Damon@Tirerack detailed - Mini Cooper S

[Damon@tirerack]

A coworker of mine has an older Mini Cooper S he wants to sell. He has a Boxster as well and the Mini has been his golfing/bike riding/winter car for several years. It definitely needed some love. It pretty much needed love in every spot. The engine was a mess, there were coffee and pop stains everywhere inside, and the body was pretty scratched up. The back bumper cover and the front end needed a respray from abuse and rock chips, so my job with this car was going to win the battle and not the war. I was determined to do my best. Products used. Jeesh, I can't believe I own all this stuff: Exterior: Wash: Gloss-It Car Shampoo Gloss-It Car Wash Mit Gloss-It Grit Guard Gloss-It Signature Wheel Gel Gloss-It White Drying Towel Uber red waffle drying cloth Simple Green Gunk Engine Degreaser Parts washer Brush Griots Garage Boar's Hair Wheel Brush Griots Garage 4 finger Lambskin Mitt Clay-Magic Blue claybar Griot's Garage Yellow mild claybar Polish: DeWalt Rotary Griots Garage DA 850 watt polisher Gloss-It 3" Backing plate Gloss-It 5" Backing plate Gloss-It 3.75" Wool Pad Gloss-It 3.75" Red Polish Pad Gloss-It 5.75" Fast Cut White Pad Gloss-It 5.75" Yellow Light Cut Foam Pad Gloss-It EVP Pad Prime Gloss-It Extreme Cut Gloss-It Evolution Cut Gloss-It Evolution Polish Gloss-It Gloss Enhancer Gloss-It Microfiber towels Griot's Garage 6" Glass polishing pads Griot's Garage Rubber Cleaner Alcohol/water mix Finish: Gloss-It 5.75" Green Polishing Foam Gloss-It 5.75" Red Ultra Polishing Foam Gloss-It 100ppi applicator pads Gloss-It Gloss Activator Gloss-It Gloss Finish Gloss-It Concourso Gloss Gloss-It T.R.V. Gloss-It Tire Gloss Gloss-It Gloss Enhancer Gloss-It Microfiber towels Griot's Garage Undercarriage Spray Griot's Garage Foam Swabs Stoner's Invisible Glass Mother's Back To Black 3/4" foam paint brushes Turtle Wax Chrome Polish Interior: Warm, die-free soapy water Griot's Garage Leather Polish Griot's Garage Nylon Carpet and Upholstry Brush 1/2" course paint brush Gloss-It Microfiber towels Gloss-It T.R.V. Lotsa Q-Tips Stoner's Invisible Glass Here are the before wash pics at 6:15 am day 1. This is all I got in almost no sun of the full car. From the bike rack. It had smashed itself into the paint from being tightened down: Anybody hungry? The wheels? The worst I have ever had to tackle, by far. Under all the washable brake dust is a layer of brake lining that has baked into the wheels. We'll get to that later..... I popped the hood lever, said a little prayer, and then opened it up:

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[Damon@tirerack]

I had a few cans of spray degreaser in the garage I had been saving for a serious job, so they got dusted off and used.




Everything was agitated using my favorite engine brush - nice stiff nylon bristles:



After agitating I let it sit. The sun still hadn't come over the trees yet so I kept it wet with a mild Simple Green/water mix and moved onto the wheels.

After comparing to P21s and Griot's, I have become a big fan of the Gloss-It Signature Wheel Gel. Overall it just works the best. I sprayed the wheels and let them sit:



After about 10 minutes, the runoff alone was pretty amazing. This was with NO agitation:



If this isn't a testemonial to how well it works, I don't know what is.

I decied to keep them soaking and wet as long as I could and move to the body.

I took a few before pics before the pre-soak. Scratches that need sanding and spots that need paint were just everywhere.






The deal wasn't any sanding or painting on this one, so it was my job to just make it look the best I could with pads and polish.

Onto the presoak. The entire car was sprayed with Gloss-It shampoo from my cheap foamer and allowed to sit with everything else. You can see the sun catching me in the background.



By now I was really wishing I had a working powerwasher. But they don't do well when dropped off a roof. That's another story.....

I agitated and scrubbed everything the best I could everywhere and rinsed. After re-soaping I claybarred the car with my Clay-Magic bar:



This car had more rail dust than Norfolk Southern:

[Damon@tirerack]

By now it was 9:30am. I already had 3 hours into the car and the wheels STILL looked like this:




Again, this was primarily baked-in iron from the car needing a brake job long before it got one, and good ol' BMW brake pads. I ended up removing them from the car in order to get the leverage to rub more on them. I spent over 3 hours on the wheels alone and still only got it about 90% off. Some of it wasn't coming out without taking paint with it. I had to resort to laquer thinner to break it loose. I don't recommend this practice without testing a spot bhind a spoke at a minimum, as I could feel it softening the paint. When you are getting to the point where you have to let the paint re-harden before you can polish it, then you are pushing your luck. I wasn't comfortable at all doing this, but it's all that was working. After about 45 minutes it went from

This:



To this:



3 to go.....

I decided to hit the pipes next before moving on:

They started like this:




I had a perfect bit for my drill for these little pipes, a 240 grit sanding drum.



Followed by a 4" buffing wheel.



Used with Extreme Cut worked great.

[Damon@tirerack]

I decided I would wait until last to do the paint on this one, so from the pipes it was onto the interior. I suppose it could have been worse, but it was far from clean. Pop and coffee stains were splashed all over the dash, console, and seats and it was very dirty. Thank goodness this car was black inside and had leather.











