Ultimate Detail: Berlina Black S2000 - 15 Man Hours (120 Pictures)

[itskrees]

The owner of this car has been very helpful to me when it comes to documenting my details by photographing each and every process throughout the duration of the job. This has allowed me to completely focus the time spent on the car without having to stop and take pictures myself. We finally decided to schedule a time this past week to give his 08’ Honda S2000 a well needed paint correction. This car had been “detailed” once before… and the results of that “detail” left its mark(s) on the car even a year later. Hopefully it will re-emphasize the amount of effort, knowledge, and time that is really needed to get a quality detail, and what happens when one (or all) of those things are lacking. My goal during the time given was to clean-up the mess left behind from the last “detail” as much as I could, and bring his paint back to the condition it was in when he first purchased the car. I gotta say, after all the times the owner has been at my house…I’ve never really realized how TRASHED the car really was! 12 man hours later, I felt that the car’s condition was restored; leaving the owner commenting on how it looked BETTER than it did when it was new.

Overview
-Car brought over at 10:30 AM
-Wheels removed, Fender wells cleaned using Meguiar’s APC+ (4:1), Meguiar’s Slide Lock Brush, then dressed with Chemical Guy’s Trim Shine and Protectant.
-Wheels cleaned using Meguiar’s All Wheel Cleaner, Meguiar’s Slide Lock Brush, dedicated microfiber wash mitt; Tires cleaned using Bleche Wite Tire Cleaner and agitated with a tire brush.
-Baked on road grime was removed from the wheels using a Bug and Tar Remover and agitated with a bug sponge.
-Wheels were coated with Poorboy’s Wheel Sealant to prevent excessive brake dust from getting baked on in the future, then remounted on to the car.
-Engine Bay cleaned using Meguiar’s APC+ (4:1), Meguiar’s Slide Lock Brush, then dressed with Chemical Guy’s Trim Shine and Protectant.
-Wipedown underside of the hood.
-Presoak door jambs, trunk area, gas tank, and other small areas around car with Meguiar’s APC+ (20:1) and agitate using Meguiar’s Slide Lock Brush.
-Use Q-tips and a wet microfiber to remove any leftover polish residue from the previous detailer.
-Wash Car using 2-Bucket Method w/ grit guards, Chemical Guy’s Citrus Wash and Clear, and 2 sheepskin wash mitts.
-Clay entire car while wet using DP Clay bar and Distilled water mixed with a splash of Meguiar’s #00 Hi-Tech wash for further lubricity
-Dry entire car with a leaf blower, and re-wipedown other areas including the underside of the trunk and doorjambs so no water spots are left behind.
-Perform a 100% denatured alcohol wipedown to ensure a pure surface for polishing.
-Polish car using Menzerna Super Intensive Polish on a Lake Country White Pad, followed by 3M Ultrafina on a Lake Country Blue Pad. Small areas were corrected using the Porter Cable 7424 with 4” pads using Meguiar’s M105 on white followed by M205 on blue.
-Perform another 100% denatured alcohol wipedown to ensure all polishing oils that could interfere with the bonding of the wax were removed.
-Wax/Seal car using Wolfgang Fuzion applied using Meguiar’s Foam Applicator, and removed using Meguiar’s Ultimate Quick Detailer with a clean microfiber towel. Windows were cleaned using Stoner’s Invisible glass while the wax was curing.
-Car finished by 3 PM the next day.

10:30 AM – Vehicle Inspection and In-Depth Decontamination

When the car arrived at my house, it was completely covered in road grime, bug splatter, and water marks.



















Here is an example of what was left behind from the previous detailer. These were found everywhere around the car.

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[itskrees]

The exhaust, trunk area, door jambs, and gas tanks were not much better.















The wheels were absolutely FILTHY. They didn’t even look silver anymore.

[itskrees]

Before doing anything to the body of the car, I first jacked up the car and removed the wheels in order to get a deep cleansing of the fender wells as well as the wheels themselves.



The fender wells were heavily soiled:



A presoak with Meguiar’s APC+ diluted 4:1 and agitation with a Meguiar’s Slide-Lock Brush seemed to take care of it.



Meguiar’s Hot Rims – All Wheel Cleaner was used on the wheels. With the help of the Meguiar’s Slide-Lock Brush, this removed all of the brake dust with ease.

[itskrees]

The tires were cleaned using 2 applications of Bleche Wite Tire Cleaner and agitated using a tire brush.



50:50



An old microfiber towel and wash mitt was used to help clean the little nooks and stubborn grit still left on the wheels.



Finally, after the wheels were rinsed,





So now we’re done with the wheels right? Wrong. The back part of the wheel was completely covered in baked on road tar that was not removed using the wheel cleaner. I elected to use my bug and tar remover and see what it could do.



The bug and tar remover was sprayed liberally onto the surface of the wheel and was allowed to dwell for about 3 minutes before agitating it with a bug sponge.




Much better!

[itskrees]

Finally, each wheel was given a coat of Poorboy’s Wheel Sealant. This greatly helps reduce brake dust getting baked on and allows for much easier for cleaning as well.



Done.



