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Well since this LS belongs to a member of this board (ROCKSTAR) I figured I would join and show off his pride and joy (and some of my handy work). Big thanks to ROCKSTAR and his very kind family (they even offered my breakfast and coffee.. Top Notch people!!!) Also thanks go to forum member KD00LS for hooking me up with ROCKSTAR
Deep Gloss Auto Salon: A Tale Of Two Surf Cities
Part One: Lincoln LS
I was contacted to do a one step correction on this Black Lincoln LS along with an engine detail.
As you will see from the various before pictures the paintwork on this vehicle was in dire need of some attention. I took quite a few befores just to show that the inclusions in the paintwork were present through out.
Process:
Exterior Cleanse/Dress:
Entire vehicle treated with Surf City Grime Destroyer via pump sprayer with wand
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash via foam Cannon
Bucket wash with Surf City Pacific Blue
Clay with Riccardo clay with Optimum No Rinse as clay lube
Surf City Clearly Better for windows
Surf Sity Beyond Steel on rims
Amazing Roll Off on tires and wheel wells
Wheel wells dressed with Adams Undercarriage Spray
Tires dressed with Surf City Tire Pro
Sealed with Surf City Nano Seal
Final wipe down with Duragloss Aqua Wax
Exterior Correction:
The areas that only received one step saw Menzerna Super Intensive polish via Flex and a green Lake Country CCS pad
Other areas were too far gone for me to be satisfied with just a one step so I used Meguiars 105 Ultra Cut Compound with a purple Lake country foamed wool pad via rotary on 1300 RPM’s for 15-20 seconds MAX!!
I followed this with Menzerna Super Intensive Polish on a green LC CCS pad via Flex.
Headlights were removed for full access to the front fascia
Engine:
Gently pressure washed (nothing was covered due to heavy shielding)
Entire engine bay and underside of hood was cleansed with Surf City Grime Destroyer via pump sprayer with wand
Agitated and left to dwell
Gently pressure washed
Dressed with CD-2 Engine Detailer
Engine: Before (Don’t know why the pic is blue??)
Surf City Grime Destroyer Dwelling
After Cleaned and Dressed:
Lovely Foam:
Befores:
Headlights Removed:
Here is one direct “before and after”
Before:
After:
Some afters under the same lights as the befores from numerous areas of vehicle(sun was gone by the time I was done):
Beauty Shots:
Deep Gloss Auto Salon: A Tale Of Two Surf Cities
Part Two: Dodge Stratus
This vehicle belongs to the family that also owns the Black Lincoln LS. I was initially contacted to do the Lincoln and was hired to do the Stratus as well. I did both of them the same day
On this vehicle an interior detail was the customers primary concern. Unfortunately the owner was not concerned with any paintwork correction. During the pre detail inspection it was agreed that a wash/clay/seal would also be performed.
Process:
Exterior:
Entire vehicle treated with Surf City Grime Destroyer via pump sprayer with wand
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash via foam Cannon
Bucket wash with Surf City Pacific Blue
Clay with Danase clay with Optimum No Rinse as clay lube
Surf City Clearly Better for windows
Meguiars Wheel brightener on rims
Amazing Roll Off on tires and wheel wells
Duragloss 501 on exterior Chrome trim (grill)
Wheel wells dressed with Adams Undercarriage Spray
Tires dressed with Surf City Tire Pro
Sealed with Surf City Nano Seal
Final wipe down with Duragloss Aqua Wax
Interior:
All trim wiped down with diluted APC in bucket and a micro fiber
Trim Dressed with Surf City Dash Away
Carpets vacuumed / dry agitated and then vacuumed again
Carpets sprayed with Chemical Guys Lightning Fast carpet cleaner, agitated and left to dwell and then extracted
Mats vacuumed, dry agitated and vacuumed again.
Mats were then treated with Chemical Guys Lightning Fast carpet cleaner, agitated and left to dwell and then pressure washed until water ran clear and the extracted and ;left to dry
Leather cleaned with Leather Master Strong (I used a foaming pump to transform the Leather master strong cleaner from a liquid to a foam)
Leather protected with Leather Master protectant
Befores
In Process:
The dash after half of it had been wiped down:
Interior Afters:
Exterior Afters:
Posted by: NYC LS8
Nice work, dude! Come to NYC and do mine now
Posted by: The Rev
Very very nice. I would like to pick up detailing as a hobby. Its worth the money from what I've seen!
