2013 Nissan GT-R (Black Edition) - Paint Correction and Cquartz Finest

[zmcgovern45]

The owner of this car had just bought the vehicle a couple of weeks before contacting me. He was looking for the best way to protect the paint and make the vehicle easier to maintain - the clear choice was a long lasting paint coating. This vehicle had only 4,500 miles on it and the paint was in very good condition. There were minor swirls and scratches throughout, however the horizontal surfaces (hood, roof, and trunk) all had etched water spots as well. The horizontal areas received a 2 step correction, since the defects on those surfaces were more severe. The rest of the vehicle required only a 1 step polishing process. Due to the hard paint, I used FG400 on a polishing pad in order to remove the light swirls. There were some more severe scratches that were spot corrected with a 3" MF Cutting Pad and M105/D300 mix prior to polishing - a couple of spots required wet sanding, too.

All in all, the paint was 90-95% perfect. There were a few RIDS that remained, of course, as it is simply not reasonable to find/correct every single defect. After the paint was prepped, CQuartz Finest was chosen as the means of protection. The coating was excellent to work with, even though it was ~85 degrees and very humid during application. The coating proved to be extremely glossy, and I can't wait to use it again.

Process
Wheels: Sonax Full Effect agitated with various brushes and wheel woolies
Tires: Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner and Tuf Shine Tire Brush
Foam Pre-Soak: CG Citrus Wash & Gloss via DI Foam Canon & Karcher X-Series 2000PSI Pressure Washer
Wash: CG Citrus Wash & Gloss w/ Sheepskin Wash Mitt (2 bucket method)
Iron Removal: Iron X
Dry: DI Waffle Weave Towels
Clay: DI Fine Grade Clay (spot claying only)
Paint Thickness Readings Taken
Tape: 3M Blue Painters Tape
Paint Correction: Spot Correction (RIDS) - 2000 & 2500 Grit Wetsand Paper (when needed) followed by 3" MF Cutting Pads w/ D300/M105 Mix

Horizontal Surfaces - FG400 on Orange LC 5.5" Pads followed by Sonax Perfect Finish on White LC 5.5" Pads via Rupes LHR21ES & 3"/4" Pads via PC7424XP
Vertical Surfaces - FG400 on white LC 5.5" pads via Rupes LHR21ES & 3"/4" Pads Via PC7424XP​

Foam: CG Citrus Wash & Gloss via Glimour Foamaster II
Wash: CG Citrus Wash & Gloss w/ Sheepskin wash mitt (2 bucket method)
Dry: DI Waffle Weave Towels
Paint Wipedown Prep: CarPro Eraser
Coating (LSP): CQuartz Finest
Wheel Polish: M205 via yellow foam applicator by hand
Tires: Optimum Opti Bond Tire Gel (2 coats)
Exhaust Tips: CG Metal Polish + Protection via MF Towel by hand
Matte CF Spoiler & Trim: CG Meticulous Matte Detail Spray
Glass: Meguiar's D120



Before

One of the first things I noticed on the car when it showed up for delivery was the water spots on the paint. This is always a red flag to me because I've come to learn that the chances of etched water spots are very high.

There was also bug splatter on the front bumper and lower part of the hood. This is also a red flag because chances are there will be some etched bug marks as well.

These little dots covered a portion of the vehicle and I was worried it might be over spray, but they ended up washing off (thankfully!)

The exhaust tips were in pretty good shape already.

The car had a nice set of matte black wheels... NOT. They were just extremely dirty. You can see the thick layer of dirt and grime compared to the true color of the wheel on the areas where I have swiped my finger on the metal.

The brakes also needed some attention. They had a layer of dirt on them as well.

During

As always, I started with the wheels and tires. Sonax Full Effect wheel cleaner was sprayed liberally on the wheel. The chemical starts as a bright green and turns purple as it starts to react with the dirt and brake dust that cover the wheel.

Here you can see the color change as the wheel cleaner begins to work and the dirt and contaminates start to flow from the wheel.

After agitating with various brushes and wheel woolies, you can see the amount of grime that is coming off of the wheels.

The wheels cleaned up quite nicely.

After the wheels and tires were cleaned up, the car was foamed with a heavy mixture of Citrus Wash followed by a thorough two bucket wash. This helps to remove any existing sealant or wax that may be on the surface of the vehicle.

Once the paint was totally clean and decontaminated, I was able to really inspect it to see what I had to work with. As I had expected, bug etchings and water marks were both present. There were also light swirls and scratches throughout, but overall the car was in great shape (as it should be for such low mileage and 2013 model year). The defects were rather hard to capture with the camera, so unfortunately there will be no dramatic 50/50 shots in this write-up... but I suppose that is a good thing because it means the car was in pretty darn good shape.

There were some pretty bad water spots under the area where the side of the spoiler covers. You can imagine this area is often missed when drying the car because it is difficult to reach unless you open the trunk to lift the spoiler out of the way.

