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2008 Infiniti G37s -Blue/Silver Full Correction (56k NO)
Hello everyone,
This detail was easily the biggest nightmare of my life. I was contacted by the owner from a detailing forum and he wanted me to do a paint correction + 2 tough-ups. I accepted the job and very clearly laid out proper expectations about touch-up work and the limitations of paint matching, etc.
Here are some general before shots with terrible ISO settings shot late at night to show the RIDS, swirls, and source of what were some semi-permanent water spots. The lack of lighting really bummed me out on the pictures because what I saw in person was easily TWICE as bad as what the camera picked up. Oh well....
This last picture captures a severe hologram from where the owner said the dealership had taken a rotary to the paint to try and get the scratches out there are still visible in the lower left part of the picture. The hologram is the silver/white thing trailing off and up to the right at an angle. Several portions of the car had holograms like this when it arrived.
Without getting into details, the touch-up became the worst nightmare of my entire life. I ended up getting 6 hours of sleep between Friday when I took the vehicle at 7:00 PM and began work, and Monday when I gave the vehicle back to the owner. I easily invested over 35 hours directly working on the paint in that time frame, and several other hours searching for possible solutions to the horrible paint miss-match and clear coat issues regarding the touch-up.
This is the scuff as it arrived; not particularly menacing in appearance, but as you can see there are deep scratches all around it that look like old school rubbing compound tracers. The owner said he didn't do it, but he did take it to a few places for an opinion and I have a hunch that somewhere along the line someone worked on this and thinned the already thin clear out, which later became a problem for me.
I have to admit, without the help of Nick Chapman I wouldn't have kept my sanity over the weekend. Working with no sleep, an empty stomach, and my name sake on the line made for the single most stressful and gut wrenching weekends of my entire life. Nick was a tremendous friend and really helped me stay calm and collected. I want to give a HUUUUGE shout out to Nick for being an amazing friend and supporter when I needed it most.
In the end, I had to outsource to a pro airbrush and match matching specialist who had to create an entirely new paint from scratch. The touch-up fix wasted a solid 15-20 hours of total time when it was all said and done.
Now, on to the stuff that I can control (I can't control paint matching or horrifically thin and soft factory paint) I did some test spots and got near full correction via:
Rotary @ 1,100 RPM + Meguiar's W8207 Yellow 2.0 Softbuff Polishing Pad + KBM style M205. At first I thought I was going to be able to do this process for the entire vehicle, but later realized that several sections of the car had a combination of A.) Severe RIDS, and B.) Different, harder paint.
These taped off 50/50 shots are of the door which responded well to the M205 alone, but the door didn't have the RIDS that most of the rest of the car did have. I DID USE a STRAIGHT 91% ISO wipe on the polished side of the tape, AND I followed that with a wipe down with Spray Way Foaming Glass Cleaner (also has alcohol, but gets rids of the haze or streaks ISO can leave). This is LEGIT, true correction. I checked this with 1,000 watts of halogen and the Brinkman Dual Xenon AND an HID light.
In some areas I used Rotary @ 1,000 RPM + Meguiar's W8207 Yellow 2.0 Softbuff Polishing Pad + M105 after testing with G110 and Ultimate Compound failed to give sufficient cut in stubborn locations only.
After 1 trip around the vehicle with the M105 I still had to go back with the G110 and some UC and hit spots and work out remaining RIDS or water spots.
After that I went around the vehicle with the M205 setup mentioned before. I found that I did create light holograms on most of the vehicle, with deeper, more stubborn holograms on any plastic surfaces like the bumpers.
After some testing I realized another trip around with the Rotary @ Zenith 1,000 - 1,250 - 900~ with a Meguiar's W9207 2.0 Black Finishing Pad + M205 was a MONEY combination. It eliminated the holograms in a single pass on everything but the bumpers, and left a completely flawless and glossy finish.
The scuff that had been outsourced for touch-up required follow up clear several days later, so I simply gave the vehicle a quick application of Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Wax for now, with the understanding that I would do a complete wax job after the paint work was finished and I could polish out that final location.
These four shots were taken by the owner after I gave the vehicle back with JUST UQW on the paint.
Although those 4 shots are what I call "cheater shots" since they do not really show true direct sun on the paint, I included them because they did show an accurate representation of the color of the paint after polishing. Notice how much more blue and purple there is compared to the before shots? It was astonishing.
