Detail: 2006 Spice Red GTO
05-14-2007, 12:56 AM
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Detail: 2006 Spice Red GTO The Porter Cable has been sitting around mocking me as I walk past it everday trying not to make eye contact (well, you know what I mean). Finally the silent ridicule broke me down and I got motivated to use it for the first time today. The car is my Spice Red Metallic 2006 Pontiac GTO and it has 7,500 miles on it. The paint was in fairly good shape to begin with but there were a few swirls (those were a dealer installed option... bastages). No before pictures but I snapped a few pictures really quick on the drive back to my place but ran out of daylight pretty fast. Excuse my pictures. I'm so used to trying to minimize reflections and maximize composition in my pictures that the shots I tried to take to show the detail job failed miserably so you're getting one decent picture and a few gay close-up reflection pictures. I'll try to snap a few pictures tomorrow in daylight to really show how nice the paint looks now and catch some of the "Metallic" part of Spice Red Metallic paint. I've never owned a car thats ever been this clean. I've always just done by hand and am used to nice, glass-smooth finishes after a full detail but to have no swirls or spiderwebbing really does wonders to the depth and clarity of the finish. I was really impressed. It's almost like the car is glowing instead of just shining. Now if I can just keep all this pollen and dust off of it!
Process:
-Dawn wash
-Zaino Z18 clay
-Zaino Z7 wash
-Tropicare TC-8 swirl cutter via PC (orange pad, speed 5 & 6)
-Zaino Z-AIO via PC (speed 4)
-Zaino Z5 Pro + ZFX via PC (speed 4)
-Zaino Z2 Pro + ZFX via PC (speed 4)
-Tropicare TC-3 by hand (just for the heck of it)
-Zaino Z8 final detail
-Zaino Z10 on leather seats
-Meguiar's Natural Shine on interior panels applied very lightly
-Stoner's Invisible Glass inside and out via Tropicare glass towel
-Meguiar's Hot Shine on tires
-Three step process on polished wheels and stainless exhaust (Noxon 7, Mother's Billet, Zaino Clear Seal)
Pics:
Impressions:
-Porter Cable random orbital buffer, amazing. It rocks my rocks off. 'Nuff said.
-Tropicare TC-8, I had this as well as some Zaino Z-PC and didn't know which one had more or less cutting ability so I went with the one that smelled the best... and even then it was a close call. Haha. Regardless, the TC-8 got the job done. I was very happy with it.
-Zaino Z-AIO, first time using this. I've used most all of the other Zaino stuff with great results and the Z-AIO was no different. Great product as a stand alone polish (did my beater yesterday with it and it worked well) or as a base to Zaino's other polishes.
-Tropicare TC-3, not so impressed by this. It's OK. I'll reserve judgement for sometime when I dont put it on top of so many layers of Zaino on the same day. I'm not ruling it out but initial impressions are that I'm going to stick with the Zaino polishes.
-Meguiar's Hot Shine, I still haven't tried any of the products for rubber like Zaino's tire treatment but as far as off the shelf stuff I've found this is the best IMO. It shines nicely without overshining the tires (I cant stand the super wet look).
-Mother's billet polish, one word... incredible. I've used the Noxon 7/PowerMetal combo before with good results but using the Noxon 7 to clean the wheels and tips then following with Mother's Billet made my wheels look like they did the day I pulled them out of the box, maybe better. They looked like chrome. I was flat out blown away.
-Zaino Clear Seal, time will tell on this one. I only used it on the wheels and tips but it did dull the shine down. I was all psyched on the shine from the Mother's billet polish and the Z-CS killed it for me. Everything still shines very nicely, it just doesn't look like chrome. I think I'll use Z-CS most of the time but anytime I'm going to be taking the car to a show or cruise in I'll just go over it with Mother's billet to really bring out the full shine. Hopefully this stuff will hold up to some weather without me having to repolish the wheels everytime it rains.
Process:
-Dawn wash
-Zaino Z18 clay
-Zaino Z7 wash
-Tropicare TC-8 swirl cutter via PC (orange pad, speed 5 & 6)
-Zaino Z-AIO via PC (speed 4)
-Zaino Z5 Pro + ZFX via PC (speed 4)
-Zaino Z2 Pro + ZFX via PC (speed 4)
-Tropicare TC-3 by hand (just for the heck of it)
-Zaino Z8 final detail
-Zaino Z10 on leather seats
-Meguiar's Natural Shine on interior panels applied very lightly
-Stoner's Invisible Glass inside and out via Tropicare glass towel
-Meguiar's Hot Shine on tires
-Three step process on polished wheels and stainless exhaust (Noxon 7, Mother's Billet, Zaino Clear Seal)
Pics:
Impressions:
-Porter Cable random orbital buffer, amazing. It rocks my rocks off. 'Nuff said.
-Tropicare TC-8, I had this as well as some Zaino Z-PC and didn't know which one had more or less cutting ability so I went with the one that smelled the best... and even then it was a close call. Haha. Regardless, the TC-8 got the job done. I was very happy with it.
