Hi.

I polished this daily driver yesterday; Opel Astra Station Wagon, metallic black. Around 2005 or something. It came as a daily driver and left as a dd as well, so I wasn't after a showroom shine. Some enhancement only. This is how it went...

Scratches and paint:
This ride was in a very, very bad condition. Not only because of swirls and scratches, but there was very many paint chips around the car body. I think the car was never waxed.
The paint was original, however I'm not 100% about the rear bumper, because the flake looked a bit different there.

Pads and compounds:
FLEX PE14-2 + Lake Country yellow cutting pad + Menzerna PO203S was my choice from the beginning. It worked well, and I would consider the clarcoat semi-hard. On some places I used the DA polisher, because of the bad looking paint.
The second round was done with FLEX XC 3401 VRG + Lake Country CCS orange light cutting pad + Dodo Juice Lime Prime combination. I really like the Lime Prime. Very user friendly polish/glaze.

LSP:
I put a layer of Finish Kare 1000P on top of Lime Prime.

Conclusion:
The overall look improved a lot (especially the mirrors lol!), but sure the bad condition of the surface is still very visible. Or especially now. The job took 9 hours in overall.

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Process:

1) Pre-wash
- Turtle Wax Super Detergent wash spray
- Bilt-Hamber Autofoam

2) Wash
- Bilt-Hamber Autofoam
- 2BM + microfiber mitt

3) Claying
- Zaino Z-18 Detailing Clay
- Bilt-Hamber Autofoam as lubricant

4) Polishing
- Menzerna PO203S + Lake Country CCS yellow cutting pad + Flex PE14-2 / 1. round
- Dodo Juice Lime Prime + Lake Country CCS orange light cutting pad + FLEX XC 3401 VRG / 2. round

5) LSP
- Finish Kare 1000P

6) Others
Tires:
- Meguiar's Gold Class Endurance Tyre Gel

Windows:
-Maston window wash spray

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Pictures...

Before anything and the wash

Before the wash.










After the wash.

 

Polishing

Miscellaneous scratch/swirl pics.


I'm loving it already.






50/50 (Bad pic sorry).








At first I wasn't sure if the mirror cover was black matte plastic or painted .


It sure was painted .

 

Above the doors.




Another mirror.




The headlights should have been sanded...


...but I'm sure theyr'e lighting up the road better now too.

 

Ready







(If you get what I mean haha!)

 

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Thanks for watching.

- Antti -

 

damn you seriously do amazing work.

 

Dayum!

 

You are the man Antti!