Topic: 2013 Subaru BRZ dressed in Satin White Pearl - Coated in Cquartz UK

[10secdream]

The owner of this 2013 Subaru BRZ in Satin White Pearl was looking to apply a ceramic paint coating to ensure years of long lasting paint protection while making the vehicle easier to wash. Overall the vehicle was in pretty good condition considering it has close to 100,000 km's on the odometer (previous owner must have drove around the world twice in a year).

Typically a light polish is recommended before applying a paint coating but for this detail we decided on a rigorous decontamination and paint cleaning to ensure that the coating bonded properly to the paint. The vehicle had very few defects to begin with and it is questionable whether or not the gloss in the paint coat be increased due to the semi-gloss nature of the satin paint.

I apologize in advance for the crappy before pictures. The sun was setting right when I started the detail so I never got to get any good before pictures.

Process

Exterior:
Wheels: Griots Heavy Duty Wheel Cleaner with various brushes
Tires: Zep Formula 505 Cleaner & Degreaser
Wheel Wells: Zep Citrus Cleaner (4:1)
Pre-wash: CG Citrus Wash & Gloss via foam cannon
Wash: CG Citrus Wash & Gloss via 2 Bucket Method
Decontamination 1: CarPro Trix
Decontamination 2: Riccardo Yellow Clay
Dry: Waffle Weave Towels
Paint Thickness: Taken using Digital Coating Thickness Gauge
Paint Cleaner: DP Coating Prep Polish applied by hand
Surface Prep: CarPro Eraser
Paint Protection: CarPro Cquartz UK
Glass Protection: CarPro Flyby30
Wheel Protection: Blackfire Crystal Seal
Tire Dressing: Optimum Optibond
Trim Dressing: Wolfgang Exterior Trim Sealant
Glass: Sonax Clear Glass via Glass Towel
Exhaust Polishing: P21s polishing soap

Before Photos:





















During Photos:







After Photos:





























Thanks for viewing and enjoy.

[Canuckrz]

The nose looks to be in pretty impressive shape for that many KM's. Was it 3m'd? And are those the OEM tires? Also did you do this entire job in one evening? If so that's damn impressive. I take forever whenever I detail my cars, partly distraction, partly lack of tooling, partly lack of experience.

If you were to do a gloss white car with no pearl/flake such as mine would you go about it similarly? Or would you take a different route as there's not much depth to extract from the paint compared to a pearl.

[05LGT]

Can I book you to do my BRZ next spring...

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Can you hold onto it for that long?

[10secdream]

The nose looks to be in pretty impressive shape for that many KM's. Was it 3m'd? And are those the OEM tires? Also did you do this entire job in one evening? If so that's damn impressive. I take forever whenever I detail my cars, partly distraction, partly lack of tooling, partly lack of experience.

If you were to do a gloss white car with no pearl/flake such as mine would you go about it similarly? Or would you take a different route as there's not much depth to extract from the paint compared to a pearl.

I am pretty sure both sides and the front bumper were recently repainted.

I completed this detail in about 4-5 hours from start to finish. Typically I reserve this sort of detail for new vehicles or vehicles that are in really good condition (little to no defects) which is why I call it my "New Vehicle Prep".  Typically I like to advise customers that a light correction is ideal before a coating to ensure that it bonds correctly and to remove defects before they are locked in with a coating.

Since the vehicle had very minor swirls we decided to go ahead with the coating as this vehicle is going to be daily driven.

If I were to go ahead and detail your vehicle it is ultimately up to you whether or not you wanted a light correction. Since your vehicle is older I would advise for a light polish (at the very minimum) to ensure that the coating will properly bond to the paint. I could still attempt to clean the paint with a paint cleaner along with all the decontamination steps but there is no guarantee whether or not you would get 2 year durability. The coating will also enhance the paint so if you did happen to trap in the defects they would be even more noticeable than before.

[10secdream]

Can I book you to do my BRZ next spring...

Absolutely. I am about 6 vehicles booked into next spring already....

[05LGT]

Can you hold onto it for that long?

As long as its competitive at auto x...