Epic Review - 2006 Subaru Spring Detail

[LegacyGT]

Warning! This is a very long and involved article, almost as long and involved as the correction itself. You have been warned.

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Exhibition – 2006 Subaru Legacy GT, 86k daily driver.

Introduction:
It’s that time of year again, time for the spring full correction of my daily driver. I was determined this year to not end up sweating like a roasting pig in the heat and humidity, so I have been deliberately planning my correction around the weather to find a nice 60-75 degree day. Surprisingly it has actually been much too cold so far this spring, we have been experiencing unseasonably cold temperatures. Since the last time I corrected the Subaru, I have picked up a lot of new tools and products, so I decided to try and make an epic review out of the process, and did fairly well until I was exhausted. I also wanted to try something new – a time lapse video of the entire correction process which I think ended up being fantastic.

Correction Steps:
0.- Wash & strip existing LSP & Engine Cleaning
1.- Clay while still wet, using QD as lube
2.- Test Spot: determine polisher, compound, steps, pads etc.
3.- Polish
4.- Check work in sun, re-polish areas as necessary.
5.- Wash, strip polishing oils, remove polishing dust
6.- Paint Touch up
7.- Test LSPs
8.- Wax & Trim
9.- Engine Detail / Tires
10.- Touch up cracks, check over entire surface, correct any spots as necessary.
11.- Beauty shots / drive around town for the sole purpose of showing off a shiny ride.
12.- Time Lapse Video
13.- Weather Tech Mats
14.- Fin

Products used / Tested / Considered
0.- OPC 3:1
1.- APC+ 10:1
2.- Mothers Wheel Brush
3.- Daytona Speed Brushes (small/large)
4.- 1’’ Boar Hair brush
5.- Cobra Microfiber wash mitt
6.- 2x 5 gallon buckets with grit guards
7.- Dodo Supernatural shampoo
8.- Pinnacle Poly Clay
9.- FK425
10.- Kwazar Spray Bottles
11.- Weather Tech mats
12.- Flex PE14
13.- Flex 3401 VRG
14.- Orange CCS pad 6.5’’
15.- Orange Kompressor 6’’
16.- Flex Twisted Wool 6.5’’ pad
17.- Optimum Hyper Compund
18.- Optimum Hyper Polish
19.- Menzerna SIP
20.- Nylon Pad cleaning brush
21.- Fenix TK-10 Tactical LED flashlight and RCR123a rechargeable batteries
22.- Mothers Detailing Brush
23.- Dodo Double Wax
24.- Dodo Skull Candy
25.- Wolfgang Fuzion
26.- Pack Shack WW & Polishing towels
27.- Generic Costco microfibers
28.- Cobra flat square weave microfibers
29.- Cobra Microfiber polishing bonnet
30.- Product dispensing bottles
31.- Roller chair
32.- Crazy Creek Chair
33.- DP Gloss Tire Gel
34.- Upholstery brush
35.- Cobra foam tire gel applicator
36.- Dobe dish scrubber
37.- Dr. Color Chip paint system
38.- Nylon pad cleaning brush
39.- Red LC 5’’ wax application pad
40.- Ultima Trim and Tire Guard
41.- Yellow Cobra foam applicators
42.- 303 Aerospace
43.- Stoners Invisible Glass
44.- Cobra Glass Towels
45.- Blue Painters Tape
46.- Black Nitrile Gloves
47.- Safety Glasses
48.- Ear Plugs

Cameras used for documentation:
0.- Canon 20d with 10-22mm EF-S lens w/ TC80N3 Interval timer
1.- Canon 7d with 24-70mm f2.8L


00-Wash and Strip existing LSP:
I went into this detail knowing that it was going to be a long weekend of correction, so I tried to take care of even the smallest details before getting started. The garage was swept, products were put into dispensing bottles, cameras were setup, batteries & spares were charged – I wanted to try and have a very thorough documentation of the process, and review a number of products in the process. Even the faucet that normally drips a small amount of water onto the garage floor was treated to Teflon tape to eliminate any leaks:

The Time lapse camera was setup in the corner of the garage with super wide angel lens and manual settings triggered by an interval timer set to fire 1 shot every minute.

