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Thanks everybody, I really appreciate the compliments! Although it was a back breaker, this was a great car to work on and bring back to life.

Now THAT is black! All done! Thanks as always for investing so much time reviewing my work! The owner was very pleased with the outcome… Total time = 18 hours.

Just add some diplomat flags to the front of this car and people will know that you mean business!

Anybody read Japanese? The back seats were very comfortable. Now, if you watched the video, you’ll get a better understanding of this one. Toyota’s marketing department said that the chrome trim around the window was actually designed like a picture frame that will enhance one’s appearance (seriously…go back and watch the video!). I’ve always been a sucker for clever marketing campaigns, so I had to give it a try. I’ve already written my complaint letter to Toyota because quite frankly, I didn’t find that it did anything to enhance my appearance! What a scam! Actually, I think this way enhances my appearance! …and the crowd roars with laughter! After I was done goofing off in the back seat (reclining the seat, playing with the curtains…stuff like that), I finally sealed the finish with Optimum Opti-seal. Afterwards, I carefully gave it a final wipedown with Optimum Gloss Enhancer. The owner only wanted a sealant with no wax. Now for some “final” after shots.

On this one I placed the sun in the shot so you can see a really deep defect that I could only make “better”. Now that the paint is good, it’s time to take it back in for all of the finishing touches…cleaning out door jambs, emblems, dressing wheel wells and tires (Fade 2 Black and Optimum Opti-Bond), etc, etc. While I had the wipers off, I decided to bring them back to life a bit because they were looking a bit rough. Besides, you can’t just go down to the auto parts store and get replacement wipers for this car! I cleaned up the metal with Klasse All-In-One, and treated the plastic parts of it with 303 Aerospace Protectant. The wiper at the top has been polished, whereas the one at the bottom has not. Speaking of wipers, the recessed areas where they attach were rough as well, and cannot be cleaned without removing them first. I cleaned the outer area with alcohol and q-tips, and the inner area got polished with Optimum Metal Polish with a MF towel and q-tips for the tight areas. Before: A little out of focus, but you can tell it made a huge difference. The key got polished as well Especially when using Megs 105, you’ll find that it get in all of the hiding places, and then turns to concrete! I clean this up with Optimum No Rinse sprayed onto a MF towel, and then wipe it down. This was done in all of the door jambs, the trunk lid, and the hood areas (and anywhere else it can hide). After: The roof had very deep water etching. So deep in fact that it would require heavy sanding to get rid of it. The owner decided to save that for when/if it becomes a show car. OK, we’re getting close to the end…honestly! I didn’t work on the interior, but I wanted to at least take a few photos for everybody. Even for 1979 it had digital displays. Navigation/TV display added on at some point:

Before: After compounding: Every section was hit 3-5x with Megs 105/wool to get the desired results! After I finished the compounding stage (9 hours worth!), here’s what I was able to achieve already! Looking pretty good… After compounding, I took it back outside for another CGCWC wash to remove the residue and (lots of) dust from the Megs 105. I was hoping to make this a 2-step polishing process, so I had to choose the right follow-up product. It had to have enough cut to get rid of the swirls left behind by the 105 and wool, but it needed to finish fine enough for this paint. I also wanted easy removal so that I didn’t risk marring the finish with a MF towel. Because it also has long working times too, I chose Optimum Polish II. On a grey pad at 1000-1400-1000 rpms, it was taking out the wool swirls, and finishing off very nicely. Having said that though, it was very cloudy out so I couldn’t inspect the finish in the sun (not good with black paint). Before finishing with OPII: After: OK, it’s about 8:30 pm now (started at 7:30 am!), so it’s time to call it a night. Day 3: The hard part is done (compounding), so I’m the down slide! It’s time to pick out a few CD’s to get my going…something that goes well with the mood of knowing that the marathon will be finishing soon. I’m thinking a little early 80’s rock: Van Halen Fair Warning (Unchained rocks!) and Sammy Hagar Standing Hampton (Heavy Metal…awesome tune!). I like VH and I like Sammy…I just don’t like them together! Sorry I went off on a flashback of teenage rock there for a moment (good times, gooood times!). Back to the detail. Here I am working with OPII, and a grey 4” spot pad in the tight areas. I finished up with the Optimum Polish about the time the sun came up over the house. Now I could take the car outside and properly inspect it for holograms. Remember, it’s a right-side drive car, so you can probably imagine how many times I went to get in the car on the wrong side! Once I pulled it outside, I was bummed to find out that I had very light holograms even with the OPII and a grey pad. This paint is definitely challenging! So I pulled it back in the garage, broke out the Menzerna PO85RD and a red pad and worked it at very slow rpm’s. Back out in the sun again, and I found the finish to be very good with no more holograms! You’ll notice a few of the deeper scratches that still remain. I’d say I achieved the 80-85% correction we were going after.

