2009 Aston Martin DB9 polishing information

I

imported_moorfan

New member
Hello all,

I recently took delivery of this car and began my detailing process. I found relatively little information on the 'net about paint characteristics of this vehicle other than with older AM's the paint is "soft".



I can now tell you that nothing is further from the truth. I thought I would just post here my findings so that any other detailers can use it for reference.

The hood, doors and rear quarter panels are aluminum. The front fenders, bumpers, and skirts are plastic/composite and the trunk lid appears to be fiberglass composite.



Paint inspection showed numerous deep DA sanding scratch trails likely from the factory, and occasional RIDS. Paint thickness readings on the metal surfaces ranged from 140-200 microns, with a few low spots of 110-115 microns. It looked like it may have been polished before as some of the scratches had jeweled edges but had not been removed.



My goal was to correct the finish 99% and then heavily opti-coat the vehicle, while never inducing any wash-related marring in the future! :D



This is the hardest paint I've ever polished, and I have owned Mercedes/BMW/Audis. On the metal panels:

Menzerna SIP plus Hydrotech Cyan on a PC---no correction after three cycles

Menzerna SIP plus Hydrotech Cyan on a rotary---no real correction after two cycles

Menzerna SIP plus PFW on a rotary----very minimal correction after two cycles

Menzerna PowerGloss plus PFW on rotary---- minimal correction after two cycles, polish a ***** to work with.



The combo that has finally succeeded for me is M105 on a PFW with the rotary. My first time using M105 but its an impressive compound and far easier to work with than I thought it would be based on past reading. Deeper RIDS required wetsanding with 2000-->3000 followed by M105, but two to three passes with this combo and the defects were all gone. There was a fine haze left behind but that polishes out easily with 106FA on a tangerine hydrotech. Will jewel with 85RD prior to coating.



The plastic panels have not nearly the defects that the metal ones do but I envision that SIP plus cyan on a rotary should be fine for correction. Going to be much more conservative with them since I can't use PTG readings to guide me there.



Regards,

Pete
 
Make sense. Menzerna is pretty weak in general and is far from the 1st choice I'd reach for to correct defects.



M105 is a great product. the only downfall is that it dusts alot and typically has short work times.



What color is your car??
 
I used to take care of an AM weekly before I moved out to the west coast. It was a one off yellow, non metallic. Very thick paint and was a dream to work on. BUT, you never know what you will run into.
 
David Fermani said:
Make sense. Menzerna is pretty weak in general and is far from the 1st choice I'd reach for to correct defects.



M105 is a great product. the only downfall is that it dusts alot and typically has short work times.



What color is your car??
Click to expand...



The car is titanium silver. Interestingly, M105 still required multiple passes on surbuf pads (which I am now in love with) to correct deeper defects. I used the DA for that, but only because of the surbuf pads and their impressive cut. I ended up going to the rotary for finishing polish (106FA on hydrotech tangerine) and will now do jeweling with the rotary, crimson hydrotech, and PO85rd.

I did find that correction was easier on the nonmetallic sections of the car. What was frustrating was the sheer unpredictability of the thickness of the paint...the passenger door was 122 microns at the top of the door and fell to 96 microns towards the bottom. Needless to say, no major correction was achievable there (thankfully not much was needed!).

It just makes no sense to me to paint a high status car with thin paint. It's just unfair. Some doosh before you scratches it up and then you can barely correct! Makes me want to get a new BMW which comes with totally uniform paint and no scratches from the factory (at least my prior new ones have) and then needs just a clay, jeweling, and sealing.
 
Thomas - I remember that Yellow AM you had in your avatar!!



I know that AM has some major paint struggles at one time or another. A body shop I worked closely with in S. Florida (1st Class European) was one of their top tiered direct vendors that they used to sort out certain paint issues. They knew these cars better than anyone and use to vent about how challenging they were at the factory level.
 
That is the one! I also took care of another one (DB9) in chocolate brown metallic for about a year, that was also very easy to work with. I guess I was very lucky.



David Fermani said:
Thomas - I remember that Yellow AM you had in your avatar!!



I know that AM has some major paint struggles at one time or another. A body shop I worked closely with in S. Florida (1st Class European) was one of their top tiered direct vendors that they used to sort out certain paint issues. They knew these cars better than anyone and use to vent about how challenging they were at the factory level.
Click to expand...
 
I've corrected about 4-5 AMs. All metallic except for a solid black. All corrected pretty easy. The 09s I have done had pigtails on most of the panels, the newer models are better but still have some.
 
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