Bluish Black Pearl Suzuki Jimny - Detailed by Lawrence

[lawrenceSA]

Ok so yes...the official paint color is Bluish Black Pearl.... it is not some name that I made up for lack of knowing what the actual color is (lol)

Products used
Cyclo CM30 @ 3:1
Autofinesse Iron Out
Autofinesse Oblitarate
Optimum Opti Bond Tire Gel
Cyclo Polymer Hand Wash
Meguiars Cleaner Wax
Smart Wax Smart Dressing
ONR
Clay Magic Blue Clay
LC Cyan Pads
LC tangerine Pads
Menzerna Black Finishing Pads
Menzerna FG400
Menzerna SF4000
Chemical Guys Black Light
Chemical Guys V7
Autoglym Fast Glass
Chemical Guys Bare Bones
Mother Aluminium and Mag Polish
Painters Tape
Foam Applicator pads
Various MF Towels
Various brushes
HP washer
Foam Cannon
PC 7424

The customer had plasti-dipped his wheels the day before the vehicle arrived with me and the brief was therefore to only wash the wheels with normal 'soapy water' - I must say that after removing the spare wheel to clean it, and behind it, I certainly think the wheels look a lot better in black.

Here are some pics of how the rest of vehicle looked on arrival.

Water spots

Bird Bomb You will see the damage that this does to clear coat a little later in the write up

The vehicle was pre-foamed and washed, all the tar removed and a full iron decontamination completed. Any remaining contamination was removed through claying.

Now you are able to see just how bad the actual paintwork is.... loads of swirls, RDS and what looked like some buffer trails on the bonnet

Notice the deep scratches in the mirror - you will see and after shot later where these were all removed

This is a picture from one of the plastic panels on the car - as you can see the finish is really not that great

And now zoomed in really close

This meant that trying to polish the surface completely smooth would be impossible, resulting on a somewhat matt finish (when compared to the rest of the 'metal' panels) which is quite evident in the after shots.

Although having said that, it is not like the painted metal surfaces were free of defect - here you can see how bad the orange peel is

 

[lawrenceSA]

Another pic of the damage - this time under the garage lighting

The exhaust tip was then given a polish
Before

After

I then cleaned and dressed the engine bay

I tested out various pad/polish combo's and settled on Menzerna FG400 on a LC Cyan Pad for defect removal. This left the black paint somewhat hazy and so a follow up polish was done using Menzerna SF4000 on a LC Tangerine Pad. Finally I used Chemical Guys Black Light on a Menzerna Black Finishing pad as the last step prior to sealing with Chemical Guys V7.

Here I am starting to work on some really deep scratches (they were too deep to safely remove completely, so I tried to just minimize them as much as possible - when polishing plastic substrates you have to be even more careful than when polishing painted metal panels, as the plastic will not dissipate heat nearly as well as the metal panels do), which after talking to the owner, were a result of some offroading....apparently this little cars are quite capable and often show up some of the bigger more 'regular' 4x4's

Before

During

Some 50/50's

Notice how even after compounding the water spot just below the reflection of the light is still there, albeit somewhat lessened.... this is because the minerals left behind after the water is evaporated by the sun actually etch (eat) into the clear, and it is often very deep down

Before

After compounding only - notice how even though the defects are gone, the right hand (polished) side is now more grey than blacker unpolished side.... this is caused by the compound itself leaving its own sanding marks in the paint. This was easily rectified with the refining polish using SF4000

 

[lawrenceSA]

Another 50/50

Evidence of what the bird bombs do to your paint

And finally onto some 'after' shots

Remember the swirled out mess of a bonnet....

now this is how it was supposed to look

The roof before

Looking a lot better

Remember the scratched mirror

Now

Total time spent = 23 hours

Thanks for looking and as always any feedback is welcome

 

[TH3M B0N3Z]

Pretty awesome little truck there and much better looking.

 

[LatinFG2]

Excellent results!

 

[lawrenceSA]

Thank you very much.

Yeah it is pretty cool. It really grew on me over the weekend, and when my wife read the post (as she always does :lol...she commented on how she really grew fond of it too.

It often amuses me how spending so much time with a car for the weekend can impact your perception of a car...the 'feeling' you get when you see it on arrival and the 'feeling' on departure are usually always different....

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Very nice work.

That plastic has horrible orange peel.

 

[Father87]

Lawrence, you're the best...

 

[lawrenceSA]

Very nice work.

That plastic has horrible orange peel.

Thanks smack. Yeah it was definitely some of the worst I have personally worked on

Lawrence, you're the best...

Thank you very much indeed

 

[cartman57]

It often amuses me how spending so much time with a car for the weekend can impact your perception of a car...the 'feeling' you get when you see it on arrival and the 'feeling' on departure are usually always different....

Very true statement.
Your results are simply amazing!

 

[lawrenceSA]

Very true statement.
Your results are simply amazing!

thank you very much for your kind words cartman57

 

[sproketser]

Top job , I bet it wasn t an easy one mate !

 

[lawrenceSA]

Top job , I bet it wasn t an easy one mate !

Thank you.

An easy one.... do you get such a thing:dunno: :laughing: - all details are tough man....

But yeah I guess anytime you are doing a full 3-step correction on black paint it is going to be a little tougher than say a 1-step on a white car.

Black paint is so unforgiving that you really need to be on your A-game so to speak.