-Zaino Z-AIO, first time using this. I've used most all of the other Zaino stuff with great results and the Z-AIO was no different. Great product as a stand alone polish (did my beater yesterday with it and it worked well) or as a base to Zaino's other polishes.
-Tropicare TC-3, not so impressed by this. It's OK. I'll reserve judgement for sometime when I dont put it on top of so many layers of Zaino on the same day. I'm not ruling it out but initial impressions are that I'm going to stick with the Zaino polishes.
-Meguiar's Hot Shine, I still haven't tried any of the products for rubber like Zaino's tire treatment but as far as off the shelf stuff I've found this is the best IMO. It shines nicely without overshining the tires (I cant stand the super wet look).
-Mother's billet polish, one word... incredible. I've used the Noxon 7/PowerMetal combo before with good results but using the Noxon 7 to clean the wheels and tips then following with Mother's Billet made my wheels look like they did the day I pulled them out of the box, maybe better. They looked like chrome. I was flat out blown away.
-Zaino Clear Seal, time will tell on this one. I only used it on the wheels and tips but it did dull the shine down. I was all psyched on the shine from the Mother's billet polish and the Z-CS killed it for me. Everything still shines very nicely, it just doesn't look like chrome. I think I'll use Z-CS most of the time but anytime I'm going to be taking the car to a show or cruise in I'll just go over it with Mother's billet to really bring out the full shine. Hopefully this stuff will hold up to some weather without me having to repolish the wheels everytime it rains.
Last edited by josh99ta; 05-14-2007 at 01:01 AM.
05-14-2007, 01:26 AM
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I got it at Advanced Auto Parts. I couldn't find it at Home Depot or Lowes around here but Advanced had a couple of bottles on the shelf that I snatched up quickly. Its a great pre-polish to get all the surface contaminants out of polished wheels. Follow it up with a final polish of your choice and its a good two-step process without rubbing your fingers to the nubs to get the wheels clean.
05-14-2007, 01:33 AM
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I saw your last thread about noxon and some sealer made but true value. how did that work for you? the sealer I mean.... I use powermetal followed up by billet.... It does real good but I'm always up to try something new that someone has to show for it...
Oh and the last time I repolished the rims for 4 hours I used some quick wax on them after the polish and it rained for a week and a half 2 days after I polished em and all i had to do was wash them off and dry them and they still looked great.
Oh and the last time I repolished the rims for 4 hours I used some quick wax on them after the polish and it rained for a week and a half 2 days after I polished em and all i had to do was wash them off and dry them and they still looked great.
05-14-2007, 09:23 AM
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More details on the quick wax you used. For real. 
The stuff you're talking about is Rejex. Eh, its ok. Nothing ground breaking. I'm hoping the Zaino Z-CS does a better job. We'll see.
The stuff you're talking about is Rejex. Eh, its ok. Nothing ground breaking. I'm hoping the Zaino Z-CS does a better job. We'll see.
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05-14-2007, 09:30 PM
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Originally Posted by josh99ta
More details on the quick wax you used. For real.
The stuff you're talking about is Rejex. Eh, its ok. Nothing ground breaking. I'm hoping the Zaino Z-CS does a better job. We'll see.
The stuff you're talking about is Rejex. Eh, its ok. Nothing ground breaking. I'm hoping the Zaino Z-CS does a better job. We'll see.
05-16-2007, 02:41 PM
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I'm late on the response here guys. Been in Panama City on the beach for a few days. I appreciate all the compliments everyone.
Thanks man. 
Now that I'm doing what I'm doing with lighting, editing, and sharpening I'm really happy with the results. I go back and look at my older pictures and while they're still solid I see the slightly underexposed slightly overly contrasted methods I used to use. I really like the last picture in this post. I wish I could have gotten a better location but that one worked and time was of the essence as the usable light was going quick.
Here are a few more where I tried to capture the reflection and the metallic but its still difficult to show it (SRM or at least mine isn't every heavy on the metal flake either so its a very subtle effect)...
Further back
Rear shot
Door reflection and finish
Closer hood shot
Roof shot
Close up of Spice Red Metallic
Originally Posted by bastien
Nice work, Josh. That last picture is one of the best I have seen you post. It seems like you're getting the lighting down. 
Now that I'm doing what I'm doing with lighting, editing, and sharpening I'm really happy with the results. I go back and look at my older pictures and while they're still solid I see the slightly underexposed slightly overly contrasted methods I used to use. I really like the last picture in this post. I wish I could have gotten a better location but that one worked and time was of the essence as the usable light was going quick. Here are a few more where I tried to capture the reflection and the metallic but its still difficult to show it (SRM or at least mine isn't every heavy on the metal flake either so its a very subtle effect)...
Further back
Rear shot
Door reflection and finish
Closer hood shot
Roof shot
Close up of Spice Red Metallic
