This Infiniti G37X –S was brought in for a complete detail and needed quite a bit of work done to get the exterior looking like new again. The owner had recently purchased the car and was trying his best to maintain the finish properly, but had a mishap at the local self-serve car wash. With roughly 2,000 miles on the odometer, the owner had washed it using the wash brush at the car wash, which scratched the paint pretty badly. After the car was completely washed, the owner stepped back and realized what he had done and was a little upset to say the least. Winter in New England is pretty nasty and can really trash a vehicles paint due to all of the sand & salt that accumulates on the finish. My guess is that the brush used at the car wash was so filled with sand and salt that it was the cause of the damage. After the owner realized what had happened, he went straight to the owner of the car wash to see what could be done to repair the damage caused. The owner of the car wash offered to have their in-house detailer buff the car, but the owner was a little skeptical because of Infiniti’s infamous “Scratch Shield Paint”. Supposedly, this “Scratch Shield Paint” contains a self-healing, heat-activated, resin-compound that expands to “fill” fine scratches, making them disappear. Some people actually say that it works, while others say it is a marketing gimmick from Infiniti. I personally think it’s B.S, but the paint was definitely different than any other paint I have worked on, so who knows? Infiniti recommends to “Use Only Approved Refinish Materials”, yet they don’t tell you what these “approved materials” are… After doing some research for a quality detailer in the area, the owner came across some of my work online and gave me a call to set up an appointment. We scheduled a time and discussed pricing, etc.. In addition to the detail, the owner requested to have a clear-bra installed to the front end, which I told him would be a smart move, seeing how prone this particular paint is to stone chips, etc... Here is what the car looked like upon arrival… As you can see, the paint was covered in sand & salt due to the lovely weather and needed a thorough prep before performing any paint correction. I pulled it in the shop and got right to work. To remove as much salt & sand as possible, I gave the car a thorough rinse using hot water. All tires, wheels and wheel wells were cleaned with Optimum Power Clean using a variety of brushes. I soaked the car in foam using a foam gun to loosen as much contamination as possible to make sure no additional wash-induced marring took place. I let the foam dwell on the finish for several minutes to break down the contaminants. The car was given another thorough rinse using hot water. I washed the exterior and degreased the paint to remove any prior wax or sealants that may have been present. After the paint was washed, clayed and degreased (no more beading) The exterior was dried and all cracks were purged with compressed air to remove all traces of water and make sure no sand particles were hiding. All door, hood and trunk jambs were wiped clean with a microfiber towel. Once I was done prepping the car for polishing, I decided to get the interior out of the way so I could concentrate on the exterior. Here is what it looked like before. As you can see, dressing was applied unevenly to all interior surfaces. I typically don’t like any sort of interior dressing, but since the owner had attempted to do so, I used a variety of different products to give the interior surfaces an even, low sheen look. I mixed a few products together to get the sheen I wanted, which worked well and gave the interior a nice semi-gloss look. Interior after… Once the interior was wrapped up, I jumped right on the exterior. Below is what kind of condition the paint was in… As you can see, the paint was pretty trashed and was going to require lots and lots of polishing to get it looking like new again. After testing multiple pad & product combinations, it was clear that this was NOT going to be an easy job! I quickly realized that there wasn’t any particular combo that worked fast. Each panel required several passes in order to even make a dent. After polishing each panel for a decent amount of time, it looked great, but the damage would then slowly return close to it’s original state. The heat generated from polishing was causing the elastic resin coating to swell, which was “filling’ the defects, but when it cooled off, the damage reappeared. The only thing that was going to get this paint back into shape was TIME, lots and lots of TIME! I continued to polish which seemed like forever and was only able to complete the compounding stage to about a third of the car before realizing that this was going to be a very very, very long and time-consuming detail. At this point, I called for backup and had Ryan join in the fun. Here we are hard at work!!! The pictures below show the difference between the drivers side doors after about 4 or 5 passes with various products such as 3M Extra Cut Compound, Menzerna Super Intensive Polish and Menzerna Power Finish using a combination of both Tangerine and Cyan Hydro-Tech foam pads via rotary (no final polishing). The difference between the drivers side front door and fender after the same process as above (no final polishing). The difference between the passenger side doors (no final polishing). The difference between the passenger side front door and fender (no final polishing). After about two days of polishing, we were able to get all of the heavy correction work done and performed the final polishing to the areas being clear-bra’d the following day. Menzerna PO106fa was used with a flat black LC foam pad via rotary for the final polishing these areas. The clear-bra installers arrived early the next morning and did a great job installing a standard kit to the front nose, which includes the hood, fenders, bumper and side mirrors. After the kit was installed, we continued on and completed all of the final polishing before applying the LSP. Blackfire Wet Diamond Sealant was used as a base and topped with Collinite 915 for added looks and durability. All tires and wheel wells were dressed with Kar Kraft tire dressing. As you may or may not be able to see in the pictures, there was a slight haze left on the finish after removing the Collinite. Normally I would give the car a quick wash to remove the haze, but it was raining outside when the owner came to pick it up, so it would have been a waste of time. The complete front nose was covered in film, which was virtually invisible as you can see from the pictures below. Here are the final shots… Some cool shots with my new lens… Thanks for looking!
What an amazing turn around! Great work! BTW I love the fact that you guys put a company tag on the car for photos. I think that adds a nice touch, andmight even help with advertising. Great idea!
That looks outstanding, amazing what a little patients can pay out in the end. I bet you have a customer for life now!
Great work...as always Using the general public, more importantly pro detailer's in place of proper R&D seems to be a trend. Now that their R&D departments (see para above) have ascertained this paint system is not practical they have abandoned it....
Great, great job on the Infiniti! Did you by chance try using a DA for the correction? From my research, it works better on that paint. I've done a lot of Infinitis but have yet to get one with that paint.
Thanks again everyone!! richy- I was thinking the same thing, but the PC didn't even put a dent in it... The Rotary was the only thing that was working.
Rick...Good to know. Thanks for sharing with me that you tried it. I'm sure not looking forward to working on my 1st one.
great job. question, me and my friend doing 09 370Z and i have feeling it has this kinda coating couse we fixed waterspots in one area and pulled it outside and they came back wtf. im sure its this coating. where is the label for scratch shield located? http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/Black Infiniti G37X -S/FebDetails453.jpg
