This weekend I had Project86 Optiguarded. Now some of you may be wondering why brand new paint would need paint correction?
What most people don't realize is that factory paint is far from perfect. In addition to the paint having issues from the factory most of the "detailers" that dealers use are hacks and do more damage than good when they "prep" your car for delivery.
Enjoy the write-up and pictures and look for the video to be posted soon.
The other reason I needed to have the correction, which is just an aggressive polish, is because it is required to do the Optiguard treatment. Optiguard is basically a liquid clear coat that can be applied by a professional detailer. The Optiguard dries within 30 minutes and is harder than your factory clear coat. This provides protection from scratches, chips, and anything else that would damage your paint. Sort of like a liquid clear bra, just not as hard as a clear bra. Since the FR-S was built and painted by Subaru it has the same "soft" paint that Subaru is known for and this extra protection is much-needed.
Additionally the Optiguard makes it so you never have to wax your car again. Since contaminants can't bond to the coating the car looks glossy all the time. To maintain the car you just need to wash it and quick detail it from time to time. I prefer using Optiguard to getting a clear bra because I don't like seeing the lines from the bra on the car.
When the detailer arrived we pulled Project86 in the garage and he got to work. The first step is washing the car.
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After the car was clean he got to work "cleaning the paint" with a speedy prep towel. This is just like clay barring the surface but the speedy prep towel is a little more aggressive so it may leave a slight haze. This was no big deal since he was going to polish the car.
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For those of you with FR-S or BRZ be aware that the little black strips on the roof pop out very easily and the paint under them is super thin. In the picture below you can see primer under them. Make sure to wax that or get some Optiguard on it to protect it.
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The next step was the "paint correction" or polishing. My car had a few brown spots in the paint, it looked like glue residue from the dealer plastic wrap. The detailer polished the entire surface with and orbital buffer and two different compounds. The damn thing looked like glass and any spots were gone.
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With the polishing done it was time to apply the Optiguard. It goes on sort of like a wax, but you don't buff it off with lots of pressure like you would wax. Instead he applied it with an applicator and then went over it and "knocked down" any high spots. If there was a high spot left you would see a patch of haze. The Optiguard goes over everything except the windows. With the car all done the last thing he did was to dress the tires.
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The finished product looks amazing, clean, super glossy and ultra-reflective. The car looks better than when it rolled off the show room floor. Right after I had the car done I was out doing some errands, trying to get to my 1,000 miles and out of the damn break in period. I got caught in an absolute downpour and figured there goes my detailed look. The rain stopped before I got home and when I pulled in the driveway you couldn't even tell the car had gotten wet.
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Get this done to your car, you will love the look and the ease of care it provides in addition to the protection.
There are more pics on my blog
www.jadecrew.com.
