Perfecting your "not so average" station wagon..

imported_d00t

New member
When the customer first contacted me about the car, I thought he was talking about (what I later found out to be a a Volvo S60r), so I was like "Yeah cool I love those cars!". And when I meet him for an estimate he pulls up in a.... station wagon? :idea . Apparently what I thought was a V70r, was really a S60r, and the V70r is Volvo's flagship super grocery getter. it's a trick little car: 5 cylinder tubo charged, awd, sport suspension, 4 pot brakes all around. It's definitely not youre average station wagon; and this one definitely isn't a grocery getter--but a dog hauler!!



After inspecting the car, I knew I'd have my work cut out for me, but I was up for the "challenge". Here's what the car looked like upon arriving on Saturday morning:



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Sorry for a lot fo pics in the same section.. that's where the sun was shining at 9 in the morning!



Before any of the above pictured was tackeled, however, I had to address the basics. First up was the wheels. I tried the new Gloss-It Wheel gel which I'll give a review on, on a later date, but it worked out very well! I diluted it 1:1 and agitated the wheels with various brushes. The wheel wells and tires were sprayed with P21S TAW.



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And here's some close-ups of the GI wheel gel, and what it can do to a rim:



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50/50:



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All done:



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The engine bay was addressed next. It received a good pressure rinse with filtered with DI water, and then P21S TAW was sprayed liberally over the bay, and then agitated with a SW wheel brush before being rinsed again. (I forgot to take befores :( )



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After the griming stuff was taken care of I moved on to the was. I first rinsed the car down, then foamed it with 2oz of Optimum Power Clean and about 1oz of CG MaxiSudsII (thanks Denzil), before being rinsed off again, and then normal 2BM with OPC as well.



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The car was then blown dry and pulled inside. It was mildly contaminated, so I chose to go with Riccardo Yellow Clay, and CG Luber as clay lube. No pics of this stage.. or most of the rest for that matter :P.



The car was inpsected under halogens, and LED lighting to see more spectrums of light of th defects.



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Thanks to Karl's and Isaac's repsonses on my post asking about Volvo CC I had an idea of what I was going to use. I ended up settling on the KBPCM using my Flex DA. The clearcoat was a little bit harder than anticipated, and required two passes of M105+Orange pads. But it was then followed up with M205+LC Flat Black pads and the results were around 95% paint correction (which for only two full days for a full exterior+interior isn't bad!).



Out in the sun, 50/50's:



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Inside:



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And the clearity is restored!



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I finished a little more than half the car by day one, and continued at 8am the next morning. After I had finshed polishing, I pulled it out for a much needed wash. Here's the results pre-LSP (I always take sun shots pre-LSP incase there's no sun post-LSP!)



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I brought it back inside to finish everything up, plus do the inside. A lot of the process (like mentioned above) wasn't photographed due to time constraints. But I dressed all exterior plastic trim with black-wow and then wiped dry (too shiny when left to sit). The wheel wells got Adams Undercarriage Spray, seals got 1z Gummi Pfledge, Windows were polished with Werkstat Prime and Sealed with Acrylic Jett. Rims got Acrylic get as well, and tires were dressed with Megs HD 3:1. Engine bay was treated with 303 Protectant.



50/50 of black wow:



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I moved inside next. The carpets were vaccumed with my metro vac'n'blow. Then they were cleaned with a SW leather brush, and CG Citrus pad cleaner.



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The leather seats got the Leather Masters Trio. The inside with cleaned with 1z cockpit premium, followed with 303 protectant. Windows inside were cleaned with DI Water and a glass towel.



The exhaust tips were cleaned with Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish:



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Engine bay after 303 Protectant:



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The LSP of choice for this car with the Gloss-It Twins: Signature Sealant followed by Concorso Gloss. I chose this because of it's incredible depth and clearity brought to paint, as well as the outstanding durability, since this wagon is a DD.



Here's a slew of afters for you!



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Thanks for viewing!



As always C/C Welcome!



:thx
 
nice work aaron ill bet that interior on the drivers side was tough! those black stains can be hard to get out. good job!! i like the sunshots!
 
Great job, Volvo clear is very hard!! I service those cars all the time, the wagons are my favorite, especially with the optional/rare 6 speed manual trans!!! Uber hotness, my friend owns one, cant wait till he sells it.
 
TSC17 said:
Very nice work as always Aaron!



Thanks!!



bufferbarry said:
nice work aaron ill bet that interior on the drivers side was tough! those black stains can be hard to get out. good job!! i like the sunshots!



Thanks a lot! The interior wasn't too bad actually..



XRL said:
Hotness. I like 300hp AWD wagons. :)



Car looks great, the flake really pops now.



Thanks a lot!



tom p. said:
WOW, you did an awesome job. Great turnaround!



Thanks! :)



White lexus 23 said:
nice turnaround on the paint awesome job!



Thanks!



StumpyDetailing said:
Wow is right! Awesome job!



That thing looks better than when they bought it !



Thanks, yes it does, since he bought it used! :)



quantim0 said:
That paint was rough, great turn around. Also a sweet car.



Thanks a lot :)



NRZ said:
Great job, Volvo clear is very hard!! I service those cars all the time, the wagons are my favorite, especially with the optional/rare 6 speed manual trans!!! Uber hotness, my friend owns one, cant wait till he sells it.



Thank you! Yeah the clear was pretty hard.. which is funny because when I asked a few people their experiences with volvo clear, they gave me the opposite answer, and that it was on the softer side.
 
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