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May 6, 2010

24

Toyota Harrier in Pearl White: Full Detail

by Kentangcf

Hey guys! I had the privilege to detail this almost new Toyota Harrier. Just want to say that this is going to be a short write-up as I didn’t spend too much time taking progress pictures of this car, it’s big! Also, the car being only 4-months old, I did feel stressed prior to detailing the car as it’s just way more difficult to bring an improvement to a new vehicle’s appearance compared to a few years old daily driver, but I think I managed. 😉

Here’s the car upon arrival. Surrounding areas of the bonnet has been taped up to demonstrate the basics of paint correction and protection to the owner.

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Before correction

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After correction

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Tyre dressing sling-off in the wheel wells

In usual fashion, I started with the wheels.

• Tires and wheel wells cleaned with Meguiar’s Super Degreaser
• Wheel wells dressed with Meguiar’s Hyper-Dressing
• Wheel face and barrel cleaned with Meguiar’s Wheel Brightener
• Old wheel weight residue and tar removed with Osren Tar Remover
• Wheel face polished with Meguiar’s #205 Ultra-Finishing Polish on a Lake Country Uni-ball
• Wheel face deep cleansed with Jeff’s Werkstatt Prime Acrylic
• Wheel face protected with FK1000P Hi-temp paste sealant
• Wheel barrel protected with Enviroshield

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Osren Tar Remover at work

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Ingrained dirt loosened and removed from polishing

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The engine bay had a light cleaning with some Meguiar’s All Purpose Cleaner and dressed with Meguiar’s Hyper-Dressing.

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The washing stage of the car consisted of:

• Washed with a mixture of shampoo and degreaser(Osren bubble and wax + Osren Multi clean)
• Paintwork smoothened with Osren Magic Clay cloth
• Tar removal on lower panels of paint work

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With the car washed, I turned my attention to the glass sunroof, which was full with water spots. The horizontal surfaces of the car also had some form of white coloured over spray.

Process for the glass sunroof:
• Watermark removed with acid
• Overspray removed with Osren Magic Clay Cloth by hand and Soft99 Glass Z compound via ROB(and Lake Country CCS Orange).
• Two coats of Rain-X applied for strong water repellency

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Tomcat Watermark Remover

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Before

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After watermark removal, prior to overspray removal

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50/50

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The glass compound dries up quite fast and has to be constantly ‘re-activated’ with plain water

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The dried compound is removed with Meguiar’s Glass Cleaner

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After

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Up-close

Note to self, always wear gloves when working with strong acid!!

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Door pillars were corrected using:
• Meguiar’s #105 Ultra-Cut Compound on a 4″ Lake Country Orange CCS pad via rotary
• Meguiar’s #205 Ultra-Finishing Polish on a 4″ Lake Country White CCS pad via rotary

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Black paint transfer from the single stage paintwork.

Tight areas and door handle wells hand polished with M105.

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Before

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After

Process for paintwork was:

• Compound with Meguiar’s #105 Ultra Cut Compound on a Lake Country Purple Foamed Wool
• Polish with Meguiar’s #205 Ultra Finishing Polish on a Lake Country White Kompressor Pad
• Finishing and jewelling with Meguair’s #205 on a Lake Country Flat Black pad.
• Deep cleansed and base sealant with Jeff’s Werkstatt Prime Acrylic
• Sealed with Jeff’s Werkstatt Acrylic Jett Trigger
• Final wax with Meguiar’s #16 for longer durability and protection.

It was really hard to capture the defects in the paint because of the light colour and high metallic flake content.

Generally the paint had light swirling as well as some random isolated deep scratches(RIDS) which necessitates the step of compounding with purple foamed wool.

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Before

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Before

After correction and protection photos below,

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Again, every centimeter of the paintwork wasn’t perfect under the LED lighting, but I would say I managed to achieve complete correction on 85%-90% of the car.

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Headlamps polished with M105/M205 combo and protected with Meguiar’s PlastX

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Other things done but no pictures were:

• Leather cleaned with Meguar’s Step 1 Aloe Cleaner, conditioned with Meguiar’s Gold Class Rich Leather Cleaner/Conditioner
• Glass cleaned with Meguiar’s Detailer line Glass Cleaner
• Interior plastic and vinyl wiped down with Meguiar’s Quik Interior Detailer.
• Exterior trim dressed with Meguiar’s Ultimate Protectant

Thanks for looking! Apologies to the owner for the lack of pictures this time around, will get better ones next time.

Comments and critiques always welcome!

^^V

Read more from Full Detail
24 Comments Post a comment
  1. May 6 2010

    hey!! nice work! pleasure to be able to meet you while you were detailing the harrier. i'm the guy walking the dog. haha! see ya around.

    Reply
  2. Izso
    May 6 2010

    Kenneth – why the need for the mask when washing down the car?

    Reply
  3. hey dude when you're free can you gimme a quote for my car?

    polish outside & engine. wash interior also!

