I finally got my Boss bonnet fitted so I decided to give it a light paint correction.
The car was polished up about 8 months ago but since then has recieved a fair amount of light scratches and swirls.

Frank from Pymble Pestige Smash painted and fitted the bonnet for me and also gave the side guards a flick with some pearland clear to help the bonnet colour match up nicely. He did a great job at getting the paint nice and flat.

Day 1

I started off with taking off the headlight covers, Number plates and rear spoiler just to make it easier when I polish up the car tomorrow.



I reckon it doesnt look too bad without the spoiler

Next up I gave the wheels a light clean.
I used Driven MSC (Multi-surface cleaner) diluted 7:1. Sprayed it onto the wheels and let them dwell for about 30 seconds then lightly brushed them with my Laitner brake dust brush. (These will be polished at the end of the detail)



The car was then washed using the 2 bucket method with a MF wash mitt and Prima Mystique auto wash.

After the car was washed and rinsed I moved onto dewaxing the car. Again, I used Driven MSC diluted at 10:1. I misted it over the any exterior parts of the car which I have applied protectants to before. It was left to do its work for a couple minutes then I gave it another quick wash and rinse.

The way I could tell that the car has been stripped of wax is that after rinsing the car, the water did not sheet off the car as easily as when the protection was on.

I left the car wet and started claying the car using Clay Magic Blue and Driven Quick Spray concentrate as a lubricant.
The Clay Magic clay is of fine grade and is easy to knead aswell. I have used this piece of clay on at least 25 vehicles so far.
I sprayed the lubricant on the surface I was working on and moved the clay in a side to side motion to remove the contaminants on the paint.

The car didnt have much contaminants as I clay every 3 months but the roof and boot did require abit more loving than the other panels. It took 35 mintues to clay the car.

The car was rinsed down again after claying then dried with a large waffle weave towel.

I folded the towel into 1/4's and dragged the towel across the panel in one direction. A good quality waffle weave towel like the one I used should be able to dry a full sized car in one go before having to wring it out.

I then masked up the rubbers and plastics with painters tape. You can get the 3M blue painters tape from bunnings but they aint cheap. About $10 a roll or you have the cheaper alternatives but they are still about $7-$8.
The reason masking up is needed is so that rubbers and plastics arent burnt during the machine polishing process.


I went around the car marking out any imperfections which will require extra attention such as heavier polishing & wet sanding.

Day 2

The day started off at 8:30am after some suasage & egg MC muffins and hash browns.

First up I measured the paint thickness around the car. The paint was still near factory thickness (130-150um) except for the c pillars which read about 90-100um.
Roof

C-pillar


Next was to wet sand the defects which were marked out yesterday.
I used 2000 grit wet paper with a soft sanding block to level out the defects as much as possible without going throught the clear.
To get rid of the sand marks I used Prima Swirl with a 4" Orange LC pad by rotary. This combination got the sand marks out without a problem. I started the speed off at 600rpm until the product was spread and bumped it straight up to 1500rpm. When the product started to break down i gradually decreased the speed to 1200,900 then 600rpm to refine the paint.
C-pillar Before

C-pillar After

Rear bar before

Rear bar after

Rear quater before

Rear quater after

Door handle before

Door handle after


Once that was done I got the Metal Halide lamp on to take a closer look at the condition of the paint.
Like I mentioned yesterday, the car wasnt in too bad of a condition except for the boot & roof.
Boot didnt have much swirls but it did have scratches on it from my missus putting her hand bag on it!

The panels which were recently resprayed had hazing & buffer trails let from heavy compounding from the panel shop.



I started off doing a test on the boot as that was one of the panels which had the more severe paint defects. There wasnt much scratches but the ones which were there were fairly deep.
I used prima on my car before so I thought I'd give it another go.
I used Prima Swirl with 6.5" white LC pad(rotary) and the first pass got out about 70% of the swirls and scratches. So instead of going to a a*** pad or polish I did another pass with the same pad and product and this corrected it up nicely.
Method was: Use side to side continuous motion. Spread product with rotary at 600rpm. Bump speed upto 1500rpm for correction. Once product is starting to break down, gradually drop speed down to 1200,900 and 600rpm to refine the paint.

After 2 stage

I did the same process with the roof aswell.

Next I moved onto the bonnet. I used the same pad & product combo as what I did for the roof and boot but only needed to do 1 pass with the rotary as it was only light buffer trails which needed to be corrected.


The rest of the car was still in good condition so all I needed was Prima Finish with 6.5" LC grey pad(rotary). This is a light finishing polish which will gently cleanse the paint and remove fine buffer trails and hazing. The whole car was done with this step.

Method used: Use side to side continuous motion. Spread product with rotary at 600rpm. Bump speed upto 1200rpm for light correction & polish. Once product is starting to break down, gradually drop speed down to 900 and 600rpm to finesse the paint.

This is the amount of product used to polish 1/4 of the bonnet.


Residue was buffed off after polishing each panel with Black barron foam pad lubricant and a MF towel.

Here are some shots of the car after the correction process.
No LSP or glaze has been applied.

Normally I would give the car a wipe down with some isopropyl alcohol to remove all the polish residue but I didnt have any on hand so I gave the car a wash and dry before I applied the glaze. Normally a glaze will help clean and prepare the paint for LSP (last step product ie: wax/sealant) but I still prefer to wash the car before hand.

Now that the car has been washed and dried I moved onto enhancing the paint with Prima Amigo polymer glaze. I used a Red 6.5" LC pad with a RO(Festool ETS 150) to appy the glaze.

The glaze was applied at low to moderate speed (1-2 on Festool) and left to haze and buffed off with plush MF towel.

I let the glaze sit for about 1/2 hour before applying the sealant.

For protection I chose to go for Driven Auto polish. This can be used as an AIO (all in one) but I like to use it as an LSP as it has great durability. Prima Epic gives the car a nice finish when used with Amigo but needs to be repplied every 2-3 months.

The Driven Auto polish was applied with a foam applicator pad using a side to side motion. The polish was applied to the whole car before buffing off with a MF towel.
Less is more when you apply LSP's. It should look something like this when the product is applied.


Here are the final results of todays paint correction & enhancement.
Boot

bonnet

Side

Rear

Roof


Reflection of sky on boot



The finish turned out nice and slick. The paint was so smooth that when i tried to close the door, my fingers slipped right off the door frame!
Now its time to go have a beer!
Cheers
Dave

Wow, thats pretty impressive, i have a couple of similar things needing fixing. I will learn from thius thread.

Bloody hell, you were sure thorough! I am also pleased that you have gone into such detail for many to copy. Really good job matey

man... you are pretty bloody good at that...

looks heaps good... maybe even better than factory...

very nice...

Fantastic Job man well done

Something to learn.

VERY nice job!

very nice. ill drop mine off tomorrow

Thanks for the positive comments guys



No problems if your willing to drive from Perth