2015 Scion FR-S Release Series 1.0 - Corrected & Coated with CQuartz Finest

Zach McGovern

Certified Finest Installer
The owner of this limited edition vehicle brought the car to us to have the paint cleaned and protected. He opted for our most exclusive paint coating, CQuartz Finest, for exceptional gloss and shine that is backed by a 2 year warranty. Although the vehicle is just 6 months old, the paint was still greatly in need of correction as it had swirls and scratches throughout. We opted for a single step correction to restore clarity and gloss by removing the majority of lighter defects. This car is now extremely vibrant in the sun, and the gloss really shines when she is in the shade. What a great looking little car.


Process
Tires: Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner & Tire Brush
Wheels: Sonax Full Effect and various brushes
Foam Pre-Soak: Iron X Snow Soap
Wash: Iron X Snow Soap
Chemical Decontamination: Iron X & Tarminator
Mechanical Decontamination: Medium Speedy Prep Towel
Paint thickness readings taken
Tape trim and areas of concern: CarPro Tape
Paint Correction: Meguiar's M205 on Orange or White LC pads via Griot's G21 & Rupes LHR75E
Solvent Wipe: CarPro Eraser
Paint Protection: CarPro CQuartz Finest
Wheel Protection: CarPro Hydro2 Lite
Tire Dressing: CarPro PERL (neat)
Metal Polish: CG Metal Polish via MF towel
Glass: Meguiar's D120
Interior: Vacuum, 303, Glass Cleaned, Scrubbed All Weather Mats w/ Einszett Plastic Cleaner


The wheels and tires were fairly dirty upon arrival
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We began by spraying the tires liberally with tire cleaner (notice the dirt already forming on the concrete beneath the tire) and the wheels liberally with wheel cleaner to help break down the dirt and grime before we started washing them.
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The car was then treated to a very thorough cleaning & decontamination process which began with a foam pre-soak using CarPro IronX Snow Soap to help breakdown dirt and grime. The car is then rinsed and carefully handwashed to remove all loose surface dirt.
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The car was then treated to an IronX bath to remove bonded iron particles. The paint was extremely contaminated.
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IronX is a clear liquid that turns purple as it reacts with iron particles and starts to dissolve them. You can see all of the contamination on the paint once the chemical begins to work
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Iron contamination was just pouring off of this car.
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The vehicle was then furhter decontaminated with detailing clay to remove a considerable amount of bonded contaminates that left the paint feeling rough. It was already beginning to look a lot better.... but we were just getting started.
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The car was then brought inside for further inspection where we discovered plenty of defects throughout the entire car, though this color made it very difficult to capture the flaws on camera.
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I began on the door, and the improvement was easy to see from the start. The polishing process removed the haziness in the paint and produced a darker color and clearer finish.
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Watch in HD




Door before
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Door after
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Fender before
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Fender after
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50/50 on trunk
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Trunk before
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Trunk after
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Coming along nicely
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Fender before
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Fender after
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50/50 on door
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Door before
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Door after
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After the correction process was completed, the car was wiped down with a solvent to remove any residual polishing oils. The paint was then coated in 2 thick coats of CQuartz Finest paint coating which was then baked with IR Curing Lamps to promote higher gloss and hardness.
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Interior was cleaned
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#829/1500 Release Edition 1.0
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Exhaust tips before polishing
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After polishing
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The paint was not flawless, however the color and clarity was drastically improved by removing the lighter swirls and defects.
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The car looked stunning in the sunlight. Truly the most vibrant paint I have ever had the privilege of working on.
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Hoping the sun comes back out for some more photos, but it looks like rain is on the way.
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The sun never came back out, but at least the rain stayed away... so we headed downtown to my favorite spot for a quick photo shoot.

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Thanks for reading!
 
Amazing work as always. I always look forward to your mini photo shoots.:)
 
Thanks guys.

I shoot with a Nikon D610 camera body, and these particular shots were either taken with my 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.4, or 105mm f/2.8.

Photos were taken around noon, though the sky was very dark as there were storms rolling in.

A circular polarizing filter was used to knock out reflections to produce a more uniform look to the vehicle for these shots (very important little tool for automotive shots).

All images were captured in raw format and then processed in Adobe Lightroom. Processing consisted of lowering the exposure of the background by roughly 2/3 - 1 stop to emphasize the car. White balance was corrected, lens distortion was corrected, slight boost in contrast to taste using the tone curve. Photoshop was then used to remove some graffiti from the metal beams & to sharpen the image.

The image of the car on the brick road (1st image) was lit with one off camera speed light (Nikon SB-900) placed on the ground and fired at the side of the car. All other shots were natural light.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.
 
Awesome Zach. Also, I like your wall of detailing products. I like that and have a board just waiting to be used....great idea.

Steve
 
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