A tale of two cars: why are some hard to detail?

[Aurora40]

Two cars, a Buick Regal and an Oldsmobile Aurora. Both 4-doors, both close to 200" long, both have sunroofs, both have dark metallic paint. Yet one is a lot more trouble to detail than the other. Why? Well, here's why:



Here's the A-pillar on both cars. In both, windshield glass is on top, door glass on the bottom (you can see the start of both side mirrors). Notice how the Aurora has the molding touch on the side/edge of the pillar, it does not protrude as far as the paint. This means by hand and even by machine you can wax/polish without touching the rubber. The Regal has rubber seals that overlap the paint. Even by hand this is annoying.



Note the C-pillars. The Aurora is very easy to polish with a machine, the Regal very hard. On the Regal, a PC or Cyclo will rub the side of the pad on the fender when polishing the C-pillar.



Note how the body panel meets the window trim. On the Aurora, it is easy to polish all the way up without hitting rubber. On the Regal, you must continue to rotate the machine as you go up, and it will impact the trim.



Here the Regal at least has no hood emblem, but look at that inset grill and how the door molding wraps around into the front. Much harder to machine polish, and more likely to get wax in crevices. The Aurora is quite easy to polish.



Here the door beltline molding is similar. But the bottom of the door is a lot harder to machine polish than the bottom of the Aurora. On the Aurora you can go all the way under if you want.



Look at the rain gutters. The Regal's is kind of a nightmare. Tons of areas for wax in cracks, and it's very hard to transition a machine from the roof to the part above the doors. And look at the sunroofs. I can simply retract the Aurora's roof slightly and it won't be touched. The Regal requires masking.

Anyway, I just found it interesting how some seemingly innocuous things can make two fairly similar cars so different to detail.

[scottydl]

WOW, what a fabulous and comprehensive review! After reading that, I came to the realization that I don't think I have ever REALLY waxed a car correctly...

[Aurora40]

scottydl said:

WOW, what a fabulous and comprehensive review! After reading that, I came to the realization that I don't think I have ever REALLY waxed a car correctly...

LOL! I was actually cross-posting something I composed for a detailing board. I just thought I'd post it up here since it involves the Aurora and someone might be interested.

Here's a shot of the Regal all masked off (I masked the headlights after the shot):

[kobalt]

Thats what I call a comprehensive comparison! Since you're clearly a detailing wizard I was wondering if you could give me some pointers in applying touch up paint.

[Letitroll98]

The heck with the pictures kobalt, Aurora40 come on over and show me how to do my car in person. Heck I'd even buy ya a couple of beers and some chips.

Seriously Aurora40, excellent post. I got about 15-20 tips and ideas just looking at the pictures. I have a truck I'm going to sell (sold the boat, might as well sell the towing truck too) and will be employing those ideas in the next couple days. And I thought I knew what I was doing detailing a car, shows what I know. Again, great post, thnx.

[Aurora40]

Hey, I'm glad the thread was so well-received. I figured you'd all just be like "what a weirdo".

Kobalt, I'm no touch-up master, but let me get you some info. I actually need to do some touch-up on the Regal too.

Letitroll98, there'll probably be some kind of detailing get-together in VA if you'd be interested. I think it may happen Octoberish if it happens. It's some folks from a detailing board, but it seems like we are all slackers about organizing it, so who knows. I think it may be in the Charlottesville area, which would probably be a 3+ hour drive for you, if you'd be up for that. I can get you more info if you are interested. It'd be a good way to get some tips, and some help with any problems you have.

[scottydl]

Aurora40 said:

Kobalt, I'm no touch-up master, but let me get you some info.

I'm interested in this as well, if you wouldn't mind posting for the lot of us. ;D

[Aurora40]

Here is a good tutorial of touching up paint: www.bettercarcare.com/articles.php?articleId=27

And here is my two cents. I wouldn't bother with clear coat. For one, touch-up paint is almost always laquer, not urethane, so it's already a different kind. Base-coat urethane is fairly dull, the clear gives it the shine. Laquer is shiny, so a color laquer will work fine without any clear. Also, it's touch-up. It will never look perfect.

I also would try to get the paint as level as possible by being slow and careful while applying it. I tried wetsanding touchup before, and for me it made it look worse. You will be wetsanding the clear around the touchupin addition to the touchup, and that paint isn't raised up. So you'll end up making it shallower and you get a sort of weird divot look. I wouldn't sand next time. I have thought about trying a Meguiar's sanding block, though, as they are super small and for runs. But I haven't tried that yet.

One thing I found useful was a sanding pen 3M makes. It worked well to prep the chip area for touchup. It's like fiberglass strands. It's almost impossible to cut a tiny piece of sandpaper that will fit in a chip, but the pen was pretty easy.

That's all I have unless you have questions. I'll be trying out my skills again on the Regal soon as it has a lot of chips.