My Dive into Car detailing
To keep with the tagline of my blog (“a jumble of insight” if you’re not familiar) I figured I would give a glimpse of what I have been doing lately. I like learning and trying new things thus it is hard for me to stick with a hobby for very long before I have to change it up. My newest hobby is car detailing and paint correction. I am not talking about going to walmart and getting a bottle of armor all and some turtle wax,although there is nothing wrong with that if that does what you want it to do. I am talking about professional grade polishes used for paint correction and detailing using high quality products. I have always loved cars and tried to take good care of my car which up until a month ago has always been a black 94 civic coupe. With getting married and a family to come sometime in the future I decided that it was time to look for a four door car. After looking for a car for just a week or so (on craigslist of course) my car was hit in a parking lot outside the CrossFit gym I go to. As you can see from the picture it isn’t too bad but still messed up.
It was a hit and run but to save you a long story I eventually figured out who it was and got everything taken care of. This minor damage to the car I was going to be selling soon coupled with my new 05 Subaru WRX wagon that had some seriously swirled paint led to the birth of my new hobby or as my wife would tell me, these circumstances led to the justification of my new hobby (She is probably right). Here are some pictures of the minor swirls that were on the civic. More than making the civic look perfect I just wanted to get it ready to sell, get some of the scratches out (namely those caused by the fender bender) and gain some experience with the polisher. For the most part the swirls weren’t visible unless under direct sunlight or halogens.
Here is the list of supplies:
- Griots random orbital polisher
- Lake County 5.5 pads with a Lake County 5 inch back plate
- Chemical Guys Citrus Wash and Gloss
- Detailed image fine grade claybar
- Menzerna Power finish with LC orange pad
- Poorboys World EX-P Sealant applied with a LC white polishing pad
Here are just a couple of pictures of the exterior once it was finished. I was able to get all of the swirls out and finish down LSP (last step protection) ready with just the Menzerna Power Finish and an LC orange pad. I was glad that it finished down well with only one step but I didn’t know how rare this was until I started correcting the paint on my Subaru. This isn’t the oem paint job on the civic so this is a unique case.
Here is the damage from the wreck before:
And After (I picked up a new tail light at the junk yard for $30 and popped the dents out from inside the truck:
Overall I thought that it turned out pretty good for my first time using a DA (dual action) polisher. I sold the car and had cash in my hand in less than 10 hours and I gained some valuable experience that I would need as I got ready for my WRX’s super soft paint.