There were some areas with more moderate to heavy defects that needed to be spot treated prior to polishing, and even some rather severe scratches that required wet sanding.

One thing I was not impressed with was the rather severe orange peel on this finish. For such an expensive car, I would expect Nissan to produce a higher quality finish than this. This orange peel really limits the amount of gloss that can be achieved.

Gotta love the rock hard clear coat... thanks Nissan (not!)

 

[zmcgovern45]

I began by correcting the hood... you can see the water spots very easily under direct lighting.

The horizontal surfaces were all affected by water spots, which were actually quite deep, and required a 2 step process to achieve the nearly flawless finish the owner was after.

The front of the car had a few heavy scratches.

After spot correcting with 3" MF pads and M105/D300 mix only one heavy scratch remained... the scratch was then sanded with 2000 grit and it still was not completely gone, so I decided it was not worth chasing.

After I completed the hood, I pulled it out into the sun to check my work. The sun is the true test since that will be a realistic condition that the owner will see the vehicle in every day... Looks pretty good to me!

And a shot of the polished hood back in the garage. A true miror like shine.

Door after correction. I'd say correction was around 95%. Some small RIDS (random isolated deeper scratches) remained, of course.

Deep scratch on door before spot correction.

and after correction

This was one of the worst scratches. It required sanding with 2500 grit followed by cutting and polishing.

After sanding.

And after polishing... the scratch is gone!

After the car was fully corrected, it was washed again and then wiped down with CarPro Eraser to help remove any remaining polishing oils which may prevent the coating from curing. Then the paint was inspected prior to beginning the coating installation. Looks pretty awesome!

Look at those sun stars on the hood! Great shot thanks to the low, setting sun.

CQuartz Finest was applied and left to cure overnight. I pulled the car out the next morning to check the results before continuing with finishing some of the minor details. As expected - A Gorgeous, deep, dark shine.

(One of my favorite shots)

**Some thoughts on CQuartz Finest - It is always somewhat intimidating to apply coating products in high heat/high humidity conditions. Some coatings tend to flash very quickly in these conditions which can make application time consuming and sometimes a little frustrating. Finest was the easiest coating product I have ever worked with. Even with the 85 degree temps and high humidity, I was able to apply a thick layer of the coating to the entire vehicle before wiping it off. I applied 2 coats and I had no issues removing the excess product either time. It wiped right off, very cleanly, and left no streaks or residue (like 22ple can if you are not very careful). Overall it was a pleasure to work with and I can't wait to use it again. Shout out to Corey at CarPro-US for the amazing product and for the great customer support!




After

What an awesome car. I had a good time working on this one and was sad to see it leave. I had spent a little over 12 hours on this project and was very pleased with the results!

The underside of the hood was washed and the engine received a very light wipe down and dressing. (it was already in excellent shape!)

CQuartz Finest, only the best for this car! Every bottle has its own unique serial number for product identification.

The money shot... Look at that gloss!

As always, Thanks for looking! Questions and/or comments are greatly appreciated!

 

[sproketser]

Wow , great thread & how to , Thanx for sharing .

 

[minorc]

Gorgeous car, nice work!

 

[Superman0440]

Niceeeee work

 

[zmcgovern45]

Wow , great thread & how to , Thanx for sharing .

Thank you!!

Gorgeous car, nice work!

:dblthumb2:

Niceeeee work

rops:

 

[XSSIVE]

Awesome work. Kind of a shocking amount of orange peel in that paint for such a high $ car though.

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

You really outdid yourself on that one with the level of quality that went into the job in all areas including the write up and pictures.

Well done good sir.

 

[JSou]

You killed it man. Nice pics and awesome car. Thanks for sharing Zach.

 

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

The work you do is truly professional indeed. That is some unbelievable looking paint, the car looks freakin amazing. Thanks for sharing and posting as usually. That is one bad azz ride. Did you get to drive it?

 

[Mfour]

dang that is sweet!!!

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

Great job as always Zach! How in the blue hell did you do all that work in only 12 hours? Also, did you seal or wax the wheels after polishing? Those things were hurt before you got to them!

Sent from my Transformer using Tapatalk 4

 

[DeviousDetail]

I have been on this site for a little while now and I have to say that your details are by far some of my favorite. You do an outstanding job and you document well. Two thumbs up.

 

[noslef]

Thank you for another informative write-up and as usually that GTR looks superb! The picture with the sanding marks really shows how much orange peel is on the paint.

 

[zmcgovern45]

Awesome work. Kind of a shocking amount of orange peel in that paint for such a high $ car though.

^Thanks... and yeah, the orange peel really bummed me out (and it isn't even my car!)

You really outdid yourself on that one with the level of quality that went into the job in all areas including the write up and pictures.

Well done good sir.

^Thanks man! I enjoy doing these write ups as much as I enjoy working on the cars. As I have mentioned several times in other threads, if I wasn't able to photograph and share my work like this... I probably wouldn't be as motivated to do it.

