2009 Nissan GTR - Can I play?

[RoadRageDetail]

This might end up being a long write-up, but my previous victim turned out to be quite a learning process for me and I'm in the sharing mood.

I've been detailing for about six years now with literally thousands of cars under my buffer (shop and independent experience combined) and most of what I have applied to the cars I work on is experience picked up from the paint and body side of our business. Myself and my Makita 9227C (my third rotary and still my favorite) have about a million miles together and lately I've been finding myself in a precarious situation where I just can't get that "upper echelon" finish out of her. I guess you could say I was developing an eye for my work that outgrew my rotary, even though every customer I've worked with probably wouldn't know the difference. So I decided to take the plunge and step it up a few notches.

For the past few months, I've spent a lot of time researching different products and machines to build onto my collection to see what would work best for me, and be easily maintainable as a mobile service when necessary. I want to offer more in-depth detail solutions and while I'm still very proud of what I can do with a rotary and the other supplies in my stable, I wanted something... more.

After a purchase and several large boxes from Autogeek I was ready to take things to the next level.

My next phase was finding a worthy test subject.

Thanks to Jeremy and John at PowerFab Automotive, a local Houston performance shop, it was an easy issue to handle.
I've detailed their GTR previously, and while it doesn't seem like two years have passed since then, a lot can happen as you will no doubt notice. This might be my first post, but I've lurked these forums for a while and found that you folks like pictures.

I'll get right to it then.

Supplies used:

Autogeek foam gun (Water hose adapter style)
Detailer's Pro Series Super Foam Formula
Poorboy's Super Slick Suds
Dodo Juice Supernatural Washmit (wookie's fist)
Griots Garage yellow claybar

Detailer's Pro Series Wheel Cleaner
Daytona Speedbrush duo (large and small)
Detailer's Pro Series Super Foam Formula used with speedbrushes in bucket
(Generic wheel lug cleaning tool does not work with most aftermarket wheels with tight clearances, FYI)

Waffle Weave Ultimate Guzzler by Cobra

Brinkman Dual Xenon flashlight
Generic Dual Halogen Tripod

Makita Rotary 9227C
3M Perfect-It Rubbing Compound
3M Perfect-It Machine Polish
Lake Country 6" VC White
Lake Country 6" White Braided Wool

Flex XC 3401 Orbital
Menzerna Intensive Polish
Menzerna Final Finish
XMT Pad Conditioning spray
XMT Pad Cleaning Solution
Lake Country CCS White
Lake Country CCS Black

Blackfire Wet Diamond Sealant
Dodo Juice Hard Candy Wax
Dodo Juice Rainforest Rub

Blackfire Tire Gel
Meguiars Instant Detailer
Invisible Glass Cleaner
Various assortment of brushes and microfiber towels
3M Painters tape

Overall, she didn't look too bad with overcast skies. A little dull, a little dirty. Some scratches in the carbon fiber gel coating. It DOES see track time, so this is to be expected.

Nasty scrape on the hood

Ok enough of this. BATH TIME!
I started by hosing it down with a foam gun and Detailer's Pro Series Extreme Foam Formula.

I will be playing around with the settings on the foam gun as I get more time with it, but this seemed more like a sud gun than foam lol, although it did make quite a difference that I did not expect. The hands-on wash took dramatically less time than I'm normally used to.

Once the foam had a chance to pull off the heavier debris, it was time for a hand wash. I went after the body with PoorBoys' Super Slick Suds and Dodo Juice's mind blowing sheepskin washmit. The washmit is by far a fantastic investment and quite frankly the single softest thing I've ever washed a vehicle with. Get ready for a workout, though, as it holds a TON of solution and gets to feeling heavy very quickly.

Now I see why they referred to it as the "wookie's fist." This thing is a monster. My wife's shih-tzu is terrified of it. I love to chase him around the house after I've dried and brushed it.

After the bath, it was time to give it a once-over with Griots Garage clay. This is different than the Blue Coral purple clay I normally use which is extremely dense and aggressive. I found it to be just *slightly* more aggressive than Megs blue that I've used before which is softer and more pliable, and gives great feedback to your hand when trying to locate surface contaminants.

 

[RoadRageDetail]

Once the body was clean and free of contaminants, it was time to tackle the wheels with a set of speed brushes, and Detailer's Pro Series wheel cleaner. As a sidenote, I've since used the Blackfire wheel cleaner and prefer Detailer's Pro Series by a landslide. I had to use much less product and elbow grase than the Blackfire in comparison.

I would recommend everyone to stop reading this and put the Daytona Speedbrush combo in their online buggy if you don't already own them.

After Wash Pics

Once she was all clean and dry, it was time to take her inside and see whats been hiding behind the cloud cover. Hit the lights!

Oh. I knew that was coming.

This is what happens if the fuel nozzle pops out at a gas station. Ouch.

A shot through the eyes of a Brinkman Dual Xenon

Time to clear things up!

