*In my best Lewis Black voice* The horror! The absolute f***ing horror!!!
Ok, this paint was pretty painful to look at. Though it was 2013, it had been officially "dealership-afied". They got their hands on it and did God knows what and it ended up being THAT. Of course, they wouldn't pay for it to be fixed.
The owner however had seen our work and heard good things from other FR-S owners in Az and wanted to get his ride laid out before the FT86Az get together this past Sunday. Initially we had booked a new C7 for this pas weekend, but with this being a special circumstance, the C7 owner was kind enough to allow us to push his detail out an extra week so we could fit this FR-S in before the show.
Thursday night this baby was dropped off...the owner let us know that HE knew how bad the paint was, but trusted we'd work our magic on it. So Friday morning we got up and started crackin' away at this baby. In some situations (like this) where we KNOW we are going to re-wash the car later, we have opted to skip doing the tires/wheels etc in the beginning and instead just do a rinseless wash to get the paint ready. This car all in all was not very dirty (the owner washed it weekly), so we did an ONR wash on it, pre-spraying each panel with APC+ to help break down any wax/sealant that may have been on it.
The reason being is, we are going to be slinging compound dust all over anyway and we are going to need to do a full re-wash of the car after polishing as well.
After that we clayed it....it wasn't too bad but we did get some extra grime off:
Then it was time to document the condition of the paint...this hurt...as Richard Pryor would say..."It was foullll...with a capital....foullll"
I personally used a different 4 letter F word when i saw it but, this is a family forum
FFFFFFF!!!!
Sorry...i caught myself...but man it was bad!
Hood made me cry for sure:
Front Quarters:
Near gas chamber:
There were several very deep ones:
This one was nasty:
Scotch Brite anyone?
So ok, we have concluded that this was going to be a hand full lol. We have recently been having very good luck with Megs foam and M105/101/100/D300 (depending upon paint and condition)....so we got out the foam, hooked up the Rupes 21 and went to work.
I went with M105 and then would add some D300 here n' there to help cut down on the dusting and make it easier to remove (i was low on Megs 100).
Everyone wants to know the REAL secret to swirl free paint...well...here it is;
Thats right...sun block. We polish with sun block. Ok I'm lying of course, Dani had initially gotten this bottle for sun block lol, but we needed something to use as a 2nd bottle for our D300 so...it was never used for sun block..though it did make for a funny picture.
The results after cutting and polishing were stellar. Side by side, this didn't even look like the same paint:
It had gone from scratched up grey to insanely black.
Some areas there were some RIDS left over...this was one of the deep ones documented above....even after compounding it still wanted to hang around:
A spritz of water and re-working the area with some added pressure cleared it out though. Dani's term for this detail was "Murdified!" As in "We murdified the swirls!" lol
The same was pretty much true of the rest of the car. The paint looked great after just compounding, but after polishing...it looked like it was ready to roll out - and we hadn't even coated it.
By the end of the first night the entire car was compounded except the front bumper (which Dani would get to the following day) and I was able to get a few of the larger panels polished.
The morning of day two, when we popped the garage door open...we saw this:
This was the rear bumper just after compounding...and it was just glowing. Not even polished, or coated, but already it was looking SO much better. Very inspiring.
The trunk looked pretty nice as well:
As mentioned before, Dani started by attacking the front bumper, but a bit differently this time. See, we had a new member of the family...our new Rupes LHR75. Awesome little machine...the power was very very surprising...and much less bulky than the PC we had been using for small pad work.
Looks like she's going to perform surgery doesn't it hahaha. (Maybe one day?) Well, to a degree she was...these bumpers have all kinds of small areas.
While she knocked out the bumper, i polished out the other panels with a finishing pad and 205. Paint was popping all over the place!
After it was all complete we pulled it out for a thorough wash. Tires, rims and wheel wells were cleaned first...then it was time for a full wash.Foam her up!
Sudsy...
Dani drying it...this shot was amazing...this was NAKED paint...no coating, no wax, no sealant...just bare paint..and look at the reflection:
It was so awesome I had to get an even closer shot.
This is why i kind of chuckle a bit when people see one of the cars we did and say "Wow what kind of wax do you use!"....the wax or coating or whatever is like icing on the cake...it definitely adds depth/gloss and protection...but if you really want paint to glow, you have to properly polish it first.
Another "naked" paint shot:
The roof was crazy:
We pulled it back in and then started prepping for CQuartz FINEST. An Eraser wipe down was done on all the paint as well as the wheel faces and plastic trim.
Dani went around and dressed the tires and wheel wells and applied Finest to the wheels:
A tedious job but they GLOWED when she was done...I'll show you that in a bit.
I was busy applying the first coat of finest onto the paint:
There it is, the first coat curing.
I was at the back of the car carefully making sure all the tight spots...like the spoiler, were coated fully:
The drivers side setting with Finest:
Dani applied Finest to all the wheels, then went around and took it off:
The owner opted for the exterior plastic to be coated as well...so that too was taken care of.
After the 2nd coat was applied and then removed, we pulled it out to do a walk around and do the final touches. Door jambs, windows....exhaust tips!
Dani had the pleasure of touching up the jambs:
Remember i said the wheels glowed..well...they really did glow:
The first tip got finished up while Dani was snapping some after pics:
Those nasty swirls on the QP..gone:
The ones on the hood....gone:
Near the gas chamber...gone:
the trunk sparkled:
