Honda S2000 Black - Detailed....
 

Phil bought this car a few months back, but said to me how when he cleans it, the car still looks dirty.

I said i'd give it a go and see how much of an improvement i can make so he dropped it off for me to spend today on (Sunday).
I started at 9am, as you can see below the car was pretty filthy.

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First up was a quick blast of Snow Foam
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Rinsed off....
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Next step was to clean the wheels, using a couple of different brushes with some Autosmart G101

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Rinsed off...
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Much better...
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Next stage was to Clay the entire car, i don't think it's been done in the cars 9 year history so as you can imagine there was a lot to clean off
CYC Blue clay, with some Zip wax shampoo mixed with water as lube:

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Those were the two bad bits, the rest of the car was still fairly bad but i needed to get on so didn't want to keep drying off my hands to use the camera.

Quick snow foam again

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After rinsing again, i sprayed the whole car with some Meguiars Last touch, and dried off using the AB Fluffy blue towel, and a couple of small ones

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PART 2 TO FOLLOW BELOW

Now for the interesting part....

As you can see from these pics, the car had loads of swirls - just a combination of soft Honda paint and bad washing techniques.....

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Boot lid taped up for 50/50

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I used my CYC Das6 Pro machine, time was short as i only had a couple of hours and being Honda paint i'm told it's pretty soft so i didn't want to go all out and decided to give Autoglym SRP a go, and see how it works compared to the Menz range which is all i'd used up until now. I have used SRP before but never by machine so i was keen to see how it worked.

I used a Sonus SFX-3 Pad (both 6" and 4" for different areas) but i'm really pleased with how it worked for just SRP

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Moved on to rear quarter, 50/50

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Completed the passenger side, really impressed by SRP - The first time i've managed to get 50/50 shots, but it was obvious it was making a decent attempt of hiding some and getting rid of other swirls and scratches.

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Nice reflection i thought

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As time was short, i went for a nice easy to apply LSP in Dodo Rainforest Rub

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Wax left to cure for around 25 mins
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Starting to buff off.... it was leaving a nice shine

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I polished the Exhaust up with Autosol Metal Polish
Before

http://i53.tinypic.com/zohn5e.jpg

After
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PART 3 TO FOLLOW BELOW

Tyres dressed with Meg's hot rims tyre spray
Final pics

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Thanks for reading, sorry for the massive post - I look forward to any comments!

Nick, what an amazing job. I love reading these detailing threads. Just wished i lived a little closer to you as id love for you to do my car.

I bet the guy was really happy with his S2000.

Not a fan of SRP on black cars, it gets stuck in the stone chips. Am gonna try some black hole at some point and see if that gets rid of my problems.

Looks good though, did you wax the wheels as well?

Thanks mate, Phil was away with Lee on his stag do so didn't get home until really late to pick the car up so I didn't even get to see him but i sent him a few pics and stuff of it :-)

Nick, I need you to do my Scoob! :woot:

G

Thanks mate, it was the first time i'd used SRP via machine but it worked amazingly well - I was so scared of marring or damaging the paint with anything stronger but next time i'd step up to Menz 106FA or 85RD and think that would sort it...

I didn't have any issues with it getting it stuck in stone chips though, but i gave the car a thorough wipe down with IPA (Isopropanol) which removes any polish residue - maybe that helped?

It came out well though, i hope Phil's happy with it!

SRP? is that a 'done' thing? I do detailing, but don't follow detailing world atall. Good work there btw. :thumbsup:

I find Menzerna gives off a lot of dust which is a bugger to shift (I know Menzerna is very popular with detailers though), I prefer the Sonus SFX range which gives equal results and less dusts (so far better in my opinion). Doing an S2000 or any car with a hood, less dust is a must.

Super Resin Polish :thumbsup: It did a great job though, a lot of people use it by hand but you'd just never get the same results as you do by machine - amazing how a product like that can work hey?

I've used the SFX2 & 3 but found the Menz stuff just a bit easier to work with - i think the newer stuff is better, there's certainly less dust anyway - SRP does create a fair bit of dust though, but that was pretty easy to get rid of.

Great job nick, i'm sure phil is loving it

Next we bugger off somewhere and you get left behind, maybe you can do my megane ;)

Haha yeah no worries Jon, just give me a shout - Especially if you're going to be selling it too, makes a world of difference to a buyer when they turn up to see a car gleaming!!! I reckon it's either the difference between selling & Not Selling, or £500+ in value with some cases like Phil's.....

I'm sure it'll be soon enough anyway - Speaking of which, i look forward to hearing what happened to Lee - He sounds a bit worse for wear today and has even pulled out of playing Football with us, even though both Phil's are playing :D

I use SRP on the Golf Chris, it's super easy to apply by hand and gives really good results without too much effort :)

I've not ventured into machine polishing yet - too scared of sanding through my paint :woot:

Thats a hell of a nice looking job. How long did it take you.

Sorry, I meant SRP by machine. I use it by hand too, but I prefer the Ultimate Shine Autoglym (Black Label) nowadays if by hand.

It's sooooo easy to use by machine - Just get a dual action machine and you'll be fine, especially with VAG paint as it's rock hard! The DA stops you generating too much heat in one place like a Rotary - i think basically you'd have to be a bit crazy to do any damage, you just have to read up on it....

On some heavy scratches it's taken me ages to build up any heat in the paint - and to do damage it would be way hotter then i was able to get it as it literally has to melt the clear coat.

Exactly what I was about to say Nick, LOL. The Meguiars G220 is alright. The Portacable is a good option but needs transformer and the velcro pad thing - works out expensive. Not sure on what other options are available.

Rotary is good if you know what you are doing, and good for the ultimate finish - but makes it so you have to look after it, as wouldn't be confident in doing it again. Personally I think it takes away too much clearcoat, and I wouldn't use it on my own car, so I wouldn't use it on anybody elses. The beauty of dual action is it is safe, and don't need to worry about giving a panel a 2nd doing, or doing it every 6months or so..

Nick, have you tried SFX1? Its really good stuff.

Nice job there Nick, put some £££ on that s2000!!!
Over the years i have polished loads of paint using a rotary and you really have to be heavy handed to burn the laquer (maybe not on sharp edges), but the question is....... I only ever have use farecla g3 and g10 for heavy cutting and all other stuff i use nielsen products. Which do you guys use for a light cutting polish? (for machine polishing)

I would reccomend the 3m range of polishes and compounds. I use the extra fine (yellow lid) for light cutting followed by ultrafina (blue lid) although if the paintwork is realy bad i use the fast cut plus. All with matching pads for machine polishing. 3M have just brought out a new range of car care products to compete with auto glym and alike which i will be testing out in the next few weeks so will let everyone know what they are like.

Nobody asked for your comments you turd. The fact is that some of us own and drive nice cars, naturally we like to take care of our prized possession especially when they are worth so much money.

Tell us then Wayne King, what car do you drive, or are too young or stupid to be in receipt of a drivers license?