Friends Subaru....black or is that bleeck!

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mrgto

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Friend of mine saw the job I did on my sisters White Buick a few days ago and wanted her Subaru addressed. I think it was a 2005 that, again, had barely ever been washed and she drove it like a typical soccer mom.

But damn, it was bad. Exterior thrashed, interior thrashed worse. I did my best under time constraints. Same 5 step process: Hand wash, clay, compound, seal, wax. My little portable Orek vac stood ZERO chance against the carpets.

I used Clorox Anywhere spray, Zaino Leather Cleaner and finally Lexol leather cleaner with a brush to try and clean the seats...it's not fun finding old gum, candy, soda, ice cream, and other crap that was unidentifiable in those seats. Stuff that would make a Billy Goat puke.

I only had 6hrs because my day car was ending. It was a bear of a job. On with the pictures.....I'm still trying to find my way with an older PC. Without wet sanding I was still having issues getting out old old bird dropping stains, etc. Guess I need more practice.


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AFTER:


















 
Only 6 hours? I'd say you performed a miracle given that short amount of time!

Nice job!
 
Nice turnaround for six hours. That Subaru was a 12+ hour job easily. Luckily Subaru paint is on the softer side and a one step paint correction yields a high percentage of correction.

What product did you use for the polishing?
 
Yea, I mean I couldn't do the wheels correctly(take them off, clay, sand, etc to remove the staining). I did clean all the glass as well inside and out.

For the compound Meg Ultimate. Seal is Megs Mirror #20, and wax is Liquid Souveran.

Trust me it wasn't a perfect job. Still lots to be done. I just tried to get it presentable. If you were sitting in the car you'd see there was still plenty plenty more to be done to try and get it near perfect. But as they say, if you don't take care of a car from day one, it's that much harder to get it back to when it came out of the showroom.

The pics were from my SGSII so they aren't super high quality.

Thanks for the compliments.
 
I think you did an awesome job

This is exactly why I tell my friends that I do not do interiors

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c8n said:
I think you did an awesome job

This is exactly why I tell my friends that I do not do interiors

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Thanks. Yea that was sand, dog hair, all kinds of crap. I went through at least 5 cheap MF towels getting the scrubbed up crap out. It was nasty.
 
... presentable? dude!?! you completely flipped it on it's head!

Way to go! As a parent with young children myself, getting it 'presentable' is far less then what you did! Especially the interior. WOW! and in the time you had to do it, too.

Hopefully you will be able to have it again for a longer period of time to take it to the next level but keep up the good work!
 
Thanks guys. Just need to practice more. My Cavalier is a perfect test bed.
 
Should have scraped the Coexist Bumper Sticker off while you were at it!
 
Great save, the car looks much , much better.
You did a lot of work in only six hours.
 
Thanks all. The comments are really boosting my confidence. I always say I can always do better. Again, just wish I had the right tools and the time do it. It's tough with no garage, day care that leaves before you're not done and not being able to get the car until almost noon.

Thanks again. Greatly appreciated.
 
Great job especially for only six hours. :xyxthumbs: I think i would spend a least three hours ridiculing my friend. I hope you taught him a thing or two about taking care of his car. It always amazes me the amount of money people will spend on a vehicle and then neglect their investment.
 
Tinwhiskers said:
Great job especially for only six hours. :xyxthumbs: I think i would spend a least three hours ridiculing my friend. I hope you taught him a thing or two about taking care of his car. It always amazes me the amount of money people will spend on a vehicle and then neglect their investment.
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Thanks. No I think that is lost on her. As it is most people.
 
Really nice turn around. Especially in the little time you had. And on the interior.

May I ask what made you chose Ultimate Compound? Subaru's seem to have very soft paint. I corrected one last weekend with SF4000 on a LC crimson pad - a very mild combo in comparison

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/67270-obsidian-black-subaru-impreza-sti-detailed-lawrence.html

And I am interested to see if perhaps the one you detailed has harder clear?Did you perform a test spot or spots? Here is a good article on the subject http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-expert-featuring-mike-phillips/67335-doing-test-spots.html

It is important not to remove any clear coat than is necessary as the clear coat is there to protect the base coat from UV damage. 'Over-polishing' - the removal of too much clear coat, either in one go, or over multiple attempts - will increase the risk of a strike through or premature clear coat failure.