Posted by: Justin00LS
Great job!
Posted by: rickztahone
wow, his car looked the way mine looks now. some guy around here said he would do a detail job for 150 but i doubt it'll come out looking that great. Lucky ROCKSTAR,
Posted by: HyeLifeLS
nice.
Posted by: ROCKSTAR
Great thread!
he did a great job. it even rained a little bit that day but we were quick to pull my car in the garage.
Posted by: bklene50
I've got some family in Plymouth, and I've decided that next time I'm that way, I'll be giving you a call. Fantastic work.
Posted by: Deep Gloss Auto Salon
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC LS8
Nice work, dude! Come to NYC and do mine now
Thank you for the kind words!
Well if you get enough people together that want their car done airfare gets real cheap
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Rev
Very very nice. I would like to pick up detailing as a hobby. Its worth the money from what I've seen!
Be carefule as a hobby you can end up spending TONS of money on hardware / software and endless hours of research BUT if that sounds good to you it is very enjoyable & rewarding!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin00LS
Great job!
Thanks Justin!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rickztahone
wow, his car looked the way mine looks now. some guy around here said he would do a detail job for 150 but i doubt it'll come out looking that great. Lucky ROCKSTAR,
Yeah, I would tend to agree with you that for $150 there is no way you will get this type of correction.
More than likely for that price they will be using products with fillers and leave holograms/buffer trails that will show up weeks later after several washes
Quote:
Originally Posted by HyeLifeLS
nice.
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ROCKSTAR
Great thread!
he did a great job. it even rained a little bit that day but we were quick to pull my car in the garage.
Hey man, glad you are happy with the way your car turned out. I can tell you really love that car so and that makes it equally as rewarding.
The rain was fun
Quote:
Originally Posted by bklene50
I've got some family in Plymouth, and I've decided that next time I'm that way, I'll be giving you a call. Fantastic work.
Thank you and that would be great!
Posted by: ROCKSTAR
see now you have to make T-shirts.
Posted by: Deep Gloss Auto Salon
Quote:
Originally Posted by ROCKSTAR
see now you have to make T-shirts.
YEah I know.. I had planned to have shirts MONTHS ago but got busy and have been booked for almost 4 months straight!!!!
I think I may have to delegate this task to someone, if not, I may not EVER get my shirts!
Posted by: highlander73
How does one "interview" a detailer to find out if their work is as good quality as yours? I find that many places are "detailers" because they use a clay bar or something but for the $ they really only do a fancy car wash. Even if you tell them you are willing to spend big $ to get big performance, they can't produce.
How would you suggest going about finding a detailer that can do the caliber of work you show here?
Keep up the good work btw.
Posted by: KD00LS
Quote:
Originally Posted by highlander73
How does one "interview" a detailer to find out if their work is as good quality as yours? I find that many places are "detailers" because they use a clay bar or something but for the $ they really only do a fancy car wash. Even if you tell them you are willing to spend big $ to get big performance, they can't produce.
How would you suggest going about finding a detailer that can do the caliber of work you show here?
Keep up the good work btw.
I'd say by the products they use. I'd say use years of experience in stride, a lot of people have been "detailing" the wrong way for quite a long time. I made an investigating call on a detail shop where I live and they used products I've never heard of (which is weird, if you knew me) and said they use compound when I asked what kind of wax they used. He claimed to have 30 years of body work and detailing experience. Another factor is price. I feel as if someone is charging under $150 bucks for a single stage polish/wax/seal etc, something might be wrong. I charge my close friends around $125, but that's to cover the products used. I like doing it so it doesn't bother me. I do make a little cash from doing friend's cars. I'm sure Jason will have much more insight.
Posted by: Deep Gloss Auto Salon
Check out this little slide show remix I did for you Rockstar... I even used the banner in your sig....lol
Posted by: lincoln00
so is there somthing i can buy to make my car look like that.... or do you detail the cars to look like that
Posted by: Deep Gloss Auto Salon
Quote:
Originally Posted by lincoln00
so is there somthing i can buy to make my car look like that.... or do you detail the cars to look like that
The look of Rockstars car is all in the paint polishing... there is nothing you can buy to get that look.
