2011 Mustang GT-Feynlab Self Heal

[richy]

Even though this is the third car I`ve done with Feynlab Self Heal Lite, he was the first to book the product for his car. He bought it used on a cloudy day and when he saw it in the sun afterward, he was very discouraged. I could not get all of the swirls out of the paint. This is probably the biggest challenge I`ve faced in quite some time. More on that later. This was also going to be a wheels-off detail, so I wanted it to look its best.

It was a cloudy day also when it got dropped off. Here`s how it looked:

First up was to clean the wheels. The barrels and faces were first cleaned with BAM wheel acid, followed by Zep Citrus. The tires were cleaned with Zep 505 and the wells with LATA.

Next up was to be foamed. I had a mix featuring HD Pink soap:

The car was washed with Pink, including the top. Next it was brought inside and clayed old school using Riccardo blue. Here`s what I was looking at for every single panel:

Now it was time to do the wheels. The barrels were given an intensive cleaning with Tarminator followed by DG Squeaky Clean followed by CarPro Eraser. The barrels were then coated with DLux. The calipers and faces were cleaned with DG Squeaky Clean and then coated with Feynlab Wheel & Caliper coating. The plastic wells were coated with DLux too. The tires were shot with Opti Bond from my spray gun. Each wheel was torqued back to spec. Here`s some shots during the process:


I hate this style of Brembo; I wish they had a decent finish to them!

As far as the paint goes, I used several aggressive combos that just weren`t cutting it (pun intended). Even my strongest, Chop Top wasn`t doing it in 3 or 4 passes. I really didn`t want to thin the paint out chasing scratches that went that deep. I used M100 with black wool + 3401 for the majority of the car, except CT where needed. TLC wasn`t as aggressive as M100 for this car. It took forever to compound out most of the marks. I did end up getting at least 90% out, but honestly I was hoping for better. I did 3 steps to ensure a glorious finish. Step 2 (especially after Chop Top) was a burgandy Megs pad + Reflect + 3401 and then the last was a LC white pad + M205 + 3401. The exhaust tips were hand polished with M205 + mf and then coated with Feynlab wheel coating.

The top was vacuumed aggressively and water proofed with DG 341. The trim was coated with DLux. The windshield was coated with Fly By Forte and the side and rear glass with Fly By 30.

The paint was coated with Self Heal Lite. Here it is getting its suntan:

Here it is all done:

Thanks for looking!

 

[xspwrstang]

Great work on a very neglected car and even though you feel it was only about "90%" corrected, I bet the customer felt like they were picking up a new car.

 

[WT Taggart]

I know how you feel sir. You work so hard and you still leave 10% on the table. Either way, I bet the owner was still thrill with the results. From the before to after pictures I was thrill, the paint popped and the exhaust look new, so what not to like. As always thanks for sharing and any other job well done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[imported_Booger]

Any tips or tricks to applying the coating or is it pretty much like other coatings?

 

[ShakingHorizons]

Richy,

I always look forward to your posts because they never let me down. I`m sure we have all been in the situation you were in.......hoping for 100% but knowing you are potentially going to cause harm even going after 95%. It is hard to have a customer leave when you aren`t 100% pleased, but a vast majority of the time we have MUCH higher expectations than the customer - hence the reason they bring us their vehicles and are willing to pay us for our time and skills.

Impressive work as always Richy - I look forward to your next submission!

 

[atgonzales]

Nicely done

 

[Ronkh]

Completely different car.

 

[richy]

Great work on a very neglected car and even though you feel it was only about "90%" corrected, I bet the customer felt like they were picking up a new car.

I know how you feel sir. You work so hard and you still leave 10% on the table. Either way, I bet the owner was still thrill with the results. From the before to after pictures I was thrill, the paint popped and the exhaust look new, so what not to like. As always thanks for sharing and any other job well done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Richy,

I always look forward to your posts because they never let me down. I`m sure we have all been in the situation you were in.......hoping for 100% but knowing you are potentially going to cause harm even going after 95%. It is hard to have a customer leave when you aren`t 100% pleased, but a vast majority of the time we have MUCH higher expectations than the customer - hence the reason they bring us their vehicles and are willing to pay us for our time and skills.

Impressive work as always Richy - I look forward to your next submission!

Thanks so much guys! That`s why I like posting here..people GET it. We are our own worse critics and it`s hard to take sometimes. It`s hard not to strive for perfection all the time. You`re right about what the customer thought too. Here`s what he put on my site with some very kind words:

"
Tony
6/19/2017 02:25:41 pm

I purchased this 6 year old car knowing it was kept outside and not given any particular attention in regards to maintaining the finish of the paint. When I took delivery of the car and got a good look at the paint under more ideal lighting conditions, I discovered the swirls and scratches were more severe than I initially remembered from my test drive.

Knowing it needed professional paint correction and wanting some sort of protective coating to prevent future damage I began researching options. I came across Rich`s website and read his blogs and saw the results he was able to achieve on previous projects. I met up with Rich, he assessed my car and was confident he could achieve a high level result. He went over all my options and I decided to go with the Fenylab self healing coating.

The results are stunning! Black paint is very unforgiving, but the depth of shine and smoothness of the paint has to be seen and felt to truly appreciate. The results are as close to perfect as you can reasonably expect a used car to be. Rich got out swirls and scratches I didn`t even think was possible.

Having a self healing coating gives me peace of mind that I can maintain the finish going forward without the extreme care and caution you would normally need when washing and drying a black car.

Thank you Rich, the result is far above my expectations!"

My site has a section called "Activity blog" and it`s where I post my most recent work and I ask the customers to leave a comment. They all do. It`s (a) gratifying and (b) is a great message to send to potential customers.

 

[richy]

Any tips or tricks to applying the coating or is it pretty much like other coatings?

This one is very different and there are a few different ways to do it. I like to leave it on so it bonds very well and then I use a leveling aid which makes removal easy. I have a few other tricks up my sleeve too, LOL.

Nicely done

Thanks muchly!

Completely different car.

Thank you Sir. Always appreciate your comments.