CobrAA's Eastern detailing pic

[cobrAA]

And now the FUN PART! ; Quick review of Celeste Dettaglio wax from Chemical Guys.

Wax on: Goossshh!! Soo easssyyyyy. Spread on like butter. Transfer very well into the pad and spread just as easy on the paint. You can’t use too much with that wax, it just goes on so easily. You know some wax doesn’t spread as easily so you need to dip into the tub more often to try to cover the whole paint? Well not with this one.



Wax off: I let it dry for 30 minutes, removed without any pressure at all. This wax is as easy as Wolfgang Fuzion and if you ever used Fuzion, you will know that it’s #1 advantage it’s his ease of use. So knowing that Celeste feel just as easy is a BIG + for the wax.

Smell: Some say lavender right? To me, it reminds me when I’m doing the laundry haha! Not that I think it’s a female’s job but I rather not think about doing the laundry while enjoying waxing a car so to be honest, I would prefer a vanilla smell but that’s very personal! It’s still a lot better than the chemical smell of a wax like collonite, for exemple.

Like any high-end quality wax, they sheet water just as good as the beading so the water behaviour is quite similar here. If you open hose it down, it will sheet like a real champ! If you spray water, you will get nice bead. ( sorry I forgot to take pictures)

With Chemical guys blacklight, the slickness is just on par with the one of a sealant. What more can you ask?!

Packaging: Comes with a nice bag. It’s actually the niciest bag I had. The gold bag from PBMA never close well. The bag will always re-open 10 second after you tie it down lol. Not much impress with Zymol’s bag. And the CG is a lot softer than the one from Swissvax.

I also like the jar a lot, it’s wide so easy to fit a pad inside and the plastic jar make it feel like glass. It’s thick so if you drop it, you might chip it but I’m not sure it will break like a thin Zymol jar, for exemple.



Durability: to be reported later!

Shine: With the blacklight combo, I clearly saw a little darkening effect. So far, I would say it’s more a wetter wax than a wax that will pop like crazy. If you want pop anyways, you propably better with sealant.

To sum up; As much as I like Wolfgang Fuzion because it’s so easy to use and it was the first expensive wax I bought ( sentimental-value!), I think Celeste have the same advantage of Fuzion but it gives a wetter shine, more refined connoisseur look. From the review I saw, CD should last 6 months if not more, so that’s better than Fuzion. As an all-around wax, I think I found the wax that will replace my Wolfgang. Even tho, CG doesn’t state the carnauba content of this wax, it’s fair to assume it most be higher than 50/50 and just a tad least than Ezyme at 59% so it most be somewhat a 55% carnauba by volume so it’s in the same league as Swissvax Mystery selling just 4x more and it’s easier to apply than Mystery ( I had it before)

Thanks Chemical guys,
Great wax!



































Happy detailing! See you real soon!

[cobrAA]

Son fils m’a contacté sur le forum pour un problème considérant le récent achat d’un Buick Enclave usagé. Le problème ; mauvaise odeur dans le véhicule. Malheureusement, il est très difficile de photographié une mauvaise odeur !! Donc, j’ai procédé à un nettoyage complet de l’intérieur malgré qu’il n’était pas très sale en partant puis à la fin, j’y ai fait un traitement neutraliseur d’odeur.

Processus :

Nettoyage de l’intérieur grâce à un extracteur,
Aspirateur shop-vac
Brosse, savon spécialisé pour l’intérieur
Traitement odeur
Protecteur sur les garnitures





Ça n’avait pas l’air sale, mais mon extracteur me disait le contraire :




Petite marque d’eau :






Juste pour le fun.. la peinture avait une bonne couche uniforme sur toute la voiture, bonne chose!


Oui, il y en avait de la saleté
















J’ai tenté de nettoyer tout au pinceau, incluant les touches






Alors, voilà, tout simplement pour dire que le traitement a semblé avoir fonctionné car je n’ai pas eu de rappel.

Si vous avez un problème semblable, vous pouvez compter sur moi!

À plus!

[cobrAA]

Voici une voiture que j’avais protégé il y a 2 ans, le propriétaire trouvait qu’il était tant d’y donner un petit polissage. En tant que ma promotion du mois de mai, j’offre l’application d’une cire Swissvax à tout forfait.

Process :

Wash
Clay bar
Chemical decon
1-step polish
Swissvax cleaner fluid
Swissvax Mirage
Interior detailing

À l’arrivé, l’auto avait BEAUCOUP de picot orange, ça du me prendre 1h30 juste décontaminer la voiture.








C’est à ce moment que l’ambulance est arrivé comme certains le savent déjà.. Ce qui est quand même drole, c’est l’ambulancier qui me posait des questions detailing et qui m’offrais de shiner l’ambulance ..lol!



Décontamination lvl 9000 !







It’s working..


Après le sèchage, je suis passé à l’intérieur : pas trop de sel, mais quand même, pas mal sale!












