Perodua Myvi Metallic Black: Full Exterior Detail

I was very excited when I saw this car, and couldn’t wait to get it looking black again!

Here is how the car looks when it arrived.

Headlamps looked a bit hazy, the car had water spots and swirls. Back of the wheels were covered in tar and wheel wells were dirty as well.

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I started by covering any electrical inlets with aluminium foil. Rinsed at high pressure, and washed with Meguiar’s Super Degreaser followed by Osren Multi Clean.

Then the wheel wells and tires scrubbed with Meguiar’s Super Degreaser. Wheels cleaned with Meguiar’s Wheel Brightener followed by Osren Tar Remover on the back of the wheels.

Side underbody cleaned with Osren Multi-Clean.

Whole car is then pre-soaked with Meguiar’s Hyper Wash. While soaking, door shuts, panel gaps, emblems, and badges cleaned with Osren Multi Clean.

This is followed by a high pressure rinse and then car is washed with Meguiar’s Hyperwash using a Mothers Lambswool wash mitt. The mitt did not have any trouble cleaning the car despite it being quite dirty.

Tar remover is sprayed on the whole car and wiped off.

Rinsed and clayed with Perma Glass No.2 Clay using diluted Meguiars Shampoo Plus as lubricant.

After claying the bonnet,

After claying the roof,

Cracks and crevices blow dried and panel gaps and unpainted surfaces were taped.

With the car cleaned and tape ready for polishing, I started on the bonnet.

Before,

First combination was Meguiar’s #83 Dual-Action Cleaner/Polish using a Meguiar’s W-8006 Polishing Pad at 900 rpms.

This removed a fair amount of scratches although the pad started to not glide across as smoothly. It was pulling out a lot of embedded dirt. A quick wipe with the pad spinning with Meguiar’s Last Touch cleaned it nicely for the area.

After a few hits, this is the result,

Front bumper polished with M83 DACP with a Lake Country 4” White CCS pad.

Before,

After,

Then moving to other panels, M83 was not removing all the deeper defects, so I stepped up to Meguiar’s #85 Diamond Cut Compound 2.0 using Meguiar’s W4000 Cut n’ Shine wool pad.

The compounding process is followed with M83, to remove compounding swirls.

Passenger side front fender before,

Passenger side front fender after,

Driver Side front fender before,

Driver side front fender after,

These steps are only after a compound and a medium abrasive polish, it is yet to be followed by a finer polish, which is Meguiar’s #82 Swirl Free Polish.

Rear door before compound and polish,

Front door after compound and polish, it still has light holograms that will be followed by a finishing polish.

Roof before,

Roof after compound,

Roof after compound(M85), polish(M83), and finishing polish(M82)

Driver side rear door before,

After,

Before,

After,

Before,

After,

Rear quarter before,

Rear quarter after,

When polishing near the spoiler area, I taped the adjacent panel as it was higher than the other.

This was corrected using M85/ 4” Orange CCS followed by M83/ 4” White CCS

Top of the rear bumper done with the same pad and polish combination. M85 and Orange CCS pad left a nice gloss without any heavy hazing.

And I think this is how the CCS is suppose to work, the ‘craters’ are closed cell structures, means the polish won’t be able to absorb into the foam. While polishing, it is supposed to release some to prolong working time.

Tight spots and recessed areas of the bumper done with 4” CCS pads.

Bumper before,

Bumper After,

B-Pillar corrected with M83/4” White CCS

Before,

After,

After compounding and polishing the whole car. The panel gap tapes are removed and hand polished with M83 to remove the tape residue. This left it’s own marring. The consequent finishing polish step removed these marring.

Whole car polished with Meguiar’s #82 Swirl Free Polish using a Lake Country Black Finishing pad.

After going over the whole car, headlamps are polished with Meguiar’s PlastX using 4” White CCS pad. This removed a lot of the hazing and made the plastic clear again.

Before,

After,

And the dirt pulled out of the plastics,

At this stage the paint is fully corrected but the final finishing with the rotary buffer left very very light buffer marks. This is corrected with M82/W-9006 Finishing Pad using a Bosch Random Orbital Buffer.

And left the paint looking like this.

The whole car had compound and polish dust and also lots of synthetic wool strands from the new wool pad. All the tape are removed and car is pressure rinsed. Polish residues wiped off from edges.

At this point after the pressure wash I’m always afraid that I will see some holograms as the oils of the polish are washed away, thankfully I didn’t see any! And this is thanks to the Random Orbital polishing step.

It was evening and I took some pictures before the sun went down. These are only after polishing without any wax.

For wax, a coat of Mothers Reflections Advanced Wax is applied followed by Meguiars #16 Professional Paste Wax for durability.

While the wax was curing, glass is cleaned with Meguiar’s Glass Cleaner Concentrate using two microfiber towels. The first will be wet to remove the dirt and grime, the second is dry and to buff off to a streak free shine.

Optimum Poli-Seal applied to door shuts and exterior glass.

Meguair’s Hyper Dressing for wheel wells

Meguiar’s #40 Vinyl/Rubber Cleaner & Conditioner applied to trim and tires.

Interior wiped down with Meguiar’s Quik Interior Detailer.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to take any after shots, they look like the pictures above! I only have 2 shots of the halogen on the doors, just try to imagine this look over the whole car ;)

Total time: 17 hours over two days

As always thanks for looking, feel free to ask and comment. =)