'17 370z & My Love/Hate Relationship with Essence

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richy

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I had this car booked for a while and the customer was gracious enough to let me bump his slot a few times, so I took care of him by doing his windshield for free with Forte. This is a brand new Nissan 370z Nismo edition. Glorious. Gorgeous. Pick whatever "G" word you want, it was breathtaking. To be honest, when I first looked at it I thought "How am I going to improve this?" as that's always my goal. You can decide whether I actually did or not. I'm not telling what the customer said, LOL.

Anyway, here it is as it arrived. This was my 4th car directly in a row during my week off. My shoulder hurts, my knee hurts...this full time detailing is not easy!! Makes me seem like a wuss only doing it once a week!!




















First up was the wheels. The faces and barrels were lightly shot with Zep Citrus and then washed with Megs HW. The tires were cleaned with Zep 505 and the wells with LATA. This was to be a wheels-off, Finest detail, so they would be more intensively cleaned upon being removed.


Next up was decontamination. I could see little black dots on the rear surfaces so rather than the usual one stage of decon, I gave it two. I liberally sprayed IronX to the entire car and then even more where it was the worst. Here it is in action:








The car was then washed with IronX paste and a wash mitt followed by a regular wash using Megs HW. It was then brought inside and clayed with a clay towel.


Now it was time to pull the wheels. After finding the proper torque specs in the manual, it was safe to proceed. Each wheel was pulled and the barrel was intensively cleaned with DG Squeaky Clean as was the caliper. I'm telling you that you don't have it clean until you've used this product. Check out how gorgeous the caliper looks only after being cleaned with SC:





Once chemically cleaned, the barrel, face and caliper were all double coated with CQF. The front wells were coated (at no cost-I throw it in if someone wants the wheels done) with Dlux. Once I re-installed the wheel and before lowering it to the ground, I shot the tire with Opti Bond from my small paint gun. Here is a wheel in progress:

















All done:






Now onto my love/hate relationship with Essence. I love it but it drives me crazy...wait...I should marry it!!!! LMAO!! I had such great luck with the last 3 cars using it with a yellow B/S pad and doing the double wipe. It would leave smudges in the paint that had to be gone over again to remove. Slow speed, fast speed, Slow Arm, Fast Arm, yellow pad, white pad...NOTHING WORKED! In the end, I ditched it and went over the hood with M205 and my cleaned yellow B/S pad + 3401 and got stellar results. The hood had a few very light marks so I hit those with black TB wool + M100 to quickly and effectively get rid of them. The rest of the car was done with M205. The chrome exhaust tips were hand polished with M205. I even polished the glass with M205.

The customer was working midnights while I was doing this car, so it got delivered at night, so I left it in the garage for him to see with all the lighting.

Check out the next 2 shots. Both are exactly the same except for focus. The first is on the flake and the 2nd on the LED light above:








Here she is all done:
























































Thanks for looking. Comments always appreciated.
 
Richy, absolutely stunning buddy, just stunning!!! I don't know where you find the time or the energy (especially) to do such spectacular work and full blown, detailed write-ups w/ pictures (makes me tired just thinking about it)!!

I'm kind of at a loss as to why you are having such a love/hate relationship with Essence. I have nothing but a full blown love affair with her myself. I'm to the point that, Essence is practically all I use on every single job these days. I have found "for me", that she responds incredibly well to being caressed with either a Scholl Concepts Neo Honey Spider pad, or a CarPro Gloss pad the best. Also CarPro and Meggs MF pads usually work VERY well(when I'm after more cut). Here's what works for me, and what I have found to be very important factors...

When using Essence:

- Either do not prime the pad, or prime it very lightly.
- Use 2-3 small dots of product (or perhaps 4-5 small dots on your first pass with a fresh pad)
- Spread product quickly onto working area at machine speed 1
- Begin the first pass using medium speed (Flex 3401 ~ 4-5) and moderate pressure
- Make 1 to 2 slow passes (2 at the most) using medium speed with moderate pressure (ie up & down, then left to right)
- Make 1 final pass at a slower speed (2.5-3) with no pressure
- Wipe residue away (there should be very little since so little product was used to begin with)
- Clean pad & repeat on next section

If you use too much product, or work it too long it may be a bit difficult to remove, or you may see slight marring. The abrasives break down very quickly (just a couple passes), and very little product is needed.

