SO... my hood had tons of hairline circular scratches and swirl marks on it and I couldn't stand it any more. Especially now that the sun is out and the weather is warming up. in the daylight with the direct sun on the car you can clearly see how bad it was.

here are some pictures of my trunk which is the same condition that my hood was in due to a poor detail job previouslly. the sun makes all the scratches easily visible. im sure all you OB owners share my pain.









I'm going to do the Trunk tomorrow but this was the exact same condition that my hood was in. I chose to do the hood today because it was bothering me more and I couldn't stand looking at it. I dont have a porter cable or anything so I did all the polishing / compounding by hand and here are the results:














and finally my favorite: you can really see how mirror-like the hood is against the reflection of the gate


I'm only 20 years old and In college so I don't have a TON of money to spend on getting my car professionally detailed every couple of months, nor do I own a Porter cable or rotary buffer, so this was kind of a pain in the A$$ to do by hand.... but I enjoy it and since about 99.999999% of my monthly paycheck goes towards financing my G, I put as much effort possible into keeping it looking clean.

The products I used and steps were:
1.) wash the car with Meguiars Gold Class Car Wash
2.) Clay bar the hood with Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Kit
3.) Polish the hood With Meguiars Deep crystal finishing Polish (foam applicator pad)
4.) compound with Meguiars Swirl remover and light cut compound (foam Applicator Pad)
5.) compound with meguiars Medium cut Compound (foam applicator pad)
6.) isolate a few remaining problem spots with Scatch X
7.) applied touch up paint to a chip in the hood
8.) work backwards now from most aggresive compound (medium cut) back down to least aggressive (light cut) then Finishing polish
9.) then sprayed the hood down with 70% water 30% rubbing alcohol solution to get an remaining polish off the hood.
10.) then finally applied Meguiars Cleaner Wax to seal and protect (microfiber applicator pad)


The results were worth the time spent (approx 2.5 hours by hand) and i probablly got a better workout than I would have if I spend an hour at the gym lifting weights

 

WOW That took a long time for just the hood. But overall great job looks great

 

Yeah holy crap that's a lot of work... I thought it was taking forever when I just washed and buffed some Zymol all over my car haha. That crap took forever by hand and damn my arms were tired. Looked really good though haha. Your's looks pretty nice! Need bigger pictures though!

 

omg...I can't believe you did that by hand. If you lived near me I would let you come over and use my pc.

 

yeah sorry for the small pictures.... I took them with my crappy phone so they were very small

 

Nice work man, looks like you did a great job

 

Could you explain your process a little better. I'm going to do the same on mine. My car is IP and it a PIA to see the imperfections.

 

So i washed the car about 2 days before i did the hood. I just gave the hood a quick wipe down with a microfiber sponge dipped in soapy water to get any dust and crap off of it before i began the detail. use dishwashing soap (dawn or palm olive) for this. the reason being, these soaps are bad to wash your car with because they are too aggresive on the wax and will strip it. but because you are taking the wax off anyways, it actually helps you out and shortcuts a step. SO... after washing the hood and thoroughlly drying it, move it into the shade and make sure it is cool to the touch. I know its getting warmer outside, so if your surface isnt cool then make sure you let it sit for a while before you begin detailing. Then use a clay bar and begin to clay the hood. If you are unfarmiliar with how to use a clay bar watch this video : . Now that all the wax is strippe doff the car and the surface is smooth form the clay, go ahead and leave all the quick detailer on your hood. Some people wipe the detialer lubricant away, but it actually makes the next step harder if you do that. the lubricant helps the polish spread easier and smoorther on your hood SO its a good idea to just let it sit their while you begin to polish the hood. You ALWAYS want to go from least aggressive to most aggresive when polishing and working out and fine scratches, SO i start with a finishing crystal shine polish. It is very very mild and is used as a show polish to just make you car more mirror like and glossy, HOWEVER, combined with the clay bar, after doing this step you will notice a lot of fine scratches and swirl marks have already dissapeared. If you still have visible scratches and swirls then you can move onto a more aggressive polish. Compounding is very similar to polish, it is just a more aggresive product, so don't get confused. After polishing I use a light cut compound that also acts as a medium swirl remover. Apply this in the same way you would a polish. Work on about a 1 foot square section, and using a foam applicator pad make horizontal passing strokes over the area. you dont need to apply tons of pressure because the product will do the work for you. then pass back over the same area now making vertical pasisng strokes. this criss cross pattern reduces the visibility of scratchest form both angles and will maximize effectiveness. after you have gone over the area with the polish / compound it will either begin to dust or become invisible. this is a sign that you are done with that area. you can now wipe off the product with a clean microfiber towel and begin working on the enxt area untill you have covered the entire car. If you still have scratches or swirls, then move again to a more aggeressive product, like a medium cut compound. rinse and repeate the process. after you get to the point where you no longer have scratches or blemishes in your hood, you now need to work backwards in reverse order down to the least aggressive polish that you started with. this is necessary to remove any new swirls you may have created with the medium cut compound, and to bring your car to that mirror like shine that the fine detailing polish will give you. The next step is VERY important..... so, now that you have your hood looking amazing and shiney it is time to apply a sealant to protect it. BUT where most people F#$! up is by just applying the wax after polishing. what you want to do is take spray bottle and fill it with 1/3rd rubbing alcohol and 2/3rds water. and mist the hood and wipe it down with a BRAND NEW FRESH towel. DO NOT USE THE TOWEL YOU HAVE BEEN WIPING THE POLISH OFF WITH. the purpose of this step is to completelly get rid of any remaining polish residue before sealing it. if you don't then you will just trap the residue under the wax and you will be back at square one, and in 2 weeks you will get blemishes and hazing all over again. after this you can go ahead and apply your favorite wax. and thats it.. your done!

 

Holy christ dude... PARAGRAPHS!!! There's no way I'm going to try and read that.

 

Great job!

Definitely some dedication when it comes to hand polishing.

 

WOW good job dude, I'll be getting my car done professionally since theres a bunch of swirl marks everywhere, but maybe ill give it a shot by hand first!!

 

amazing work and patience ..

mirror like finish ..

 

Damn i bet yours arms felt like lead afterwords.......good job.

 

wow great Job!!

 

yeah they did lol. but a case of stella artois helps with that



thanks for all the love guys. It really isnt that bad to do by hand. just do a small section at a time, like the hood, trunk, fender, door, roof. and space it out over a week. I'm working on the trunk today or tomorrow, I'll post pics of that once I'm done.

If you keep the car clean, it seriously just takes like 5 minutes to wipe it down with a sponge and dry. if you do it every other day it really cuts down on the prep time.

80% of making your car look good is just keeping it clean.