Day 2, 7:30am First I needed to start off by completely taping off all of the trim and emblems. This car had rubber trim and seals everywhere, so it took 45 minutes just to tape everything off! I also removed the windshield wipers to gain access to the painted areas below it that I wouldn’t be able to access otherwise. This would also give me the chance to clean the chrome where it mounts. When I started off with the hood, I was finding the deep defects to be extremely difficult to remove. I hit each section 4-5x with M105 and wool before I was even able to get 80-85% correction rate! Throughout the entire detail, I continually used my DeFelsko DFT paint thickness gage to make sure I wasn’t removing too much paint. Before: After compounding stage: This is a great shot on the front left of the car showing the difference in the finish just after the compounding stage. Even without any intermediate or finish polishing, the left side is like a completely different color of black. Working my way around to the back, I found the trunk to be exceptionally difficult. I made it look a LOT better, but it had some random scratches that just wouldn’t fully correct without the need for wetsanding. Before: After compounding: For the back section, I used a 4” orange spot buff pad with Megs 105. I also used this combination on the tail lights (and later finished those up with white/Optimum Polish II). Before: After compounding:

I had already done an inspection on the car, and knew it was going to be a lot of work, so I split the workload over a 3 day period. Day 1: For the first day, the goal was simply to wash, clay, and to do a test section for polishing to figure out where I would need to start polishing the next morning. The door jambs were pretty dirty, but not as bad as you would expect for a 30 year old car. I sprayed them down first with P21S Total Auto Wash, and then agitated with my Mini E-Z Detail brush. I knew that the paint was frequently waxed, so I gave it a foam bath of Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Clear at paint prep ratio (2oz/gal) to help strip the wax from the finish. This is a big help when prepping the car for the polishing stage. After washing I pulled it in the garage and spent some time claying the surface to further prep it for polishing. I got a chance to use the new Dodo Juice Born Slippy clay lube, and I have to say that it’s an amazing product! It’s very slick, yet wipes away clean without any “slick” residue. When you plan on performing heavy compounding, it is important to first check the thickness of the paint to see how much you have to work with. You may find out that there are sections that have been re-painted, or that the finish is too thin to safely do heavy defect removal. When you’re dealing with an old and/or rare vehicle like this one, it’s even more critical. If you watched the video, you saw that the Century is made with a maximum of 7 layers of paint. If the paint is still original (as it appeared to be), I should expect to see some thick readings. The hood showed the highest readings, and they were consistent across the entire hood. If this had been repainted at some point, somebody did an unbelievable job. Color matched, texture matched, it had consistent thickness, and the paint reacted to polishing exactly the same as it did on the rest of the car. This is a reading from the roof. The owner and I had already discussed the plan of attack, and I kept in touch with him throughout the process. We both agreed that we should preserve as much paint as possible to ensure it has plenty of life left in it. This isn’t a show car, and he plans on driving it a lot. We knew that there would be some heavier defects that would remain, but if we could achieve an 80%-85% correction rate, we would be happy. While claying and doing wipedowns, I noticed that the single stage paint was easily marred indicating a soft finish. Even my most plush towels would mar the finish if I used enough pressure (and I thought my black Acura paint was soft!). Given the soft paint, I decided to start off with a light combination for my test polish section. I used Menzerna 106FF and a white pad, but found that it only corrected the very light defects. I stepped up to Super Intensive Polish, but that didn’t achieve much greater results. Hmmmm. So much for “soft” paint! After a few different trials, I found out that I would need to use Megs 105 and a wool pad on the rotary. I first tried the 105 with a PC and an orange pad, but it wasn’t getting rid of the deep defects, and it was horribly marring the finish. On the rotary with wool however, it was achieving a greater rate of correction, and finishing up much nicer. Here’s what I determined on my test section…this is very odd paint! It acts like a soft paint because the finish was so easily marred, but it acted like a hard paint during correction because it required such an aggressive method to get good results. If you thought that the finish looked pretty decent from the outside shots, then take a closer look under the lights…they showed a much more extreme story. Here you can see the lack of definition in the light reflection…quite hazy. Here’s after completing my test section. This is without any finish polishing, and you can tell just how much of a difference there is from the corrected side on the left, and the un-corrected side on the right. Alright, now that I know that Megs 105 and a wool pad is the winning combination, it’s time to get to bed (I started late in the day) and be ready to go bright and early the next morning.

