It was a looong day
 

Off work for a month now, recovering from shoulder replacement, what better exercise than a good detail?????

Your detailing job looks great but I am curious as to how the heck you did that after a shoulder replacement?

When I detail my Zed, it takes hours and tons of effort (elbow grease) with both arms.

Now relax and heal! :tiphat:

Had to take many breaks, but it was good therapy. Started at 4:30am, wrapped it up just after 11pm.. On break today, tomorrow we go after interior, which is pretty quick because I keep her pretty much spotless anyhow... I just started my weight training at Phys. Therapy, so I'm in the "no pain, no gain" phase...lol
Dr says 4 to 6 months of no work, I'm figuring 2, at most. No can do 4 to 6 months with no income.

Ron you are more than welcome to work on my swirls. :tiphat:

You must try not to make swirls, my good man!:tiphat:

I will as soon as I take care of the ones I have caused.

Lol... get to it. The Black Cherry is a gorgeous color, but it is tough to keep it looking 100%, as you well know. I cringe every time I pass an automatic car wash....lol

Shoulders?
 

What'd you have done? What were the symptoms you were experiencing?
I'm curious 'cause both of mine are shot. I blow them up regularly.

Thanks Ron

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Full shoulder replacement. I had osteoarthritis. (Fancy doctor-speak for wore it out) Heavy construction for 30 years. I Basically had pain with everything I did with my right arm. It got increasingly worse the past 3 or so years, and Dr. kept putting the surgery off due to my age. They wanted me to wait until mid 50's because the replacements wear out as well (best case it will last 15 years). It got to the point where I had to start keeping things in my left pockets, and had to put belts on my pants prior to putting the pants on..lol Range of motion was near zero. Tried the cortisone shots for a year, no bueno... Had the surgery Dec 22nd, home from hospital following day by noon, after first therapy session. Pain was very minimal. arm feels better now than it has in years, but much therapy ahead.

aint it purty ?? lol

OUCH! Best wishes on a speedy recovery!

Love that black cherry color. What machines are you using? Also how would you rate the hardness of the clear coat on the black cherry?

I use the DA from Harbor Frieght. $60 No issues with it whatsoever. As far as the clear goes, I'm nowhere near educated enough about those things to speak intelligently about it. I can say this.. I spent a lot of time polishing my last ride, which I painted myself with a urethane base/clear, and it seems a little tougher to remove imperfecions in the nissans clear than the other. whether that is a product of hardener mix ratios in the urethane clear vs the factory's clear, I cant say.
I do know that it is virtually impossible to cause damage to your paint using a DA polisher vs a rotary (which is what I learned on)

You are correct, hardness level of the clear coat is caused by the mixing ratios of polyurethane with whatever thinner you use.

Nissan clear coat is usually pretty hard but it can vary quite a bit between the years. For example here is a black Nissan Altima I corrected a while back and it took a very heavy compound (I think I used V34 if I recall) to get just the swirls out.

Also you are right in using a DA, they are very safe. The risk of burning through the clear coat doesn't come in to play until you've polished multiple times using heavier compounds. Rotarys are definitely more challenging and dangerous.

Wow, you definitely brought that thing back to life... Very nice.

Good luck with your recovery. Before my Pearl White Z I had a black Mustang. I am sooooo glad I have white now. :-)

Keeping that car looking pretty nearly killed me...

Thank you. I haven't had the pleasure of working on that Black Cherry though, I can't wait to get my hands on one. If they sold the Nismo in that color I would have gotten one for sure.

Amazing job right there... It would be interesting to know the history of that car and how it was maintained. Looks like they used a broom on it :-)

You are spot on! Before detailing it I asked him as this was probably the most swirled out car i've worked on. He said that when it snowed he would use a broom to dust all the snow off it. One of the conditions of me detailing it was he was never to do that again.