About 2 weeks later I got to go finish the vehicle, and hit the area that had been airbrushed with the FLEX 3401 + Meguiar's W8207 Yellow 2.0 Softbuff Polishing Pad + M205. that removed all remaining swirls and then I followed with 1 more pass using M205 on a Black 2.0 Finishing Pad.
Here is the area that had the scuff post airbrush:
Is it 100% Not quite, but DANG it is close. It's harder to pick it up in person than with these macro shots for sure.
After finishing the polishing on the airbrushed panel I went over the entire vehicle with M66 Quick Detailer AIO cleaner wax via Meguiar's G110 and a 5.5 inch Lake Country white light polishing pad.
I then applied a coat of M21 2.0 via G110 + Meguiar's Black W9207 Finishing Pad.
Sadly, I forgot my camera and the one I borrowed from the owner did not take the type of sun shots I would have liked. Also, it was raining when I arrived, and I only had direct sun for a minute or two at a time as I was working on the vehicle. All of the "straight sun" shots to show the removal of swirls and RIDS were taken BEFORE wax was applied when the sun popped out.
The final overall shots did have the M66 ONLY on the vehicle, and then the sun went away again. I did not get shots with the M21 2.0 on the vehicle.
At the end of the day, I had about 40 hours into the detail, and I was glad to be done with it. The paint was the softest, thinnest paint I have worked on yet. It polished out to absolute stunning gloss and true flawless perfection in the end, but it was a lot of work to get it there.
I know everyone says this, but the pictures truly do not do the final product anything close to justice. The paint actually changed colors from when I took delivery. When I began work the car looked grey and dull- when I was done it had tons of purples and blues in the sun.
Personally, I am pretty disappointed with my own efforts in regards to recording the process and the pictures. I was too tired, and forced to work during the night or when it was raining so taking pictures was put on the back burner. I don't know what it is, but whenever I get a vehicle that I think would make for GREAT advertisement, I NEVER get quality pictures. It is really disappointing.
The owner was very pleased with the final result (the paint), as was I.
Hope you enjoyed it- sorry for the terrible pictures.
Mark Kleis
This detail was easily the biggest nightmare of my life. I was contacted by the owner from a detailing forum and he wanted me to do a paint correction + 2 tough-ups. I accepted the job and very clearly laid out proper expectations about touch-up work and the limitations of paint matching, etc.
Here are some general before shots with terrible ISO settings shot late at night to show the RIDS, swirls, and source of what were some semi-permanent water spots. The lack of lighting really bummed me out on the pictures because what I saw in person was easily TWICE as bad as what the camera picked up. Oh well....
This last picture captures a severe hologram from where the owner said the dealership had taken a rotary to the paint to try and get the scratches out there are still visible in the lower left part of the picture. The hologram is the silver/white thing trailing off and up to the right at an angle. Several portions of the car had holograms like this when it arrived.
Without getting into details, the touch-up became the worst nightmare of my entire life. I ended up getting 6 hours of sleep between Friday when I took the vehicle at 7:00 PM and began work, and Monday when I gave the vehicle back to the owner. I easily invested over 35 hours directly working on the paint in that time frame, and several other hours searching for possible solutions to the horrible paint miss-match and clear coat issues regarding the touch-up.
This is the scuff as it arrived; not particularly menacing in appearance, but as you can see there are deep scratches all around it that look like old school rubbing compound tracers. The owner said he didn't do it, but he did take it to a few places for an opinion and I have a hunch that somewhere along the line someone worked on this and thinned the already thin clear out, which later became a problem for me.
I have to admit, without the help of Nick Chapman I wouldn't have kept my sanity over the weekend. Working with no sleep, an empty stomach, and my name sake on the line made for the single most stressful and gut wrenching weekends of my entire life. Nick was a tremendous friend and really helped me stay calm and collected. I want to give a HUUUUGE shout out to Nick for being an amazing friend and supporter when I needed it most.
In the end, I had to outsource to a pro airbrush and match matching specialist who had to create an entirely new paint from scratch. The touch-up fix wasted a solid 15-20 hours of total time when it was all said and done.
