April's Full Detail (56k Warning)

[martyp]

Okay, this really is bordering on obsessive, in total I spent ~70 hours detailing the WJ over a week.

Some work was already done before I started a few weeks before, such as apply Gliptone Liquid Leather Cleaner and Conditioner to leather seats, de-grease door jambs and apply 1x coat of sealant, and de-grease engine bay and dress the plastics. The last two had to be re-done; just a quick APC wipe over tho due to Menzerna polish dust!

I could type up the process and products used but I think it’d take up a page. So I’ll give you a quick summary of each stage then piccies.

Products Used (not showing Porter Cable, halogen lights, pressure washer, air compressor, towels/pads/brushes and a few other products):


The most important step was de-swirling the paint work. This took me about 2 days with Menzerna Intensive Polish 3.02 and a 4” Sonus SFX 2 pad on the PC (6” pad could be used on the hood only ) and about 1.5/2 hours to apply Menz Final Finish to redefine the finish and bring out more gloss/depth.

This pic, shows the difference between the polished door and unpolished rear quarter panel, notice the light on the door is much sharper than on the left.



Swirls before:



Swirls after:



Sorry, for lack of swirl before/after pics but it seemed like it was never going to end and I just wanted to get on with it.

Next up was applying Zaino, 3x coats of ZFX’d Z5-PRO then 3x coats of ZFX’d Z2-PRO and finally 1x coat of Z-CS 24 hours inbetween each product. Which gave a really deep, wet finish.






Then it was onto the finer details, the engine bay and door jambs were re-cleaned with Meg’s APC 10:1 to remove the polishing dust. A coat of Z-CS was applied to all the paint on these areas too, the engine was then dressed with Meg’s Hyper Dressing and Chemical Guys Fade2Black.





The wheels were in a horrible state, I couldn’t remove them due to a odd looking bolt in the center which was annoying. So out with Meg’s wheel brightener 4:1 and a brush. 3 hours later and they were spotless. I think it was the first time they had been cleaned since new. Arches were cleaned with Meg’s Super Degreaser 4:1 then dressed with Chemical Guys Bare Bones.

I forgot to take befores of the wheels/arches but here’s a older shot, the fronts were MUCH worse, to be honest this is how the they looked anyway! 2 wheels have the flaking clear and 2 are fine!




Finally the interior was done. Spare wheel was removed, cleaned as was its hiding place and tools, tyre was dressed. All carpeting was thoughly vac'd and meg’s APC 10:1 was applied to remove any spot stains. Plastics and door seals were firstly cleaned with APC then dressed with CG VRP. Glass was cleaned with AG’s Car Glass Polish. Leather was cleaned with Meg’s Quik Interior detailer. No before as it didn’t warrant them.



New Auto-Dim mirror now fitted, what a difference!


Yes, I like clean pedals, and that was before I cleaned the carpet to the left.

Last touches were, dress exterior plastics and tyres with Meg’s Hyperdressing 4:1 which leaves a gloss/matte finish which I’ve come to love. Finally Zaino Z6 was applied to all surfaces incl glass to remove any finger prints and dust.




Sorry for the huge post, but this was a huge detail. What a way to spend a week’s vacation of work, could have done with another to recover tho! Comments/questions very welcome and thanks for looking!
Appologies if this is in the wrong place - will try and get sun & scenic shots and post up in the Gallery.