Part I:

Somebody here asked if it was worth it to spend the time needed to bring up a high gloss shine on a white car, what with white not being able to show the depth of color you get from black, red and other dark colors.

Well, Justin (AKA Z28toXFire) has an Alabaster Crossfire Limited Coupe that was a, well, swirled mess. Forgive me buddy, but it was, plain and simple.

So I offered to have him bring the car by Meguiar's Garage and I'd see what I could do. I know when I picked up my own car in July '07 it had only 32 miles on it but had sat around dealer lots for a couple of years, and the paint was a mess. I quickly learned how hard the paint is on these cars, and when in a horrible state they need a pretty aggressive approach to correct the problem. That held true with Justin's car as well.

Here's the car when it rolled up to Meguiar's Garage around 9:45AM yesterday morning:





Now that doesn't look too bad at first glance, does it? But out in the sun it looked like this:



But that picture, of a rear quarter panel, doesn't tell the full tale. The hood was a disaster:





It not only looked bad, it felt fairly awful as well, so our first step was to quickly clay the car. This came off half the roof, which is a pretty small panel on a two seater!



Since past experience indicated this was most likely going to be a rotary job, and since we had very limited time to work on this car, we started taping off in anticipation of a full rotary process - the fender strakes and other areas were subsequently taped off before proceeding.



M105 was definitely going to be called to duty, but a decision still needed to made regarding pad choice. We started with the WWHC7 Wool Heavy Cutting Pad from the So1o line...



A half and half comparison showed this wasn't quite going to do it....



.... so out came the W5000 Double Sided Wool Pad.....



.... and that was much more like it. So that was our plan, with Justin following behind with a G110, M205 Ultra Finishing Polish and W9207 Soft Buff 2.0 Finishing Pad. He worked that combination slowly for a fairly long period of time to reveal a high clarity, high gloss finish.



Part II below:

 

Part II:

Along the way we discovered some scuff marks on the front bumper that we figured were going to present a real challenge, given the hardness of this paint. Fortunately Justin mentioned that the front bumper had been repainted so we took a shot at the G110, W8207 Soft Buff 2.0 Polishing Pad and the M105 we were already using.

Scuffs....



.... no scuffs. That was easy!



Up against the clock, we busted this out in 3 hours of buffing. Yep, just 3 hours, which means we couldn't get it perfect, but Justin was thrilled and amazed at how different, and how good, his Crossfire looked in such a short period of time!










OK, so where are the "after" shots in direct sunlight to show the true difference?





Well, they're right here, of course!


This is the hood......



.... and here's that quarter panel.



No, it isn't perfect, flawless or ready for Pebble Beach. But the car is 5.5 years old, has over 60,000 miles on it, and nothing has ever been done except the rare clay and wax job. If we'd had more than 3 hours of buffing time we certainly could have done a lot more - we've got some light streaking here from a very short wax drying time prior to removal as well. Hey, when we're up against the clock, we're up against the clock!!

So, is it worth taking the time and effort to do this on a white car?



Heck yeah!

 

Looks Great.

 

Looks great!
Saw a new tip for me. Tape off the black plastic trim. That's an easy one!

 

As always Mike, you do real nice work.

Real nice.

 

It wasn't that bad was it? who am i kidding? Of course it was. i still think you played with those pics a little.

Thanks Mike, lets do it again sometime, i'll give you a call in 5 years and 120,000 miles.

Justin

 

Great job Mike as expected.

I haven't seen a job done that well in 3 hrs before.

Speaking of good detailing jobs...


Do you know of any good detailers in the NJ area? I really want to get a full detail on the SRT, but won't just give it to anyone. I didn't know if you had any authorized meguiars detailers in the area...so I thought I would ask.

 

+1 mike! any great detailers in the nashville tn area?i have the code 040 black mercedes paint which is a fairly soft paint. not bmw soft but not chrysler hard either. i would love for presidential detail to do my car but they are in fl!

 

Not just the NJ area...do you have a national llist of authorized detailers? Maybe a web site or downloadable list that we could access?

I too would like to get my baby done professionally (that didn't come out right, I think ) once or twice a year and then I would do maintenance in between.

 

why you gotta be jacking my post... haha kidding.

a national list would be impressive.

 

Great detail job!!!

But DAMN can I just say how hot that car looks? it's actually perfect! probably one of the best looking crossfires I've seen!!!

 

Excellent job Mike!
Pat

 

Nice job Mike, 3 hours - thats impressive!
Love the garage, flat panel TV and all, now thats a cool set-up!

 

That's where he works!

So they can watch episodes of "Car Crazy".

 

Thanks for all the kind words, guys!

Unfortunately we don't have a list of "Authorized Meguiar's Detailers" because we've never actually had a true certification program. What you guys can do is go on the Meguiar's forum (Meguiar's Online) and start a thread in the Meguiar's Detailer Wanted section. Plenty of guys all over the country regularly show off their talents on our forum and generally have the references to back it all up.

 

Mike,

You've seen my black SRT. I am using the Ultimate Compound, NXT 2.0, Ultimate Detailer and Ultimate Spray Wax. I use a PC for the compund and wax.

Would you recommend anything else or instead of. Keeping it shiny is like physical therapy for me. I spend at least 40 min to an hour per day.

Thanks,

Karl

 

It all depends on what else you want to do with your finish, Karl. Your car looks great but if you want to take it to another level you'll either need to refine your process with the D/A, maybe follow the Ultimate Compound with some M205 Ultra Finishing Polish with a finishing pad, or step up to a rotary buffer. But rotary work is not something you just jump into - you can do serious damage very quickly if you aren't proficient with the tool.

 

Great transformation Mike, a beautiful job. When can I schedual an appointment (lol).

 

I am a board newbie and am just going thru all the posts and soaking it all in like a sponge. Do those tail lights have black outs on them or is that a different tail light? It looks so integrated, not like a blackout cover?

 

Factory lenses, but the owner had them painted with the turn signal and backups masked off to keep them clear. They look fantastic in person!