just got done doing my pre-winter detail and thought this would also be a good time to snap some pics of how my E (Terrence) looks today since Im always changing something.

I did a machine buff with a wool pad and 3M heavy duty rubbing compound followed by a machine polish with foam pad and 3M Finesse It II followed by meguiars carnauba wax

also did the interior and took the wheels off and cleaned both sides of the wheels and detailed out the fender wells.

Not lookin to bad IMO for having 54K miles on him already

IM BEAT!

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=770&pictureid=4062

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=770&pictureid=4061

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=770&pictureid=4060

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=770&pictureid=4056

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=770&pictureid=4055

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=770&pictureid=4054

http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=770&pictureid=4051

Man that thing SHINES!! I love the subtlety of it. One more thing to paint though. The piece of plastic between the doors and rear side windows.

Man that thing SHINES!! I love the subtlety of it. One more thing to paint though. The piece of plastic between the doors and rear side windows.

nope...only because on the sc it isnt painted

really nice. which rear spoiler is that?

Wickster, I'm STILL drooling over the "SIDIDIT" pinstripping....wished I lived near Wisconsin as I would have my 09 done in Silver the same way yours was. BTW love the wheels!

HT

really nice. which rear spoiler is that?

Honda

Wickster, I'm STILL drooling over the "SIDIDIT" pinstripping....wished I lived near Wisconsin as I would have my 09 done in Silver the same way yours was. BTW love the wheels!

HT

thanks...yea i really like what he did

Black always takes a bit more work to keep up on but it looks really sharp-are you able to park your 'E' for the winter or are you getting it ready for the bad weather ahead ?

Black always takes a bit more work to keep up on but it looks really sharp-are you able to park your 'E' for the winter or are you getting it ready for the bad weather ahead ?

getting it ready for the weather...its my daily year round driver

are those custom seats or did i miss something and Honda offered those for a while?

are those custom seats or did i miss something and Honda offered those for a while?

no, they are custom clazzio leather covers

Lookin' good

Outstanding!!!

love the shine now i have to go do mine

ugh i looooove your leather seats mang

Did u opt for the genuine perforated leather inserts in the middle of the seats?

no clay????????????

Take a peek, great blog and site!

http://www.detailedimage.com/Ask-a-Pro/black-ferrari-f430-paint-correction/

no clay????????????

nope..that will be next fall

Looks Great! My 'E' is jealous!

Were the Clazzio's hard to install?

Where did you get the carpet set?

Thanks!

Looks Great! My 'E' is jealous!

Were the Clazzio's hard to install?

Where did you get the carpet set?

Thanks!

they were easy and straight forward...got the carpet kit on the bay

A 7-hour pre-winter detailing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin ( with 3M heavy duty rubbing compound :-( )!!

Though it looks good, it's ephemeral. I would have settled at doing a wash, a good coat of paste wax, and winterizing the interior. After 30 minutes driving on a salted Milwaukee (or Chicago) January road, it would look the same, and save the super-detailing for Spring.

And I'd never use 3M heavy duty rubbing compound.

well my extensive experience in paint/body and detailing will disagree. You DONT wax over road grime.....the only way to get road grime off is to clay bar, or machine polish.....waxing over road grime is like putting scotch tape over a turd! My car is just over 2 years old with just over 60,000 miles and the paint looks better now than it did the day it was new!

Are we saying you can't remove road grime my hand waxing with a cleaner type wax/polish? I wax as much as possible & love a deep shine. I thought rubbing compound was for removing a scratch.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/Creekerpics/Auto/2000%20Subaru/004-1.jpg

Are we saying you can't remove road grime my hand waxing with a cleaner type wax/polish? I wax as much as possible & love a deep shine. I thought rubbing compound was for removing a scratch.

cleaners will not remove it all...either will clay bars....using a rubbing compound takes clear or paint off removing scratches and grime. So, yes Im saying you cant remove ALL road grime by hand. Nothing by hand will ever be as efficient or produce the result that a machine polisher will. Saying that...a machine polisher in the wrong hands can produce HORRIFIC results in burn through, and most common horrible swirl marks which look like butt!

cleaners will not remove it all...either will clay bars....using a rubbing compound takes clear or paint off removing scratches and grime. So, yes Im saying you cant remove ALL road grime by hand. Nothing by hand will ever be as efficient or produce the result that a machine polisher will. Saying that...a machine polisher in the wrong hands can produce HORRIFIC results in burn through, and most common horrible swirl marks which look like butt!