Posted by: Deep Gloss Auto Salon
Quote:
Originally Posted by highlander73
How does one "interview" a detailer to find out if their work is as good quality as yours? I find that many places are "detailers" because they use a clay bar or something but for the $ they really only do a fancy car wash. Even if you tell them you are willing to spend big $ to get big performance, they can't produce.
How would you suggest going about finding a detailer that can do the caliber of work you show here?
Keep up the good work btw.
Take a look at my website.. there is a lot of information on it that you can use to educate yourself and then interview a prospective detailer
I would pay particular attention to the "FAQ" and "Paint Care 101" pages on my site to learn a little but so you can go in armed with info!
Posted by: skizot722
Damn good job, Deep Gloss Auto Salon!
Posted by: Deep Gloss Auto Salon
Quote:
Originally Posted by skizot722
Damn good job, Deep Gloss Auto Salon!
Thank you
Posted by: PatrickSimmons
Great work Deep Auto. I've seen your work before a few times and you make cars look brand new again. Keep it up.
Posted by: Deep Gloss Auto Salon
Quote:
Originally Posted by PatrickSimmons
Great work Deep Auto. I've seen your work before a few times and you make cars look brand new again. Keep it up.
Thanks Patrick!
I quoted a CTS-V that has some sweet audio mods that I will be sure to post up here when I do it... I am booked several weeks out so it will be a couple!
Posted by: pektel
Awesome work! What type of polisher do you use? Makita Rotary?
Posted by: pektel
nm... just actually read your original post like I should've to begin with! I wish I could afford the Flex, but I just got the PC 7424, Poorboy's SSR 3 & 2, Menzerna 106FF, Poorboy's EX-P, and Natty's Red Paste for my first detail. These pics have got me excited to try out all my new stuff!
Posted by: Deep Gloss Auto Salon
Quote:
Originally Posted by pektel
Awesome work! What type of polisher do you use? Makita Rotary?
Quote:
Originally Posted by pektel
nm... just actually read your original post like I should've to begin with! I wish I could afford the Flex, but I just got the PC 7424, Poorboy's SSR 3 & 2, Menzerna 106FF, Poorboy's EX-P, and Natty's Red Paste for my first detail. These pics have got me excited to try out all my new stuff!
Thanks Pektel... The PC can do some pretty good correction. Just make sure you are using no larger than 5.5" pads or you will be there forever... My pad size of choice when I used to use a PC was no larger than 5".
Posted by: pektel
Damnit... I just got a shipment of 6.5" pads... The previous owner of the PC (07G35 on DU) had the 6" backing plate already attached. Oh well, Guess I'll have to buy more pads and the smaller backing plate.
Posted by: Deep Gloss Auto Salon
Quote:
Originally Posted by pektel
Damnit... I just got a shipment of 6.5" pads... The previous owner of the PC (07G35 on DU) had the 6" backing plate already attached. Oh well, Guess I'll have to buy more pads and the smaller backing plate.
You can always sell them for a very slight loss on many of the detailing message boards...
Personally I would rather slice my wrists with a dull, rusty spoon as opposed to use anything larger than a 5" pad on a PC
What pads did you buy?
Posted by: pektel
Lake Country 6.5" from detailedimage.com
2 - orange
2 - white
1 - black
1 - blue
I just went by what it seemed everyone else was using... The pads are also NOT the CCS ones. They are the all open cell foam.
Posted by: Deep Gloss Auto Salon
Quote:
Originally Posted by pektel
Lake Country 6.5" from detailedimage.com
2 - orange
2 - white
1 - black
1 - blue
I just went by what it seemed everyone else was using... The pads are also NOT the CCS ones. They are the all open cell foam.
LC makes good pads... I am a pad junkie.. pads, micro fibers amd polishes are my kryptonite....
You may have more patience than me and have better success with the big pads on a PC.. I also started with the large pads and after my first few attempts with the PC and large pads I almost never detailed again
Posted by: pektel
Thank you for all the advice!
Truth is, this is my first attempt at any type of paint correction, and I think I should stay with the "least aggressive method first" approach. Maybe with the SSR3 and the orange pad, I'll get some decent cutting power.
I'm very patient when it comes to my car. I like to take my time and make sure everything is perfect. So maybe slow and steady will work for me. I sure hope so.
Otherwise it's another hundred bucks for the smaller backing plate and pads.
