I know in advance this detail is gonna kick my butt. I'm devoting at least 3 days to it.

The car is a 2000 TA owned by my uncle and he is about to sell it. He has washed it before, but I don't think he EVER cleaned the brake dust off the wheels. They are the toughest baked on brake dust i've ever come across. Had to bust out the most extreme stuff to polish it off.

I'm going to be doing 2-3 passes on the car with the PC and then 2 coats of Zaino.


Here is where i'm starting from: EEK!

 

The horrible wheels:


AFTER cleaning them!



After an hour of polishing: (still need to get the stuff in the corners)



Removed some oxidation with a little ScratchX just for kicks. (will re-buff later)






I should be done with it by sunday and have pics on monday hopefully.

 

looks like the clear coat is fading away. rims look nice though.

 

no, its not fading, its just oxidation that has built up. When its all done it will be so shiny it will look wet.

here is some pics from today. Did a little on the inside and i finished the wheels. Altogether, it took nearly 8 hours for all the wheels.








Oh, and this stuff that looks like loose dirt, is not actually. Its some kind of pollen or something that is bonded to the surface. Gonna take a lot of work to remove it.

 

It looks like you have your work cut out for ya. The rims turned out great!

 

How does somebody let a car get that bad? That's just horrible. Hope you get it looking good again.

 

Good job!!! Those wheels look awesome!!!

 

Well here's some progress from today. Took 2 washes to get all the grime off, yuck. I used some Z-12 (Zaino Clear Glass Polish) on all the windows. And used Z-14 (Zaino Plastic Magic Cleaner & Polish) on the 3rd brake light. Here are some pics

T-top 1/2 done with Z-12. (the white dots are just dust from the towel)




After the Z-14 on the 3rd brake light



The glass after the Z-12 was finished

 

I clayed the car and buffed a section on the left front quarter panel. Here is what I used
2 passes with Meguiares #83 with the burgundy Megs cutting pad
1 pass with Megs #83 with a Lake Country Orange med. cut pad
2 passes with Megs #80 with the yellow Megs polishing pad
Then finished with Megs Final Touch Detailing Spray.

Here are the before and afters:




After

 

ahhh, thats much better. good job pal two thumbs up

 

looking good! much better

 

I thought those were the painted wheels at first!!!

 

Man, that's turning out pretty nice! I think I have to invest in a good detailing package... probably zaino. Something to look forward to in the spring when I pull her out!

 

I'm starting to work on the inside when the buffer needs to cool down. Here are the horror pics of the inside.

*warnin, small children should leave the room. graphic images*

lol














I'm still working on the buffing, had a few cars that had to be bumped to the front of the line. Hopefully I'll finish the buffing on wednesday.

 

Here are a few pics from today. Mostly pics of stuff that still needs to be addressed. I WILL be finishing the buffing tomorrow.

underside of the hood:







dirty engine bay:








Flip up lights rarely get cleaned:








Plastic trim is looking pretty gray:








After a little polishing with the buffer:








Polished, cleaned, and reassembled :