2014 Subaru STi detail, kind of..

[olenderc]

This is a continuation of my previous thread: http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/72835-so-dirty-beautiful.html

After washing and claying (speedy prep towel) my car, I brought her inside to start polishing. There was definitely some evident micro-marring from the speedy prep towel, especially on this black paint. I started to work on a test spot with a GG using a 5.5" white polishing flat pad and WG Total Swirl Remover. My though process was that I was going to one-step this with TSR since it should have enough cut to get all the micro-marring from the clay out and any residual swirls while still finishing out last step ready. I even considered using Uber Compound if deemed necessary since that pretty much finishes out last step ready as well.

Unfortunately, the weather came out on top this time. It was about 47-50 degrees out, and the product was not working well at all. Even spreading product out on speed 3, it seemed to be very pasty and seemed to dry up very quickly. By the time I got one decent pass on speed 5 or 6, I was dusting all over the place and flinging chunks of product. Even worse, when I went to wipe away, it was very difficult, didn't wipe away clean, and was smearing all over the place; I had to wipe pretty hard and likely was re-instilling micro scratches. I tried my luck with the Uber Compound and same thing. I was pissed, but what can you do. I decided that polishing wasn't going to be an option this late into the season. Furthermore, I wasn't going to be able to use Pinnacle Black Diamond Paint Coating like I was planning .

I cut my losses and decided I was going to seal the paint with Duragloss 601/105 and call it a winter. In the right sun you can definitely still see some micro-marring from claying, but I'm going to have to learn to live with it until next spring when temperatures are definitely above 60 degrees.

Here are some pics after washing and claying:

Here are some pics of the finished product after every crevice was wiped down:

 

[Desertnate]

Looks good for what you were able to get done. I ended up in nearly the same position last week. I took delivery of a black car and only managed to wash it, give it a quick coat of Black Hole and then covered with 845. I was racing the daylight from short days and temps in the upper 50's low 60's.

I resigned myself to give it good winter protection, and then I'll "play" with it in the spring.

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Looks good.

Perhaps you were over using TSR and in turn was making it harder to use?

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

Well what really matters is that the car looks good and is protected for winter.

A couple thoughts... The micro marring you noticed is most likely not from the speedy prep, unless you really rubbed it in hard. Most likely it's just washed induced on soft Subaru paint.

The gumming up of the product you experienced is common with what they call "sticky" paint systems, which are notoriously found of late model subarus. This has nothing to do with the weather, it's just one of the idiosyncrasies you have to deal with when polishing out cars.

That being said, she looks clean and shiny and most importantly, happy!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[vet]

lookin' good!

 

[RLucky82]

Yep, 60° is my cut off point. Nice STi. Get a stage 1 tune and some window tint then put a couple hundred thousand miles on it. Or should I say smiles

 

[olenderc]

Looks good.

Perhaps you were over using TSR and in turn was making it harder to use?

Only used enough to prime the pad per Mike Phillips' recommendation, then only 3 pea-sized drops every test pass. I think the weather just ended up being too cold for the product to work as intended.

 

[olenderc]

Well what really matters is that the car looks good and is protected for winter.

A couple thoughts... The micro marring you noticed is most likely not from the speedy prep, unless you really rubbed it in hard. Most likely it's just washed induced on soft Subaru paint.

The gumming up of the product you experienced is common with what they call "sticky" paint systems, which are notoriously found of late model subarus. This has nothing to do with the weather, it's just one of the idiosyncrasies you have to deal with when polishing out cars.

That being said, she looks clean and shiny and most importantly, happy!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The paint was fairly clean to start, rinsed thoroughly, and wash with a two bucket method and a carpro wool wash mitt. I agree that Subaru has soft paint, but I'm leaning more towards the speedy prep towel, as many have experienced micro-marring with this tool. I was only using light hand pressure enough to keep the towel in contact with the paint and work properly. I saw the same clay marring when I detailed my 2013 WRX at the beginning of the year; same paint system only different color.

I also used the same WG TSR and Finishing Glaze on the WRX at that time, and never experienced any type of gumming or dusting like I did this time around (unless I overworked the product too long and it dried up on me). I really do think the 47 degree weather may have had something to do with it.

 

[topKek]

Yep, 60° is my cut off point. Nice STi. Get a stage 1 tune and some window tint then put a couple hundred thousand miles on it. Or should I say smiles

You can't do that on this generation of STi.

Unless you plan on rebuilding the engine in <50,000.

 

[zmcgovern45]

It seems like you are having an issue similar to what I described in this thread here:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...e-i-ve-never-encountered-before-thoughts.html


The product seemed to be gumming up, flinging chunks, and was then very difficult to remove.

This occurred when I was working on softer, stickier paint as well (Porsche, not Subaru). Believe it or not, the way I remedied this issue was using more product. Typically issues like this are due to using too much product, but in this unique case, more product resolved the issue I was having.

I highly doubt it was a temperature related issue because I consistently work in temps below 50 degrees with no issue.

Sometimes you've just got to try everything - more product, less product, slower machine speed, faster machine speed, spritz with QD, etc etc etc until you can get it worked out.

The car turned out great and was very easy to work with once I got that problem figured out.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...ection-22ple-application-interior-detail.html

 

[JSou]

Ugh, Subaru paint is impossible. (not really but you know what I mean)

Such a pain. Other than that, at least the vehicle is protected.

 

[olenderc]

It seems like you are having an issue similar to what I described in this thread here:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...e-i-ve-never-encountered-before-thoughts.html


The product seemed to be gumming up, flinging chunks, and was then very difficult to remove.

This occurred when I was working on softer, stickier paint as well (Porsche, not Subaru). Believe it or not, the way I remedied this issue was using more product. Typically issues like this are due to using too much product, but in this unique case, more product resolved the issue I was having.

I highly doubt it was a temperature related issue because I consistently work in temps below 50 degrees with no issue.

Sometimes you've just got to try everything - more product, less product, slower machine speed, faster machine speed, spritz with QD, etc etc etc until you can get it worked out.

The car turned out great and was very easy to work with once I got that problem figured out.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...ection-22ple-application-interior-detail.html

I wouldn't have thought to use more product, I already thought I was fairly generous with the priming. Did you find yourself using significantly more product (total) for the whole car than you would have under usual conditions? I'll have to revisit the polishing next spring since everything is all sealed up for the winter at the moment! Thanks for the input I'll definitely keep this in mind if I encounter the same issues next time around.

 

[zmcgovern45]

I wouldn't have thought to use more product, I already thought I was fairly generous with the priming. Did you find yourself using significantly more product (total) for the whole car than you would have under usual conditions? I'll have to revisit the polishing next spring since everything is all sealed up for the winter at the moment! Thanks for the input I'll definitely keep this in mind if I encounter the same issues next time around.

I found myself using a very generous amount to prime the pad, then I would use about the same amount of working product, but I would spritz the pad with QD before each section.

I would clean the pad very often, and re-prime as needed, and switch to a clean pad as needed.

I definitely used more product than "normal" due to priming more often.