2003 Ford Mustang GT - Paint Resurrection

A dab of Mothers' Pre-Wax Cleaner on the PowerBall 4Paint will be our main polishing agent and will make quick work of most of the hard water spots without wearing Jeppesen's arms out. The PowerBall 4Paint is especially effective on clearcoats; it's ideal for late-model muscle like our Mustang. A medium speed and light pressure works best.

We've got some serious bonded contamination; road grime, brake dust, and hard water deposits have left a rough paint surface. And this is after it was thoroughly washed and dried.

Here's the after shot of the top of the fender. Just a couple minutes of polishing have removed nearly all of the water spots and transformed the appearance of the paint. It'll only get better from here.

We held little hope for the dismally discolored hoodscoop, but a few moments with the Pre-Wax Cleaner and PowerBall began to erase the haze on the clearcoat from years of neglect and bring back the true blue color.

The finishing shine and protection will come from Mothers' SynWax. Jeppesen keeps multiple PowerBalls around for a job, but at home you can simply flip it around and use the other side. PowerBalls are also washable so you can start clean every time.

After finishing the rest of the hood with the Pre-Wax Cleaner, Jeppesen applies the SynWax. The hood is looking impressive already, but there's a lot of detail work to go. Just wait until you see it when he's finished.

Here's why people come to Jeppesen; you may be able to get 8/10s of the effect at home, but it's his relentless attention to detail and professional tools of the trade that make the difference. Plus, his shop's light booth reveals every blemish that you're likely to miss. When deciding what level of detail a customer wants, Jeppesen asks: "How close do you want to stand to it?"

Hard water that's allowed to dry on paint in the hot sun can create rings that are actually etched into the clearcoat. Our Mustang had them in spades on the passenger quarter-panel where a home sprinkler system regularly hosed it.

The Pre-Wax Cleaner will work for lighter hard water spots, but to really combat the heavy-duty ones like ours, Jeppesen recommends stepping up to Mothers' Professional line of polish. You probably won't find this at your local parts store, but it's at most paint and detail supply stores and online in the eStore at Mothers.com. It's intended for pad polishes like a random orbit, but will also work with the PowerBall 4Paint.