Final Touch
New member
I'd heard about this car coming to New Zealand about 6 months ago and we've been eagerly anticipating it's arrival. With only 77 of them worldwide I think our wee country is pretty fortunate to have one come here.
Aston's as everyone knows have great paint but they seldom arrive from the factory looking their best and this to my surprise was no exception. It was fairly well covered with the ususal dry/dull spots, buffer trails and swirls etc... although this one was covered in hideous water spotting/etching that took quite a bit of removing.
I really want to apologise for the quality of the photo's due to the appaling lighting and my Iphone seems to have a smudged lens that I didn't notice till loading them up just now.
There's not really any before shots unfortunately but it was pretty shocking for what is a NZ$2,500,000 car.
I was pretty shocked by the softness of the clearcoat, I've polished a lot of Astons and they're pretty easy to marr but this was ridiculous. I made the mistake of wiping a small area of dust with the back of my finger on arrival and it left 3 distinct scratch marks in the clear. This was going to be an enjoyable challenge...
I couldn't bring myself to break out heavy pads and risk creating larger issues that I was already faced with so I opted for the Meguiars Yellow pad off a rotary with Meg's Diamond Cut & 105 where required as I've found that this seems to get a pretty safe removal without too much marring on soft clears. It takes longer but is comfortably safer.
The mini DA made it a lot easier to get deep into the tricky bits, Its the Meg's 4" yellow and it did a great job in there. Thankfully these areas were the cleanest areas on the whole car.
The G220 and our Makita Ordital did a great job of polishing afterwards, Again the Meg's yellow pads and 205 with about 1/2 a dozen new microfibres to ensure no marring. I've never kept a vehicle so clean as I worked my way around it.
This ones our Grant working with the G220.
Meg's Ultimate Wax seems to suit NZ contitions and we've been getting great results with it so this one was destined for several coats. I perfer the paste version, I'm certain it gives a deeper shine and smears less.
Engine Shot, We didn't need to do anything in here other than a quick spray wax along the carbon fibre etc... I figure it will get pretty hot in here so I doubt that waxing things up will offer much long term protection.
Interior was handled by the inhouse team and the focus is on keeping it natural although with just about everything Carbon fibre it's a pretty simple wipe over.
While I had the key in my hot little hand all day I wasn't privileged with driving it and was a few levels down in the secure area at the dealership so outdoor aftershots were impossible unfortunately especially with today being a beautiful day for it.
However...
It's a sexy rear end
Wing Mirrors are moulded directly into the doors
All in all a pretty busy day and a priviledge to work on such an exclusive car. It's travelling to NZ's South Island (a solid days driving and a ferry ride in the middle) to live so I doub't I'll get to be the guy who maintains the finish. To be honest though - with that soft clearcoat I don't envy the dude who gets to do it.
Thanks for reading.
Aston's as everyone knows have great paint but they seldom arrive from the factory looking their best and this to my surprise was no exception. It was fairly well covered with the ususal dry/dull spots, buffer trails and swirls etc... although this one was covered in hideous water spotting/etching that took quite a bit of removing.
I really want to apologise for the quality of the photo's due to the appaling lighting and my Iphone seems to have a smudged lens that I didn't notice till loading them up just now.
There's not really any before shots unfortunately but it was pretty shocking for what is a NZ$2,500,000 car.
I was pretty shocked by the softness of the clearcoat, I've polished a lot of Astons and they're pretty easy to marr but this was ridiculous. I made the mistake of wiping a small area of dust with the back of my finger on arrival and it left 3 distinct scratch marks in the clear. This was going to be an enjoyable challenge...
I couldn't bring myself to break out heavy pads and risk creating larger issues that I was already faced with so I opted for the Meguiars Yellow pad off a rotary with Meg's Diamond Cut & 105 where required as I've found that this seems to get a pretty safe removal without too much marring on soft clears. It takes longer but is comfortably safer.
The mini DA made it a lot easier to get deep into the tricky bits, Its the Meg's 4" yellow and it did a great job in there. Thankfully these areas were the cleanest areas on the whole car.
The G220 and our Makita Ordital did a great job of polishing afterwards, Again the Meg's yellow pads and 205 with about 1/2 a dozen new microfibres to ensure no marring. I've never kept a vehicle so clean as I worked my way around it.
This ones our Grant working with the G220.
Meg's Ultimate Wax seems to suit NZ contitions and we've been getting great results with it so this one was destined for several coats. I perfer the paste version, I'm certain it gives a deeper shine and smears less.
Engine Shot, We didn't need to do anything in here other than a quick spray wax along the carbon fibre etc... I figure it will get pretty hot in here so I doubt that waxing things up will offer much long term protection.
Interior was handled by the inhouse team and the focus is on keeping it natural although with just about everything Carbon fibre it's a pretty simple wipe over.
While I had the key in my hot little hand all day I wasn't privileged with driving it and was a few levels down in the secure area at the dealership so outdoor aftershots were impossible unfortunately especially with today being a beautiful day for it.
However...
It's a sexy rear end
Wing Mirrors are moulded directly into the doors
All in all a pretty busy day and a priviledge to work on such an exclusive car. It's travelling to NZ's South Island (a solid days driving and a ferry ride in the middle) to live so I doub't I'll get to be the guy who maintains the finish. To be honest though - with that soft clearcoat I don't envy the dude who gets to do it.
Thanks for reading.
