A Crystal Grey Metallic Subaru WRX Wagon

G35stilez

G35stilez

Ari Gold
I worked on this one today for one of my fellow co-workers at school. She's fulltime, so more like a boss to me, but anyways :grinno: . Very nice car...It just reaffirms my near future move to a Subaru. It's very quick, handles well, has a great road feel, and everything flows well throughout the interior/exterior. The only problem I had with it was the lack of throttle response, aka turbo lag. That will be fixed though :laugh: .


I was just doing an exterior detail on this one. The car has just shy of 12,000 on the clock and is well maintained. There were a few light scratches here and there and I'd say the swirling was "moderate". As many know, Subaru paint is a bit soft relative to other manufacturers, so it was rather easy to correct. My final processes were:


-Pressure Wash
-Pretreat with FK1 Ultimate Cleaner cut 10:1 on everything (thanks John!)
-Wash with TOL's Bubble Bath
-Tires/Wells were cleaned with TOL's Tire Cleaner cut 50/50
-Wheels were cleaned with TOL's Wheel Wash
-Meguiar's Aggressive Clay with TOL's Bubble Bath as lube
-Pressure Wash and WW Dry

-Optimum Compound via rotary and LC Green Light Cutting Pad @ 1200 rpm (removed all swirls and left light hologramming)
-Optimum Polish via rotary and LC Black Finishing Pad @ 1200 rpm (removed all haze)
-FK1 #218 by hand (hazed for 15 mins)
-OCW by hand

-Poorboy's Trim Restorer on all plastic/rubber trim
-Meguiar's Hyper Dressing cut 3:1 in wells
-Turbo Wax Tire Gel on tires
-OCW on wheels
-FK1 #425 on glass
-Flitz on exhaust


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Swirl free :)

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Nice glow/flake pop

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Reflective properties are worth noting as well. Say hello to Buckley :wavey


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I loved the wetness of this one.


Total Working Time - A hair over 3 hours


Questions/Comments/Advice?
 
nice job i noticed that subaru's have crazy flake in their paint. i think it's cool that dogs are used in your final inspection they have come long way from being seeing eye dogs :lol: :wink: .
 
Just noticing a lot of trim on that ride....roof-rack and around the mirrors, etc. Just wondering...do you typically tape off all trim when going at it with the rotary?or PC for that matter? Sweet job BTW. I'm a Subaru fan as well...do you like the new look of the 06?
 
Wow thats amazing. Great Job. How do u manage all that in 3hrs? You must have a really set system. Also did u do any interior?
 
sean do u care to share u're system to which u manage 3 hours on most details? my exteriors take 3 hours and thats with a rotory.
 
joyriide1113 said:
sean do u care to share u're system to which u manage 3 hours on most details? my exteriors take 3 hours and thats with a rotory.
Click to expand...

Yes I would really like to know. I cant get cars done in under 4hrs with just a simple interior and wax job.
 
Sean,



Did you rub baby oil on her car? (LOL). The detail looks very nice. How would you compare #218 to pink wax? IMO, they look very close.





Have you tried mixing OPT polish/compound on a polish pad for the light/moderate stuff? I've had pretty good luck with it. 9 times out of 10 I get light marring or hazing with the green pad.



You better get the detailing out of your system now. The Farmer's Almanac says it's going to be an extreme winter in the NE.

I see the product collection lined up in the garage -and on the shelves. Where does Liz put her stuff? (LOL)
 
Great job, Sean. Do you use Flitz on Buckley's license, too???

The Subaru is great bang for the buck. A few tweaks and a chip and you'll give your Dad a good run for his money. Saw some great mods for it at SEMA.
 
The paint looks so wet in those pics, the first one is the wettest. Very nice, especially for silver. BTW nice choice of turbo wax tire gel.
 
maybe sean will share his secret for a little bottle of "joys secret super duper wax"....


interested sean?


no but seriuosuly, tell us, if not then just tell ME
 
Thank you all for the kind words :).

Hawaii: My next unit, period :).

4x4: No interior on this one, but yes I do interiors.

John: I agree, very close to Pink Wax. I was *very* happy with the results of #218.

On the OP/OC, I have not. I only used the green pad because my yellow one is pretty chewed up. I plan on ordering some new pads tomorrow and that will hopefully eliminate me using the green again. It's nice to have as back up though :).

Liz keeps her stuff throughout the house and closets. She has a little shelf space on the otherside of the garage. I'm sure you can see the plant behind Buckley...not mine ;).

Craig: No kidding ;).
 
Here is what I do on exteriors to be more efficient than I have in the past.

First, pressure wash the vehicle spending a little extra time on the lower parts of the vehicle, wheels, tires, and wells. Then, mix up a bucket of wash. I only use a single bucket as I am polishing the vehicle out. I don't worry about a little induced marring. Then, I pretreat the whole vehicle with a light dilution of a SAFE APC. Currently, this is FK1's Ultimate Cleaner cut 10:1. I apply it to all but wheels, tires and wells.

Then, I go around and generously and spray TOL's Tire cleaner cut 50/50 on the tires and in the wells and allow to soak. I then wash the entire car top to bottom as normal with 1 bucket, 1 mitt. I work pretty quickly here. From there I spray on my wheel cleaner to all 4 and run back to the first wheel. I use a Bug Scrubber pad from TOL to clean the tires/wells on 1 side, then flip to scrub the wheels. Do this for all four + exhaust too, then pressure wash.

Mix up a new bucket of solution and generously apply the solution to each panel and clay with aggressive clay (works faster). This should only take 15 or so minutes on a pretty bad vehicle. Pressure wash and clean the stuff up.

I will spend about 5-10 minutes cleaning up and setting up my polishing stuff so by that time, the vehicle is somewhat dry. Dry any remaining water with a WW MF and move to polishing. With compounding, I will cut the car in half and apply beads of compound to half the car (respective to the area working on). I will do the entire half in one shot, then remove, and finally do the same on the other side. BIG TIME SAVER HERE. I do the same after with polishing, but usually split the car in 1/3's or 1/4's. Once done, clean up and prep for LSP.

Apply dressing to wells generously, then apply LSP to entire vehicle. When drying (most of mine need dry time), go around with PB Trim Restorer and treat all rubber, vinyl, and plastic trim. Don't worry a ton about getting it on the paint. I usually use an MF applicator. Then, polish any chrome/aluminum trim/exhaust. Then, go around and dress all of the tires (if spray on dressing, do before applying the LSP). I then go over my work and repeat the trim and tire stages to insure uniform coverage. Finally, I will mist OCW on each panel and remove the LSP.

Lastly, take FK1 #425 and clean windows with new MF towel. Go around vehicle to inspect.


This is more or less what I did on this detail. It varies a bit on each, but you should get the idea.

Hope this helps.
 
thank u sir,

i just copied and pasted this information and plan on making a collaberation with a few of my own touches. then i will laminate and hang on my garage.
 
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