2012 Corvette Grand Sport. Polished and waxed it this past November. True to his word, the owner had me out again 3 months later. We didn't have much sun (even though it was forecast) that day but I was still able to get out the vast majority of swirls and defects. He wanted to see if we could get it even closer to perfect this time. Plan has been to sneak up on the swirls while keeping the car protected (he travels between Dallas and Austin), guess its almost like making payments on a correction! Less sticker shock I guess.
The car still looked really good. Most of what was left was very light so I did two steps on the paint again, its probably 95% plus corrected now. He wants to have me go over it one more time in a couple months, get it as close to perfection as possible, then apply Optimum Coating. He already ordered some ONR Wash and Wax and plans to maintain it that way, then have me come out every once in a while to detail the interior and inspect the paint.
ONR wash-no need to clay this time, paint was glass smooth
Meguiars #105 using a 5" Meguiars MF cutting pad and my Meguiars G110 v2 DA Polisher
Optimum Hyper Polish using a 6" Optimum MF cutting pad and my G110
Optimum Opti-Seal to protect
ONR wash and wax at 32:1 to clean glass
Armor All on tires/fenderwells
The car definitely looks more orange in the full sun at different angles but my camera also seems to struggle with reddish paints so it really isn't as orange as it looks in some pictures.
So, so close to perfect now! Just a few stray deep RIDS, ordering Meguiars #101 soon, hope that knocks out what very little is left.
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2011 Subaru Imprezza STi. Another sticky clear Subie. The owners main concern was all the marring, scratches and spider swirls in the paint. Knowing the issues I had with the last one with nothing wanting to wipe off, I started to experiment. The hood was by far the worst part of the car, Optimum Hyper Compound was up first. Great job removing swirls and scratches, wouldn't wipe off. Meguiars #105, again, great at removing defects, wouldn't wipe off. 3D HD Cut. Again, removed defects, wouldn't wipe off. HD Polish, soft paint so it was removing defects. Wouldn't wipe off. Optimum Hyper Polish. Removed defects, wiped off with effort, enough I was afraid of marring the finish. HD Speed. Didn't really remove much but it wiped off a bit easier than OHP. Optimum G-P-S. Removed more than HD Speed, not quite as much as OHP. But the paint clarity was excellent and it was wiping off pretty easily-switching to foam slightly reduced the cut but it was then a breeze to wipe off. All the testing on the hood got everything out but it ate up a ton of time, neither of which my customer nor I really had today. So I went with G-P-S on the whole car, got out 75-80% of the defects. Hopefully when we go back out in 5-6 months, I can come up with something that is aggressive enough to remove whats left (at least the hood looks great!) and that I can also wipe off. Wish me luck!
The owner was really happy with how it came out, said the improvement was very noticeable. He was also happy I charged him for what actually worked and didn't add in the hour it took to figure it out. Didn't think it would be fair to him to do that anyway.
ONR wash, Opti-Raser mild to clay
ONR and Optimum Power Clean cut 3:1 to clean the wheels
Optimum G-P-S using a Meguiars yellow foam polishing pad and my G110 v2
Collinite 476 Wax
ONR wash and wax at 32:1 to clean glass
Armor All on tires/fenderwells
The car still looked really good. Most of what was left was very light so I did two steps on the paint again, its probably 95% plus corrected now. He wants to have me go over it one more time in a couple months, get it as close to perfection as possible, then apply Optimum Coating. He already ordered some ONR Wash and Wax and plans to maintain it that way, then have me come out every once in a while to detail the interior and inspect the paint.
ONR wash-no need to clay this time, paint was glass smooth
Meguiars #105 using a 5" Meguiars MF cutting pad and my Meguiars G110 v2 DA Polisher
Optimum Hyper Polish using a 6" Optimum MF cutting pad and my G110
Optimum Opti-Seal to protect
ONR wash and wax at 32:1 to clean glass
Armor All on tires/fenderwells
The car definitely looks more orange in the full sun at different angles but my camera also seems to struggle with reddish paints so it really isn't as orange as it looks in some pictures.
So, so close to perfect now! Just a few stray deep RIDS, ordering Meguiars #101 soon, hope that knocks out what very little is left.
----------------
2011 Subaru Imprezza STi. Another sticky clear Subie. The owners main concern was all the marring, scratches and spider swirls in the paint. Knowing the issues I had with the last one with nothing wanting to wipe off, I started to experiment. The hood was by far the worst part of the car, Optimum Hyper Compound was up first. Great job removing swirls and scratches, wouldn't wipe off. Meguiars #105, again, great at removing defects, wouldn't wipe off. 3D HD Cut. Again, removed defects, wouldn't wipe off. HD Polish, soft paint so it was removing defects. Wouldn't wipe off. Optimum Hyper Polish. Removed defects, wiped off with effort, enough I was afraid of marring the finish. HD Speed. Didn't really remove much but it wiped off a bit easier than OHP. Optimum G-P-S. Removed more than HD Speed, not quite as much as OHP. But the paint clarity was excellent and it was wiping off pretty easily-switching to foam slightly reduced the cut but it was then a breeze to wipe off. All the testing on the hood got everything out but it ate up a ton of time, neither of which my customer nor I really had today. So I went with G-P-S on the whole car, got out 75-80% of the defects. Hopefully when we go back out in 5-6 months, I can come up with something that is aggressive enough to remove whats left (at least the hood looks great!) and that I can also wipe off. Wish me luck!
The owner was really happy with how it came out, said the improvement was very noticeable. He was also happy I charged him for what actually worked and didn't add in the hour it took to figure it out. Didn't think it would be fair to him to do that anyway.
ONR wash, Opti-Raser mild to clay
ONR and Optimum Power Clean cut 3:1 to clean the wheels
Optimum G-P-S using a Meguiars yellow foam polishing pad and my G110 v2
Collinite 476 Wax
ONR wash and wax at 32:1 to clean glass
Armor All on tires/fenderwells
