AutoLavish Presents A Sinister Maserati Grand Turismo Coated with C1 - Featuring Photography by Steven Pham

[jlb85]

AutoLavish Presents A Sinister Maserati Grand Turismo Coated with C1 - Featuring Photography by Steven Pham

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The owner of this vehicle is someone we've done previous work for on other cars, but came to us this time to have his daily driver refreshed. With over 32k miles, I was surprised by the overall nice condition of the vehicle. The interior was in over-all good shape aside from the leather needing extra attention, and a few Random Isolated Deep Scratches; the paint looked better than average as a whole.
We completed the work on this vehicle over two days, with the first day focusing on the vehicle's exterior. The biggest concern we had on day one was to restore clarity in the finish: marring, swirls, and some hack-quality buffing meant that the true color and brilliance wasn't showing through.

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A dirty engine bay shouldn't affect performance, but we all know a clean car rides smoother and pulls harder ;)

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Dirty exhaust tips take away from a clean appearance, especially when they're highly visible.

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The wheels were what I would first start on. As normal with guys that love their cars; the faces weren't all too bad, but the inside of the wheel and calipers hadn't been properly cleaned likely ever.

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P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel paired with a Swissvax wheel brush (for lug nuts, center caps, and the calipers), an EZ Detail brush (for the inside of the wheel and behind the spokes), and a soft brush for the wheel faces and spokes worked very well to eliminate brake dust and grime.

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In the mean time, Jacob began on the engine bay using Meguiar's All Purpose Cleaner Plus and a boar's hair brush.

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Rinse and flush!

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Prior to being washed, the license plate was removed. There was an unexpected amount of grime build up around the screws and plate that would later be cleaned using All Purpose Cleaner and Klasse All In One.

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A mixture of Chemical Guy's Citrus Wash and Chemical Guy's Grime Reaper was foamed onto the car and allowed to dwell to remove loose contamination and to soften any remaining grime. It was then rinsed off, and finally re-foamed for the actual wash.

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After being washed, the vehicle was clayed to remove surface contamination. Typical contamination problems on the lower portions, behind the wheels, and the rear-end were encountered and removed.

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Before we got began rinsing and drying the vehicle, I wanted to attend to the nasty looking key holes. If left untouched, they'd be a sore spot that would stick out. P21S Total Auto Wash, Q-Tips, and a tooth-brush worked wonders.

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It's important to be cautious with those dangerous bristles around the paint, but nothing else will effectively clean the contact patch that the key touches.

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[jlb85]

(MGT continued)


With that speed bump out of the way, the Maserati could be rinsed and dried, and then taped off for paint correction.
After testing a few combinations, we settled on an amazing combo that allowed 95% correction with optimal clarity in two steps.

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With white balance corrected on the camera:

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Brinkmann Dual LED:

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Even the paint protection film would get some light polishing to add clarity.

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The engine received Meguiar's Hyper Dressing, while the engine bay cover would get a light coat of 303 Aerospace Protectant.

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Final wash, rinse, and dry to prep the car for the Last Step Product to be used.

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Ready to go!

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Normal sealant wouldn't give the owner the type of durability he was seeking, and as we explained his options, the choice became clear: a nano-coating with durability that would be measured in seasons or years - not months like others. Having Optimum Opti-Coat , C-Quartz, and the GTechniq line-up allowed for multiple choices, and we were excited to have the opportunity to use GTechniq's C1 coating.

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Application went smoothly; we took our time to make sure everything was covered correctly and completely buffed off. Because we didn't have any lacquer thinner on hand to remove the coating if we made a mistake, we had to make sure things it was applied correctly the first time. All exterior painted surfaces received the coating, though we chose Aquapel for the windshield to have something to compare beading on in the future.

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Finished with the exterior portion of the detail, the Maserati sat tight in the heated garage allowing the coating to cure.

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Now she looks beautiful down to the exhaust tips.