1979 Toyota Century Every now and then we get the opportunity to work on some very special vehicles, and I was pleased to get the chance to restore the finish of one of Japan’s finest luxury cars…the Toyota Century. The rare Century is hand-built in limited quantities (usually 200-500 per year), and this body style remained unchanged for 30 years (1967-1997). They are all built to order. This model had a V-8 motor, but in the late nineties it came with a V-12! The amount of power features that they put in a car built in 1979 is simply amazing. How about a power-reclining rear seat that can be controlled from the front? Not only does it have power rear curtains, but they automatically open up when you put the car in reverse. This vehicle was designed and built for the elite…dignitaries, diplomats, and VIP’s. It’s a major indicator of high status in Japan to be seen in the Century. It is also the vehicle of the Emperor (special edition). The design is elegant, understated, and business-like (think of it as a Japanese version of the Rolls Royce or Bentley). The owner of this particular car has a nice little collection of vehicles, and just had this one imported from Japan in December. He also just brought over a rare Toyota Celica GT-4 WRC that he needs me to work on as well. For those interested in a bit of history on the Century, I have attached a video that goes into the design and manufacturing process. It’s almost 7 minutes long, but it’s pretty interesting. So if you don’t have time now, then read through the rest of the thread and come back to watch the video! First up, let’s take a closer look at the condition. For a 30 year old vehicle, the finish looked pretty good and had a lot of gloss. Since this was most likely chauffer-driven, I’m sure it was washed and waxed quite frequently. As you can see, it had a bit of a swirl problem! The tail lights were in need of some serious TLC as well. There was also quite a bit of polish and wax buildup in all of the seams, around emblems, and at the edges of the trim.

:D Thank you my friend!

Thanks guys! My twin in Atlanta's name is Bryan Burnsworth. He's a great guy, and an incredible detailer! www.peachstatedetail.com He was named (along with me!) in AutoWeek magazine as one of the 9 top detailers in the U.S.

Thanks guys!!

No more defects on the trunk lid: Or on the hood: This wasn’t a good photo, but I put it in anyhow because I captured an airplane in the reflection! I heard it coming, and waited until it flew underneath the cloud so it would be easier to spot. When the owner came and picked it up, he couldn’t believe how it looked. He said he was expecting it to look nice, but nothing at the level that he received. He immediately booked his wife’s ’08 Lexus RX350, and we also scheduled out quarterly polishes on both vehicles. Total time = 12+ hours. The look on the owner’s face when he came to get the car = priceless! Thanks for taking the time to review my work.

