Sorry about the lack of direct sunlight pictures, but late last week when I took these FL was having some crazy rainstorms. 5-10 minutes after I shot these it turned into a torrential downpour. Thank god I put the car back inside! Now that the rain has stopped and my battle against rainwater waterspots is over (yes I got them all off) the car looks fricking gorgeous in direct sunlight. No swirls and everything just sparkles. I don't own a digital camera myself, I borrowed a friend of mine's to get these. maybe she'll let me take a few more in the sun in the comming days sometime...










Process was as follows-
-Meguiar's NXT wash, I used one of those walmart soap sprayer things on the hose... used Eagle One Wet wash soap in it. the surface was really slick. Ill be doing this from now on when I wash.
-Clay Magic clay on whole car
-Optimum polish via white polishing Lake Country Manufacturing pad, swirls were very minor seeing as the car is brand new, i refused dealer prep. the only swirls present were the few i made washing it a few times since i got it. Optimum takes forever to remove swirls though...
-IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) rub, the optimum polish didnt seem like it was comming off with just a microfiber towel, so i did this.
-Clearkote Vanilla Moose via white LC pad
-Clearkote Red Moose Machine Glaze via black finishing LC pad
-Four Star Ultimate Paint Protection sealant via Black LC pad x2, did the first coat Wednesday afternoon and then the second coat thursday morning.
-Pinnacle Souveran via supplied yellow foam applicator, did this Thursday afternoon as to give UPP a bit of time to set up.

glass, headlights, taillights, mirrors, turn signals in mirrors, rims, and door jams received a coat of Klasse All-In-One. rims and door jams also got some UPP.

Tires were cleaned first with Eagle One A2Z, after 2 applications they were still comming off dirty (even after scrubbing vigorously) so i switched over to Pinnacle Gel Wheel Cleaner (got it free w/ my souveran order!) and that did the trick. Dried em off and used Meguiar's hot shine on em.

few things i learned...
-This car has WAY too much glass. there is no roof, its all glass. Combine that with a windshield, side windows, and an overly large hatch, its a PITA.
-Souveran is rather difficult to remove, but really easy to apply. I resorted to using a shot or two of crystal mist on my buffing towel, that helped slightly.
-leafblowers are a godsend. Day one i didnt use one for cracks and crevices and whenever i was polishing water would drip everywhere. That night I went onto my detailing forum and searched around a bit. The next day when i washed it again I used a leaf blower to get the majority of the water off (seeing as everything was beading) and then blew out all the cracks and crevices in the car. No drips, no waterspots after the fact. Needless to say I was a happy camper.

I used a porter cable 7336 for this detail.

ok, ive rambled on enough, how's it look guys?
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looks good, pm sent

 

looks very nice. is nautical blue darker or lighter than my indigo ink pearl?
it's just too bad that our scions have such soft clearcoat (swirls!!) and they have terrible orange peal in the paint
heres mine

 

Indigo Ink and Nautical Blue are REALLY close... but i think that IIP is a slight bit lighter than my color. I do think that IIP has a bit more metallic flake in it also. All the IIP tC's I've seen just pop under the sunlight, mine you have to look at certain angles to see it.

The clear is pretty soft but I have yet to cause a lot of swirls. I'm really **** when it comes to washing it properly lol. but for the orange peel, I've certainly seen much worse off cars than ours. BTW, what process did you go through on your car when you took that picture?
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sorry for the huge pics, but you get the idea. i wish i had a porter cable, but i hand applied everything.
wash with dawn dishsoap to remove old wax
wash with megs deep crystal for road grime
claymagic claybar
2 coats of klass AIO (even though you only need one, but i wanted full application)
2 coats of NXT (pain in the butt to buff off)
3 coats of megs carnuba (4 coats on front bumper, hood and anywhere bugs like to destroy the car)

microfiber and compressed air are the only things that touch my car, but dang, this clearcoat is soft....you'll get swirls, no matter how perfect you wash your car, even with the 2 bucket method and a grit guard and a foam gun....i guess thats what i get for having a dark blue car. but it sure does shine nice

 

GLEAM!!! isn't blue nice...

from what I have seen NBM and IIP can look exactly the same under a certain lighting and totally different under other lighting.

 

If i may make a suggestion xnevergiveinx, instead of using deep crystal wash, I would try out Top of the Line's Bubble Bath car wash. the lubricity is awesome and its really gentle on waxes and sealants that are on the car. The only problem with it though is that it doesn't have much cleaning ability. But hey, my car never gets really caked on dirt so its a perfect wash for me.

Also, instead of using deep crystal step 3, try out meguiar's #26. It has FAR greater durability than the deep crystal wax and I personally think that it gives better depth and wetness. Pick up some meguiar's quik wax spray to use on the car after each wash to restore the wax. I've maintained 2 layers of #26 on my mom's car for the past 7 months using this and it still beads like crazy.

Try using AIO/wax on the windows. its far better than rainx!!

read through my washing technique in this thread to see if you can reduce some of the swirling your causing: https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...106700#1106700
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not to be picky but you missed the tail pipe and wheel wells :p

 

I completely forgot the tailpipe yes, someone else on another forum told me that too :D but for the wheel wells, I ran out of poorboy's bio APC so i didn't even bother trying to clean them.

 

how long did it take you to do thise?