The process is very quick!

I've found Essence to respond well to Scholl Concepts Spider pads (Neo Honey being my favorite), CarPro and Megs MF, and CarPro gloss pads USUALLY work very well!

Some light marring with Essence is possible on the very first section. When this happens try adding a few more drops of polish and hit the area again. Some paints are more susceptible to marring with a non-primed or less wet pad.

When using a microfiber cutting pad (for more cut) prime the MF pad with Essence, and use 2 small dots of product for each working section. Again, clean the pad after each section.

Hope you don't mind me tacking this on to your thread buddy, I thought it may be beneficial to others reading that may also be experiencing some issues. I hope that you come to love Essence as much as I do! Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating because it works so fast and so well here for me. Once again, as always my friend, stellar work!
 
Last edited:
Richy,

Wow! Great work sir!!!!! I'm sending this to some friends for them to see. Top Notch.

Steve
 
Richy, absolutely stunning buddy, just stunning!!! I don't know where you find the time or the energy (especially) to do such spectacular work and full blown, detailed write-ups w/ pictures (makes me tired just thinking about it)!!

I'm kind of at a loss as to why you are having such a love/hate relationship with Essence. I have nothing but a full blown love affair with her myself. I'm to the point that, Essence is practically all I use on every single job these days. I have found "for me", that she responds incredibly well to being caressed with either a Scholl Concepts Neo Honey Spider pad, or a CarPro Gloss pad the best. Also CarPro and Meggs MF pads usually work VERY well(when I'm after more cut). Here's what works for me, and what I have found to be very important factors...

When using Essence:

- Either do not prime the pad, or prime it very lightly.
- Use 2-3 small dots of product (or perhaps 4-5 small dots on your first pass with a fresh pad)
- Spread product quickly onto working area at machine speed 1
- Begin the first pass using medium speed (Flex 3401 ~ 4-5) and moderate pressure
- Make 1 to 2 slow passes (2 at the most) using medium speed with moderate pressure (ie up & down, then left to right)
- Make 1 final pass at a slower speed (2.5-3) with no pressure
- Wipe residue away (there should be very little since so little product was used to begin with)
- Clean pad & repeat on next section

If you use too much product, or work it too long it may be a bit difficult to remove, or you may see slight marring. The abrasives break down very quickly (just a couple passes), and very little product is needed.

The process is very quick!

I've found Essence to respond well to Scholl Concepts Spider pads (Neo Honey being my favorite), CarPro and Megs MF, and CarPro gloss pads USUALLY work very well!

Some light marring with Essence is possible on the very first section. When this happens try adding a few more drops of polish and hit the area again. Some paints are more susceptible to marring with a non-primed or less wet pad.

When using a microfiber cutting pad (for more cut) prime the MF pad with Essence, and use 2 small dots of product for each working section. Again, clean the pad after each section.

Hope you don't mind me tacking this on to your thread buddy, I thought it may be beneficial to others reading that may also be experiencing some issues. I hope that you come to love Essence as much as I do! Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating because it works so fast and so well here for me. Once again, as always my friend, stellar work!
Tad, #1: Thank you buddy! #2, I have talked to Corey about my issues and in my next order I'm going to get that Spider pad to try out. I have had good luck (when it works with the CP gloss pad and even the B/S yellow pad (look on L2D for the truck I did). I will try your method next with the gloss pad and see how it goes. I don't want to hate it, trust me.

Richy,

Wow! Great work sir!!!!! I'm sending this to some friends for them to see. Top Notch.

Steve
Thanks very much Steve!


Looks splendid Richy!! I like the Red accents on the bumpers. Great job on that pearl!!
Thanks Heath buddy, I appreciate your comment. The red really stood out with the white pearl paint.
 
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