Envious Detailing: 23 hour Lamborghini Gallardo reconditioning
by Eric SchusterI was contacted a while back by the owner of this rare color Gallardo for a detail and setting up a weekly maintenance program with him. I ended up there the first week and we discussed our options for the car. Instead of a simple polishing to boost the gloss and make it look better, we decided to go all out and recondition the whole car, top to bottom! The paint was pretty scratched up and covered in deep rids, some of which needed sanding, the color wasn’t at its optimal gloss, and the wheels needed a very thorough cleaning in order to make this car stand out.
Fast forward five weeks later, I finally was able to give this car the reconditioning that it needed. I threw everything at this one: thorough washing, claybar treatment, compounding, polishing, sealant wax for protection, wheel removal and suspension detailing to go along with a complete interior reconditioning and protection application. Total time invested in the car from start to finish was about 23 hours and it was well worth the time spent!!!
I would like to be up-front, this is going to be a really long, very picture heavy to depict just what I was working with along the way, and a lot of how to information on various procedures. Please feel free to leave comments or questions after you read this one!
WASHING STEP
Starting off with a slightly dirty car and a traditional wash (hose and bucket), I attached a foam gun substitute to get some suds on the car to start the grime and dirt breakdown process. I used a healthy dose of Chemical Guys Wash and Clear in both the foam gun and in my initial wash bucket. By doing this step, anything on the paint will remove much more easily and not induce any more damage to the car, as well as strip everything off the paint to allow better cleaning/polishing.
During the wash stage, all of the grills needed to be cleaned in a different manner as a sponge would not work well in this situation. Using a 1″ boars hair brush, I was able to get into the crevices and each hole in the honeycomb grills to clean them efficiently and effectively.
One more tip to help out in this situation is to use forced air to dry the grills. You can use an air compressor or a leaf blower to get all the loose water out from the cracks and crevices. You dont want water dripping out of crevices while polishing so this is a good step to perform.
CLAYBAR TREATMENT
Why is it necessary to use clay? Well, you need to remove the bonded contaminants from the paint prior to polishing, otherwise you run the risk of grinding in dirt into the paint creating more swirls than you take out! Luckily, this paint did not have a lot of contaminants on it! I ended up with the DI fine grade clay, and ONR for a clay lube.
INSPECTING THE PAINT WITH VARIOUS LIGHTS – LED/HALOGEN/SUN
After the car was clayed and taped up with the meguiars masking tape, I proceeded to inspect the car for all the damage I could find. There were holograms, swirl marks, scratches…this car had it all! Here are some before shots of how the entire car looked:
COMPOUNDING STAGE
This is the crucial stage of the whole paint correction game. It can either make or break your finish! Too heavy and you will make the finish worse, too light and you will not remove enough defects to get optically clear paint. What compounding doesnt remove, polishing will not either, so if you want to make sure defects are removed, it better be done in the compounding/heavy polishing step BEFORE you move on to the next less aggressive step. Here I am with the DA and a meguiars 105 ultra cut compound and surbuf pad combo. Some areas needed two passes to clear up. I have to assume the previous car washings were not done with any type of care as there was a lot of deep straight line scratches indicative of a brush being used…not good!
After compounding the whole car over I proceeded to re-wash the car with the same thorough method as the initial wash. The amount of dust on the car would not allow me to move on to the next step without doing so!
Polishing step: Menzerna powerfinish and a LC white pad
After drying the car, I pulled out the powerfinish and white pad and started to work my way around the car. Everything at this point was clearing up and the gloss was really starting to come around! With the cutting ability of powerfinish to remove the more aggressive previous steps hazing, yet still finishing down almost LSP ready, I could have stopped there and laid on a coat of wax…BUT, thats not how I do things!
Final polishing step: Menzerna 85rd and a LC black pad
For the final step before the final wash (yes I washed this car a total of 3 times), I pulled out the infamously good 85rd by menzerna. This is a true finishing polish that brings out an insane amount of gloss and depth from the paint. I will never finish a paint correction job without using this combo!
Suspension detailing stage:
Using Meguiars APC+, ONR, various brushes, and polishing pads with some menzerna 85rd and a sealant wax, I was able to restore the cleanliness and beauty from “behind the scenes” so to speak. Sure you dont see this area specifically, but as a whole, it enhances the overall picture!
Wheels cleaned with SONAX Full Effect
While I had the wheels removed from the car for the suspension detailing, I then moved onto the wheels to clean them inside and out! There is nothing worse than having dirty inner wheels while the outside of the wheels look perfect. Once again, it just completes the job!
Here I am with sonax wheel cleaner and a boars hair brush. Usually Ill use a ezdetail brush if the wheels are still on the car, but its much easier with them off the car! You can see the before and after as its pretty apparent which was cleaned and which one is not. SONAX has to be the best wheel cleaner I have ever used! They really hit the nail on the head with this product!
Interior work with leatherique twins and 303 aerospace protectant:
After vacuuming out the interior, it was time to rejuvenate the seats! (go figure thats the name of the product used!!!) Taking my time to apply rejuvenator oil to the seats, I let it soak in and do its magic overnight. I let it soak into the seat for a solid 12 hours. Next day, I removed with Prestine clean.
