Phoenix Detail - 2013 SHO Taurus Partial Repaint, Water Spots - CQuartz Finest

**MusicMan** · 11-15-2013, 01:25 AM

This was our first SHO Taurus. I honestly wasn`t aware they had put the SHO back into production! But being a former Taurus owner (our little 96` we worked out of for quite a few years...miss it still, 200k miles and never let us down!) this was a sort of sentimental detail for us. The bonus however was, these new SHO`s really do look bad ass...and apparently can haul ass too from what the owner told us. It`s quite the sleeper.

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The first thing the owner noticed was quite a few straight line scratches down the side:

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These were pretty obvious and since he is a car guy and likes his rides to look good, this was more than he could handle lol. What he didnt know until we hit the paint with our LED, was all the flat panels were covered with water spots:

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Hood, roof, trunk and spoiler were all covered with them. He had seen some, but when the light hit it he was pretty surprised at just how many there were.`

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The roof also had one spot that looked like a bird bomb etching:

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The owner knew the front bumper and quarter panel on the drivers side had been repainted, but was suspicious of the drivers door as well. Once we got it washed and started doing some paint readings however, it turned out the ENTIRE drivers side had been repainted. All other panels measured around 4 Mils in thickness, give or take. The whole drivers side on the other hand was measuring between 7-9 mils in thickness. That let us know there had been some repainting done...the other red flag was well..there were sanding marks lol

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Yeah those were kinda nasty looking.

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So were those....

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There were a few fish eyes as well:

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And there was also a very small drip on the edge of one of the doors:

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All in all though, we had seen much worse.`

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We opted to try out Megs softbuff foam cutting pad, Megs M100 and of course our beloved Rupes 21.

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The results were great. This combo not only knocked out the swirls, but also removed the water spots and sanding marks rather quickly. The hood DID have about 3 or 4 clusters of RIDS, and one rather long deep scratch that was left. Dani however hooked up the 3" pad and some M101 and removed those no problem.

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Those nasty looking marks that were there:

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Cleaned up very nicely:

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And while the passenger side was absent of sanding marks, it did have its fair share of good ole swirls (what car doesnt?)

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But the Megs combo eliminated those as well:

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The first day we were able to take care of all the compounding and about 2/3`s of the polishing. The second day we finished up the final polishing. The paint just looked better and better...

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We followed the compounding up with Megs 205 polish and double teamed it. Dani with her Rupes 15 and me with the 21. The paint really started to pop...

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The color in fords Tuxedo Black is really really intense once it has been polished up properly. Dani worked most of the small areas (pillars, vertical part of the trunk, around door handles etc) with the 3" pad as well. I finished up polishing the roof with the 21.`

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After the polishing was done, we pulled it out so we could re-wash it. This has pretty much become standard practice now on jobs where a lot of compounding is done. It may seem to take longer but it really does a better job removing the compound dust from between body lines, door jambs and so on. Plus it helps remove most of the left over polishing oils as well.

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No matter how many times we use it...the foam cannon is just awesome. It really feels like it is impossible to swirl the paint with THAT much soap on the surface.

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Next we pulled it into the garage, did a full Eraser wipe down on all the paint (just to make SURE it was properly prepped for CQuartz Finest) and started coating.

It seems lately we have been doing quite a few LARGE cars. This was no exception (though thank goodness we have an FR-S sitting in the garage right now to work on tomorrow lol). It took a good hour just to apply the first coat of Finest, then it had to be removed and a second coat was applied.`

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Dani in the mean time went around and applied Finest to the wheels (they were mostly black paint so it looked REALLY deep and glossy with finest on them). Then of course she dressed the tires, wiped the jambs and dressed the exterior plastic.`

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After all that, i was about ready to remove my second coat of Finest from the paint, so she followed behind me with a second towel to be sure no high-spots were left on the paint.`

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Then we cleaned the glass and prepped it to have Flyby30 glass coating applied to it. Once that was finished, we did a polish on the exhaust tips, put the the CQuartz warranty sticker on the door jamb...and then pulled it out for some beauty shots.

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It was actually a bit overcast that day, so no direct sun shots, but `we did a few more LED pictures.

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This nasty mess:

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Was no more:

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The A pillars turned out very nice:

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The door handles and all around them looked super glossy and the metal flake was really popping:

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SHO!

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Vertical part of the trunk was `looking awesome as well:

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Thats the fun part, getting right around tight spots, like near emblems. Thats why having small pads is a must.

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Tail and head lights were polished as well...forgot to get a before picture of them, but the tail lights were quite bad, but came out very nice:

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And of course, when you talk about Windows and Wheels...and CQuartz Finest...you talk about GLOSS:

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This was a sexy shot of the hood...the reflections just sort of rolled over it:

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Always love when you cant tell the difference between the glass and the paint:

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The cool part about this paint is, with light on it...you get an insane about of pop from the metal flake, but in the shade, it looks deep and glossy and black:

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Cloud reflections were very nice...the sun was setting so it added a bit of color:

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NICE!

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The wheels looked great as well:

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I really liked this shot:

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And this one too :

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Bit closer to the wheels:

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And last but not least:

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Ready and waiting for her owner...

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We will get to see it again in a couple of weeks for its free follow up wash. We like to offer that on coating jobs, just to be sure the coating bonded correctly and all is in good shape.`

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The owner was very pleased when he picked it up, but made it a point to send us a text message later that night once he got home letting us know it looked even better in the garage! That always makes you feel good. He also said he`d show off our work to his neighbor who happens to have a couple of nice classics, including a Chevelle which I`d love to get my hands on. Red Chevelle polished up and coated with Finest...yes...that would be an awesome write-up!

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The other thing that was great is, from talking to the owner we could already tell he was very particular about taking care of his ride, but he still questioned us about any other tips/techniques he could use to make sure the paint stays in excellent shape. I LOVE when that happens. It just makes you feel like all the work you just did is going to last for a good long while.

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Thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work, much appreciated!

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Well, thats it...our first SHO...

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