While attending Detail Fest, PJ gave me a sample of Dodo Supernatural shampoo to try out. It is claimed to be the same as Born Slippery, but without any dyes, fragrance, and much more concentrated. The recommended dilution is 1:1500 :shock: although the dodo site suggests for a higher lubricity wash, 1:750 is acceptable. I calculated out 1:1500 for 5 gallons which is approximately 2.5tsp, then using my kitchen tools measured out 2.5tsp of water into my normal measuring cup and marked the level on the side. Normally I use Wolfgang Auto bath, which fills up the entire 70cc cup shown … this is a great example of how concentrated Supernatural shampoo is:

Using Supernatural was wonderful – this stuff is really slick! I felt it had a much higher lubricity than my normal Wolfgang shampoo, and I will be ordering this once my current stock of WG runs out. I used 3-4 gallons in my soap bucket, so my concentration was closer to the 1:900 mark. Given how slippery this shampoo is, I will have no reservation using it at 1:1500 in the future.

The engine compartment was very dirty, and needed some serious cleaning. I tapped OPC at 3:1, a Mothers wheel brush, and 1’’ boars hair brush to tackle the job. The sound dampening mat was extremely dirty and stained, something that I have not had a lot of success cleaning in the past, but this is the first time I was using OPC so I gave it a thorough soaking with OPC, then scrubbed with the wheel brush.

Before shots of the engine bay:

I did not spend a lot of time photographing the vehicle before washing, because the focus of my post is on the correction. I did want to show that the Wolfgang Fuzion applied about 2 months ago, and boosted with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Spritz Sealant during weekly washes, was still beading mightily.

Now how to kill that beading … OPC 3:1 did the trick:

LSP removal achieved:

 

[LegacyGT]

01-Clay
Not too much spectacular to report on the clay step. This was my first time using the Pinnacle Poly Clay, typically I use Mothers clay. The vehicle was clayed while wet, using FK425 as additional lube. Most of the panels were fairly clean which was surprising, though I did get some good junk off the lower panels:

The Poly Clay was what I would consider a mild clay, and less aggressive than Mothers yellow clay. Overall it did a good job, and I had no issues with marking or smudging of the clay.

After claying the entire vehicle, the true condition of the paint came through. Most of the car was in good shape, so I have focused the pictures on the bad areas that need correction:

Scratches around the door handles:

Light scratching / RIDS on the vertical panels:

The rear bumper was the biggest problem area of the car, it had been repainted several years ago, and whatever clear the shop used on it is stupid soft:

You can see the difference in the repaint … this was done before I was so detail oriented.

Rock chips to be repaired with Dr. Color Chip

Scratch to be filled in with Dr. Color Chip

Scuffing on the wing to be corrected:

02 – Test Spot

Condition of the paint – the paint is in the early stages of clear coat failure, so I had to be gentle with the paint and stay with the practice of the least aggressive method. Being that it is failing I had no reservations trying out a few different tools / products to get some experience with them. I figure by next year I will have the car re-painted.

I began with a test spot that represented the average condition of the paint. This was on the rear passenger side door. I really wanted to try out some new tools and products while doing this detail, so I started off with Optimum Hyper Compound on a 6’’ orange kompressor pad and the HD foam backing plate. To say I made a mess was an understatement … something about the kompressor pads that I was not able to control on the Flex PE14 rotary was product sling. Even when I had the product spread out, and was working at 1000rpm, there was still product slinging ever where which was a disaster to clean up.

I then tried going to a wool pad just to see if it would help the control and give me some more practice time on the rotary, and it instilled so many swirls into the paint that was in reasonably good shape that this was quickly scrapped.

Lastly I tried a CCS pad on the rotary and ran into another issue with the Optimum hyper compound: the sprayer. I was trying to get the sprayer adjusted to the point I could get good pad coverage, squeezed the trigger, and like a homing missile I absolutely coated my rear wheel with overspray.

Frustrated I decided today was not the day to hone my rotary skills, and gladly put it away except for a few spot corrections with a 4’’ hydrotech cyan pad. Now I moved on to the Flex 3401 VRG, ran quickly back to my tried and true Menzerna SIP with an 6.5’’ Orange CCS pad and put the hammer down.

