What's up, guys!
Welcome to another episode of Chemical Guys Detail Garage.
Today we brought in this daily driver,
beater of a Saturn L200, and we've got it in here
because the other day I polished up the headlights,
and that brought back a lot of the life into this vehicle.
And then I was looking at the car,
and it just needs a little bit of work.
So today I'm going to show you how to revive
the finish on this vehicle.
If you have a car just like it, or maybe you're just looking
to brighten up your own vehicle,
you have something in the same state,
I'll show you some of the easiest way to do it,
and then bring back the shine.
So now as you can see the car has a very dull matte finish,
and that's because there's a lot of
contamination in the pores of the paint.
This vehicle feels and sounds as if it's never
been detailed or even washed.
Earlier today we washed it using some Honeydew Snow Foam,
and then we also cleaned the wheels with some
Diablo Sticky Citrus wheel gel.
That removed the break dust that was on the wheels,
that removed the heavier loose dirt that was on the vehicle,
but it still feels rough and it looks pretty bad still.
So we're gonna start by claying it,
and that's gonna remove the embedded contaminates
that are in the pores of the paint.
This gives it the oxidized look, and also if you look
very closely you can see fine little black dots.
That's just an accumulation of fallout and grime,
and they stick to the pores of the paint,
and this makes it hard for coatings
like wax, glaze, sealants, all those kinds of things
that stick to the surface,
and it also gives it a very bad look overall.
So we'll start with some medium Clay Bar,
which I've already torn off a small piece
and kneaded into a patty.
And somebody asked me once
why we don't us the whole bar at once,
and the simple reason is because this is like a piece of gum
where if you drop it, you have to throw
the whole thing away.
You can't cut off that section, because no matter
which side it falls on, it's going to collect
all the rocks, dirt, debris, whatever's on the ground,
and if you put that on the vehicle it'll scratch
or mar the paint very easily.
So by using a very small piece, this reduces the chances
of having to throw away the whole piece,
but also gives you more control while you're working.
And also, we're going to be using some Clay Luber,
this helps the bar slide safely across the surface
so you're not scratching it or marring it.
I'm gonna spray a little bit in this section here,
and also on the bar and my hands,
and then working back and forth,
already you can see that run off.
It feels very rough to edge the Clay Bar
because it's very sticky, but this is a necessary
step in the detailing process, especially on a vehicle
that's in this bad of a shape.
What I also like about the Clay Bar is that
it will contour to shapes like this indentation,
this way you can get the best results,
you aren't missing any areas, and you're going to get
the overall better finish.
And you can see just by doing the small section
you can see there's a lot of contamination on this.
Which means we're going to need to frequently knead this,
and roll it to a new piece,
or even get a new piece completely,
but we're going to finish of the rest of the hood
and then we're going to inspect the paint for
swirls, scratches, or anything else that needs to be removed
so that we can bring back the shine on this vehicle.
So guys we're moving right along
with the detail on what we're going to call
our junkyard project for the day.
You saw that the Clay Bar removed the impurities
that were in the paint and that gave you
that nasty brown runoff, but now the paint feels
nice and smooth which brings us to our next step.
We're going to move any kind of debris that's left over,
maybe a little bit of residue, using Wipe Out.
Simply spray it on the surface, and then using a clean
microfiber towel you're just wiping it off.
This is just the surface prep, and this is going
to make sure that we're not hiding anything
or trapping anything underneath the coatings,
and it's also going to give us the best results.
It's also a great way to check your work,
cause as I mentioned this car's probably
going to need to be polished, cause although the paint
is nice and slick, it's also got that dull, milky look.
So we need to polish it, and we're going to show you
how to do that properly in just a minute.
So one last thing about clay, that removes anything that's
in the pores of the paint, giving you that slick finish.
This is a necessary step if you're applying any kind of
coating, glaze, sealants, or waxes,
and also a common misconception people have is that
a Clay Bar removes glaze, it removes sealants and waxes,
when in reality all it's doing is removing the surface
contaminates that block up the pores of the paint,
and this inhibits a long-lasting bond.
So we'll grab our polisher and then we can get started
on the polishing step on this Saturn.
Alight guys, so I've grabbed our TORQ 10FX,
which I've fixed to an orange Hex-Logic pad.
This is one that I've used for a lot of polishing, buffing,
and today I'm going to show you how to remove
the light layer of oxidation, but I can also see there's
some scratches and swirls in the paint,
using some V34 Compound.
Now again, with any kind of compound or polish,
you want to start by shaking up the bottle.
This makes sure that you're mixing
all the chemicals together.
And then we're going to apply five dime-sized
drops to our pad.
And then we'll also spray some pad conditioner,
which helps to moisten and reduce any kind of friction,
it kind of cuts down on the dusting
and it also prevents any kind of marring.
Now we'll start here on the two-foot by two-foot section,
by blotching it out, this prevents any
kind of sling or making a mess.
And if you're new to polishing, there's just
a few things you want to keep in mind,
such as keeping the machine completely flat.
Because on a dual-action if it's digging in,
or if there's an excessive angle,
it's not actually going to be spinning anymore, or rotating.
It's actually just going to be sitting there
or what's called stalling, and in that case
you're not polishing, just kind of wasting a lot of time.
And also when you're working with one of these machines
you want to keep an eye on what speed you're using,
which the TORQ is great at because you set the speed
and it will stay there completely.
On other machines there's a dial,
or a trigger that you have to kind of finesse with,
but on this it's like setting cruise control;
you just put it in gear and you go.
So we're going to spread it out on the lowest speed setting,
and on the highest speed setting we're actually
going to do our polishing.
We're going to use just a light amount of pressure,
just basically the weight of our hand,
and that's going to help us thoroughly
break down the polish until it goes basically clear.
And we'll wipe it off, and then we can check our work.
And there you have it, you want to work the polish in
until it goes basically clear or translucent,
and taking a clean microfiber towel
you're going to wipe off the excess,
and this way you can check your work.
And already, from my point of view,
I can see that it's done a tremendous job.
The paint is nice and slick and it's also got a nice shine.
But for those of you guys at home that can't see it,
because I know that the camera loses a little bit,
I'm going to tape off this half of the hood,
and then I'll finish it off just to give you guys
a little bit of a comparison.
And then we can work our way around the rest of the vehicle.
Alrighty guys, now we can't deny that
that is a huge transformation.
V34 alone removed a lot of the oxidation,
and the scratches and everything else
that kind of blocks out the sunlight
from showing off this nice reflection.
And just from this side and that you can see there,
it's just night and day.
Now, we're going to finish off the rest of the hood,
and then we're going to apply a layer of JetSeal,
which is going to help repel any kind of UV rays,
future oxidation, water spots,
and it's also going to lock in the shine.
You could further refine this using V36 and V38,
but as we can see here this is not a show car,
this isn't even a very desirable car.
But we want to bring out the shine because, again,
detailing is a passion that, you know,
lives deep inside of you.
So whatever you have, doesn't matter if you have
a Saturn like this or something even worse,
you want it to look it's best.
So if you guys like this car,
if you have a car just like it, give it a thumbs up,
drop a comment down below on things you want to see
or what you guys have been detailing.
If you want to learn more about these projects
head over to our website chemicalguys.com,
and as always we'll see you guys the next time,
right here in the Detail Garage.