You get the idea. It took about an hour to vacuum the best I could. The entire interior was gone over with a soapy water mix, Q-Tips, small foam paint brushes, and a 1/2" paint brush and wiped with Gloss-It microfiber cloths. Mini interiors are quite challenging and take quite a bit of time for as small as they are. I didn't take any pictures of the interior cleaning process as I was moving fast to get it done. I was way behind on this job at this point.

After cleaning, Gloss-It T.V.R (Tire Vinyl, and Rubber) was applied to all interior surfaces but the seats. They got Griot's Garage Leather Polish rubbed in by hand. I let it sit for a day before buffing out.

After interior treating.





It was time to do the outside.

[Damon@tirerack]

After drying the car it was evident some pretty abusive towels have been used before.




The front was rock chip city. It really needed a respray, or at a minimum a light sanding before polishing.



The rest of the car showed all the usual suspects:






The bumper was just completely wiped out.




I tried to get the lisence plate off, but one of the screws was stripped:



So, out with the clay again to do the best I could around it because it wasn't coming off.



Remember the bike rack that was smashed into the paint? After cleaning it up it was apparent there was damage from it:

[Damon@tirerack]

It was white and could only be seen if you really looked hard so I left it like this. Given the shape of the front and rear it was still a big improvement. Remember, battle not war.....

For the back bumper cover I used my DeWalt and a small Gloss-It wool pad Extreme Cut to wipe out almost all of the scratches and scuffs. I didn't get any during pics of it like I should have, but 5 minutes with the wool and Extreme Cut had 75% of what was on it gone. After the bumper it was time to move on to the rest of the car. In details of the past I have traditionally used the rotary first and then my Cyclo for finish work. This time I borrowed one of TireRack's Griot's Garage DA polishers to try. I figured you never know how well something works until you try it, right? Turns out it worked pretty well. I taped off the door and tackled it with a Gloss-It white cutting pad and Extreme Cut.



After several passes and pulling off the tape the results were just OK.....



THEN I realized I had been using the machine on a wax setting. I was only using "4" when the thing went to "6". After going to 6 it was like the sky opened up and the angels sang! It was working great! "These new-fangled DA's are pretty darn good" I was thinking to myself....So I decided I was going to finish this entire car with the Griot's unit and see how it came out.

I was off and running.....



Groit's has just made a product improvement on their polishers. The one I used the first night was a 750 watt model. Their new one is 850 watts, another amp of torque, and a has a wider DA pattern. I picked one of those up the next day and I gotto be honest with you, this thing is as good as a rotary, is easier to hold, and uses less polish. It'll take another few cars to know for sure, but this thing is WAY more powerful than the prior model.

After once through with the Groit's DA, Gloss-It white foam pad, and Gloss-It Extreme Cut it was starting to come together.





I was pretty happy with the results of the first pass over the entire car. I called it a night. The next night was the following process after the once-through with Extreme Cut:

-One more pass on the hood and back bumper with Extreme Cut on the white pad.
-Alcohol/water wipedown.
-One complete pass with Gloss-It Evolution Cut and the yellow pad on the Griot's DA. You could see more results after this pass, but for some reason I didn't take pics of it.
-Alcohol/water wipedown.
-One complete pass with Gloss-It Evolution Polish on the Gloss-It Green finish foam.
-Alcohol/water wipedown.
-Hand application of the Gloss activator with 100ppi red foam
-One complete pass with Gloss-It Gloss Finish with the red ultra finish foam on the Griot's DA.
-One coat of Gloss-It Concourso Show Gloss by hand with the 100ppi red pads.

I allowed the Concourso to cure a bit and then rebuffed with cold distilled water spray. By then the paint was as good as I could get it with my skill level and equipment.

I sprayed the undercarriage with Griot's garage undercarriage spray, which I have never used before. Not bad.....





The now-dry engine got Gloss-IT TRV and Mother's Back to Black:

[Damon@tirerack]

The front lower facia had become dislodged at some point. A quick yank with a set of pliers fixed that up:





Much better. The rest of the front got Mothers and TRV. These foam brushes and the Griot's foam swabs do a great job in the crevices.





All the chrome was cleaned with chrome polish. The fender arches all got Back to Black. It's a bit glossier than The Gloss-It T.R.V., but I thought this job could benefit from a little more shine outside.

[Damon@tirerack]

The final pics the next morning. Sunshine was a bit hazy with really high humidity so they could be a bit more clear.









And yes, I went back and dug the wax out of the arch trim crevice, but I love this shot.



Total time: 18 hours.

Many of the guys I work with didn't think I could pull this off on this car. For my skill level I am quite pleased. Thanks for checking this latest detail job out, and thanks Gloss-It!

[mblouir]

Absolutely amazing. Fantastic job! Did he pay you for the job or was it a big favor for a co-worker?




(edited question out--didn't see the 18 hours hiding there)

[RollingRock]

Damon well done, I only glanced at it, but want to get back and read through it again.

RR

[mrolgren]

Originally Posted by mblouir

Absolutely amazing. How long overall did you spend on the entire vehicle? Fantastic job!

His post said 18 Hours...

Thats a long time, but it looks GREAT

[mblouir]

Originally Posted by mrolgren

His post said 18 Hours...

Yeah I went back a few minutes before you posted and saw it hiding there. Thanks!

[blackedoutV6]

do mine next???


lol nah great job man!
huge improvement

[ibcop]

Awesome job! But how could anyone get their car so damn dirty? I hope he doesn't keep his Boxster like this one!

[Blown F-150]

Very Nice!

I am surprised that the wheels came out so well without any pitting!