Since it was getting later in the evening, and I didnt want to continue to make anymore noise in the garage, I decided to polish and wax the door jambs using meguiars finishing wax on a blue pad by hand after cleaning with meguiars last touch quick detailer. The dirt and debris around the hinges was normal, but the compound build up from the previous detailing was something rare. I hadn’t seen build up like that in a LONG time!
Overall, the outcome from start to finish was a tedious and time consuming effort, but it was worth it in the end! 23 hours over three days was spent on this car to bring it back to its full potential! The gloss, clarity, and shine was restored, and the suppleness and clean look was returned to the interior! There is something to be said about a thoroughly reconditioned car…
I warned you this would be a long one! Hope you enjoyed it and possibly learned why reconditioning takes as long as it takes. Some reconditioning jobs take 10-15 hours, some 20-30 hours, and some 40+. Never does it take just 4 hours!
Thanks for looking/reading!!!
Eric Schuster
Envious Detailing
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Great work Eric, and equally as impressive results! I agree that the majority of the efforts need to be taken care of in the compounding stage…that’s when you get your correction done while trying to finish down as nicely as possible.
The owner of this Lambo can now be really proud of what he/she owns after you’ve taken it to an entirely new level.
Great turn out Eric, keep up to the good work!
The Lambo looks outstanding! How soft was the paint on the lambo? I’m curious because I’m scared to use M105 with a suburf on softer paints. I used it once on a test spot but got really scared by aggressiveness of the combo and how it looked afterward, so I backed out and didn’t finish the car with it. Now I realize I probably would have been okay and any hazing would have been cleaned up in the next stages of polish.
Great work. I like the core products you were using to do this detail, all staple products that are frequently talked about and reviewed. I also love seeing these high end details done exclusively with a DA, it’s all I ever use. Seeing these exotics taken to the 100% mark in terms of paint perfection with a DA is just phenomenal.
Always top-notch work from Envious Detailing! Southern California car owners are lucky to have such talent in their backyards. Great work Eric.
Excellent results Eric!
Love the pic of the finished sit. Got to get me some of that leatherique treatment.
I may have missed it through the reading
1) Did you use anything post polish/pre LSP?
2) LSP wise what do you use?
3) Anything used to seal the wheels?
Thank you in advance for the reply.
Kind regards
K
Amazing work! I love the suspension cleaning work too.
Thanks everyone! This car was a joy to work on!
The paint was actually kind of hard. I tried orange pad and 105 first, but it wasnt working well enough so I bumped it up to surbuf! The last couple that I have worked on have been on the harder side. (yellow)
as for the LSP questions:
I used chemical guys Ezcream glaze to prep the paint for blackfire wet diamond sealant. This is simply an awesome combo! BFWD was used on the wheels as well!
I love the paint correction you got on this one. The results are amazing.
As a side note, I think that is the ugliest color I’ve seen on a car that beautiful. It looks like a baby’s room. lol
Eric that is some incredible work!
Thanks for the comprehensive documentation on it.
On one of the before and after pics (5960157644_f321fd6794_z.jpg) is that the build up from previous details that you were talking about?
Keep up the great work!
Dave
yeah, Its either from a previous detailer, or the initial detail on the car fresh out of the factory. basically its compound build up that wasnt removed. Typically, this happens from a compound and a wool pad with high RPM on the rotary polisher. Sad thing is, all it takes is a simple wipe down to remove it when its fresh, but it took me about 5 minutes and lots of quick detailer followed by meguiars finishing wax to remove it.
Great write-up Eric! I’m new, so bear with me on this question…I noticed in one of the shots of the compounding stage you’re wearing some kind of mask/respirator. In what situations do you typically use that?
anytime I am doing a lot of compounding or heavy polishing where there will be a lot of dust flying around I will wear one. Its peace of mind that I am not breathing in all the stuff flying in the air – compound dust, clear coat dust, dirt, etc.
Hi Eric,
Great detailing write up on the unique blue Lambo. One question, how did you polish the tail lights? What process and products did you utilize?
Thank you
Eric:
How did you polish and clean the plastic tail lights?
And what tools did you use to remove the black compound from the door hinges?
I usually soak Q-tips or small foam-sponged painting sticks with Megs APC or
GooGone Automotive Formula to clean the hard-to-get-at areas.
Eric,
Fantastic work! The gloss on that color is outstanding. From the pictures, looks like you’re using the white balance adjustment Todd has been hammering in to our heads! The shots look unreal!
Eric,
How did you polish and clean the plastic on the tail lights?
Thanks and beautiful job on this incredible vehicle. Love the color of this one too for some reason! Maybe because it’s not your typical Lambo in Orange, Yellow, Red, or Black.
I hava an Audi A3 from 1997 and I’m absolutely in love with these whlees.Where can I buy this model .is there anyone producing at this moment this type of whlees ?I am from Romania but I could order them on-line.Please help me with an information
Very nice write up and great pictures! Impressive work also!
Eric,
Outstanding job! Thank you for showing how to get clean up the paint even more. Maybe one day, I’ll even have you fix up my cars.
– Julie
Is there a particular type of car that you detail? Obviously the Lamborghini is a nice vehicle to do your occupation on. Do you also detail vintage cars? Do you have different techniques for older paint? Is it more difficult to work on the older cars?
In your opinion, is there a “real” difference in Clay Bar brands?