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Several days later, we came back to finish the Gran Turismo's interior. The work began with a vacuuming of the entire interior, and because most of the hard surfaces were lightly dirty, 1Z Cockpit Premium was used to clean, dress, and protect the majority of the interior surfaces. The leather was cleaned with Leather Master Strong Cleaner and protected with Leather Master Protection Creme. Interior windows were cleaned with Klasse All In One. Cup holder inserts were cleaned with All Purpose Cleaner before being wiped down with 1Z Cockpit Premium. Painted portions surrounding the doors were wiped down and protected with Sonus Acrylic Glanz.

Dusty.
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Ready to begin vacuuming.
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Klasse AIO on the inside of the windows.
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Wiped Clean.
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Leather shouldn't be shiny or oily looking.
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50/50 on the leather:
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You can see the majority of the seat is cleaned, but the upper right portion of the area that is sat on is still shiny from dirt and oil build-up.

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[jlb85]

(MGT continued)


As we put the finishing touches on the interior, photographer Steven Pham showed up to lend us his artistic talents. The video he took captured the final exterior wash in prep for the photo shoot, as well as the beading and water sheeting capabilities of the C1 coating. Although it was a very cloudy 40 degree day, he did an outstanding job capturing the beauty that this car has.

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YouTube - Nikon D7000: Maserati Gran Turismo w. AutoLavish


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We'd like to give a big thank you to Steven Pham for taking the time on an ugly day to work his magic once again with us, and to the owner for allowing us to take this project to this level.
Thanks for taking a look at our work and we will post updates on this coating in the future :)
-AutoLavish Detailing: Jacob Bunyan and Marc Harris

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[LegacyGT]

Wow, and great photography!:xyxthumbs:

Care to share what correction method you used, or is that proprietary?

[SeaJay's]

Great work! Car came out awesome and the professional photos look like a Maserati commercial!

[BobbyG]

What a fantastic display of skill and art! Certainly a benchmark and guide for all to follow! :props:

[C. Charles Hahn]

Looks awesome as usual! This is the first I've heard of the Gtechniq product. How do you like it as compared to Opti-coat and Cquartz?

[jlb85]

Wow, and great photography!:xyxthumbs:

Care to share what correction method you used, or is that proprietary?

You should know we don't do proprietary, yet ;) I believe it was M205 on LC white under rotary (W66 backing plate) followed by 106FA on LC black under PC. It got rid of almost everything, just a few deep but correctable scratches left. But with paint this silky I worry not having a uniform material removal rate more than correcting 100%, as it shows slightly. So I would rather keep it at M205 or lighter in these cases.




Great work! Car came out awesome and the professional photos look like a Maserati commercial!

Thanks! And I totally agree. Pham is the man, his talent with the camera is incredible. The day was looking very bad, and he made it look just perfectly in tune with the car, nice and menacing.




What a fantastic display of skill and art! Certainly a benchmark and guide for all to follow! :props:

I'm humbled! Thanks Bobby!




Looks awesome as usual! This is the first I've heard of the Gtechniq product. How do you like it as compared to Opti-coat and Cquartz?

Thanks, Charlie! The GTechniq stuff is very nice. So far so good. We have a few more of their stuff to play around with, but we have been too busy closing up the season. We have been doing some stuff with all 3 brands, and will be posting up more info as we figure it out.

[kronos]

Your work work along with Pham's photography skills is almost enough to hire you guys to detail my ride. Too bay my skills with a PC are unsurpassed (in my household that is).

[LegacyGT]

Thanks! And I totally agree. Pham is the man, his talent with the camera is incredible. The day was looking very bad, and he made it look just perfectly in tune with the car, nice and menacing.

Photography question - it looks like Pham was doing split toning with the outdoor shots, do you know if this is how the pictures were processed? He has some serious gear :)

[Rooddy]

Man, that is awesome, you guys do fantastic work. GREAT JOB!!

[Mike T]

Simply amazing!

[ROMEO]

Photography question - it looks like Pham was doing split toning with the outdoor shots, do you know if this is how the pictures were processed? He has some serious gear :)

It seems to me like with those outdoor shots are HDR's that works very good for car shots, specially when it is dark...

[jpegs13]

One word for the detail and the photography, WOW

[Audi X2]

Stunning work and the true definition of detailing.