espelirS2K

I just finished this car over the weekend. The owner just bought it one year used last wednesday-- and he's doing the right thing. Starting off right with a comprehensive detail, getting minor chips touched up, and then a full clear bra.

So I was part 1 of the process. It's been on and off raining here so the car was a little dirty:











Started off with the wheels. Autoglym custom wheel cleaner and various brushes were used:





Moved on to the engine bay. Sprayed with P21S TAW and agitated with various brushes:



After that the car was washed with CG Citrus Wash/Clear and the two-bucket-method. While the car was wet, I clayed it with the aid of ONR as lube.

Here's some pics of the condition of the paint before bring it in.

A little aside about Daytona Grey. First, it's about the most gorgeous color I've seen. The charcoal color, in combination with the multi-colored flakes in the pearl really add a whole different level to a standard grey metallic. So of course, the paint didn't show swirls.. and honestly, for being 1 year old and having 15,000 miles on it. The paint was in INCREDIBLE condition. Mostly I did the polish for a gloss-enhancer, but some areas required some compounding to get out some RIDS. The idea for this car was 98%+ correction.

So here's the condition of the paint after washing and claying:







So I started polishing. I taped up the hood for a 50/50 but the difference was negligible since, like I stated earlier it was a gloss-enhancing polish. And most of the RIDS were on the verticle panels.

So the process I chose was an Uber Green pad, and 3M UK Extra Fine compound to get rid of the clay marring, and also it added a nice gloss to the paint. Some areas required fast cut plus and a 3M Green compounding pad.

Here's a neat shot:



Under brinkman and halogens:





Some RIDS by the gas cap, and also one big scratch:







After two passes of 3M UK Green + Fast Cut Plus, and one pass of Uber Green, and EFC:







20 different lights!



Tail lights before:





after:





Another in-action shot:



Some deep scuffs on the rocker:



After:





Once the polishing was done, I put on a coat of Blackfire AFPP and let it set before buffing it off and calling it a night.

The next morning I added a layer of Swissvax Concorso:



Some odds and ends that weren't pictured... the wheels, glass, and aluminum trim were all polished with werkstat prime, and sealed with JS 109. The tires were dressed with Megs HD. Exhaust tips polished with P21S.

No before pics on interior--but it was in really good condition. It was cleaned with various products, notably the leather was cleaned with Gloss-It Leather cleaner, and was conditioned with Leatherique Pristine Clean. Dash was wiped with 1Z Cockpit Premium and conditioned with 303 Vinyl Protectant.

And a slew the final afters:

























Don't know why all my sun shots came out like this:







Total time was a little more than 10 hours

Thanks for looking!

As always, C/C welcome!



Aaron

DA JeLLie

Very nice job. You know metallic silvers can actually be great. I have my fit, and in the sunset it looks amazing, in the bright sun the metallic pops, and best of all defects are hard to notice. But that does become a PITA when you are trying to remove all of the defects.

For your sun pictures did you try metering for an area that wasn't the bright sun, then lock it in, and just focus one the area you wanted?

TheDarkKnight

nice clean up job!