Là, ça, c’est assez trippant!! J’ai protégé la voiture il y a 2 ans je vous ai dit.. regardez l’eau perle encore! La protection tissu est encore en fonction 2 ans plus tard. Il m’a avoué quelque temps après un mix vodka/skittle renversé sur son banc a été essuyer sans aucune tâche. Juste ça, il disait que ça valait le pleins prix du traitement.

[cobrAA]

Ça perle même encore un peu sur les tapis avant ( 2 ans à ce mettre les pieds dessus et ça perle encore, dites moi pas que c’est pas une bonne valeur









Après ça, je vous fait sauté directement au final car la journée avait déjà été assez mouvementé pour moi, j’ai slacker un peu sur les photos :

Le combo Swissvax :






























Plus de picot orange! Juste une belle réflection

[cobrAA]

Tu sais que le Monsieur est content quand il sort son flash a distance pour prendre des photos! **** just got serious!





























Merci, et à la prochaine!

[cobrAA]

Like most Jeep, the paint is nice to work on but it suffer from excessive orange peel making the reflection not as nice as you would wish but the only way to correct that it’s by doing an expensive 3-4 days wet-sanding correction. So for the owner, just a refresh (swirls removal) would suit him perfectly.

Process:
2 wash bucket method
Clay bar
Chemical decon.
2 step polish
Swissvax Cleaner Fluid
Swissvax Mirage

Car sitting in the garage:








I will try to improve those reflections










Beeing on the run, I didn’t took many pictures so let’s rely on my last set of picture with the wax applicated on the car to showcase the 2-step with Swissvax luxury treat:




Lots of tape used for this detail ahha

[cobrAA]

I think the 2-step really improved the reflection on the paintwork, as you can see by yourself. The swissvax wax darken the paint for a wetter look.




I always polish the taillight:




Not bad not bad ( considering the amount of orange peel)








Merci à tous! À la prochaine.


Ma collection de cire as it sit..

[cobrAA]

This special C36 AMG is quite rare considering there’s only 500 imported to Canada and god know how much is left on the road now. However, the paint and body wasn’t new for me so I had a better idea how to polish the paint. However, a surprise was waiting me..

Process:
2 wash bucket
Clay bar
Chemical decon
Engine bay
Interior
3-step polish
Swissvax Cleaner fluid
Swissvax Crystal Rock.

Car at arrival, quite dirty but that is part of my detailing job to clean the paint ( too many peoples ask me if they should clean the car before, don’t worry I will take care of that task :P)





Missing some clarity and depth!


Theses wheels were in way better shape than the one on the C280. props to the owner for keeping them clean!




Un bon polissage sera nécessaire!


Décontaminant chimique qui coule sur le plancher. Sur une peinture noir, c’est impossible à photographié, mais vous voyez bien que ça travail.






Engine bay before :




And after being protected with rubber protector:










Correction 50/50. This step is to test my correction process on a certain panel ( usually the hood) to make sure I like my result. As you can see the major RIDS remains but all the swirls are gone:

[cobrAA]

Before:






After:




Now inspecting with the sun gun:




God!!! Have you seen the trunk !? I tried my best to make it pop but I couldn’t do magic with thin paint..




Remarquez la peinture qui craque sur le coffre, c’est impossible pour moi de faire une correction débile quand je vois ce genre de défaut:


Taping the whole car :



I then took some reading everywhere and I told the owner, I never ever detailed a car with that low of a thin paint, it kinda scared me to be really honest with you. With such variation + cracked paint on the trunk + repainted panel, I wasn’t nervous but I knew it would not be a walk in the park!














Vous avez déjà pu voir le résultat final lors des 50/50. Donc passons aux choses sérieuses ; le propriétaire voulait ce payer le luxe et le shine d’une des meilleurs cires sur le marché. Alors, il a reçu le traitement Swissvax :

[cobrAA]

Nice smell! I can’t get over it.


And the interior wood panel were crystal rocked also!


Wheel sealant applied to the wheel while the Crystal Rock cure on the paint:


On the metal trim also:




…and lettering also:


Polishing the glass for the aquapel:


I always do the whole car, not just the windshield like most retailer do:


Je ne vais pas mentir, l’intérieur était en bonne condition, alors seulement un quick refresh + traitement cuir:






I really liked the door card, nice little luxury feel!


Enjoy the last set of picture! Right after the Swissvax treat..

[cobrAA]

Thanks all! See ya

[cobrAA]

Okay here’s a very interesting story; Car got detailed twice at the dealership. It then went to a performance shop where, as you might imagine, got damaged, mostly on the front-end of the car but because of all the dust and stuff, you just need to touch the car to induce micro-swirls and stuff.

Car finally got detailed and bumper got painted twice because the job wasn’t nice at a body shop that I won’t name not to get into the bashing sh*t we saw lately. The owner said I was his last resort, if I can’t do it right, he’s repainting the whole car! So here I come.. to finally show him that a good detailer can actually give a second life to his 23k km bmw.





Process:

This is a showroom correction. This means that cost is not a factor, we simply do the best we can, no matter what times it takes and cost.

