This car provided a very good learning experience for me, the owner said it was in rough shape, and it was. I looked it over, noticed there was lots of swirling and the finish was kind of hazy. It had been sitting under a cover for nearly a year with no use. I figured it would be the run of the mill swirl removal on soft Honda paint as usual...WRONG!! Turns out the ENTIRE front half of the car from the doors forward were repainted with superman strength clearcoat. I tried everything I have, even one of the strongest compounds on the market wasnt touching these defects! I couldnt believe it. I was ready to give up and came to the conclusion the swirls were UNDER the new clear/paint. Well I was wrong again..I talked to a couple reps from Meguairs about this problem and they recommended me a new tecnique to try out..

And I went into the garage and followed the directions precisely. FIRST TRY ALL SWIRLS ARE REMOVED!!! I couldnt believe my eyes! Not to mention the fantastic gloss it leaves once finished down!

Well anyways, on to the pictures!

Exterior:
Dawn Soap Pre-Wash
Optimum Car Wash-Final Wash
DD "Uber" Red Drying Towel
DD "Uber" Wool Mitt
Dual Buckets with Grit Guards
3m "green" Masking Tape
Adams Professional Clay Bar
P21S TAW
Meguairs APC+
Meguairs Hyperdressing
Megs M105/Megs Solo Burgandy Wool(new method) x2
Menzerna PO85rd/LC FLAT Black 5.5"
Menzerna Top Inspection
Tons of Uber MF Towels
Black WOW
Griots Garage Wheel Cleaner Gel
Swissvax Pneu


LSP:
Lusso Oro applied with Uber Foam Applicator

Tools:
Dual Work Lamps
Dewalt Hi Speed Rotary
World's Greatest Boar's Hair Wheel Brush
Foam Pad Cleaning Brush
DD Detail Sponge
The Wheel Well/Fender Brush
The Spoke Brush
Canon Rebel XTi
Craftsmen 295MPH Vac/Blow
E-Z Detail Wheel Brush
Swissvax Wheel Brush

BEFORE:
























The headlights were in rough shape, well take care of those later.




The owner spilled about a quart of oil on accident while performing an oil change, now my duty to clean it up! haha!

 

IN THE HALOGENS..














50/50 after SIP/orange SIP/yellow wool, M105, yellow wool M105/burgandy wool with 2 passes! It just wasnt removing the big ones..




Before..


After..M105/Burgandy x2

 

NOW after my newfound advice..

BEFORE:


AFTER 1 PASS:




BEFORE:


AFTER 1 PASS:


I ended up doing the whole car with this method twice on each panel to ensure every scratch was removed..
















Pulled it out in the sun..

 

Headlight Before:


50/50 with M105 on a "3 finger" green pad:
This was a night and day difference, the camera didnt seem to capture it as well.


Unfortunately, it was almost 12am when I finished and I was trying to get it done so the customer could leave, so I was not able to get as many after shots as Id like. The owner was amazed how the car looked when he came over, it was literrally glowing even at night!

Here are a couple afters I managed to get, the owner said he would take some more for me when he gets a chance...










Please forgive me for the lint, its time to invest into new MF's.

 

How did the cloth cover look afterwards? did you do anything with it?

 

It was dirty whenn it came, since it had been sitting for a year. I just cleaned it as normal. I did not have any Raggtopp Cleaner on hand, so I didnt actually clean using a top cleaner but it did come out a lot nicer still. It was a pretty much brand new top, so it wasnt too big of a concern.