ScoobyNet.com - Subaru Enthusiast Forum - This one needed over 10 hours of rotary work alone...

This one kept Clark busy from Monday through to this afternoon. By far the longest job yet for him, and the most challenging...

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Well, this car made me earn my wages thats for sure!

The owner contacted me on one of the Audi Forums last month saying he wanted the full works on his car as he wanted it ready for the up and coming show season. He also said not to worry too much about the wheels as they are just his winter ones and some new ones were on the way anyways :)

Here's the car on arrival:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3f.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3b.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3a.jpg

I took nearly 2 hours to wash and clay the car as it was VERY rough, despite having come from the body shop not too long ago. The owner told me what areas had been re-sprayed which were the majority of the car bar the roof. He also told me where the bodywork had been done and i immediately began to worry as i know this particular body shop have big ovens that they bake the cars in once painted so i knew the paint could well be very hard indeed....

Anyways, the car was put inside and i taped it up and then inspected the condition of the paint under the halogens. I was expecting the usual rotary holograms, which there were plenty of, but there were also some very bad scratches on just about every panel and the paint was generally pretty fecked. Swirls and cob-webbing were not going to be the biggest problem in this detail thats for sure!

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3x.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3w.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3v.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3p.jpg

Next step was to take paint readings. The car in general was showing the usual 200-280 microns associated with a re-spray, the bonnet was 120 average so i assumed it must have been a new panel as the owner told me it was part of the car that had been re-sprayed (he later confirmed that it was a new bonnet :)) I got a shock reading on one piece of the car though:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3l.jpg

I figured i hadnt held the probe down on the paint properly so took another reading but this only confirmed there was a very low spot on the near side rear arch, a 2 or 3 square cm area averaging 55 microns :eek: Needless to say this got taped up and I HD Cleansed it 4 times once the polishing stage had been done.

To try and tackle the defects i went with the stronger of the 2 finishing polishes with the rotary @1500rpm, the paint just laughed at me with this so i stepped up to the compound @1700rpm and a polishing pad and this had a pretty good effect. Although to get a result i was happy with most areas needed at least 3 hits, with the roof and bonnet needing 4! This paint was without a doubt the hardest paint ive ever come across and it was mentally challenging as well as physically, its quite soul destroying having to go at the same section up to 3 or 4 times lol!

All in, nearly 10 hours of solid machine polishing was needed before I was happy. I eventually had to give up at leaving a couple of random scratches that just werent going to come out.

Top of tailgate before:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS32.jpg

top of tailgate after:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS33.jpg

N/S Wing before:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3m.jpg

N/S Wing after:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3q.jpg

Holograms on A-Pillar before:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3j.jpg

Holograms on A-Pillar after:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3g.jpg

The car was then final polished with the least aggressive of finishing polishes and a finishing pad @1200rpm's.

After that I then HD Cleansed all the paint and glass, and applied Zymol Vintage to all paint and exterior platsics/rubbers, buffed off and then highlighted the leading edges of the cars panels.

Whilst any remaining oils rose to the surface I applied sealant to the alloys, dressed the tyres, (arches were dressed outside after the wash stage), detailed the interior and fed the leather with Zymol Treat.

Exhaust tips were also polished:

before:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3i.jpg

after:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3k.jpg

Once that was done the car received a final wipe down with Zymol Field Glaze to remove any oils and smears :cool:

And here's the afters:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3c.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS35.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS34.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3u.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3t.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3n.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS31.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3z.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3y.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3s.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3r.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3e.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3d.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...k_VTR/CS3o.jpg

Total work time was 16 hours and it felt like a hell of a long detail purely just because of the length of time needed to correct the paint, but it goes to show that its all in the preparation as I was extremely happy with the end result, as was the owner who has now signed up to a monthly maintainance contract :thumb: