rrobello

My buddy came by today w/ his newly bought 01 Cobra and I cleaned up his paint for him. Here are the before pics, notice the two close ups, the waterspots you see were covering pretty much every inch of his car. It looked as though the previous owner parked it every night under a sprinkler.

rrobello

now here are the after pics. the little flecks you see in some of the pics is just dust from all of the product that I used, I took the pics after just one of the 4 or 5 dustings we did to get it all off, but you can get the idea of how it looks now.

rrobello

for other recent details Ive done you can see them here.....

http://surfnsocal.com/gallery/Detail

stangster

great job! That is one fine looking cobra.

MY05GT

Whatever you did.....My Cobra needs it. I have similar looking spots, but they are fewer but look deeper.

rrobello

where are you located?

MY05GT

NC ..... I believe you are in CA ..... one heck of a roadtrip.

rrobello

well scratchx works real well to get those spots out and is safe if you dont know what ur doing, there are other products that work real well but are more agressive. start by hand and if thats not working or taking too long use an orbital (dual actions are safe for beginners), it will go much quicker, just use low setting and be careful, dont stick in one spot too long and only apply slight pressure or else you can burn through the paint.

scratchx is a diminishing abbrasive so it wont scratch, but the orbital itself can burn right through if youre not careful, you might need to apply several coats, especially if youre doing it by hand.

then follow with show car glaze #7 and then high tech yellow wax #26 (meguiars) several coats of wax for great protection, then finish with meguiars final touch or quick detailer

oh and not that it needed to be said but wash the car first (with car shampoo) and claybar if neccessary to get all of the surface contaminents off first before you scratch x.

MY05GT

Thanks for the help, but suppose I wanted someone else to do this ( proffessional ), what type of place would I go to, what do I ask them to do, and what type of money should I expect to pay.

Cheese302

great work on the paint, but i must say that cobra is awesome in its own right. the wheels are stellar

rrobello

I would start by checking the yellow pages in your area and calling around, also maybe body shops, they usually offer details and if not could more than likely refer you. I would ask what products they use, what is involved in the detail options they offer, if they are insured (especially if you are worried about your car), how long they have been doing this, you know typical questions that you would ask to establish someones credibility. If you can see if you can get feedback from anyone who might have used them before, or repeat customers that might even be there (if you go to a shop). You could even ask them if they could provide you with any contacts or peoples comments about their work. Ask if they use an orbital, or by hand. If its an orbital, is it dual action or something more serious? If they use an orbital of any kind the insurance is even more important to protect yourself. Any gaurantees? If you ask around to get a recommendation that is usually good. Word of mouth is HUGE in this business. If someone keeps going back to the same person they are usually good, but ask why they do, they might just go with someone that is cheap. Again body shops and mechanics and dealers are good for these recommendations. Ill add more things as I think of them, but its late and my brain is fried....lol!

As for cost.....depends on your area. Again ask around and price compare. Gas stations and Car Washes tend to be the cheapest but also do a poorer job, or less then a pro detailer. ie, the shell in town here only charges like $50 for a "detail" but this is pretty much running it through their machine, getting the interior vacuumed, cleaned, wheels and tires and the wax applied real quickly. Which is pretty much the same thing you can get there for $10-15, but the wax is applied by hand instead of the machine they run it through. The average cost for a complete detail around here by a pro is about $250, but it will depend on what is needed to be done and the condition of the car. For speciallty needs or paint restoration, it will be a good deal more.

rrobello

its a work in progress, but seriously you shouldve seen the paint before, not to toot my own horn, but this car was covered in those waterspots in the pics over every square inch of the car, some fading in areas and lots of swirl marks.

2L8IWON

I have spots like that on my windows. What should I use to get them off of there? I heard vinager and cotton would work, tried it with no joy. I think the guy that had my car before parked it on top of a hard water sprinkler.

Thanks in advance
Jesse

Paris MkVI

Ahhhhh. Nothing like a little TLC.

rrobello

if they are really bad it will need an acid bath to take them out. but if not they do make some products that work like a compound but for glass that will take them out, there is a company here in SD that makes some stuff that works, I cant recall the name at the moment but I will look into it, if they are real light, I have been able to take them out with a simple cleaner wax.

2L8IWON

Thanks for the info. I have used cleaner wax to no avail. If you could get me the name of those products that would be awesome!

- Jesse

Sonic Boom NH

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2L8IWON

I have spots like that on my windows. What should I use to get them off of there? I heard vinager and cotton would work, tried it with no joy. I think the guy that had my car before parked it on top of a hard water sprinkler.

I had a vehicle some time ago that got some really bad water spots all over the windows. I tried everything, from clay, razor blade to vinegar and none of them did much if anything at all.

Then I went on line and did some searching and came up with something that works absolutely amazing. It’s called “Cook Top” but the product name itself is not important but rather what the product is which is a polish for cleaning glass-ceramic top stoves.

You can get “Cook Top” at Sears and I imagine other stores. Zaino also sells basically the same thing for cleaning and polishing windows but is expensive. I use many Zaino products and tried the Zaino glass cleaner and it did not do any better of a job as “Cook Top”.

First, clean your windows like you normally would with glass cleaner. Then dampen a cotton cloth or you could use a polish applicator (cotton round applicator or any other type).

Get the applicator damp and then shake up the glass-ceramic polish. Put it on in up and down motions or circular motion, which every way you prefer. You don’t need to rub hard and can actually do it lightly. Let it haze and then buff off with a dry cotton cloth.

You will be amazed at how clean it gets the windows. They will look new like from the factory. I did my entire truck, front, rear and side windows in less then 20 minutes and that was cleaning them with glass cleaner first, then polish, letting it haze and buff off.

tricky02GT

Does it damage the rubber?