dsms detail - 08' Obsidian Black Pearl Subaru STi

[dsms]

The was a partial new car prep on this 2008 Subaru STi. The car had about 800miles on it and recently had some clear bra work done to the side fenders and lower body panels.

On with the detail...

Before pic, this is about 9am Saturday morning. It was well below freezing temps here in NJ and I saw all the water froze on my driveway during the pre-rinse and wheel cleaning steps. Thats when I knew I was going to ONR this bad boy inside the garage instead of using my normal sudsy wash routine outdoors.



As usual I started with the wheels, in this case some very spokey BBS'

Before



I used the P21s gel on these wheels to ensure no damage to the finish or more importantly the brakes, I let the gel dwell for about 10mins after the initial pressure wash using the Cam spray

I used an assortmant of brushes to get in every crevice of these intricate wheels.

boars hair brush
swissvax brush
wooden spoke brush (for the inner barrels)
oxo tire scrub brush
black agressve shmitt for the wheel wells

Heres me using the boars hair brush for the initial agitation of the p21s, this brush is great for wheels such as these. I used to just use the swissvax brush to go in and out of every spoke but now I can get about 85% of the wheels clean much faster with the large bristles on the boars hair brush.



I then cleaned the inners with a long handle spoke brush and re-worked all the spokes with the much more precise swissvax brush. Calipers were scrubbed as well

Tires/wells were scrubbed using APC 4:1

After




Another before, you can see the caked up brake dust settled in all the ridges of the wheel



After



Inners all squeaky clean



I then proceeded to thoroughly rinse the paint finish



Followed by a p21s TAW pre-soak



While I let the citrus soap dwell on the paint I used a designated siwssvax wheel brush to agitate the emblems and trim





I rinsed the car once more...adding to the thick layer of ice forming beneath my feet due to the freezing temps and pulled the Subby inside for the ONR wash.

The fact that this car has 4wd gave me some piece of mind pulling it in the garage, it was very icy on the driveway that morning!

With the car still wet I used the 2 bucket method and began to ONR wash the car panel by panel using soft foam sponges from DD, there just like the Zymol sponges I used to have and work very well with ONR solution



ONR working its magic



I dried each panel with CG miracle dryers and moved onto claying

Sonus fine green clay was used. The car still being new I felt there was no need to use anything more than a soft clay, as I expected the car was only lightly contaminated



Last touch QD 1:1 was used to lubricate the finish while claying

After claying I measured the paint using the PTG and began my inspection starting with the hood

The owner informed me he attempted to clay the car but unfortunatley the clay picked up a large particle or something which induced some heavy scrtahces on the hood scoop area.

These deep RIDS needed the use of an agressive polish/compound to remove where as the rest of the hood needed a lighter corrective polish

Heres what I mean.
Using the Fenix TK10 to show defects is a great tool for paint inspection, especially on metallics. Big thanks to Bob at Auto Concierge for introducing me to this little light. I cant do paint correction without it now!

[dsms]

Now under the standing halogens





I used Gloss It extreme cut on the cyclo with orange pads to cut out the defects and then followed up with the Evolution polish to refine the paint and bring out that last bit off gloss.

The result



I corrected the rest of the paint usning the Gloss It one step machine polish on the cyclo with green pads

The result after only 1 step, later the finished was jeweled on the makita



Remember that scratched hood scoop?



This is the final shot under the same Fenix LED light



I then corrected the rest of the car

drivers side rear quarter before shots, swirls and light RIDS





After correcting the paint with the gloss it 1 step machine polish on the cyclo with green pads (15-20lbs of pressure before letting up to refine the finish was used on the cyclo)



The paint at this point was just about perfect and finished down 100% LSP ready. I decided to go one step further and I broke out the makita for some extra jeweling.

On the makita I used 3M Ultrafina with the Gloss It EVP prime on a blue lake country finishing pad.

Ultrafina seems to always leave a clean finish but it never really adds gloss or depth IMO on a finish that is already leveled and defect free but UF is just so damn consistant I decided to use it anyway.

I used the EVP prime on the LC blue finishing pad to allow me to repeatedly jewel and burnish the clearcoat to a very wet, deep finish. What the EVP does in addition to lubricating your pad is disperse heat. On the makita i wash polishing at about 1400rpm max but I was not limited to how long i could work the product. The EVP allows you virtually unlimited work time of most polishes. I kept burnishing down the finish till I got 900rpm and then I did some last slow passes.

The results of an extra 3hrs of jeweling the paint was very rewarding. I managed to bring out a deeper, wetter looking finish before even applying the LSP.

Here are some post polishing shots after jeweling and an IPA wipedown





The hood, defect free under the infratech



No LSP yet





The sun came out for a few minutes so I brought the car out after polishing, again a no LSP finish is shown here





The plastic undr the winshield was treated with Gloss It TRV, the trim by the windows was treated with 1Z gummi pledge. Exhaust was cleaned using Noxon





I brought the car back in for the finishing tocuhes including LSP application.

[dsms]

The LSP combo of choice was the following:

2 coats of Gloss Finish applied by hand (cured 15mins each)
1 coat of Gloss It Concourso Polish by hand (cured 30mins)

While the LSP's were curing I went on to clean the glass, trim and dress the tires etc.

Here is the Signature tire gloss soaking into the rubber while gloss finish cures





Tires dressing fully soaked in and lightly wiped off, the flash gives it some more shine but in the next pics you will see how it looks in daylight, very natural



Doing my final walk around I spotted some dried polish in the front grill so I took out my little detail swab...







Now for the afters...

Finished













The depth and clarity came out very nicely, the hood had one of the most glassy reflections I have seen yet











Of course the sun was no longer but the finish still popped under the clouds











Heres the tire dressing in natural lighting











Last one...



As always thank your for letting me share my work with you, hope you enjoyed! :

[Boosted Pinky]

Looks Great. Can you link to where you purchased the light.

That body style STi is really growing one me!

GREAT JOB!

[ajnavo61490]

great job

im liking that tire dressing!! nice low gloss finish!

[kei169]

Great!!!!
What kind of wax do u put on top?

[tdekany]

one of your best one yet.

[widyhs]

Nice work. Taht blakc really popped under the sun. The effect looks veyr much like it had a sealant on it, not the nromal glow but sharp clarity and depth. Do you experience any micromarring using the makita on flat black.

[Evolution IX]

Damn sick work, where are you located?

[t-bird]

"MAN" That is ONE SWEET LOOKING RIDE
And great JOB to i had to put my sunglasses on just to LOOK at it

[Moutee]

You did that car justice. Awesome work!

[MBenz]

Great work. The black on that STI looks amazing. It reminds me a lot of the look on that black m5 you posted a while back.