Full Detail: Toyota MR-S
The full works were done to this car, paint correction and coating, wheel cleaning and coat, glass polishing and coat, engine bay cleaning, headlight restoration and interior cleaning. 44 hours were spent on this car. Grab a drink, this is gonna be long with 200+ photos.
Firstly, I will be posting in a different format from now on, arranging the photos according to the surface being worked on. I think it is easier to see than arranging it in a chronological order, let me know you think. 🙂
All images are click-able for a higher resolution
To start, the rims were cleaned with Sonax Extreme Wheel Cleaner while the tires and wheel wells cleaned with Osren Multi Cleaner (diluted 1:1). Osren Tar Remover is used on the wheel barrel and wheel face. Finally coated with a new prototype coating that provides excellent hydrophobicity function and colour saturation.
new prototype coating
For the rear plastic brake lights and tail lights:
Meguiar’s #105 Ultra Cut Compound on a Lake Country 4″ White Wool Pad
Meguiar’s #105 Ultra Cut Compound on a Lake Country 4″ Orange CCS Foam pad
Meguiar’s #205 Ultra Finishing Polish on a Lake Country 4″ White CCS Foam pad
For the front headlights, I restored them twice because the first time where I used the UV Hardcoat method, the final sanding was too fine and there was little traction for the UV Hardcoat to stick on, this could’ve led to the heavy runs in the coating. The coating could not fully cure in 3 days, so when I tried to sand with 2000 grit sandpaper to remove the runs in the coating, I punctured it and had to do the traditional sand and buff.
Coated with Gtechniq C1+.
Before
After
Deep micro-cracks required machine sanding with 400 grit paper
1 layer of masking tape and 2 layers of duct tape for protection
Clear areas indicating factory coating still present.
Carpets were pressure rinsed first, and scrubbed with a DA brush with Meguiar’s All Purpose Cleaner (1:4), finally pressure rinsed and extracted. Same process was applied on the seats except the Meguiar’s All Purpose Cleaner dilution ratio was 1:10 instead of 1:4. Interior rubber, vinyl and plastic surfaces cleaned with Meguiar’s All Purpose Cleaner (1:10) and protected with Gtechniq C6 Matte Dash for an factory looking finish, with zero darkening or shine.
Wrapping the carpets before they were put back into the interior
Dirt from the seats and carpets, yuck!
Front and rear glass were polished with Carpro Ceriglass and Osren Felt Pad. Coated with the new prototype coating.
Water beading before polishing
No more water beading indicating glass is clean
After coating
All wiring connectors and the voltage stabilizer was wrapped with aluminium foil. Cleaned with Osren Multi Cleaner (diluted 1:1) and lightly rinsed with the hose with little pressure. Dressed with Valetpro Talos Protectant.
On the front cargo compartment, there was a lot of polish residue from the headlight restoration. This was pressure rinsed, scrubbed with Osren Multi Clean, and dressed with Valetpro Talos Protectant.
I tried to use Sonax Extreme Wheel Cleaner to remove the rust on the extractor heat shield, but to no avail.
The paintwork was a major headache. I spent 15 hours alone on the compounding process, the swirls were everywhere! I had to compound right up to the edges of every panel because if I didnt, the swirls would stick out like a sore thumb. Also, the swirls were all very deep, its not like 1 pass of compound cleared up everything, had to repeat at least 2-3 times and double check with Eagletac T10L LED light and re-compound the imperfect areas again.
Process:
1) Meguiar’s #105 Ultra Cut Compound / Lake Country White Wool Pads (6.5″ & 4″) / Makita 9227C rotary
2) Meguiar’s #105 Ultra Cut Compound / Lake Country Cutting Pad / Makita 9227C rotary
3) Gtechniq P1 Nanoscopic Polish / Lake Country White Foam Pad / Dodo Juice Das6 Dual Action polisher
4) Coated with new prototype coating with excellent hydrophobicity function and colour saturation.
Deep swirls!
My feelings when I saw the condition of the paint
Tested with M105 and Purple Foam Wool, it cleared up about 70% of the swirls, but was lacking the cut needed
Double checking, Re-compounding again and again
4″ pads were used extensively
Before
After compounding
After compounding
Macro close-up ‘Before’
Macro close-up ‘After compounding’
Before
After
Before
After
After
Before
After, RIDS remain
After compound and polish. As you can see, it’s not perfect but miles better.
Pressure rinsing to remove polish dust
After coating with new prototype coating with excellent hydrophobicity function and colour saturation.
Video of how I got those vent strips almost perfect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olf3067Jgtc&feature=youtu.be
Notice near the door handle that there is a triangular shaped residue.
