Honda City - Quick Detail

Was going to carry out a quick detail on another Honda City. I had originally planned on using Optimum Power Clean to clean off any contaminants on the paint surface followed by Optimum Opti-Seal to seal it off and then topped off with Optimum Car Wax. Based on previous experience with these products, once applied, the paint had a 'just polished' feel to it. Like polishing without polishing.

As with all plans, thing are subject to change....

The condition of the car before:

That's the benefit of having gold paint. Can't really 'see' the dirt on the car. Perfect of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Detailers).....

Anyway...

Although its not that obvious in this picture the hood of the car has been sprayed with a hose. There is very little to no water beading at all.

Wetting with a hose again.

No beading at all...

After some time, some sheeting action seen at the edges of the hood.

The car was then treated to a full wash with Optimum Power Clean. The idea was to remove any contaminants and then proceed to seal and wax the paint for a quick detail. Unfortunately, even the Optimum Power Clean was not strong enough to deal with some of the stains such as these on the top corner of the roof.

On with Plan B...

To read more about 'Plan B', click the 'Read More..." below.




First the details of the detail.

The wheels were cleaned with Optimum Power Clean followed by Optimum Opti-Seal.

Scratches on the door handle were removed with Meguiar's Scratch-X with a foam applicator pad.

Scratches and other paint transfers were also attended to. The big scratch was too deep to remove but the other minor scratches were taken care off.

On with the paint correction. The problem (or advantage, depending on how you look at it) of gold paint is the difficulty of picking out the swirls and scratches.

As you can (or cannot see) the paint was in decent shape with some swirls marks but not too many severe RIDS.

As I wanted to keep this a quickish detail, I decided to try Meguiar's M205 on a polishing pad with a rotary. The results were very good and required just one step to achieve the level of correction I was after.

Taping off for a 50/50 in the hope to be able to capture the difference on camera.

As you can clearly see (not!!!) the swirls and minor scratches are clearly visible in this uncorrected section.

Whereas on the corrected side the swirls are completely removed and the reflection of the halogen lamp is more sharply defined.

From the top.... in case you get confused, the left side is corrected and the right side is the original condition.

Another 50/50. This time the corrected area is on top with the original portion below.

Lets try another location. How about the boot lid.

At least the swirls are more readily visible in this picture.

After correction.

50/50. Left uncorrected, right corrected.

Uncorrected.

50/50.

Corrected.

The stubborn stains on the corner of the roof were also easily removed with M205.

The scratches and paint transfers were also removed where possible.

Followed up the M205 with Optimum Opti-Seal and Optimum Car Wax. Glass areas were also sprayed with Meguiar's Ultimate Quick Detailer (UQD).

Even the gold paint now had a nice deep gloss to it.

Thanks for looking.