Ok, so this thread is going to have a TON of pics... I'm warning you now lol.

Little history on myself... I love detailing. I have two passions in my life... my horse and my cars. My cars I like to do just about everything with. From show and shine to yes I've taken my base model G5 to the track!! AND I did fairly well for what I've got and not have doing it often!! I LOVE detailing though, specifically cars that the owners take pride in.
I've done my own stuff for the past 7 years and for the past 5 years I've spread out to doing other peoples vehicles as well.
I worked at dealers for 3 years and over the summer did my own thing doing contract detailing for a local Nissan dealership. Some people knock people who detail but I'll tell you what... making 200 dollars in 2 hours is GOOD money. No you don't make that all the time but the potential IS there to do well. If I had a shop I'd definitely be all about doing this year round.

Anywho, enough with that here's the good stuff. My pride and joy would be my bf's 2001 lincoln LS. Although there are MANY things about the final product that **** me off to no end and WILL eventually get fixed I'm pretty proud of the outcome. It was my first wet sand and buff. He wet sanded it I buffed it. It was also my first time buffing anything of any quantity. SCARY job to say the least as I had a lot riding on my ass but i learned A LOT. Black is NOT a fun color to learn on let me tell ya!!

Products used:

Mequires solo - this is a cut and polish 2 in 1. GREAT product. Saves A LOT of time and has amazing results.
Mequires M80 speed glaze - another amazing product. When using a rotary buffer you would replace this with a stage 1 of a 3 stage system
Mequires Stage 2 - removes swirling and mild imperfections. Although you can apply this with a rotary, I'd suggest doing it by hand on darker colored vehicles.
Mequires NXT - The first time I used this was on my already immaculate silver G5... stepped back and said Holy &%^*!! I love it.
Turtle wax rubbing compound - for stuff that needed a bit of extra
Turtle wax polishing compound - for stuff that didn't need quite as much as the rubbing compound.

I originally was using the turtle wax products before I found the solo and M80. Although they did a decent job it was A LOT of work. The solo and M80 made things go MUCH fast with better results. That being said... if you have a small area that needs to be fixed by all means... the turtle wax stuff did a great job at a fraction of the cost. When doing a car the size of the lincoln or a whole car at that... I'd definitely suggest getting the mequires products... less of a headache in the long run.

Also, if I were to do this again... DEFINITELY tape off areas you don't want wax. it will save you a lot of pain staking cleaning at the end. Trial and error... learn from my mistakes! LOL

Anyways... PICTURES!!

This is the LS. It's a 2001 that had a TON of orange peel. We spray bombed the front bumper to remove all the "white spots" and touched up part of the hood with a touch up pen.

Wet sanded...







buffed out with turtle wax polish and rubbing compound... as you can see.. it did a great job... just took forever!!







theeennn my buffer died and I discovered a mequires dealer! Pine Automotive on Pine street in Nashua, New Hampshire... in a ghetto... but great people, very informative and decent prices...

this is just the solo...





M80...



Stage 2



NXT...





Completed passengers side...



close up of the quarter panel



Front Grill:



Drivers side somewhat completed... the little details had to be fixed (like the crap I should have masked off!! DOH!)



Somewhat finished at a show... these are the pics that I love... but at the same point annoy me... We ran out of time to finish the car before the show so it's actually incomplete at this point of these pics. We kept changing our minds on certain things and doing different stuff and we needed at least another week!!! The tails aren't even buffed at all so they look dull.










This is how the car sits now...

 

had to split this into two posts... this is the G5



Then this is my car after the same kind of buff minus the wet sand. I don't have progress pics of mine.. just before and afters

Before:



After:









Anywho, hope you all enjoyed my mini informational... any questions don't hesitate to ask. I do do this on the side if anyone is interested. Prices vary what you want done. I do interiors to just no pics. I bring them back to pretty much stock. Steam clean, sanitize, condition etc.

 

Man that looks good.... You can come do my car next LOL

 

Wow that LS looks amazing! great job

 

nicely done, I myself also use the turtle wax rubbing compound and polish to great effect

 

They're a great product specially for the price. You can get both of those for 30 dollars for the 2 yet the solo is about 40 bucks for the bottle (that being said its a bigger bottle) and the m80 is around 20 or 40 as well i believe... I can't remember the complete break down. I do know I should be banned from that store tho!!

 

This is my bird. This was done with a basic hand done 3 stage wax by mothers. Cars a pain in the ass to say the least as it has no clear it's just acrylic enamel.







It also needs a paint job and some body work

 

turtle wax stuff=

and silver will never show of detailing abilities

but the black car looks great