    @izso – he's worried that he might contract H1N1 from the car ahahah wtf.

    Reply
  4. May 6 2010

    Nice job master Fish…

    Reply
  5. TimG
    May 7 2010

    Good work on the harrier dude! Me likey! Thats some shiznit *LOL*

    Reply
  6. @Qiyao – Hey man!! It was nice meeting you too! Sorry my grandfather was like…ambushing you with the questions, he assumed I knew you beforehand, LOL. If you need help on how to DIY polish your car or anything, let me know.

    @Izso – The mask actually is for when I'm cleaning the wheels, where the mist can sometimes be very fine and accidentally inhale it. Also to stop inhaling the polishing dust during the compounding process. I just keep it on most of the detail. Thought it will make me look more 'pro', hahha!

    @yeehou – Bro, will email you in a bit…

    @Seech – Thanks sifu Seech!

    @Tim – Thanks mate…shiznit?? LOL you have a wide vocabulary!

    Reply
  7. May 8 2010

    thats cool man, my dog was damn kacau also. I'm overseas until june, my car is under wraps for now. But I might drop by when i'm back to learn a thing or two from you about car polishing. Haha but before that, I need to respray a section that my dad scratched against a wall pillar.

    Reply
  8. Hi Qiyao,

    Haha your dog was nice. I used to have a female German Sheperd too, but gave it to a relative cause no one had the time to take care of her. Seeing your dog made me miss her.

    Overseas? Cool! Look forward to seeing you again in the near future.

    Reply
  9. May 11 2010

    Hi, nice work again!
    Btw, what pressure washer you're using? Seems kinda small, tehee.

    Reply
  10. Hi 222,
    Thanks! The pressure washer is a Bosch Aquatak 1200

    Reply
  11. May 12 2010

    Ok bebeh waiting for your email!!

    Reply
  12. May 12 2010

    Isn't it weak, it only has 390l/h?
    I've had Kränzle 1200 TS and i'm currently using Nilfisk Alto maxxi 4-73s, but then again, i live in Estonia where the cars are really dirty all the time…

    Reply
  13. @222 – I've never other pressure washers before, so don't really know if it is weak or strong. But I do know it is strong enough for my car cleaning needs. 🙂

    Reply
  14. May 14 2010

    mamamia again

    Reply
  15. mamamia back at you KC!

    Reply
  16. Joe
    Jun 12 2010

    Hi Kenneth,

    Do you apply the Soft99 Glass Compound on the glass when dry or wet? I bought the product today and tried it on my windscreen while its wet, and it didnt give very good results yet.

    Reply
  17. Hi Joe,

    Use it as it is, as you rub it in, it will start to dry, then spray a little bit of water to reactivate the abrasives and continue rubbing. Add more of the glass compound when you feel it is not strong anymore because of being diluted with water.

    Since you are trying to give the glass a deep clean, it would be different from using a wax, where you just spread it over the area. With the glass compound, you really have to put some elbow grease into it, really rub it in. This will be quite tiring depending on what you are trying to achieve, do a section at a time. Once you are satisfied with the results on that section, move on the the next.

    Reply
  18. Joe
    Jun 13 2010

    Hi Kenneth,

    Thanks for the advice. I will put more effort today into the cleaning. Actually I have a Nissan Sunny that is over 15 years old, so the water marks are quite bad. I am just trying to clean that off without damaging the glass further. I dont have an orbital buffer, so it will be a very manual process.

    I was initially scared that polish will scratch the glass worse than before, so I read your blog to learn the right techniques and products to use. 🙂

    Reply
  19. Hi Joe,

    In that case, acid would be easier to remove watermarks. Be careful with it and wear gloves while working with acid. The product I have is called Tomcat watermark remover and I bought that from Eneos 1 Utama. I'm not sure if the product is still available, if not, you can buy a bottle of StainX from Osren, but they only sell it in 1 litre quantities if I'm not mistaken, which might be too much for you.

    Reply
  20. Jan 14 2011

    Hi Kanneth,
    I just bought a Harrier 2006 pearl white exactly like your car,
    Like to get some advise from u about the tyre,
    The tyre made in-2005 came with the car with only 40% used, but I found some minor crack which is around 1/2 incih from wheel center.
    Can the tyre still be used?

    Reply
  21. andy
    Apr 8 2011

    hi, how much you charge per car ( eg: estima )
    your works really surprise me

    Reply
    • Apr 8 2011

      Hi Andy,

      Depending on the work needed to be carried out. I will send you an email.

      Reply
  22. mystic88
    Dec 4 2011

    Try halogen lamp on different angles to work on light colored cars. Metal halide, LED, white-based colored spectrum lights won’t work on light paints.

    Reply
    • Dec 6 2011

      Really? Hmmm, I actually think the total opposite is right? The yellow halogen lamps don’t show much on light colours, LED does better for me. Maybe it’s the type of bulb? *shrugs*

      Reply

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