Wes_R x Solid Red GT-R (82 pics)

[Wes_R]

Hi GT-R Canadians,





Not my first GT-R to work on but my second write up on one since this one http://forums.gtrcanada.com/media/32...-120-pics.html




I had spoken to this owner over the span of a year and we had finally set up a date to 2 stage polish this Solid Red GT-R some time in the beginning of August. The car was a garage queen and the swirling was not so bad... actually one of the better condition GT-Rs I had worked on but we wanted to get a 9, 9.5 out of 10 correction so we agreed on a 2 stage polish.







Moving on to the write up here is the first walk around the car.








Already noticed a buffer trail that needed to be corrected






As usual starting with the rims, I cleaned the face and behind with a microfiber wash mitt




Used my brush to clean the calipers


A stiff brush to clean the tire wall


And my EZ Brush to clean the inner barrel




The wheel wells were cleaned also with APC and a curved handle brush






The exhaust was not to bad and was sort of an easy clean up






Moving on to the engine, it was not at all in bad shape but just a little dusty and could use a quick clean up and dressing to make it look new again


Dusty


All clean and dressed up


Artsy Fartsy shot


Stop lying

[Wes_R]

I pulled out another detail brush and took care of the tight areas like the vents etc








Finally getting onto the wash stage the car was foamed down




While the car was foaming I realized I had forgotten to clean the gas tank




I 2 Bucket Method washed the car with my natural sea sponge




And rinsed off my sponge in the water only bucket after every panel or half a panel





Then dried the car with a plush microfiber towel




Brought the car in to clay*


And it was not in bad shape at all




After the claying I measured the paint to see what levels I was working with




I found a section that was repainted and learned that the car had come with a huge scratch from the factory and this section was repainted under warranty which I guess also explains the buffer trail I first noticed


repaint






I masked all the rubber trim

[Wes_R]

And now could begin polishing. The combo I opted for was Menzerna SIP with a Orange Lake Country Pad on a Makita rotary. Here are the befores and afters of a few panels

Before


After


Before


After


A quick shot of yours truly polishing


Before


After


Before


After




I alcohol wiped down the car and begin to prepare for the 2nd stage of polishing. The paint was already shining very well but I wanted to push the gloss a little higher so I jeweled the paint with Menzerna Po85RD a white Lake Country pad and my Flex3401.


Here is a the gloss I was achieving with this combination




I gave the paint a 2nd and final alcohol wipe down to clean off the polishing oils then unmasked the car








After unmasking and cleaning off the polishing oils I inspected the paint with my 3M Sun Gun which omits the same spectrum light as the sun.


Perfect




I had to take another shot of the gloss, and this was with no wax on, only polishing




Wax of the day was Swissvax Concorso


Applied




While the wax was curing I attended to other areas like putting Poor Boys Wheel Sealant on the rims and exhaust

[Wes_R]

Here are a couple after pics of the exhaust




And I cleaned the windows with my Glass Master Pro.




Unfortunately it had rained but I got a small window to quickly take a few after shots which I don't think turned out that bad and actually it was kind of cool to still see the paint looking very glossy on a cloudy day







The gloss was looking very nice in this pic


Some nice reflections














I liked the reflection in this shot










And to complete the walk around




Finally my last 2 favorite pics






Not wanting to push my luck with the rain I quickly put away the GT-R in the garage.

Hope you enjoyed the write up and seeing the different steps of the detail.

Best regards!
Wes

[Messiahlee]

That is a incredible looking job man.
What do you charge for a job like that?

[Nvdgtr]

Do you always polish in the dark? is that to see any scratches with the light?

awesome job!!

[326_godzilla]

props to Wes! you need someone local he's the man. My buddy @ my accord club had his car done by Wes. Still in great condition after each carwash.

[bellis_GTR]

Very nice job!

[Kunzz]

That is a incredible looking job man.
What do you charge for a job like that?

+1
Very interested as well. If you don't feel comfortable putting up an exact price because I'm sure each car requires a different approach/set of products, perhaps a ball park range?

Good thing you're local to me!!

[mvs2]

Amazing. That is all I can think of

[louis110]

Nice work! You can give cobraAA a run for his money lol

[Wes_R]

Do you always polish in the dark? is that to see any scratches with the light?

awesome job!!

Yes I polish in the dark so that the light can focus more on the scratches.

Thanks!

props to Wes! you need someone local he's the man. My buddy @ my accord club had his car done by Wes. Still in great condition after each carwash.

Thanks for vouching for me!

Very nice job!