I started by doing a 5-step polishing (from compound to jewelling) and I put the car in the sun and…. Welllllll I wasn’t happy! Boys! So many RIDS! I had to redo a 3-step polishing but this time I tried the MF system and it did well to really remove another couples of microns to level these deep scratches to show a nice finish.

So basically, I did a 8-step polishing whatsoever. I also had to wet-sand the roof.

1 coat of Swissvax Cleaner fluid

And 4 coat of Raceglaze Special reserve made for me, Waxxon Spa automobile.



1) Engine bay:

These items are suppose to be brand new but for some reasons, I guess they were left on the floor without microfiber to protect the finish:





Polishing the scratch on both the strut bar, engine cover and under the hood:


Waxing with Hi-temp wax + black label


Trim were treated for a darker look:








Also waxed:

[cobrAA]

2) Some random pictures of me cleaning the car, see how important theses brushes are for a complete clean-up.













3) Paint before: here’s how the paint looked before

Paint reading was pretty uniform on all panels. Considering most bmw reads from 120 to 160 from factory, I’m wondering what the 3 other details looked like ? only a glaze or a light polish ? Because the reading looked like a factory paint reading without correction whatsoever. I mean if a car get detailed third, I could expect maybe 110 microns panels but I didn’t.








Taped the whole car:



So here I wanted to showcase what a compound is.. Unfortunately, most people use the term ‘’Compound’’ to say they want a polish or a wax applied to their car. I would like to be clear once for all, a compound is VERY abrasive and leave an ugly finish to the car! Every week I get asked, how much for a compound? 99% of the time, the person meant a polish or sometimes it was only a wash and wax.

So I took this car to demonstrate you what a compound really looked like: On the left, you have the actual condition of the car and on the right, you have the compound.






Sure there’s no scratch or swirls but that’s because the whole panel is hazed and ugly haha! So the ugly look is somewhat more uniform on the panel, but look closely, you will clearly look that the left side has way more gloss and definition to it.

So what happens is when the compounding step is done, we need to do more polishing step with lesser abrasive paste to get back the same level of gloss we had on the left side but WITHOUT the swirls and scratches.

After a couple of polish step, I came down to this:




Now, see the difference? A picture is worth 1000 words here.

And at this stage, I still wasn’t 100% happy with the result:


So I redid the step with another system and end up with that:


Now, we’re talking guys!

Here’s some after-after:

[cobrAA]

4) Wet-sanding:

So we say the least aggressive, the better? I tried compounding the roof in order to remove the water spot and it didn’t do anything. At that moment, I knew I had to wet-sand the whole roof.. Not something I really like but I had to do it.

Wait till the paper are fully soaken up and twisted:




It is now easier to see the etching that occurred in the clear coat here:


Obviously I took a lot of reading during the whole process:






5) Importance of cleaning your paint after, IPA, Citrus wash, Cleaner fluid, it has to be done.

Here you can see the water perfectly bead and sheet on the paint with the polish still on the paint. So a polish can act like a wax !? or is it only the fine oil from the fine polish that give this effect.





To clean the paint..


And now… the long awaited moment.. when you take out the car into the sun to make sure the correction is fine and then you can enjoy applying one of the most exclusive high-end wax on the market as we speak.











Fuuuu!!! Isn’t that nice!? No wax or cleaner fluid now.. just the bare paint. I know the owner would be thrilled when I saw that .

[cobrAA]

6) The D.E.T.A.I.L.I.N.G !

Now, it’s where the fun really starts, IMO. Well, this paint was a real challenge by itself, but usually the difference between a good detailing and a great detailing is how the detailer tackles the small detail. So here we go,

Applying Wolfgang ETS on all trim. This stuff works very well and has a durability of +4 months. On top it does have a matt look perfect for this matt black trim so it doesn’t alter the finish. This product isn’t cheap but heck when you only want the best right?




I’m now waxing this baby with 76% carnauba by volume. This is an upgraded version of the regular Black Label wax by Raceglaze made especially for myself. You get pure wetness with the durability of Swissvax Crystal Rock. I actually gave 4 coats in a time span of 24 hours. (About 6 hours between each) Oh yessss, I waked up at night to wax the car, devotion anyone?



Same goes for the carbon hood and trunk:


Swissvax cleaner fluid on the rims:


Then, I gave it 2 goof coat of wax to make it stand out and give it a slight darker look:


On door jam + wax:




Plastic polish on the lens of the gauge.




Cleaner fluid again:



little seal that got some polish and need to be cleaned with a QD:


After the wax and cleaner fluid:








7) Interior:

I took the air compressor to really move all the dirt between crevasses:


Making sure all door jam was taken care and making sure no residue were left:


Interior was washed using my extractor and leather were treated using Leather cleaner + conditioner.

Anecdote: when the owner took his car back, he pulled down his windows once inside the car and almost yelled; HEY!! You did the interior also, what you did to the leather!?? It’s so nice! (I just love when the customer find by himself what I did. It shows even more the detailing going through the detail)
















8) Final shot:

This was after 1 coat of Black Label and Swissvax Cleaner fluid: