PortlandRL

This car is owned by a good family friend of ours and is his daily driver; his weekend car is a Victory Red 2006 Corvette Z06 with a mere 2,800 miles on it.

Born a black New Beetle, this car was used as a promotional tool for local dealer Herzog-Meier Volkswagen. The paint job alone was $5,000, done by a professional in Seattle. After it received its due attention, HM VW sold it at original cost. Not a money-making venture, I'm sure.

At any rate. The car appeared to have never been properly polished and had tons of swirls, especially in the black. As TSC17 joked with me in a PM, hard German clearcoats and tight deadlines do not mix! It came down to the wire but I got the car delivered on time to the satisfaction of the owner.

Before









EWWWWW!!!!








And After...













I think my orbital hates me....

csmeance

uh oh, I think I see a few halograms in the pic of the door....

syee99

I wonder what causes the "dirty" pad? Mine looks like that (if not worse) after I'm done with my car. I'd say it's dirt, but should it really be that dirty after a wash? (I usually polish right after a wash)

Good job on the Beetle though. Looks much better than when it came in.

PortlandRL

That's actually not buffer burn. I thought it was the first time I did a black car with this buffer but it turns out it's wax residue. It washes off easily and is not permenant.

PortlandRL

Thanks for the comments. I have no idea what causes the dirty pad syndrome, either. It happens regardless of whether or not I've used clay. In this case, I should have and wanted to but couldn't due to circumstances outside my control. My order was placed last Friday and didn't hit my Visa until Monday night when it shipped. Pissed me off and threw my schedule off, too. If the clay I'm using (Griot's) wasn't so great, I would not have waited.

exceldetail

That crud on the pad is ummmm.........crud from the paint that clay doesnt remove.......Ive used Orangepads many times before before and turned pads black with that "crud".....Its fallout and oxidation....
Nice job, 100 times better, owner should be tickled pink.......
Looks like you used a Flex? What other products?

TSC17

Nice job Andrew. I'm glad to hear that you met your deadline. You weren't kidding about the motor...that thing was extremely dirty!

ill45

results look good using the orbital buffer.

PortlandRL

I used a variety of Griot's Garage stuff. Because the swirling was so bad I did a pass over the car with stage 2 polish and re-buffed any sections that were a little difficult. Then I gave it a coat of Griot's best of show wax which I let sit for an hour.

I didn't get any photos of it with the tire shine on because by that point I was down to the wire but he was happy with it so that's all that matters.

Thanks, Todd. I hosed it off and dumped the rest of the soapy water from the outside over it. I got the remaining cracks with an AutoMagic General Cleaner (stuff is magic, believe me) and used a bit of rubber/plastic dressing to give it that extra glow. I found an A/C hose that was so dirty, I didn't even realize there were words on it until about 10 minutes in...