It is actually very old hardened tape residue that has set rock hard on the paint, compounding cannot remove it and has to be grinded off and repainted. Thanks to forummer someonespecial from TechTurkey for pointing that out, as I forgot to explain it. Thanks to forummer imprezawrc for posting the link on the forum!
In true Japanese detailing fashion, using a mirror to polish under the body.
Old number plates were detracting from the freshly detailed look
Changed to new plates with crystal font, this made a huge difference
After 44 hours split over 5 days, may I humbly present to you, the final results.
High contact angle water beads
Optimum Car Wax was given to the owner as a maintenance spray
Cleaning up the mess left behind after the long and tough battle
If you have made it all the way to the end, thank you. This was a tough one and the satisfaction in the end for me was priceless, detailing new cars ain’t the same.
All comments are welcome!
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Cool…
Thanks Alexander
awesome bro!!
Thanks Darween
awesome result ken, 5 day huh, so the paint seems is very hard, hei ken this prototype coating you mention, a coating that high contact angle and good on red car. i’m guessing is it EXO/KanCoat.
Thanks David, I feel like the paint is medium hardness but the swirls are very deep. Why would you guess that the coating EXO? EXO and Kancoat are the same? o.O
just want to guess what coating that you use ^_^, so are my guess right ??. i don’t know does EXO and Kancoat are same. but they are very similar in packing form / and advertise use and performance.
Hehe, let’s just say I can’t tell, yet 🙂
Email me the answer ok ^_^, also there something else i want to discus
Hey Kenneth,
Thanks for the long and much effort on the car. It finally gets the pampering that it deserves…trying to preserve as much “stock-like-ness” of the car as possible. You have gone more than I have asked, very surprise that it took so much longer (guess the car condition really was kinda beaten up) and I am very grateful for the care you gave…every second of it.
The car is great, except for some smell in the interior that i just couldn’t get rid of (do you know of any other ways?) and I am making an effort to clean and quik detail it about once a week.
Keep in touch ya
~gerald
Hi Gerald,
Thanks for leaving your kind comments!
About the smell, was it there before the detail or only after the detail?
You can try getting Meguiar’s Odour Eliminator and spray it onto the carpets and seats.
Sorry about the odour as I did not notice any while I was detailing it, if the Odour Eliminator doesn’t work let me know ya, I will drop by and use a stronger interior deodorizer.
Thanks again! 🙂
Thanks for the advice. There are more pics now eh…. So much work than I would have realized.
Bathe d ride once a week – no water spots as of yet.
The bottle of quik detail may run out faster than I expected .
Take care and keep in touch
Hi Gerald,
The number of pics are the same, maybe it didn’t fully load before, I have this problem sometimes when there are too many photos in a post.
That’s great to hear! It’s okay if you need more I can sell you some more, or if you choose to buy outside, get the Meguiar’s Ultimate Quik Wax, but not the Ultimate Quik Detailer.
Take care and keep in touch too!
Love these long detailing post Ken.
Did you wet the seats first with water before spraying APC or did you spray it with APC until it is wet enough to be scrubbed?
Hi Jules,
I wet the seats slightly first before spraying the APC, if I rely on the APC alone to get the seats wet, it might need a lot of rinsing later on.
god mode!
No ken I can solve the problem for you – odour smell
Hi Ken,
This web provide a thrilling journey in car detailing and I learned lot although not started yet with own rotary polishing as the time didn’t smile upon me 😦
I was approach by my regular Meg detailer in Bangi on SONAX paint coating when I talk to him about yr website and you’ve tried the Optimum opti G. But he cautiously mention to me he had tried Optimum but later have problem w watermark,in which have to polish again!! Is this true to all coating as ever since I look into others like Permanon etc..have you try Sonax Paint coat?
BTW I just realised now u provide service as well,but I just send my LGT for full detailing few weeks before Raya, maybe I can send my new PoloGTI to you 🙂 thanks lot bro!!
Hi there,
Thanks for your comment!
The Meg detailer in Bangi is correct to a certain extent. The truth is, all glass based coatings will accumulate watermark if the owner does not wash the car regularly. Because the coatings are so durable, any watermark will just ‘stick’ to the coating and won’t wash off. Unlike using a wax, where the calcium deposits will wash away when the wax deteriorates.
I have tried Sonax paint coat on a small panel only, not on a whole car, so I’m not sure of it’s actual performance. But it is claimed to be able to last 12 months, and I believe this claim since it is by a reputable company. For the watermark, all coatings will get it and it depends entirely on how the owner maintains the coating. Most importantly is to not let water sit on the paint for too long, and this will keep the coating looking fresh and no need to re-polish or re-wax for a long time.
PoloGTI? I’d love to work on that car! You can send me anytime. Thanks.
Email: kenneth.wetshine@hotmail.com
Thx bro. Will provide the details to you soon 🙂