First Detail

[Irace86]

I bought the car used with 45k miles this last month. The paint overall had a lot of swirls consistent with taking the car to a car to a machine car wash. There were also a few spots with obvious scratches consistent with setting a bag or something on the car. And the front end was littered with rock and bug marks from the lady's morning commute through the countryside.

Here is a before pic. As you can see the car is so dirty the outline of the BRZ logo is not visible from when I removed the badge, so the car needed a wash from the winter rain:



After the car was washed well using a three bucket method the paint defects are more obvious. In fact, it was even easier to see the BRZ outline in the photo I took, and here is a shot of the swirls and scratches:







Then I took the car in the garage, and I used Meguiar's clay bar, spray and microfiber clothes to remove imperfections buried in the paint. There was a lot! Then I used a finishing polish, a DA polisher and microfiber cloths to remove the swirl marks. Some areas could definitely use more attention than I gave it, or a more abrasive polish, but because time was limited and this was a first detail, I just did a basic superficial polish. I followed that with Meguiar's carnauba wax with the DA polisher and microfiber cloths. After that I used a sheep skin pad on a DA buffer to just finish buffing anything the microfiber cloths left behind.

Here is a shot of that same area with the bad scratches, one of the hood (which was a bad area), one of the car from behind and one of the BRZ logo location that no longer has the outline:









Take the results with a grain of salt that these are night photos and day shots won't look quite as good, but overall I am happy with the results from a first detail. The paint is like silk to the touch.

[Irace86]

So after posting I decided to go outside and take a few shots in the light of day. The paint looks a million times better. The scratch marks still need a heavier compound and maybe as much as wet sanding, but they are far from obvious and are clearly reduced. The BRZ and Subaru emblem outlines are definitely gone; all that shows is the metallic paint reflections:

[humfrz]

Great job!

I thought I was looking into a mirror in this picture ...........


humfrz

[MuseChaser]

I don't like you. At all.

Just kidding... sort of. Looks great. REALLY great. Maybe it's me I don't like. As I said in another car waxing thread, I've never had the patience to go through all of those steps. I need to work on that.

Merry Christmas.

Barry

[Irace86]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

I don't like you. At all.

Just kidding... sort of. Looks great. REALLY great. Maybe it's me I don't like. As I said in another car waxing thread, I've never had the patience to go through all of those steps. I need to work on that.

Merry Christmas.

Barry

Haha, it was a lot of work but polishing and clay barring are not normal wash routines, or I would shoot myself in the head.