At this point, I felt that it was okay to finally move on to the surface of the paint. As always, I start with spot-treating the smaller areas around the car before cleaning the major surfaces of the paint. Doing it in this order ensures that every surface is free of contaminants, which may otherwise sling back onto a clean panel if the larger surfaces were cleaned first.

I started by trying to remove as much old polish residue as possible, as they were found everywhere around the car.

This was found on the trim that surrounds the windshield wipers. Although it was not seen without lifting up the hood of the car, it was still there and should have been removed immediately.



Meguiar’s APC+ diluted 20:1 and a clean microfiber was able to take out the majority of the baked on residue.





Sling was found on the hood dampers as well.





This residue was trapped near the driver’s side door.



Meguiar’s APC+ and a Q-Tip was used to remove this as well

[itskrees]

Once all the residue that I could remove was gone, I used my Meguiar’s Slide-lock brush and Meguiar’s APC+ 20:1 on the gas tank, door jambs, and other crevices that needed cleaning.











We didn’t have an Allen wrench to take off his rear plate, so he said to just work around it.



At this time, I also decided to clean up the exhaust. Meguiar’s APC+ followed by Meguiar’s NXT All Metal Polish was enough to do the trick.

Before (Opposite side):



During:



After:

[itskrees]

Finally, I was able to start washing the larger body panels. The sun was shining brightly, so I brought the car more inside my garage. The 2-Bucket Method w/ Grit Guards was used, with Chemical Guy’s Citrus Wash and Gloss diluted to paint cleansing ratio as the wash solution.





After rinsing, I preceded to claybar the surface of the paint, lights, and windows.








3:30 PM – Paint Correction

Once claying was finished, I rinsed the car one more time, dried the car with a leaf blower, then wiped down the surface of the paint with 100% denatured alcohol to ensure a pure surface ready for polishing. I also made sure that the car was completely dry, including the small crevices I had just cleaned.



Here was the condition of the car underneath the halogens.

[itskrees]

I decided to utilize the trunk as my test spot to see which products/pads would be needed for the correction process. M105 on a white pad followed by 106FA on a Blue pad seemed to work well for taking care of the defects.

Trunk before:





During:



After:





Rear right fender before:



After (Please excuse the glare from the lights, I assure you there were no holograms):

[itskrees]

50:50’s









Finished Door:





1:30PM – Finishing process, LSP Application

The correction process was repeated around the entire car, and the correction was completed by the end of the night. The next day the car was given another 100% Denatured alcohol wipedown to ensure all the polishing oils were removed. If not, the oils could potentially “fill in” any defects that were missed as well as interfere with the bonding of the wax.

Wolfgang Fuzion was used – for those that don’t know, it is a Sealant/Carnauba wax hybrid, where you get the durability of a sealant while getting the wetness of a wax.

http://www.google.com/products?q=wol...8oz&hl=en&aq=f

Once the wax cured for about 30 minutes, it was removed using a clean microfiber towel and Meguiar’s Ultimate Quick Detailer.

[itskrees]

Unfortunately, it was overcast outside the garage and a hint of rain in the sky. Regardless, here are the afters!





















Thanks everyone for reading!

-Kris

[osuRexWagon]

Awesome write up and beautiful job on the car! WoW! I need to get mine detailed!

[Imprezala]

good job... i like the way the wheels turned out

[MY EJ20T]

very good detail in the write up! can you do my car next? its midnight black pearl...lots of swirls. anyhoo...you should emphasize to all NOT to wash your car in direct sunlight, i see you took advantage of the garage to cover the car from baking on water. very nice!

i hate when i drive though a neighborhood and people are washing their very nice cars in direct 100 degree hot day + sunlight

[lowrider89]

i love my cars... and i love to keep them clean (wash 4 times a week) but the most i have ever spent detailing is 3 hours....

[IIdiceII]

Originally Posted by MY EJ20T

very good detail in the write up! can you do my car next? its midnight black pearl...lots of swirls. anyhoo...you should emphasize to all NOT to wash your car in direct sunlight, i see you took advantage of the garage to cover the car from baking on water. very nice!

i hate when i drive though a neighborhood and people are washing their very nice cars in direct 100 degree hot day + sunlight

even worse when you see guys buffing their cars in direct 100 degree sunlight then waxing it

[scby rex]

awsome job, I have a 04 black s2 in the garage, I swear thats the hardest color to stop water spots on.

[soon2bblackongold]

i would not like to have to detail a car in that condition...back in my hayday, i would have charged more for a car in that condition....especially when it's all deep white and has been rained on/dried/ rained on again and peopel can't tell if the car has been scratched or not as it's soo dirty


never know, the guy could blame you for a scratch...that's my thinking at least, as to why i would make the person do a base clean before I took it into my hands

[mykrrrr]

looks great.

[crav3s2k]

awesome!

[litowrx]

Have you tried poorboys bug squash? i want to order some, but i can get Meg's APC thru a local distributor... which of the two is better?

Another questions, did you dress the fender wells? if so, what did you use?

Thanks!

[mrubino83]

another fine job!! You have amazing detailing skills! Start up a shop already! haha

[grippy monkey]

well done.

[BEETROOT]

Damn, excellent job.

[Nakioki]

Amazing!! can you do my car!? lol

[boricuajr]

dang dude
you are sik with it
lol
i enjoy viewing your post