Thanks wickster. I've seen that which a polisher will do in untrained hands. For this reason I've never held one.

Thanks wickster. I've seen that which a polisher will do in untrained hands. For this reason I've never held one.

how many axles under that dump truck you're parked next too?

well my extensive experience in paint/body and detailing will disagree. You DONT wax over road grime.....the only way to get road grime off is to clay bar, or machine polish.....waxing over road grime is like putting scotch tape over a turd! My car is just over 2 years old with just over 60,000 miles and the paint looks better now than it did the day it was new!

I agree that you don't wax over road grime. But you're wrong about there only being one way to remove surface crud. My car also has over 60,000 miles, is nearly 7 years old, and the paint, aside from a few minor parking lot dimples, looks like new. (If it looked better than new, I'd wonder if my wife had an accident and without telling me, had a custom paint job done.) No machine has ever been used on its exterior paint, and I don't baby it.

I can't find "3M heavy duty rubbing compound" in 3M's product listing. The only rubbing compounds they list are by their Collision Repair Services Division.

I know that my memory isn't what it used to be, so since you have many years experience in professional automotive paint/body and detailing, I'm thinking that you may have forgotten what 3M's rubbing compound does, or not have its application instructions, so here they are. http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=66666UuZjcFSLXTtmXM6lXf6EVuQE cuZgVs6EVs6E666666--&fn=TDS%2005954%2005955%2039004.pdf

In fairness, a clean shiny black color coat looks almost like a shiny clear coat over black. You can't easily see the difference until the color coat gets worn through, but the ability of the paint to resist impact and abrasion is reduced when the clear coat is penetrated.

Rubbing compound is designed to cut away/level an uneven paint finish. No matter how steady and experienced you are, it will also cut/grind right through a modern clear coat.

You don't clean road grime from an intact paint finish by grinding it and the paint off. You first keep most of it from sticking in the first place by having a good coat of wax on your clean, new paint, and remove what does adhere with the gentlest methods/solvents possible - soap and water, waterless (lanolin) hand cleaner, peanut butter, turpentine to name a few.

A combination cleaner wax/polish is a combination of a wax and one of these milder solvents. Generally their directions recommend hand application and removal of the residue, because as crud is loosened, it becomes an abrasive suspended in soiled wax. That's why machine buffing is not recommended until after manually removing/polishing away the reside.

In extreme cases, where something has bonded to the wax, you can remove the wax with an acrylic paint cleaner, and the crud comes off at the same time.

After all these have failed to remove surface crud do you resort to abrasives- clay bar, polishing compound or rubbing compound - in that order. Each of them applies friction and removes material. The last two remove paint.

Paint scratches are not surface contamination (crud), they are physical damage to the paint coating(s).

If you are very lucky, if a scratch doesn't penetrate the clear coat, you might be able to buff away enough of the surrounding area to hide it without cutting into the color coat. But you use polishing compound - superfine grit version of rubbing compound designed to remove as little paint as possible. "3M™ Finesse-it™ II Finishing Material-Machine Polish is an entry level machine polish designed for use on OEM and fully cured automotive paints."

Rubbing compound is excellent for one step of treating a scratched modern paint job- prepping the surface for a new coat of paint. It's erroneous to call what rubbing compound does "removing scratches". What's removed is a larger area of intact paint around the scratch, blending the acute damage into the background, by spreading further damage - making a very wide, smooth dimple in the original surface.

how many axles under that dump truck you're parked next too?

Only 3= 1 steering axle & 2 drive axles.

