2013 Scion FR-S New Car Prep /w Opti-Coat

C. Charles Hahn

CCH Auto Appearance, LLC
The owner of this Firestorm 2013 Scion FR-S contacted me prior to taking delivery of his new vehicle looking for a quality prep detail and Opti-Coat installation. I advised him to make sure the dealer did not wash or “detail” the car to ensure swirls and scratches which would require correction weren’t instilled in the paint. Luckily, when he took delivery of the vehicle, the dealer had obliged and left him with fairly pristine paint. A few days later he made the 2.5-hour drive to Lansing from Cadillac, Michigan for the detail to be completed. Since the vehicle arrived only lightly soiled, I will skip the “before” shots and move right along to the work in progress.



As the car arrived, it had a total of 280 miles on the odometer, and against the owner’s wishes had been turned into a billboard for the dealership:



FRSOdometer.jpg




Billboard.jpg




The interior was in basically immaculate condition already, with only a bit of vacuuming required:



InteriorBefore.jpg




SeatBefore.jpg




After interior fabric protection was applied, the result was fully dialed-in:



InteriorAfter.jpg




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The engine bay was also basically immaculate, requiring only a quick wipe-down of the Toyota-Subaru collaborated 4-cylinder D4S boxer engine:



FRS_Engine.jpg




And yes, this SCION (which takes its inspiration largely from the AE86 Corolla) was actually built by Subaru, as evidenced by panel stampings on the front fenders:



SubaruStamping.jpg




86Boxer.jpg




Finally, the Trunk was also vacuumed, and more fabric protection was applied:



Trunk2.jpg




Next, the car was raised with a jack in order to remove, clean, and coat the wheels and wheel wells with Opti-Coat:



Suspension1.jpg




WheelBefore.jpg




FenderLinerBefore.jpg




FenderLinerAfter.jpg




Once the tires were dressed with Premium Custom Detailing’s Tuned Performance Tire and Trim Gel, the wheels were mounted back on the car:



RearWheel.jpg




After washing the car (using the Garry Dean Wash Method) and lightly claying with Clay Magic Blue, all trim was masked off to protect it while polishing to enhance gloss with HD POLISH:



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Only a handful of small defects were worthy of documentation, including a couple deep scratches on the rear bumper cover, and a small chip on the passenger door edge (unfortunately, I was unable to obtain touch-up to repair the chip):



Defect1.jpg




PaintChip.jpg




The defects on the rear bumper turned out to be extremely deep; I was able to significantly reduce, but not completely remove them even by wet sanding with 1500 and 3000 grit papers:



DefectReduced.jpg




After polishing was complete and the vehicle was re-cleaned using CarPro Eraser, Optimum Opti-Coat was installed to all paint, glass, and trim. The result was outstanding gloss, depth, and wetness, along with long lasting protection of the vehicle’s exterior:



FRSReflection.jpg




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Although I had only limited sun to work with, I did manage to capture two shots, which are probably my favorites of the set because of the unique lighting effect as the sun just barely peeks over the trees on the horizon:



SunShot1.jpg




SunShot2.jpg




Off into the sunset, another happy customer heads home:



HappyCustomer.jpg




Thanks for looking!
 
Shame that scratch wouldn't come completely out or that it was even there on a brand new car. Paint looks really good in the after shots!
 
BigAl3 said:
nice job charles, can't beat red or black vehicles when they are done right...



Thanks Al! I really love that particular red, too. HD Polish really impressed me with how well it amped up the gloss.



Scottwax said:
Shame that scratch wouldn't come completely out or that it was even there on a brand new car. Paint looks really good in the after shots!



Thanks Scott; I was quite disappointed about how deep that scratch was. Unfortunately from what the owners told me it was delivered from the dealer with both that and the paint chip already there, and supposedly it takes almost two weeks for the dealers to order in touch-up. Since this was done on a Saturday, my PBE Jobber wasn't open so I couldn't get any mixed either.
 
Great job Charlie! I hope these 86's keep rolling in, their owners seem to really care about the appearance of their cars.
 
Deep Gloss Auto Salon said:
Great work Charlie!



Thanks Jason!



Alexshimshimhae said:
man happy that the dealership didn't touch the cars paint--wish they did the same for my girlfriend's hyundai...sigh



but beautiful work!



Thanks Alex!



I always tell people who contact me and haven't taken delivery of new cars yet to instruct their dealers to not lay a finger on the paint; thus far my experience has been that most will listen if you bark up the right tree (even if that means alerting the sales manager).



mikenap said:
Great job Charlie! I hope these 86's keep rolling in, their owners seem to really care about the appearance of their cars.



Thanks Mike! I agree, these 86es are really nice to work on. I have a theory about why so many of these owners are focused on appearance care:



1) The car is "flashy/aggressive" in design, and meant to appeal to buyers who want to garner a bit of attention on the road. Actually, that's pretty much what Scion is about as a brand -- image/lifestyle cars.

2) For many of these owners, it may very well be the first "new" car they've purchased, so they are more aware of taking care of it than if it were just another used car (as was the case for the owner of this one).
 
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