That is a incredible looking job man.
What do you charge for a job like that?

+1
Very interested as well. If you don't feel comfortable putting up an exact price because I'm sure each car requires a different approach/set of products, perhaps a ball park range?

Good thing you're local to me!!

As you say it all depends on the condition. To be honest I feel uncomfortable discussing numbers. If your serious feel free to call me at (647)999-8499

Amazing. That is all I can think of

lol

[Wes_R]

Nice work! You can give cobraAA a run for his money lol

lol I guess I could

[Wes_R]

Wes_R x R8 (113 pics)

Hi everybody,

Todays write up is on a Ibis White R8 with the silver side blade, very classy in my opinion. I had seen this R8 before near the area where I grew up and can actually remember spotting it one night on my way to a Pacquiao fight(I asked the owner later to confirm it was him). Funny how a car you admire on the street just ends up in your drive way... I love it when life works out like that .

Anyway let's get into the write up.



Here she is and a quick walk around of the car.












I start with the wheels/engine/exhaust first, reason being things can get messy and you wouldn't want that mess with a clean already washed car. So we start with these areas first.

Brake dust covered rim


Applying Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner.

Anything non acidic to clean your rim is best and one thing I love about this cleaner is it's ability to pull dirt out of the tire very well and with some agitation you can turn a brown tire back into black which is great for later on when you apply the tire dressing. You wouldn't wax a dirty car would you? But yet a lot of people dress their tires while they are still dirty not realizing brake dust gets on the tire to.


Agitating the inner barrel with my EZ Brush.


Cleaning the rim face with a microfibre mitt.


And cleaning the caliper with my Race Glaze Brush.




Cleaned up the exhaust as well.

Here they are with some Chemical Guys Grime Reaper applied to them.


Used my mini EZ Brush to clean in between the dual exhaust.


And a 0000 steel wool pad to clean inside the pipes.


Here is an after of how the driver's side looks.




I didn't want to do an all out cleaning on the engine as I believe this is the same V8 from the RS4 and the coils are exposed, so to get them wet would mean problems. Yet I couldn't just leave the engine bay dusty because it is on display and will be looked at. So I used Optimum Power Clean cut 30/70 with water and wiped the engine bay down with a damp microfibre cloth getting clean areas that I could reach. Afterwards I wiped on Meguiars Hyper Dressing cut 20/80 with water for a natural finish.

Here is an after pic of the engine bay.




Just before the wash I wanted to clean up all the mesh vents & etc. So I took my Race Glaze Brush and the Optimum Power Clean and cleaned up all these areas first.












After brushing out the vents I foamed down the car with Prep Wash to strip off any silicones that might have been applied to the paint. Doing this would help reveal the true condition of the paint stripping off any filler products that might have been hiding anything.


Let it dwell for a bit while I prepared to wash the car.

[Wes_R]

The two bucket method was used to wash the car. The reason for washing with two buckets is simple one bucket is water the other soap, after every panel you rinse off the dirt from your wash media in the water only bucket before you dip it back in the soap bucket. Doing it this way prevents you from dragging dirt all over your paint causing more swirls on the paint. Some can say that I am going to polish out the swirls any way but I feel it is backwards to induce more while I am washing.


Natural Sea Sponge was my wash media.




Dried off the car with my waffle weave towels and then brought it in to clay the paint.

For those of you not to familiar with what clay does, it basically sheers out contaminants embedded in the paint. This can be raildust, fallout, or even just tiny dirt debris. If you wash your car and run your hands along the paint you will probably find that it is rough. What you are feeling is the surface contaminants.

Riccardo Yellow clay was used. I had run out of lube which is usually Meguairs Last Touch cut 50/50 with water but this time it was just straight water.


Paint was fairly contaminated but not terribly.




Moving along I measured the paint to look out for any low spots or if anything had been repainted. I found the paint to be fairly thick with every panel being 170 microns or more with the average being about 200 microns. I found it funny that a stone chip I noticed still had paint in it instead of exposed metal, just to give you an idea of how thick the paint was as well Audi paint is known to be rock hard so that helps to.








I masked up all the non metallic trim to protect them from getting burnt.






Now we begin the surgery.

I was hoping to just 1 step polish the paint but with Audi paint being rock hard I had to 2 step it to correct the swirls and then to jewel the paint to a high gloss.

My process for the first step was Meguiars M205 with a Lake Country orange pad on the Makita rotary and here are the results I was getting.

Before


After


Before


After


Before(I don't know what happened here, but it looks like brillio pad work)


After


Before


After


Before


After