So the last detail of the season for myself and Vince (v|nsan|ty) worked on a Subaru BRZ in the gorgeous Crystal Black Silica. When the vehicle first arrived it was clear the paint was in dire need of attention as heavy swirling was present throughout the vehicle in addition to some VERY deep rids which required wet sanding as we will later see. A combination of improper washing and mishaps resulted in a 12 hour paint correction to restore the paint and a total time of 16 hours to bring the vehicle back to life. The subject: Initial inspection: Plenty of insect stains: Here are two areas which required wet-sanding due to the depth of the imperfections: To begin, the wheels were cleaned with Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner: Exhaust was cleaned with 1z W99, Before: After: We treated the insect casualties with 1z W99 in 1:5 ratio: Then foamed and washed the vehicle using Citrus Wash n Clear and Maxi suds: With the vehicle dried we brought it in for a Wolf's de-ironizer treatment before doing a final wash: The vehicle was heavily contaminated resulting in the paint feeling very rough, aggressive clay had to be used: The paint correction: Because the defects present in the paint were very deep, Meguiar's D300 (and in some areas, M101) and MF Cutting Pads were used, while the paint was refined with M205 on a LC Green Pad. Hood before: Fender before: After: Passenger door before: After: 50/50 of the driver side door: Quarter panel before: After: Wetsanding: The next few photos are of the areas which contained defects too deep to be corrected in a timely manner with compounding, 2500 grit sandpaper was utilized to assist in the levelling of the paint: After: Before: Wetsanded: After: Here's a photo of the defects again upon arrival: The end product: With the paint correction completed, it was time to wipe down the vehicle with IPA prior to the application of Opti-Coat: Because it was approaching sunset when we began opti-coating, we looked for high spots using LED's and Halogens: The next morning we took the vehicle out for a final inspection for high spots and a photoshoot: Thanks for reading!
Another excellent write up Adam! This vehicle was a pleasure to work on. Previously we had opti coated a FRS and now we have had an opportunity to do a BRZ. Paint was actually much harder than anticipated seeing as how badly swirled the overall vehicle was. Needless to say, it looks substantially different than before the correction.
Awesome restore guys! I wonder if the owner decided to one day try out the scrub brush at the local wand wash lol
Nice save on those deep scratch. Where did you buy the small spray bottle for your Wolf decon? Is that a foam spray head for your autoglym cwc?
Thanks for all the compliments guys! Haha actually the owner admitted to using the supplied brush at the local car washes. Needless to say, we instructed him on how to do the 2 bucket method and to never use that brush again. The small spray bottle was purchased locally at Autoobsessed. The trigger sprayer on the bottle of CWC is just a regular head, non-foaming. It can either dispense product in a spray or stream form. I have the Griot's "Foaming Finest Sprayer" and used it for a while with CWC. It produces very impressive foam but eats up product like crazy. I didn't find it made much difference in terms of cleaning power even though it clung to wheels longer, it just looked cool.
I think that's the worst condition FRS/BRZ I've seen to date, and I've done at least 40 of those things by now. Nice work guys!
