Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Post-Accident Detailing

I had been driving the Iswara alot (with peace of mind) ever since after I got it back from the accident repair. It's really a pleasure to drive around without having to worry too much about the paintwork. Last weekend the Iswara was sent for timing belt replacement and maintenance.

Yesterday's weather was really fine. In the evening, I gave it a good exterior wash and interior vacuum. The last wash was 2 months back! With the extra free time I had, I proceeded to clay the bonnet and repainted roof. Both were very very rough but my 7 year old Zaino Z-18 clay bar did a good job of picking up the grits.

Right after my dinner, I started to polish the roof with M83/W8006/RB@900RPM. The bad orange peel was really stubborn and that didn't make any difference in terms of bringing up the gloss. So I proceeded with M85/Wool/RB@900RPM carefully. By just compounding a small area, I managed to see some gloss improvement. With the second pass, it improved even more and most deep swirls were removed. Since I was in a hurry, and trying to preserve the paintwork as much as possible, I compounded the roof twice only. Generally the gloss was improved (Sorry no pictures) and I believe a few more passes will bring up a brilliant gloss.

As for the bonnet, only M83/W8006/RB@900RPM was done. Again, most moderate scratches was removed. Since it's an original paintwork, I had to be extra conservative with it. It was about 10PM by then, and I didn't have extra time to finish up with M82/W9006/RB, so I just applied Soft99 Fusso Coat before I called it a day. Definitely there were light holograms being induced, but it's way better than nothing was being done. As for the next round of detailing (which could be few months later), I plan to finish up with the rest of the paintwork on the doors, fenders and boot.

For enthusiast readers who are in the middle of decission whether to get a RB, I would say go ahead and get one today! It's really flexible when you wish to detail your car by yourself. All you need is to read up and practice as much as you can.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

May be a shot of your Iswara's current condition?

9:37 AM  
Blogger Zey said...

Oh yeah, it seems like I need another round of wash before I take a shot. It's so dusty after 2 days without rain! Can't wait to see water beading on that ride...it hasn't been like that for more than half a year!

12:21 AM  

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