2013 Nissan GT-R - Polished and Coated with CQuartz Finest

**zmcgovern45** · 11-21-2013, 06:52 PM

The owner of this car had just bought the vehicle a couple of weeks before contacting me. `He was looking for the best way to protect the paint and make the vehicle easier to maintain - the clear choice was a long lasting paint coating. `This vehicle had only 4,500 miles on it and the paint was in very good condition. `There were minor swirls and scratches throughout, however the horizontal surfaces (hood, roof, and trunk) all had etched water spots as well. `The horizontal areas received a 2 step correction, since the defects on those surfaces were more severe. `The rest of the vehicle required only a 1 step polishing process. `There were some more severe scratches that were spot corrected with a 3" MF Cutting Pad and M105/D300 mix prior to polishing - a couple of spots required wet sanding, too. `
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All in all, the paint was 90-95% perfect. `There were a few RIDS that remained, of course, as it is simply not reasonable to find/correct every single defect. `After the paint was prepped, CQuartz Finest was chosen as the means of protection. `The coating was excellent to work with, even though it was ~85 degrees and very humid during application. `The coating proved to be extremely glossy, and I can`t wait to use it again.
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Process
Wheels: Sonax Full Effect agitated with various brushes and wheel woolies
Tires: Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner and Tuf Shine Tire Brush
Foam Pre-Soak: CG Citrus Wash & Gloss via DI Foam Canon & Karcher X-Series 2000PSI Pressure Washer
Wash: CG Citrus Wash & Gloss w/ Sheepskin Wash Mitt (2 bucket method)
Iron Removal: Iron X
Dry: DI Waffle Weave Towels
Clay: DI Fine Grade Clay (spot claying only)
Paint Thickness Readings Taken
Tape: 3M Blue Painters Tape

Paint Correction:
<ul>[*]Spot Correction (RIDS) - 2000 & 2500 Grit Wetsand Paper (when needed) followed by 3" MF Cutting Pads w/ D300/M105 Mix[*]Horizontal Surfaces - FG400 on Orange LC 5.5" Pads followed by Sonax Perfect Finish on White LC 5.5" Pads via Rupes LHR21ES & 3"/4" Pads via PC7424XP[*]Vertical Surfaces - FG400 on white LC 5.5" pads via Rupes LHR21ES & 3"/4" Pads Via PC7424XP[/list]

Foam: CG Citrus Wash via Glimour Foamaster II`

Wash: CG Citrus Wash w/ Sheepskin wash mitt (2 bucket method)
Dry: DI Waffle Weave Towels
Paint Wipedown Prep: CarPro Eraser (x2)
Coating (LSP): CQuartz Finest
Wheel Polish: M205 via yellow foam applicator by hand
Tires: Optimum Opti Bond Tire Gel (2 coats)
Exhaust Tips: CG Metal Polish + Protection via MF Towel by hand
Matte CF Spoiler & Trim: CG Meticulous Matte Detail Spray
Glass: Meguiar`s D120
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Before
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One of the first things I noticed on the car when it showed up for delivery was the water spots on the paint. `This is always a red flag to me because I`ve come to learn that the chances of etched water spots are very high. `
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There was also bug splatter on the front bumper and lower part of the hood. `This is also a red flag because chances are there will be some etched bug marks as well.

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These little dots covered a portion of the vehicle and I was worried it might be over spray, but they ended up washing off (thankfully!)

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The exhaust tips were in pretty good shape already.

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The car had a nice set of matte black wheels... NOT. `They were just extremely dirty. `You can see the thick layer of dirt and grime compared to the true color of the wheel on the areas where I have swiped my finger on the metal.`

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The brakes also needed some attention. `They had a layer of dirt on them as well.

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During
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As always, I started with the wheels and tires. `Sonax Full Effect wheel cleaner was sprayed liberally on the wheel. The chemical starts as a bright green and turns purple as it starts to react with the dirt and brake dust that cover the wheel.

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Here you can see the color change as the wheel cleaner begins to work and the dirt and contaminates start to flow from the wheel.

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After agitating with various brushes and wheel woolies, you can see the amount of grime that is coming off of the wheels.

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The wheels cleaned up quite nicely.

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After the wheels and tires were cleaned up, the car was foamed with a heavy mixture of Citrus Wash followed by a thorough two bucket wash. `This helps to remove any existing sealant or wax that may be on the surface of the vehicle.

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Once the paint was totally clean and decontaminated, I was able to really inspect it to see what I had to work with. `As I had expected, bug etchings and water marks were both present. `There were also light swirls and scratches throughout, but overall the car was in great shape (as it should be for such low mileage and 2013 model year). `The defects were rather hard to capture with the camera, so unfortunately there will be no dramatic 50/50 shots in this write-up... but I suppose that is a good thing because it means the car was in pretty darn good shape.

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There were some pretty bad water spots under the area where the side of the spoiler covers. You can imagine this area is often missed when drying the car because it is difficult to reach unless you open the trunk to lift the spoiler out of the way.

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There were some areas with more moderate to heavy defects that needed to be spot treated prior to polishing, and even some rather severe scratches that required wet sanding.

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One thing I was not impressed with was the rather severe orange peel on this finish. For such an expensive car, I would expect Nissan to produce a higher quality finish than this. This orange peel really limits the amount of gloss that can be achieved.

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I began by correcting the hood... you can see the water spots very easily under direct lighting.`

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`The horizontal surfaces were all affected by water spots, which were actually quite deep, and required a 2 step process to achieve the nearly flawless finish the owner was after.

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The front of the car had a few heavy scratches.

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After spot correcting with 3" MF pads and M105/D300 mix only one heavy scratch remained... the scratch was then sanded with 2000 grit and it still was not completely gone, so I decided it was not worth chasing.

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After I completed the hood, I pulled it out into the sun to check my work. `The sun is the true test since that will be a realistic condition that the owner will see the vehicle in every day... `Looks pretty good to me!

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And a shot of the polished hood back in the garage. `A true miror like shine.

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Door after correction. I`d say correction was around 95%. Some small RIDS (random isolated deeper scratches) remained, of course.

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Deep scratch on door before spot correction.

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and after correction

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**zmcgovern45** · 11-21-2013, 06:52 PM

This was one of the worst scratches. `It required sanding with 2500 grit followed by cutting and polishing.

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After sanding.

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And after polishing... the scratch is gone!

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After the car was fully corrected, it was washed again and then wiped down with CarPro Eraser to help remove any remaining polishing oils which may prevent the coating from curing. Then the paint was inspected prior to beginning the coating installation. Looks pretty awesome!

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Look at those sun stars on the hood! `Great shot thanks to the low, setting sun.

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CQuartz Finest was applied and left to cure overnight. `I pulled the car out the next morning to check the results before continuing with finishing some of the minor details. As expected - A Gorgeous, deep, dark shine.

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(One of my favorite shots)

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After
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What an awesome car. `I had a good time working on this one and was sad to see it leave. `I had spent a little over 12 hours on this project and was very pleased with the results! `
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