I kind of have a reoccurring theme of S4 and intensive polish. So let's shake thing up a bit with a Volvo, but we can't shake them up too much, so it's still an intensive polish. Most of the cars I work on are daily drivers and while I will certainly make paint nearly perfect, doing so removes a lot of paint. Getting 95%+ defects off a factory finish is pretty much a one time thing. After that, an owner needs to maintain the vehicle such that only polishing is required as any future compounding risks thinning the clearcoat to unsafe levels. Since the majority of defects reside in the upper 5 or so microns of paint, an intensive polish is able to make a huge improvement in the finish while allowing for many future corrections. This volvo is a perfect example of this concept.
This car was purchased out of state without being seen in person. There were several areas that had been hit with a rotary polisher and not finished down properly, leaving holograms. There were also a ton of washed induced swirls, likely from a brush car wash.
Process
- Wheels and tires cleaned with Meguiar's DUB wheel cleaner and Megs D108
- Prefoamed with CG citrus wash + Gloss and Bilt hamber Surfex HD
- Hand wash with CG citrus wash daily
- Mechanically decontaminated with traditional clay bar
- Paint was polished with Meguiars M205 on a 21mm DA with rupes yellow pads
- Tight areas were corrected with M205 on a flex 3401 with LC orange hybrid pads
- Paint was protected with Carpro Reload
- Tires were dressed with Carpro PERL
- Trim and wheels protected with Carpro hydro2
- Exhaust cleaned with pinnacle exhaust cleaner and brightener
