. A little bit of tyre shine in the form of CarPro PERL and same for the black trim on the windows and the rubber mud flaps.

I think this came out rather well and based on the response from the owner it was worth the small fee to restore the paint instead of repaint for a much higher cost.

The car is actually very straight with minimal dings, very few scratches and limited paint chips. I suspect this is mostly due to the fact it's been painted before. So for a car that started of with some of the worst faded paint I have worked on, it came back to life extremely well.

[HEAD5HOTNZ]

Woohoo.

Looks very very cool. Phill you did an amazing job. Thank you again.

It now looks like every generic internet sw20

and I've lost my cup holder in the garage...

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New pictures:

Yes thats my uzs186 3uz crown majesta in the background

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[ClanFever]

Thanks for the write up Phil, I can vouch for your work, cannot wait till my SW gets it's share

Looks like Olaf has got his hands on the light controls again!

Anyone who comes on my runs will know exactly what you mean

[thorns]

Well done, that has come up looking great!

[4CylinderSpecial]

Great work. Get up to Auckland and do mine

[tw2]

Wow looks amazing. Unfortunately I think mine needs new paint

[GDII]

Thanks for the write up Phil, I can vouch for your work, cannot wait till my SW gets it's share

Looks like Olaf has got his hands on the light controls again!

Anyone who comes on my runs will know exactly what you mean

We will get it driving first Then we can look at how we approach your paint.

Well done, that has come up looking great!

Thanks. I was surprised how easy it was to get most coming up good.

Great work. Get up to Auckland and do mine

No! You come to me!

Wow looks amazing. Unfortunately I think mine needs new paint

That depends. Does it have cracking, pealing clear coat and lots of deep scratches to the primer? If so then probably but if not then it can be saved. It may not come up perfect but you'll be surprised how much better it can be just from proper paint correction.

[tw2]

That depends. Does it have cracking, pealing clear coat and lots of deep scratches to the primer? If so then probably but if not then it can be saved. It may not come up perfect but you'll be surprised how much better it can be just from proper paint correction.

The front bumper looks like it has been sprayed with gravel and there are large paint chips to the primer in a few spots on most panels. Roof was resprayed with that rear window trim on so it has cracked across the roof line where they meet. One day I will get a semi-proper job done. I will take off everything that easily comes off- mirrors, front quarter panels, bonnet, boot, lid, windscreen seal and mask the rest.

[Mr Shiny]

Nice work Phill! Reminds me of when I did this one. What products did you use? I also have some fantastic engine bay spray (can't buy in shops) that you're welcome to have some. I'll never get through it all!

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[GDII]

Nice work Phill! Reminds me of when I did this one. What products did you use? I also have some fantastic engine bay spray (can't buy in shops) that you're welcome to have some. I'll never get through it all!
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Looks epic. Great job. These SWs really can come back to life. A white one I did for a club member may have looked the same but as it was white you couldn't see the oxidation so easily.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjhj3i3lpx2/

What is the product for engine bays? What does it do? Cleans or shines?

Products I used on this detail are:
CarPro Clearcut for a one step cut and polish. This stuff is great.
CarPro PERL on the rubber and black plastic trim. Same for tyres.
Meguiars Carnauba wax for the final protection coating on the paint and wheels.

I have a lot of other products I use sometimes but running very low on them as I've not been able to buy them at reasonable costs lately. But my favorite product is CarPro Hydro2. I haven't put it on my car for 8+ months but it still allows the paint to bead and clear off the dust and dirt in the rain. I also haven't washed my MR2 since December 2018.

[Mr Shiny]

I quite like using DAT type compounds like Sonax Perfect Finish. Sadly like you mention, price is a factor as this stuff is about $80US for 1L & I have to get it in from the States. I do use quite a bit of Meguiars too as I have a Tradesaver account with them. I really love using their MF cutting pads & D300. Excellent cutting, long working time & no dusting.
The engine bay stuff is a 3D product. Basically you dilute the stuff & just mist spray it around the engine bay. I usually give the engine a bit of a dusting & blow out with the compressor first, but then this stuff coats everything & dries to leave a fairly clean/new looking engine bay. I should've taken before & afters of the car I'm currently working on that I have used it on.

[Benckj]

That depends. Does it have cracking, pealing clear coat and lots of deep scratches to the primer? If so then probably but if not then it can be saved. It may not come up perfect but you'll be surprised how much better it can be just from proper paint correction.

The front bumper looks like it has been sprayed with gravel and there are large paint chips to the primer in a few spots on most panels. Roof was resprayed with that rear window trim on so it has cracked across the roof line where they meet. One day I will get a semi-proper job done. I will take off everything that easily comes off- mirrors, front quarter panels, bonnet, boot, lid, windscreen seal and mask the rest.

If your not drastically changing colours I'd leave as much on when re-spraying. Can still do a professional job by masking and prepping all the parts to be painted. As my Brother from PPG taught me you want to have the panels in the correct place even if removed as you can get a variation in shades due to shooting in a different position (ie hanging engine lid vertically). This is especially true when using additives like metal flake or pearl tones.

[tw2]

If your not drastically changing colours I'd leave as much on when re-spraying. Can still do a professional job by masking and prepping all the parts to be painted. As my Brother from PPG taught me you want to have the panels in the correct place even if removed as you can get a variation in shades due to shooting in a different position (ie hanging engine lid vertically). This is especially true when using additives like metal flake or pearl tones.

No colour change, I really like it (the green/blue colour whatever it's called).

[GDII]

This is the 2004 GEN4 Subaru Outback I did a while back. This one had some pretty extreme scratching in the clearcoat that needed a lot of work.

This car got a full detail. Inside and out and the engine bay. I didn't quite go to the extents of doing under the chassis though.
It was so bad once I had finished I realised there was actaully blue and green flecks in the paint. This could now been seen from at least 4m away.

Black is one of the hardest paints to get right and this one still wasn't perfect. I was still learning how a particular product worked too.

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[GDII]

This is the MPS 3 I did a while back. I only used CarPro Fixer which is a light polish as the car was in quite good condition. All I wanted to do was remove the swirls that show up in the sun.

This car also had some aftermarket Autoexe wiper wind deflector blades on it. They were extremely faded but a quick application of CarPro DLUX ceramic coating brought them back to life. They start dark for a long time and the coating is hydrophobic so helps stop dirt sticking.