I started as usual, with my trusty Makita rotary, a Lake Country wool pad, and 3M's Perfect-It #1 Rubbing Compound. Don't have any pics of the compound process because on camera, its almost impossible to see through the machine marring. Not to mention that I was braking in a fresh wool pad and there was fuzz ERRYWHURRR

I followed the rotary compounding with a rotary polishing via Lake Country white foam and 3M's Machine Polish to make things go by a little faster. The Flex paired with LC white CCS and Menzerna Intensive Polish simply would have taken too long to cover the whole car but I'm sure would have eventually done a fine job. I promise the new guys won't be sitting on the bench for long.

50/50 polish vs. compound

Compounded areas:

Polished areas:

After Machine Polish Pics:
Don't worry. There's still a long way to go.

 

[RoadRageDetail]

After the machine polishing was finished, I decided it was time to break out the Flex orbital, a Lake Country black CCS pad and some Menzerna Final Finishing polish. There were a few areas that needed some extra attention, and the white CCS and Menzerna IP got some time in whenever necessary.

Although I had used a few different orbital machines before, I was NOT prepared for what the Flex brought to the table. Completely different animal than anything I've ever used before. Holy moly I had quite a learning curve to hurdle. After a few test passes using the roof I got pretty comfy with her but she's one hell of a machine. I think I'm in love. One thing that I feel I should mention is the need for earplugs during prolonged use on higher speed settings. She's a screamer.

Putting that Brinkamn Dual Xenon light to work.
Flawless.

Once the paint was perfected, it was sealed twice, and cured respectively. I will be trying out different sealants, but you'll be prying Blackfire Wet Diamond out of my cold, dead hands. Been using this and Midnight Sun for a couple years and I have yet to see a better bang for the buck, especially on black.

 

[RoadRageDetail]

After the second layer of sealant was applied and cured overnight, I layered on two coats of wax via Dodo Juice. First coat to go on was Hard Candy, followed by Rainforest Rub.

I found that the Hard Candy applied very similarly to Blackfire's Midnight sun, but smelled like heaven. I could get about 40% of the car covered before it was time to remove the excess with a microfiber.

The Rainforest Rub application was a little odd. Perhaps it was because this was a second layer of wax, I'm still not sure if this was the case, but I practically had to apply this product panel by panel. If I had given it any more time to set it would have been very stubborn to wipe clean.

Lets go outside, shall we?

Excuse any smudges or streaks, the wax job was about 15 minutes old and the sun became very bright, hot and intense while I had it out. While removing a few dust particles I had to be very careful to not disturb the fresh coats of protection. Once I got her back inside and the paint cooled I double checked every square inch with the Brinkman to ensure I hadn't done any damage.

 

[RoadRageDetail]

 

[RoadRageDetail]

That should be more than enough for now. I hope you've enjoyed it.
Stay tuned, there is much more to come. I've been hearing a lot of good things about Opti coat 2.0 and I'd like to give that a shot.

Feedback is more than welcome.

 

[mjlinane]

Awesome work!!

 

[derek0609]

Wow! Fantastic work, the car looks amazing! :dblthumb2:

 

[sohail99]

WOW!!!! Reflection shots from inside the shop are perfect!

Totally amazing work! :xyxthumbs:

 

[LuxuryMobile]

Nice job on what can sometimes be a tricky car. Those sun shots don't lie.

 

[Klasse Act]

Looks like Godzilla is ready for a night on the town (just hope its not our town!)

 

[duck_commander]

Great work Road Rage!

What products did you use on the carbon fiber parts? did you treat them just like you did the painted panels (pads and products)?

 

[bigez]

Nice work! Looks awesome. I had to laugh at that comment about scaring the dog with the wookie fist....That dog probably doesn't know WHAT the heck that thing is....lol.

 

[O.C.Detailing]

Beautiful save my man, absolutely stunning! I bet the customer was VERY happy to get it back from you.

 

[RoadRageDetail]

Thanks for the great comments, everyone

Nice job on what can sometimes be a tricky car. Those sun shots don't lie.

Thank you. And yes I love the new GTRs but the paint makes me go absolutely insane with how sensitive the surface is. I can't tell you how happy I was to get sealant on her so I could handle her like a normal car.

Great work Road Rage!

What products did you use on the carbon fiber parts? did you treat them just like you did the painted panels (pads and products)?

Luckily the owner understands the importance of proper c/f care. He had all the carbon bits sprayed with a high quality UV additive clear before even being installed onto the car to prevent hazing or oxidation in the gel coat.

Since that aftermarket clear was much more durable than Nissan's factory paint (which isn't hard to do), all that was needed on the hood was a two stage polish with the Flex (white LC CCS w/ Menzerna IP and black LC CCS and Menzerna FF).

Where the deeper scratches are concerned, the gouge in the hood was far too deep for wetsanding or polishing to make a difference on. Luckily I'm very experienced with touch up work so a little duplicolor universal clear and a few tools I have made a great improvement on an otherwise unsightly blemish on a high visibility panel. The lower trim pieces on the front lip and side skirts were mostly repaired via compouding and polishing. There were a few places that went too deep and required the same treatment as the deep scratch on the hood. Looked good as new!

Beautiful save my man, absolutely stunning! I bet the customer was VERY happy to get it back from you.

Thank you sir! He always is, I put a lot of depth and gloss into his pearl yellow Lamborghini Gallardo a few months ago.

100% rotary paint correction w/ 3M's Perfect-it Series and Blackfire sealant/wax