Im the second owner of this car, (04 blk on blk) previous owner didnt give 2 craps about it so the paint was full of swirls and scratches and looking dull...
Finally after 12 hours of hard work me and gio (glex25) brought the shine back to my car... i have to tell u it didnt look like my car would ever look as good as it does now...

it was a super long process and i feel for all blk car owners out there. im new to the detailing and thought it was crazy spending alot of time cleaning ur car but man the end result is nice...
ok so here are the steps gio took to restore my car to life...

First wash car with dawn and terry cloths

Second claybar with a heavy mix of dawn and water

Third wash again with terry cloths and dawn

4th tape off the plastic pieces with blue painters tape

5th step compound car with Heavy duty Polishing compound with Porter cable and Yellow pad

6th step Meguiars #9 Swirl Remover with Porter cable and white pad

7th step Meguiars #7 Show Car Glaze worked into the paint by hand

8th step Meguiars #21 synthetic Sealant applied with porter cable and black pad and removed by hand

9th step NXT Tech Wax applied by hand and removed by hand..

after all that here are the b4 and after pics... lots of thanks to gio for teaching me the way to a nice shine...

Before >>>>>

 

more b4

 

Finally the end results..

 

more of the end result and last pic u see gios car after a 15min wash...lmao....

 

WOW!!!!!

Exellent work!

Black coupes are just the bomb...

 

nice work how many miles on the car?

 

good job, came out really nice!!!

 

car has 18k miles on it.. jus wasnt getting the right tlc...

 

Nice job - I've got an 03 black on black coupe too, but mine has about 44K miles on it and it's a b!tch to keep it that shiny. I have a bunch of swirls and scratches too, and that NXT Tech Wax is a godsend.

 

Yes NXT Tech Wax works good as a FILLER. If you really want to remove your scratches and swirls instead of hiding it then doing the proper prep is necessary. I tried starting off with a medium cut with Swirl Remover tried working with that for a good 30 minutes on the hood alone but just wasn't doing the job. I didn't want to resort to compound but I had no choice. There are scratches that do not show in the pictures that could only have been removed by wetsanding since they were pretty deep. I minised them to the point where they were barely noticeable with the compound followed that with swirl remover to minise swirls made by using compound. I don't know how the previous owner washed the ride but it might as well have been a scratch and wash thats how bad the car was.

The detailing came out great. I would say 300% better than what it was but by no means perfect. If the car had the proper care from the start alot of what was going on with the paint could have been avoided or minised to the point that it didn't need to go the extreme.

Just a little food for thought for those that care about their ride and want it looking their best for the rest of its life.

I'm glad I had this opportunity to work on a car that showed all its defects which made it easier for me to react to them. My car being DG it tends to hide defects better. It was a great learning experience and im glad that the owner is happy with the results.

Next weekend im tackling my car i got minor scratches that are not visible to the naked eye unless you know where your looking. Yes I'm **** when it comes to cars but is there any other way to be

 

Yeah, yeah, I know that it's a filler and that I'm only hiding. On the other hand, it gets the car to about 90% of where you guys are for a lot less energy, time, and money. I figure I could get the car completely repainted in another four or five years for the same price as all the extra car care products and endless amounts of time required to get it 100% all the time.

 

I'm into detailing myself and I was wondering why you preferred to use terry cloths over microfiber? The car came out great though...nice work!

 

WOW, good work!!! look at that shine!

 

I like to use MF Towels after all has been said and done to avoid minor scratches.

Since the car was going to go thru the whole process it didn't matter if it was Terry or MF.
I do suggest using MF if you have gone thru all these steps to keep your car scratch free.

 

Very good results considering where the paint was when u started. I'm a zaino
user myself imho its the best product i've used. Lots of prep work but it lasts
a long time and the protection it affords is awesome. I used it for 5 years on
my vette and now on my G. I had a '99 vette and people thought it was an '03 or '04 beacause of the condition of my paint and interior.