I thought that I would take the time to share my results with this forum. I posted a thread on autopia, but I thought that some people here might find this of use.
First off I want to say that the paint on Toyota's (at least the newer model Camrys) is some of the worst I've come across. I looked at several used cars, and almost all of them had some kind of paint issue. It ranged from clear coat flaking, to extensive rock chipping on the front end, to the oxidation in the paint of the car I ended up buying. I've also done a lot of reading, and it seems these types of problems are very common (at least if you google it). I also don't understand why Toyota uses a single stage white paint, maybe someone more knowledgeable about car paint can explain that to me???
*Sorry for the poor quality photos, I don't have an SLR
A few months ago I purchased a 2009 Camry with 35k miles that had been poorly taken care of. There was a lot of oxidation in the paint, and nearly every crack and crevice of the car had built up dirt/gunk. The paint when washed/waxed never had a very good shine to it, but I got a good deal on it so I decided to purchase it with the intent to have a professional detail it. After watching a few detailing videos I decided to give it a try myself, and I figured after I do two vehicles the equipment would pay for itself. So I bought a Porter Cable 7346SP (apparently the same as a 7424XP but marketed as a sander?), a hook'n'loop backing plate, a full set of detailersdomain Uber pads (two of each color so I could do some experimenting), Clay Magic clay bars, some Optimum No-Rinse (ONR), and a butt-load of microfiber (mf) towels. I had read that the Meguiar's Ultimate line was easy to work with, so I decided to give that a try.
The first thing I had to do was wash and claybar the car. I used the ONR two-bucket technique, and also some 1Z einszett Anti-Insekt Bug + Tar Remover on the front of the car. I then clayed the entire car. The side skirts, and bumpers had a lot of embedded gunk that came off pretty easily with the clay. Here is a picture of the side skirt:
You can see the embedded gunk on the left side (this is after cleaning, what is left was embedded in the paint), and on the right is the area I had already clayed.
After I had washed and clayed the entire car I did a test spot for the following process: orange pad with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound (UC) > blue pad with Meguiar's Ultimate Polish (UP) > black pad with Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid Wax. Unfortunately the light was failing me, so I snapped a few crappy photos of the test spot. Despite the poor photo quality you can still get an idea of how bad the finish was beforehand:
Next time I will have to use some wider tape, because I actually went over the tape a little so you can see the tape line on both sides ... whoops
I did the work at a friend's house so I could make use of his garage to store the car at night. The next day I started the polishing process for the entire car. Afterwards I found a few spots that didn't polish up quiet 100%. Most of them were near edges or corners. A few I went ahead and hit again with the yellow pad and the UC, and that seemed to do the trick. Here are a few comparison photos that I took after just the first polish (orange + UC), but later I followed up with the green + UP:
Dirt that had accumulated behind the windblocker in front of the sunroof:
Front end all bugged up after 1400 mile road trip, this is after I sprayed the bug-remover on it and was waiting for it to do its thing:
On Sunday I finished up with a coat of wax using the black pads, and here is the finished product:
When I first got done, looking at the car it felt like the paint was brand new. All-in-all I am happy with the results, but I know that I could have done better in some areas. For my first time though I am just happy I didn't break anything that requires a professional to fix lol. From the few instructional videos I watched I felt like I knew enough to give this a try, but after doing it I definitely have a lot of questions on ways to improve my technique.
I am not an expert, knew nothing about this kind of detailing prior to a few weeks ago, and would STRONGLY suggest to anyone serious about perfecting their finish to purchase a DA orbital polisher. You will have more consistent, and better results doing the work with a machine vs. doing it by hand, and it will take a lot less time! I don't think I could ever have gotten the results I did by doing it by hand.
. My goal is to still have this Camry 10 years from now with about 300k miles, and the paint to be in excellent condition, although I may have to repaint the bumper/hood from rock chips at some point.
2008 Infiniti G35
Nissan Frontier
Linear Mode