Now, on to the stuff that I can control (I can't control paint matching or horrifically thin and soft factory paint) I did some test spots and got near full correction via:
Rotary @ 1,100 RPM + Meguiar's W8207 Yellow 2.0 Softbuff Polishing Pad + KBM style M205. At first I thought I was going to be able to do this process for the entire vehicle, but later realized that several sections of the car had a combination of A.) Severe RIDS, and B.) Different, harder paint.
These taped off 50/50 shots are of the door which responded well to the M205 alone, but the door didn't have the RIDS that most of the rest of the car did have. I DID USE a STRAIGHT 91% ISO wipe on the polished side of the tape, AND I followed that with a wipe down with Spray Way Foaming Glass Cleaner (also has alcohol, but gets rids of the haze or streaks ISO can leave). This is LEGIT, true correction. I checked this with 1,000 watts of halogen and the Brinkman Dual Xenon AND an HID light.
In some areas I used Rotary @ 1,000 RPM + Meguiar's W8207 Yellow 2.0 Softbuff Polishing Pad + M105 after testing with G110 and Ultimate Compound failed to give sufficient cut in stubborn locations only.
After 1 trip around the vehicle with the M105 I still had to go back with the G110 and some UC and hit spots and work out remaining RIDS or water spots.
After that I went around the vehicle with the M205 setup mentioned before. I found that I did create light holograms on most of the vehicle, with deeper, more stubborn holograms on any plastic surfaces like the bumpers.
After some testing I realized another trip around with the Rotary @ Zenith 1,000 - 1,250 - 900~ with a Meguiar's W9207 2.0 Black Finishing Pad + M205 was a MONEY combination. It eliminated the holograms in a single pass on everything but the bumpers, and left a completely flawless and glossy finish.
The scuff that had been outsourced for touch-up required follow up clear several days later, so I simply gave the vehicle a quick application of Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Wax for now, with the understanding that I would do a complete wax job after the paint work was finished and I could polish out that final location.
These four shots were taken by the owner after I gave the vehicle back with JUST UQW on the paint.
Although those 4 shots are what I call "cheater shots" since they do not really show true direct sun on the paint, I included them because they did show an accurate representation of the color of the paint after polishing. Notice how much more blue and purple there is compared to the before shots? It was astonishing.
About 2 weeks later I got to go finish the vehicle, and hit the area that had been airbrushed with the FLEX 3401 + Meguiar's W8207 Yellow 2.0 Softbuff Polishing Pad + M205. that removed all remaining swirls and then I followed with 1 more pass using M205 on a Black 2.0 Finishing Pad.
Here is the area that had the scuff post airbrush:
Is it 100% Not quite, but DANG it is close. It's harder to pick it up in person than with these macro shots for sure.
After finishing the polishing on the airbrushed panel I went over the entire vehicle with M66 Quick Detailer AIO cleaner wax via Meguiar's G110 and a 5.5 inch Lake Country white light polishing pad.
I then applied a coat of M21 2.0 via G110 + Meguiar's Black W9207 Finishing Pad.
Sadly, I forgot my camera and the one I borrowed from the owner did not take the type of sun shots I would have liked. Also, it was raining when I arrived, and I only had direct sun for a minute or two at a time as I was working on the vehicle. All of the "straight sun" shots to show the removal of swirls and RIDS were taken BEFORE wax was applied when the sun popped out.
The final overall shots did have the M66 ONLY on the vehicle, and then the sun went away again. I did not get shots with the M21 2.0 on the vehicle.
At the end of the day, I had about 40 hours into the detail, and I was glad to be done with it. The paint was the softest, thinnest paint I have worked on yet. It polished out to absolute stunning gloss and true flawless perfection in the end, but it was a lot of work to get it there.
I know everyone says this, but the pictures truly do not do the final product anything close to justice. The paint actually changed colors from when I took delivery. When I began work the car looked grey and dull- when I was done it had tons of purples and blues in the sun.
Personally, I am pretty disappointed with my own efforts in regards to recording the process and the pictures. I was too tired, and forced to work during the night or when it was raining so taking pictures was put on the back burner. I don't know what it is, but whenever I get a vehicle that I think would make for GREAT advertisement, I NEVER get quality pictures. It is really disappointing.
The owner was very pleased with the final result (the paint), as was I.
Hope you enjoyed it- sorry for the terrible pictures.
Mark Kleis
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