You killed it man. Nice pics and awesome car. Thanks for sharing Zach.

^:dblthumb2:

The work you do is truly professional indeed. That is some unbelievable looking paint, the car looks freakin amazing. Thanks for sharing and posting as usually. That is one bad azz ride. Did you get to drive it?

^The car was in overall good shape before I touched it, so that made it easier to handle! It was a great car and it made me smile every time I looked at it in my garage (thinking one day a car like that should belong to me! haha). I drove it down the road (1/8 mile or so) and back just to knock off some of the rust on the rotors... I can tell you this car does NOT want to go slow. It was impossible to do the 20mph speed limit. I gave it a quick launch from 0-40 and man, it really threw you back in your seat. I wish the owner would have had some time to take me for a quick cruise, but he was in a bit of a hurry.

dang that is sweet!!!

:iagree:

Great job as always Zach! How in the blue hell did you do all that work in only 12 hours? Also, did you seal or wax the wheels after polishing? Those things were hurt before you got to them!

Sent from my Transformer using Tapatalk 4

^It might have been more like 14? I can't remember really... it all blends together after a certain point. Unfortunately the wheels did not get sealed. I would have liked to coat them, however there was just no time to do a full "wheels-off" cleaning and coating... hopefully I can get that car back for a day or so and really get those wheels protected.

I have been on this site for a little while now and I have to say that your details are by far some of my favorite. You do an outstanding job and you document well. Two thumbs up.

^Wow, thank you very much! I know when I was just getting into detailing at a professional level, these type of threads really helped me gain some confidence in my product choices and processes, so I try to make my threads easy to follow and informational in hopes that someone might learn something the way that I did (and still do!) when I read other people's write ups.

 

[Dr_Pain]

Zach strikes again!

I just love your photography. I had to go back to read the actual process. And you weren't lying with what you said about the orange peel

 

[Ohio Detailing]

Awesome write-up, thank you. That orange peel was disappointing, for a vehicle that has an MSRP hovering around $100,000 - that's just pathetic. You made the best of it though, and it turned out amazing.

What dilution do you use for your strongest Citrus Wash & Gloss?

I also saw in a reflection shot of the wheels you has a foamer spray bottle... what are those useful with?

Lastly, do you use any pump/pressurized spray bottles?

 

[Iron400]

Nice work! Like others have said, your photography and write ups are awesome! From your pics, it seems you got a new crib too! :xyxthumbs:

Again, thanks for all the info you sent me, much appreciated!

 

[BlackHawk]

Amazing work! Someday I gotta head on down to Peoria btw how was your experience with perfect finish?

 

[zmcgovern45]

Zach strikes again!

I just love your photography. I had to go back to read the actual process. And you weren't lying with what you said about the orange peel

^Thanks!

Awesome write-up, thank you. That orange peel was disappointing, for a vehicle that has an MSRP hovering around $100,000 - that's just pathetic. You made the best of it though, and it turned out amazing.

^Thanks! As one of my friends pointed out... it's a $100,000 car that has super car performance, they had to cut corners somewhere. Maybe it was in the paint process, or maybe this was just a poor example.

What dilution do you use for your strongest Citrus Wash & Gloss?

^I have 1 gallon jugs of CW&G with a pump on the jug. I have measured that 1 pump is about equal to 1oz (a little less) of product, and I used 4-5 pumps in the foam canon, foam gun, and wash bucket (w/ ~3 gallons of water).

I also saw in a reflection shot of the wheels you has a foamer spray bottle... what are those useful with?

^Yup, I have a few of the CG Foam Sprayers... I really like them for wheel cleaners and APC because the small amount of foam seems to help it cling to surfaces better. Also, those sprayers put out A LOT of product per squeeze which is useful when you are trying to coat a dirty wheel with cleaner.

Lastly, do you use any pump/pressurized spray bottles?

^I have been meaning to get a few (for ONR, Clay Lube, and Iron X), but I don't currently use any.

Nice work! Like others have said, your photography and write ups are awesome! From your pics, it seems you got a new crib too! :xyxthumbs:

Again, thanks for all the info you sent me, much appreciated!

^Thanks! We moved out of our apartment (which you could see in many of my other write ups) and into this house back in June. and you're very welcome - glad I could help! (hopefully I helped :/ ) Feel free to let me know if I can try to help in any other way!

Amazing work! Someday I gotta head on down to Peoria btw how was your experience with perfect finish?

^Thanks! Yes, come visit! There aren't too many other forum members (that I know of) around the area. While this paint was not a true test of SPF (because it was hard, and SPF is supposed to really shine on soft black paint), I enjoyed using it. It finished down nicely, was easy to use, and had minimal dusting. I look forward to putting it to the test on some upcoming projects... I have a Black Challenger SRT8 and Black Z06 coming up that will hopefully allow me to utilize it some more.