The process that yielded the best results for this vehicle was 6 passes, 4 with firm 10-15lbs of pressure, and two with only machine weight. Speed was ~ 1’’ /second, pad was cleaned with the orange handle nylon cleaning brush after each section.

Test spot done on the bumper with soft clear, before:

After:

50/50:

The SIP finished down so cleanly, and haze free that I could not justify following up with Super Finish Nano (PO106FA) or PO85RD. I was talking to the Menzerna rep at Detail Fest, and though I had a little bit of trouble understanding him, my take away from him was that all the Menzerna polishes use the same abrasive, just in different concentrations. So that if you properly finish down SIP, you get just as good of a finish as you would from one of the finishing polishes.

 

[LegacyGT]

04 – Check work in sun, additional correction as necessary:

After polishing out the entire car, I pulled it out into the sun to look for spots that needed additional work, or had been missed. I found that the hood needed a second pass, it had some deeper RIDS to take care of, and that I missed a small section near the fuel filler.

Sun shot after polishing:

Hood still showing some marring / RIDS:

The car was pulled back into the garage, the hood was re-polished, and the missed panel was polished out as well.


05.- Wash, strip polishing oils, remove polishing dust
After polishing, the car was pulled back out for a wash using Super Natural shampoo (really love this stuff) and some OPC to strip polishing oil. Car was dried with a Pack Shack WW towel (also love) and new sun pictures were taken.

 

[LegacyGT]

06 - Paint Touchup

Paint touchup was being done with the Dr. Colorchip kit, ordered using the color code for my vehicle. The kit includes paint, several applicators, MF towel, cotton towel, and removal solution. It should be noted that my front bumper is completely destroyed from many many winters of sanded roads. It seriously feels like sandpaper, so I decided that nothing could make it look worse than it already does, and slathered paint all across it, basically re-painting the entire thing. The other spots were touched up using the small paint brush applicator, and smeared with a finger just after applying. I found out the hard way, and would caution others – you do need to smear the paint right away, do not think that leaving it thick will better fill in the chip, it just makes removal more difficult. The paint only fills in the color in the chip, and the area around the chip needs to be smeared flat or it takes a lot longer to remove the excess and you risk pulling the paint out of the chip. Other notes – the paint had a strong odor to it, and the removal solution made my eyes burn. Make sure to have very good ventilation while using. I felt like the removal solution was chemically pretty nasty stuff, and probably lost a few brain cells. Quantity – the road-rash kit has a lot of touch up paint, so much that even after repainting my front bumper and filling other chips I still have over half a bottle.

Rock chip to be filled in:

More Rock Chips:

You can see some of the clear failure / crows feet visible:

86,000 miles is hard on a daily driven car in the mid west.

I have seen in recent years Subaru puts a clear bra on this rear panel … and this is why:

Re-painting the front bumper:

After this point I did not want to touch my camera until I was finished, so check the time lapse video to see the process. I did use a pair of old boxers to help in applying / smearing road-rash sections. I also found that I needed much more cotton material (again boxers) to remove the excess so plan to have several old t-shirts or similar material available. After using the removal solution, it breaks up the paint and turns into a big smudge. Following up with the included MF will buff off all the excess product.

Chips filled in:

Re-touching up a key mark that had been previously filled by a shop.

This was too thick, and not smeared out flat enough. It was a bit of a bear to remove.

Smearing technique on the hood:

Results:

The chips still have depth, however, they are now black in color and not noticeable until you are very close to them. These pictures do not give a fair picture of how much better the kit works on the chips – I wish I had taken some farther back before / after pictures to highlight the appearance at 5’. Watch the video walk around at the end of this post to see how nice the end result was.

So much less noticeable

The road-rash repairs were the most striking to me, this looked brand new! After seeing this result, I am going to do some 50/50 with a few other spots on my car in the near future.

I am shocked at how much better the front bumper looks … I was not expecting much of any correction on this:
Before:

After:

Conclusions: Dr. Color Chip is a very good system, though I am going to have to go back and touch up a few more places because I did not follow directions and didn’t smear down some spots properly.

