Mitsubishi Evolution IX MR \\ Paint Correction

[JSou]

Vehicle: Mitsubishi Evolution IX MR

Defects: Compound residue in almost all cracks & crevices, holograms via rotary/wool pad combo and poor technique, and swirls from a dirty rag or poor wash techniques (I'm assuming).

Plan of attack: We decided to take the paint to it's full potential. The story was the body shop the owner hired was unable to achieve the desired finish after attempting to wetsand and "buff" the entire vehicle 4 times! The car sat in the body shop's possession after 3+ months until the owner got fed up and contacted me as the last attempt to save the paint. He did not want to repaint it unless necessary. The pics below will tell you why he was unhappy.

Tools & Products:

Exterior
- OmniClean All Purpose Cleaner
- Tufshine Tire Brush
- Wheel Woolies 1" Boar's Hair Detailing Brush
- Wheel Woolies Angle, Straight in variety of sizes
- Daytona Wheel Brush
- Meguiar's Gold Class Shampoo
- Griot's Garage Washing Pad
- 2BM with grit guards
- Air Force Master Blaster
- Carpro Eraser wipe down of entire vehicle and crevices
- P21S Finish Restorer for the lips of wheels
- Black Pearl Trim and Tire Armour (Clear Finish)

Paint Correction:
- Rupes LHR21ES with 5" Kamikaze Beast backing plate
- Rupes LHR12E Duetto with 3" Kamikaze Beast backing Plate
- 6" Rupes Yellow Polishing pad
- 4" Rupes Yellow Polishing pad
- Shine Supply Classic Polish

LSP:
BlackFire BlackIce (First time. It was a dream to use and I'm not really a paste wax guy)

Holograms..

Caked up Compound...

Even on trim...

Swirls....

Test Spot Dialed in.

50/50 of the driver fender.

SHORT CLIP OF THE FENDER 50/50: CLICK HERE!!! https://vid.me/e/vydT


Hood corrected and wiped down with Eraser.

Fender corrected and wiped down with Eraser.

No sun shots as we finished up everything just after 2am working straight with the only breaks being the bathroom and water/food. We spent approximately 21 hours on correction alone, not counting the wash and prep stages. For now, I'll leave it with a teaser pic.

Final Thoughts: The paint "hardness" was as expected for a respray, SOFT. About 6 section passes with the Rupes/Yellow Pad/Classic Polish and it corrected and finished to where we liked it. I am still in disbelief at the mistreatment from the bodyshop. The owner was ecstatic after the vehicle was complete. He thought he would need to repair/refinish the vehicle through another shop. IT DOES NOT NEED TO NOW!

Blackfire BlackIce is such a nice product to use, easy to spread via machine and by hand. It's also just as easy to wipe off. I may use this product as my replacement for Blackfire's wet diamond all finish paint protection sealant as an LSP. I will be monitoring it's properties throughout this vehicle's maintenance washes. The paint is gleaming now!

I will update this thread with some glamour shots and the longevity info of Blackice.

Thanks for looking! Comments, Questions, and Hate always welcomed.

 

[Sicoupe]

Outstanding job my friend!

 

[zmcgovern45]

Great looking car... and even better work saving it!

 

[conman1395]

Awesome job on an awesome car.

Can we see pictures of your backing plates? I've been curious of these ever since I've heard of them.

 

[JSou]

Awesome job on an awesome car.

Can we see pictures of your backing plates? I've been curious of these ever since I've heard of them.

:dblthumb2:

 

[7.3powerstroke]

You wrote "we" spent 21 hours on correction alone. Were you working by yourself or do you have a helper? Just for clarification. Thanks bud and car looks awesome. Side note: also picked up a Kamikaze for my 21. Didnt use it much yet.

 

[JSou]

Outstanding job my friend!

Thanks bud!

Great looking car... and even better work saving it!

I couldn't let it sit so I scheduled him right away. Thanks Zach!

You wrote "we" spent 21 hours on correction alone. Were you working by yourself or do you have a helper? Just for clarification. Thanks bud and car looks awesome. Side note: also picked up a Kamikaze for my 21. Didnt use it much yet.

I appreciate it! I do have a helper. I should've put "man" hours instead as we spent close to 10 and a half hours together just on the correction process. I was on the 21 and my helper on the Duetto.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the plate. As for myself, I love it and do not care if others feel it is overkill, overrated, or overpriced. It works well for me.

 

[fly07sti]

OMG! My 2 year old daughter can buff better than that body shop. Don't think I've ever seen that much residue left on a car before. Great job bringing it back. I've been eye balling those Kamikaze BP's for a while now.

 

[JSou]

OMG! My 2 year old daughter can buff better than that body shop. Don't think I've ever seen that much residue left on a car before. Great job bringing it back. I've been eye balling those Kamikaze BP's for a while now.

Thanks! I agree. This is the third vehicle this year from a bodyshop that I've cleaned up. Seems to be the same quality from all of the shops around this area.

The BPs are nice. If you could swing the money for them, I'd recommend it. That's not to say the machines won't work fine without them but they are really nice to use after the mod.

Sun shots as promised. Did it's first maintenance wash today. Blackfire Blackice sheets/beads well. I'll continue to document as time goes on.

Beading from Blackfire Blackice