Make It Shine & Apollo Detailing: 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse (36 hours!)

[kaval]

Hi everyone! I present to you, a 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse. This particular detail was done back in September. I`m just catching up on some posting.



This client called me and expressed his concern with a brand new new car he had just purchased. The vehicle had received a `perma-shine` treatment at the dealership, so I knew it was going to be bad...but not THAT bad. Boy was I wrong! 36 hours later, the car is back to beautiful.



I showed up in the morning of a day which was calling for rain. Skies were overcast as expected and remained that way for the majority of the day with a few peeps of rain here and there.



Keep in mind this car only had 300kms on it. It looked like it was at least 2 years old with the amount of deep swirling it had accumulated. Holograms, RIDs, deep scratches on the bumper, scuffs, and even rust on some of the components in the engine bay, and on the exhaust.



Walk-around of the Eclipse:





















Rust on muffler:





Paint damage:































It was evident that paintwork was in dire need of help. On that note, I got started with a thorough wash.

- Pretreat with P21S Total Auto Wash on lower half of car

- Rinse

- CWG @ paint cleanser dilution via 2BM & Sheepskin wool mitts

- Dried with WWMFs



Washing with the heavy concentration of Citrus Wash & Gloss helped to strip the paint of anything that would interfere with the paint correction process. After washing the Eclipse, I inspected the paint for contamination. To be on the safe side, I clayed the entire car with Riccardo Yellow Clay & ONR Clay Lube. It was an extra 25 minutes well spent.



Paint Correction:

This paint was HAMMERED! For a car with only 300kms on the clock, it sure looked like it had seen a lot more than claimed. Given it was a new car, I knew there was lots of paint to play with, so I opted to remove as many paint defects as possible, while keeping in mind I had an ample amount of paint to work with. For the paint releveling stage, I chose to go with M105 on 6" Sonus Yellow pads, and 6.5" Orange LC pads on the rotary at 1800-2000rpm. This was my first time using M105, and I found it to cut exceptionally well, and very quick! The abrasives cut nicely and finished down extremely well, even on this very soft paint.



The before and after pictures below are the result of M105 on Yellow Sonus, and Orange LC pads @ 1800-2000rpm. Approximately 3-4 compounding steps were needed, and took the rest of the day to complete.



Before





After







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After







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Before





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Before





After





After the compounding was done, I decided to pack it up for the night and head home to rest.



With all of the compounding out of the way, I decided to give the car a thorough wash before removing the compound marks and haze. Using a pH neutral wash the car was thoroughly cleaned and thus prepared for the next polishing step.

[kaval]

I set out to polish the paint with Menzerna Super Intensive Polish on white pads at 1400-1600rpm, slowly bringing it down to 1000rpm. This restored the gloss in the paint that that owner was missing, and ensured all the compounding marks were removed.



Here are some shots:























With the second step out of the way, I decided to tackle some damage on the bumper that the dealer left behind. How generous







With a 3000 grit Meguiar`s UniGrit sanding block, I sanded till the scratch was gone, and followed up with M105 on a PFW 4" pad at 1600rpm until the sanding marks were removed. I then followed up with SIP on a white pad to remove the compounding haze and restore the paint to a nice gloss.



After:





After SIP, I ONR`d the car and blot dried with WW MFs. Following this, I went over the car with Optimum Poli-Seal on Sonus Blue pads via PC @ 6. This noticeably darkened the paint and left it silky smooth.







LSP of choice was Victoria`s Red. The only problem I had with removal was streaking. The issue was that it was so humid outside, it was almost impossible to avoid it. After a few wipedowns, it was as good as it would get. There was a storm going on outside so I could not pull the car out to get any after shots, so here is the best I could get.



Finals:











































Thanks for looking!



Kaval

[dkblue05]

Very Impressive, its stupid how bad some cars come from the dealership.

Good save, m105/SIP looks like a killer combo

[jordanrossbell]

Wow that is some sick gloss!

[imported_DieselMDX]

wow great job!





SIP finished well enuff to not need a final step? IE 106ff?



very impressed with 105

[TSC17]

Nice job fellas!



I`ve followed SIP with PoliSeal on black before and it turned out great.

[Garry Dean]

Did the guy pay extra for the "perma-treatment" from the dealership? Nice work! Those reflections really look awesome!

[somebody]

Great work I would like to hear more about the pH neutral wash.



Brandon

[porta]

Looks ace!

[Barry Theal]

man i need to hang stuff all over my walls in my shop! killer reflections very nice man!

[Old Pirate]

Great correction work on the Mitsubishi, looks sweet:up

[Envious Eric]

poliseal has just a touch less cut than 106 i hear, no personal experiences though



nice job, results look killer

[resek]

Very good work Kaval!

Amazing results!

=)

[imported_kwiker]

That last pic is sweet!

[salty]

Very nice turnaround. Maybe you should present the bill to the dealership. LOL