 

[LegacyGT]

07.- Test LSPs

The icing on the cake! Traditionally Wolfgang Fuzion is my tried and true go-to LSP for everything. Continuing in the spirit of trying out some new products, I tried out a few new LSPs on a test spot before deciding on which to use. I started off with Dodo Skull Candy, pot #173. Application was fairly easy, dry time was quick and the shine left behind was very good. Removal of the Skull Candy took more effort than Fuzion. Next up I tried Dodo Double Wax; application was very similar to Skull Candy, shine was indistinguishable from Skull Candy, and removal was noticeably easier. Last I tried my go-to Fuzion; it spreads so easily like warm butter, and keeps spreading and spreading. Wipe off is a dream come true, and the shine is excellent. From experience I also know that Fuzion does not stain trim, so I had to go with Fuzion as my base layer. I do plan on layering Skull Candy on top after my next wash.

The waxes lined up for testing: (also the mothers detailing brush, the rubber tip is awesome for getting compound out of cracks).

08 – Wax & Trim
Time to change out the backing plate on the Flex 3401 to the 4.75’’ plate so I can use my 5’’ red foam wax pad: (I also used this opportunity to lube the felt ring with 3 in 1 oil).

The 3401 works perfectly for applying LSPs with a nice flexible foam pad.

I have done about 7 applications with this pot so far, and just barely showing signs of use. I do not understand how this is able to spread so far, but I am not complaining.

Trim – My usual product of choice is Poor Boy’s World Trim Restorer. After reading so many positive reviews and durability tests from Corey, I had to give UTTG a try. I found that it is very streaky when applied via yellow foam applicator, but if buffed in with a MF shortly after application looks amazing. If you don’t buff it in quickly, it will stay streaky.

Streaky application:

Beautifully restored trim:

09.- Engine Detail / Tires

Engine bay was touched up with Aerospace 303 and an MF towel.

What I am the most pleased with is how clean the mat came out with OPC and scrubbing:

10.- Touch up cracks, check over entire surface, correct any spots as necessary

This was not specifically documented, but visible in the time lapse video. Quite a bit of time was spent going around the vehicle with a Fenix TK10 tactical flashlight, a MF, and Mothers detailing brush to touch up any spots that needed extra attention.

 

[LegacyGT]

11.- Beauty shots / drive around town for the sole purpose of showing off a shiny ride.
After spending 11 hours one day, and a few more the next day, it was only right to take my fully detailed ride out and about to show it off and get some head turning. I took a few HDR shots as well as regular pictures, I trust that everyone can pick out the ones that have been adjusted into HDR pictures.

*

 

[LegacyGT]

12 – Time Lapse Video

Did you seriously make it this far into the review, or did you skip to the end? Serisouly I am almost as exhausted after writing this review as I was doing the detail … but I had to give Corey a run for his money  LOL!

Now for the coolest part of the entire detail IMHO: I did something that I have not seen done anywhere else before – I made a time lapse video of the entire process. At the very beginning I setup a camera on an interval timer with a very wide angle lens to take a shot every minute, then compiled them into a time lapse video. I have watched these about a dozen times and each time I see them I find something else that is cool and amazing like water evaporating, or the sun position changing, or my favorite – you can actually see the reflections improving as I buff down the side of the car. I have two versions of the video, The first compresses 10 minutes of real time into 1 second of video. The second compresses 6 minutes of real time into 1 second of video. I would highly recommend watching these in full screen at 1080p or original file size.

10 Minutes per second:
High Definition version - Subaru Polish Time Lapse 10 Minutes per second
[video=youtube_share;k_U0doqK-Lk] - Subaru Polish Time Lapse 10 Minutes per second[/video]

6 Minutes per second:
High Definition version - Subaru Detailing Time Lapse 6 minutes per second
[video=youtube_share;vAayn9pI5U4] - Subaru Detailing Time Lapse 6 minutes per second[/video]

 

[LegacyGT]

13 – Weather Tech Mats
Just a very quick section on the new weather tech mats I installed. I bought these on a 15% off site wide sale recently at AG, and I wanted to post a quick initial review of them. The mats are drop shipped from the manufacturer and though quoted as taking a few weeks to show up, mine were delivered in 3 days time. The cut on the mats is slightly different than the stock carpets, though they fit in perfectly. They have a different under foot feel than the cloth mats, but I really like them – very grippy and firm. I have had no issues with them slipping / moving.

