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Having the car since summer of '16, I haven't had the opportunity to give it a proper detail. My initial time frame and plans were a quick polish around the car and a sealant, but ended up doing more than that with PPF and ceramic coating. Best part is I took it to a track that very weekend.
I applied fallout remover around April for the first time on the car and looks like I should've done it sooner.LOL
Stickers off and fallout remover applied again in June after 3 track days or so.
Not perfect, but looking pretty good after a few passes
The roof!
Yuck
I shouldn't have looked into the crevices, my OCD kicked in.
I did the wheels before I did the car. I went to a square set up and with the new tires mounted, I wanted to clean the left overs from the old wheel weights. Who knows how long they've been stuck on there? I also removed tar deposits, clay bar-ed, and quickly polished the barrels and faces of the wheels. Then applied ceramic coat on them.
Always fun to use "color change" products
Within a few seconds of claying....not surprised at how dirty the wheels were.
Taking off old sticky stuff took the longest.
Old MF pad...it started out white.
Polished
All done.
And the power went out while mounting the wheels back on. :/
Tell us more about the PPF installation. Did you DIY it? What brand film did you use? I'm debating doing the hood on mine, a 5' by 5' sheet from Expel is about $300. I don't want to spend that kind of $$ and screw it up.
I'm going to do the hood over because I did mess it up here and there. It was my first time doing PPF on my own, and if you do plan on doing it on your own grab a friend with some basic knowledge on ppf. Right off the bat I was screwed, because of how big the film roll was and had trouble peeling and getting the slip solution on AND trying to lay the film on the hood. I was able to source pre cuts fro the bumper, rocker panels, and full fender, but the hood had to be bulk and cut as only a partial hood was available as a pre cut. And I used Xpel for the film, but other panels were done with STEK.
Originally Posted by charley95
Tell us more about the PPF installation. Did you DIY it? What brand film did you use? I'm debating doing the hood on mine, a 5' by 5' sheet from Expel is about $300. I don't want to spend that kind of $$ and screw it up.
Thanks! it ended up being a big job than I initially planned for, but it was so worth it when done.
I initially started out with a yellow rupes pad and 205 on a test pass and it did NOTHING. Gradually ended up working with 100 and a mf cutting or wool pad. I was hesitant on getting aggressive with this car because I have no idea on the history of this paint and my pdg cant read off of FG. And knowing that this car will be driven, I didn't want to get too crazy chasing after every scratch. But I needed to be aggressive with this particular paint to achieve any kind of significant improvement. No polishing was done as it finished out very nicely after compounding, picture of the roof and hood was after compounding only and panel wipe.
Originally Posted by FYRARMS
Great job bringing the old girl back to cleanliness! That was a big job!
What did you use for paint correction on the hard clearcoat? What pads and compound/polish?
No polishing was done as it finished out very nicely after compounding, picture of the roof and hood was after compounding only and panel wipe.
Damn! I can't believe the M100 and microfiber finished so well! Good to know! I have a few RIDS that I need to address (ugh), and my first attempt with a light swirl remover and an orange foam pad did jack squat. I switched to a more aggressive swirl remover and applied more pressure to my Porter Cable, but that just bogged it down and left swirls. I just received some MF cutting pads and some Meg's Ultimate Compound, which is supposed to work pretty well with minimal dust. Like you, I am just cautious about cutting away too much clear...
In my experience, on certain hard paints, a 1 step compound will finish down very nice and won't require polishing. I have followed up with a polish before and I could not tell the difference.
Be mindful of HEAT when your being aggressive in an area. Take the necessary time for the panel to cool off before going in for another pass. You can also consider wool pads because they do run cooler than MF pads. Let me know if you need other inputs and I'll do what I can.
Originally Posted by FYRARMS
Damn! I can't believe the M100 and microfiber finished so well! Good to know! I have a few RIDS that I need to address (ugh), and my first attempt with a light swirl remover and an orange foam pad did jack squat. I switched to a more aggressive swirl remover and applied more pressure to my Porter Cable, but that just bogged it down and left swirls. I just received some MF cutting pads and some Meg's Ultimate Compound, which is supposed to work pretty well with minimal dust. Like you, I am just cautious about cutting away too much clear...
In my experience, on certain hard paints, a 1 step compound will finish down very nice and won't require polishing. I have followed up with a polish before and I could not tell the difference.
Be mindful of HEAT when your being aggressive in an area. Take the necessary time for the panel to cool off before going in for another pass. You can also consider wool pads because they do run cooler than MF pads. Let me know if you need other inputs and I'll do what I can.
Thanks for the tips, and the offer! I may bug you again soon. LOL
I'm going to do the hood over because I did mess it up here and there. It was my first time doing PPF on my own, and if you do plan on doing it on your own grab a friend with some basic knowledge on ppf. Right off the bat I was screwed, because of how big the film roll was and had trouble peeling and getting the slip solution on AND trying to lay the film on the hood. I was able to source pre cuts fro the bumper, rocker panels, and full fender, but the hood had to be bulk and cut as only a partial hood was available as a pre cut. And I used Xpel for the film, but other panels were done with STEK.
Thanks! I really wanna try DIY but I don't want to screw up the film since it's not very cheap. It just doesn't look that difficult to do a full hood since there's not many complex curves.
Yea, PPF isn't cheap for sure. I'd say go for it and DIY it. Let me know it works out!!
Originally Posted by charley95
Thanks! I really wanna try DIY but I don't want to screw up the film since it's not very cheap. It just doesn't look that difficult to do a full hood since there's not many complex curves.
07-11-2018, 01:40 AM
My 02 Z06 Detailed, PPF'D, and Ceramic Coated
I just received some MF cutting pads and some Meg's Ultimate Compound, which is supposed to work pretty well with minimal dust. Like you, I am just cautious about cutting away too much clear... 