Lawrence
 
That poor little Subby was TRASHED! Especially the interior, just have to shake my head at messes like that...how can people let 'it' get so bad.

Great save!

Bill
 
lawrenceSA said:
Really nice turn around. Especially in the little time you had. And on the interior.

May I ask what made you chose Ultimate Compound? Subaru's seem to have very soft paint. I corrected one last weekend with SF4000 on a LC crimson pad - a very mild combo in comparison

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...ack-subaru-impreza-sti-detailed-lawrence.html

And I am interested to see if perhaps the one you detailed has harder clear?Did you perform a test spot or spots? Here is a good article on the subject http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-expert-featuring-mike-phillips/67335-doing-test-spots.html

It is important not to remove any clear coat than is necessary as the clear coat is there to protect the base coat from UV damage. 'Over-polishing' - the removal of too much clear coat, either in one go, or over multiple attempts - will increase the risk of a strike through or premature clear coat failure.

Lawrence
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It was the only compound I have and some people recommend it highly. I'm not too aware of how thick or think clear is from one manufacturer to another. I was told the car had never been waxed. So with that I knew I had to get off some and buff it out. there is one picture of the hood where I did a test and it seemed fine.

Not to mention I wasn't going to do any more damage to this paint than what was already done. The car was a mess. The pictures make it look like a million bucks but if you were to see the paint up close, it's horrible. It's got 88K miles on it and it's been lived in a very tough environment here near Boston. It's what we'd call a 20 footer.
 
mrgto said:
It was the only compound I have and some people recommend it highly. I'm not too aware of how thick or think clear is from one manufacturer to another. I was told the car had never been waxed. So with that I knew I had to get off some and buff it out. there is one picture of the hood where I did a test and it seemed fine.

Not to mention I wasn't going to do any more damage to this paint than what was already done. The car was a mess. The pictures make it look like a million bucks but if you were to see the paint up close, it's horrible. It's got 88K miles on it and it's been lived in a very tough environment here near Boston. It's what we'd call a 20 footer.
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Don't get me wrong, Ultimate Compound is a great product, one which I use often myself. I just believe that in this application it was too good....in other words it took off more clear coat than was necessary and that the same result could have been achieved with a less abrasive product.

I do however acknowledge and accept that you were the one working on the paint, and not me, and so I have no way of knowing for sure that your particular Subaru didn't in fact have harder paint.

I too never know for sure if the clear coat on the car I will be polishing is hard or soft, so to speak. That is why performing a test spot with your least aggressive combo is important. You can progressively dial in more cut based on the paint system of that particular car. This ensures you do not remove more clear than necessary.

Clear coat is only so thick - well actually thin - and any time you are polishing paint you are removing some. It is important therefore to preserve it through only removing as little as you can.

The mindset when deciding on how (the tools, process, products etc) to correct paint - essentially grinding down the clear until it is smooth again - should not be 'how do I remove all this damage' but rather 'how do I remove as little of the paint as possible to achieve the desired result'.

What is the desired result you ask....?

To me that is 'as safely close to what the customer expects'... This could be perfection for a show car or 'make my car shiny' for the owner of a daily driver. You have to educate your clients on what they can expect from the detail.

I always have a *detailed (lol) discussion before quoting on what I can do and what in my opinion SHOULD be done, and how I would do it. In the beginning their 'request' is to remove ALL the scratches from their car, but once i have armed them with an understanding of paint correction and preservation, they realize that this may not be the best thing, and that by not chasing perfection (unless it is for a show car for example) they can save their clear coat and thus mitigate an expensive respray down the road, and still leave some clear for a future 'spruce up', they are not only appreciative, but trust you more for it.




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