Comparison to the stock mat:

Installed – perfect fit:

The factory hooks match up, and the cutouts for fuel/trunk levers are perfect:

A change I am getting used to is the high lip around the fuel/trunk lever – it is about 1’’ higher.

The mats do show dust tracks / foot prints fairly readily, but I will monitor this and report back in a long term review.

14 – Fin
I hope that has been an exhaustive and complete review. This is also why I have been absent from the forum for a few days. I’ll try to answer any questions / expand on details if possible. I realize I still need to post some side by side before / after pictures, and I will try to do so when time allows.

 

[Marc08EX]

Nice detail journal Bill!!! I enjoyed reading the walk-through you provided and looking at the process pictures. Thanks for taking time to share this with us!

 

[SeaJay's]

WOW! Great review! I really think you gave Corey a run for his money on this. And nice job documenting everything. It was a long review but well worth the read. I like the time lapse videos too.

And I had the same issue you had with the kompressor pads on the Flex. The first few times I used it I flung product every where. Took me some getting use to but I eventually figure out how to pick up a bead with them and I still occasionally get some sling but not bad now. I normally pick up my bead around 600-800rpms, work the product in some and then turn up the speed. Seems to work so far for me at least.

 

[Klink10]

Thanks.

 

[maximus20895]

Awesome job, thanks for the thorough post!

Where did you get that chair? It seems very, handy!

I think I'm going to set my camera up like that just for fun. I'm not sure if I will do this though:

 

[LegacyGT]

Awesome job, thanks for the thorough post!

Where did you get that chair? It seems very, handy!

I think I'm going to set my camera up like that just for fun. I'm not sure if I will do this though:

BWAHAHAHA! I took a break to go on a bike ride and enjoy the beautiful day so I took a single frame before I left. That's my bike jersey Im the MAN

My neighbor actually gave me the roller chair, said he saw me working on my car a lot and thought I could use it. It has worked out great. I have seen a few other people using this chair, I can look to see who it is made by.

 

[maximus20895]

Haha okay. I was watching the video and I saw that so I just had to post that picture!

Where did you get that chair!!!

 

[LegacyGT]

Where did you get that chair!!!

Edited above post to include info. I will look up who actually makes it tonight and post an update.

 

[05xrunner]

did you trade someone for that Fuzion..cause you said it barely looks like you used any..but my pot of fuzion was filled tot he very top of the jar..Just wondering if maybe you got jipped a little if you bought that new

 

[LegacyGT]

did you trade someone for that Fuzion..cause you said it barely looks like you used any..but my pot of fuzion was filled tot he very top of the jar..Just wondering if maybe you got jipped a little if you bought that new

The level in the jar includes about 7 other applications before this detail including an SUV or two, so no I do not think I was jipped in any way. Sorry if that was not clear in the writeup.

 

[LegacyGT]

WOW! Great review! I really think you gave Corey a run for his money on this. And nice job documenting everything. It was a long review but well worth the read. I like the time lapse videos too.

And I had the same issue you had with the kompressor pads on the Flex. The first few times I used it I flung product every where. Took me some getting use to but I eventually figure out how to pick up a bead with them and I still occasionally get some sling but not bad now. I normally pick up my bead around 600-800rpms, work the product in some and then turn up the speed. Seems to work so far for me at least.

Thanks for the tip Jason - I will give that a shot.

 

[sohail99]

Damn!!

This is like one of the most awesome review/show and shine article!!!

I'm just amazed with the amount of detail given for each process etc. :xyxthumbs:

Great work!

 

[Marre]

That was amazing! I was already exhausted by the time I got to the bottom of "Products Used/Tested/Considered". I did go through the whole deal though and besides being amazed you're also making me feel downright lazy when it comes to working on my car.