Detailed my 2005 sti
 

Finally got time to give my subaru a machine polish, something i have been meaning to do since i bought it six months ago!! Only had time to wax it previously, but the weekend just gone spent two days gutting it!

Before pictures:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2525.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2526.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2527.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2528.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2529.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2530.jpg


I will briefly describe the process for those that care! started by taking front wheels off, APC the arches, scrub and pressure wash. APC the alloys, then meguiars wheel brightner, then TARDIS, then dry, then 2 layers of poorboys wheel sealent, then megs tyre gel. Also took the oportunity to spray the wheel nuts satin black to match the wheels!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2531.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2532.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2536.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2537.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2539.jpg

After:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2542.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2543.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2544.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2545.jpg



Snow foamed the car, left to dwell for 10 mins, then pressure washed off, then two bucket wash with sheepskin mitt, rinse, then TARDIS to lower areas (quite a bit of tar) then clean off, then clay with SONUS green (mild clay), then dry. Also whilst doing that, clean all door shuts, brief engine bay clean and pressure rinse.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2538.jpg

Front wheels back on, and thats where we leave day one! no polishing done yet! started at about 11.30am and finished at 4.30pm

Spot the difference:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2546.jpg

Good picture of my two giant rabbits just to break up the thread!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2540.jpg

Day two, back wheels off and same process as fronts!

only noticed after the event that i must have had the exposure set wrong on the camera as the swirl pictures didnt come out great, however i polished with megs #80, this removed 85% of the swirls and knocked out a lot of deeper marks. I wasnt going for 100% as this takes a lot longer time that i had, however appearance of paintwork dramatically improved, and looks good under the sun now!!

before: (only good one, this was typical for the whole car)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2547.jpg

After:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2549.jpg

flying car:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2550.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2551.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2552.jpg

after the polish, i snow foamed the car again, pressure rinse and redry to remove all the dust created by polishing. i then applied a layer of collinite 476, polished the glass, dusted and hovered the interior, polished the exahust (no pictures doh) and put the back wheels back on and lowered to the ground!

full afters:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2554.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2555.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2556.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2557.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2558.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2559.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2560.jpg

that was on sunday, took the car to oulton on tuesday, and then wednesday it rains, so some beading shots! :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2572.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2573.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2574.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...l/DSCN2575.jpg

thanks for looking, any comments welcome :)

Craigo

Wow it looks amazing mate, great job :thumb:

Very nice mate get them arches dressed to buddy

Superb mate, top job. Can I ask where you got your wheels and how much? They look great, didn't even think of TD Pro Race 1s!

And LOL @ the rabbits, they're quality!

cheers for the comments :)

The wheels were on the car when i got them, so cant help you there sorry! i think they are pro race 1.2's though.... :)

nice job there what machine did you use?

thanks, i have a hitachi rotary, same design as the makita rotaries :)

nice work mate...

:eek: wow ! can u do mine ???:rolleyes: lol

Looking good mate:thumb: Big difference in the wheels:cool:

excellent job cant beat a good detail:thumb:

Nice Clean Blobeye.......

dude, that looks amazing!
Cant wait to get my car on sat and give it the treatment :)

superb.

Good write up, great looking car and fantastic Bunny's :D

ah how did you find it did the polish ball up? or spread evenly im thinking of doing my mrs's

craig

if your technique is good with a rotary you shouldnt suffer much polish ball up, i dont get much anyway! :)

thanks for the nice comments guys :)

Nice work mate.

I've got some megs #83 and #80, must give it a try at some point.

Car looks mint, and the rabbits are cool - good couple of pies worth there:D

my technique's ok so far so i'll give it a bash and see what happens:thumb:

nice looking bus well done

nice job.feel free to bob round to my house anytime and give mine a good going over.:D

I hope you're on about your car.:D
Nice job BTW, that's a hell of an improvement from before.

Looks fantastic ............. now all you need is a front splitter! :thumb:

Great Job Mate. Looks Sweet!

Looking good, excellent job.

I think of all the subaru colours that blue is fantastic would love it on my classic ,done a really good job there and the little touches of spraying the nuts look great top job bud !!!

Looks very nice! Dedication went into that detail!

My advice wold be to do an IPA wipe down after the polish. Megs can be quite oily which means it's hard for the wax to 'stick' to the paint. An IPA wipedown gets rid of the oils from the polish and it leaves a perfectly clean surface to wax.

thanks for the comments, the car did have a front splitter, but i had a arguement with a kerb and have not got round to replacing it yet!