I’ve been waiting all winter to take this shot. I did a lot of these hood/ceiling reflection shots last year before the ceiling was finished. Not only did I complete a major garage makeover, but I also had my logo printed in reverse so I could hang it on the ceiling. Once I take the reflection shots, the logo reads the right way! Pretty cool, eh? Now that I’ve kept you for this long, and you’re still reading and checking out the photos, I’m going to do my best to keep you a little while longer!  Before I move onto some sun shots, I’m going to show you how the interior turned out. While I was able to get the leather MUCH cleaner, a lot of the dye transfer simply would not come out…no matter what I tried. I was a little bummed about this, but it still looked fantastic in comparison. All interior surfaces were cleaned first with Woolite/water. After that I went after stubborn scuffs and smudges with APC+ at 10:1. The console and controls areas were cleaned with Megs Interior Detailer, and the wood and metal trim were polished with Klasse AIO. I spoke with George at Leatherique about the seating surfaces. After looking at the photos and some Q&A, he confirmed that the surface has been compromised and worn (it was actually rough to the touch in those areas), allowing the dye to transfer deeply into the fibers of the leather. He said that it would require a re-dye in those spots to correct it. He also added that heated seats actually add to this problem. Got legroom? Remember how bad this area looked? The carpet was cleaned with Folex, agitated with a stiff brush, and extracted with hot water. The pedals and foot rest areas were scrubbed with APC 4:1 and a brush. There’s a little bit of staining that was too tough to completely remove, but in the end it was a huge transformation. Now for the after shots in some sunshine! Remember what the rear bumper looked like when I received it? (Go ahead and scroll back up to the top…I’ll wait). I polished up the exhaust outlets with Klasse AIO

In this reflection shot you can see my new 4-bulb, T-5 fluorescent lights. I put 3 of them in the garage, and they’re a tremendous help. Here’s my Salvador Dali shot for those artistically inclined. Look at the bending of the clocks in the reflection:

Day two: Moving down the side of the car, I found that PO203 Power Finish and a white LC pad worked just fine. A few deeper rids required 2 passes, but other than that just one pass did the trick. Around to the back of the car, I knew that the trunk lid had deeper defects than the hood. For this one I used a Tuf Buf black lambswool pad with SIP. That combo left some holograms, so I finished it up with 106FF and a grey pad. Before: After: Not only does Menzerna make great products, but their bottles are also perfectly sized for propping the trunk lid open when working on the lower areas. It’s smart to do this when working on the trunk lid and the upper part of the bumper to avoid any accidents when moving the rotary around in these tight areas. Here I am using a 4” white spot pad with PO203. Moving my way around to the right rear of the vehicle I have some long scratches and paint transfers to deal with. Some of them were easy to remove, while others were pretty deep. Here I went back to the Tuf Buf black pad and SIP combo (Lexus paint is soft and corrects easily…otherwise I would normally go for M105 here) for a couple of passes, and followed up with 106FF. Not what you want to see on your 10 month old, $75K car! All better now: Here’s just after finishing this side with PO203/white LC pad. I’ve got everything completed now and cleaned up a bit. I’ve topped it with Opti-Seal, but no LSP as of yet. Here are some after shots in the garage. I have the car for one more day, and it’s supposed to be sunny so I’ll wait and get a few more outside-sun pics at that time. Wheels all cleaned up and sealed, and topped with Sonus Tire Gel

Now it’s time for decontamination and cleaning of exterior surfaces. I started off with P21S Wheel Gel on the 19” rims, and let it dwell for a while to work into the many months of brake dust buildup. While that was working, I sprayed the tires and wheel wells with Megs APC+ at 4:1. Here’s a photo of the P21S doing its job: Once the wheels/wells were completed, I moved on to the rest of the vehicle. First I gave the car a thorough rinsing, and then broke out the foam gun that was loaded with Chemical Guys Wash & Clear mixed at paint-prep ratio (2oz / gal). While this was dwelling I prepared my two wash buckets with CGWC as well. Although I was confident that there was no sealant or waxes remaining on the surface when I received it, I always use the paint prep ratio of CGWC before polishing just to be sure any LSP’s are stripped off. Now it’s time to move on to the claying process. This past Christmas, Santa made a stop in Canada first before heading to Columbus, and he picked up some Riccardo clay for me!  I really like the texture and feel of this product, and it’s a shame we can’t get it here in the U.S. I clayed all exterior surfaces, and wasn’t surprised to find a lot of contaminants after a harsh winter. I used ONR for clay lube. Since I had the car for several days, it gave me the opportunity to break up the work a bit. I took this opportunity to try some different products and techniques on the leather. I tried all of the normal routes first on the dye transfer problem. I was able to clean the grime from the surfaces, but the dye was simply laughing at me. This was a perfect time to break out the Leatherique since it would be able to soak in and work for plenty of time. You can see here where I have applied it to the seats, the armrest, and the door panels (shiny areas). While the Leatherique was working, I figured I’d test the process and products on the hood before calling it a night. This method works well for me so that when I get up early the next morning to start polishing, I already know what needs to be done. I found the horizontal surfaces to be a whole lot worse than the vertical ones, and knew it would require a more aggressive method. For the hood I went with a Micro- Surface Tuf Buf black lambswool pad and Menzerna PO203 Power Finish. Not only did this combo cut through all of the defects, but it also left what appeared to be a LSP-ready finish. It was night time however, and the next day was supposed to be cloudy and I knew I wouldn’t be able to inspect it in the sunshine. Given that, I followed it up with 106FF and a grey LC pad just to be safe. After just 203/black wool: Closeups of the hood: After 203/black wool: It’s late, I’m going to be and get some rest on the daylight savings time-shortened night!

2008 Lexus LS460L The owner of this beautiful car contacted me the very day that he received his AutoWeek magazine in the mail and saw me listed in the detailing article. This is the flagship vehicle for Lexus, and they are stunning cars to say the least. Not only does it have about every creature comfort and gadget available (and a rockin’ Mark Levinson audio system), but it also boasts a V8 with 380HP and 367lb-ft of torque! And it is huuuuge. There is a tremendous amount of surface area to work on with this car. He told me that he had a 10 month old 460L that needed some TLC to bring it back to life. After meeting with him and inspecting the car, we decided to go for a full correction polish (or as close to as we could get), and to thoroughly clean the interior that was showing some severe signs of wear already. The paint had moderate swirls and RIDS on the horizontal surfaces, mostly mild on the vertical surfaces, and a few scrapes, bumps, and bruises throughout. We planned on the full correction this time, and then he’ll bring it back to me every 3 or 4 months for a more basic polish. OK, onto the detail(s): The car looked as expected after a long hard winter here in Ohio. It was quite dirty inside and out, there was no protection on the surface, and it had a tremendous amount of brake dust built up: The interior was in pretty bad shape as you can see: Winters do very bad things to light colored carpet…even when using all season mats! There was a hole worn through on this mat, and all of the dirty slush melted through and completely soaked into the carpet underneath. This would be a challenging cleanup for sure. Here’s where I was concerned. There was a lot of dye transfer into the leather. The grime would come up easily, but there was so much colored dye in this light leather, that I wasn’t sure how much I could get out. Yes, this is only 10 months old. Even the passenger side was bad. Not only was there makeup on the seating surface, but it was all over the passenger compartment (armrest, door panel, headliner, sun shade, etc). 380HP beast tucked away neatly in a “gentlemen’s car”.

Gotcha! I just assumed it was hazing on the outside of the lense...

You can start by using a product like Meguiars PlastX or their headlight restoration kit (that includes PlastX). If that doesn't work, then you'll need to get more aggressive by several steps of wetsanding followed by machine polishing.

Brandon, You're not going to get a proper "detail" from a dealership in most cases. They are typically the lowest paid and least trained employees at the shop. And for $120, you're not going to get proper polishing. Dealership detailers create a lot of business for us pro detailers...they mess it up, and we properly fix it. Pay to have a professional detailer level your finish and bring it back to showroom condition, and then learn proper washing and drying techniques to maintain it as best as possible. A good detailer will help educate you on this process as part of their services. I know a top-notch pro detailer up in your area if you'd like a referral. Just PM me... Todd

3 Layers of Gloss Auto Detailing of Seattle was just named by AutoWeek Magazine as one of the "9 Top U.S. Auto Detailers". I've seen plenty of his work, and have spoken with him on the phone several times...he is very good! As a pro detailer myself, I would have him work on my cars without hesitation! www.3lgautodetail.com