Only 3= 1 steering axle & 2 drive axles.

oh..i run a fleet of 18 quad axle dumps

oh..i run a fleet of 18 quad axle dumps

A lot of quads here also but we haul a little fill dirt & gravel but mostly this truck is used in clearing to haul brush, stumps & logs.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/Creekerpics/Firewood/DSC00382.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/Creekerpics/Trucks/017.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/Creekerpics/Trucks/009.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/Creekerpics/Trucks/DSC00701.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/Creekerpics/Trucks/007.jpg

I agree that you don't wax over road grime. But you're wrong about there only being one way to remove surface crud. My car also has over 60,000 miles, is nearly 7 years old, and the paint, aside from a few minor parking lot dimples, looks like new. (If it looked better than new, I'd wonder if my wife had an accident and without telling me, had a custom paint job done.) No machine has ever been used on its exterior paint, and I don't baby it.

I can't find "3M heavy duty rubbing compound" in 3M's product listing. The only rubbing compounds they list are by their Collision Repair Services Division.

I know that my memory isn't what it used to be, so since you have many years experience in professional automotive paint/body and detailing, I'm thinking that you may have forgotten what 3M's rubbing compound does, or not have its application instructions, so here they are. http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=66666UuZjcFSLXTtmXM6lXf6EVuQE cuZgVs6EVs6E666666--&fn=TDS%2005954%2005955%2039004.pdf

In fairness, a clean shiny black color coat looks almost like a shiny clear coat over black. You can't easily see the difference until the color coat gets worn through, but the ability of the paint to resist impact and abrasion is reduced when the clear coat is penetrated.

Rubbing compound is designed to cut away/level an uneven paint finish. No matter how steady and experienced you are, it will also cut/grind right through a modern clear coat.

You don't clean road grime from an intact paint finish by grinding it and the paint off. You first keep most of it from sticking in the first place by having a good coat of wax on your clean, new paint, and remove what does adhere with the gentlest methods/solvents possible - soap and water, waterless (lanolin) hand cleaner, peanut butter, turpentine to name a few.

A combination cleaner wax/polish is a combination of a wax and one of these milder solvents. Generally their directions recommend hand application and removal of the residue, because as crud is loosened, it becomes an abrasive suspended in soiled wax. That's why machine buffing is not recommended until after manually removing/polishing away the reside.

In extreme cases, where something has bonded to the wax, you can remove the wax with an acrylic paint cleaner, and the crud comes off at the same time.

After all these have failed to remove surface crud do you resort to abrasives- clay bar, polishing compound or rubbing compound - in that order. Each of them applies friction and removes material. The last two remove paint.

Paint scratches are not surface contamination (crud), they are physical damage to the paint coating(s).

If you are very lucky, if a scratch doesn't penetrate the clear coat, you might be able to buff away enough of the surrounding area to hide it without cutting into the color coat. But you use polishing compound - superfine grit version of rubbing compound designed to remove as little paint as possible. "3M™ Finesse-it™ II Finishing Material-Machine Polish is an entry level machine polish designed for use on OEM and fully cured automotive paints."

Rubbing compound is excellent for one step of treating a scratched modern paint job- prepping the surface for a new coat of paint. It's erroneous to call what rubbing compound does "removing scratches". What's removed is a larger area of intact paint around the scratch, blending the acute damage into the background, by spreading further damage - making a very wide, smooth dimple in the original surface.

What i do, is what i have been doing for 20 years with show car results whether it be factory paint, or a vehicle that I have painted. I feel pretty confident that I know what im talking about and what im doing in this area. My post was a generalization, not a tutorial. You didnt find the rubbing compound because i get all my supplies from an automotive refinishing store that is meant for professional use only. Its the same place I get all my paint supplies as well. You can talk until you are blue in the face and you will never convince me that ANY hand applied product will take out scratches or paint imperfections with the same result as a machine polisher. And Ill also disagree about using finesse it II only on cured paint. Ive been using it on two stage paint jobs since 1994 within the first 24 hours of painting the car and color sanding. Bottom line.....1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 grit sand papers, a wet block, heavy duty rubbing compound, finesse it II, wool/foam pads and a polisher and i will make an Earl Sheib $100 paint job look like a $1000 one...its all good man.....:-D

so. When are you going to stop by and give my element a full detail? I want mine to look better then new. only 12k miles though hehe

Il take 10 coats of clear and a nice glass smooth cut