Zach McGovern
Certified Finest Installer
The owner of this vehicle contacted me last year about having this special SSR detailed. He was concerned with the swirls in the paint and wanted them cleaned up so the car could look its best. After discussing various options we also settled on the CQuartz Finest Premium Paint Coating as the best means to protect the finish and maintain that "just detailed" look.
This vehicle is rarely driven (~25,000 miles on the odometer) and has never even seen rain, but it definitely needed some work. The paint was riddled with swirls, scratches, and holograms which created a duller appearance that simply lacked the 'pop' of nicely polished bright red paint. The paint on this Chevy turned out to be very hard and required an immense amount of compounding. This cutting phase was then refined with a finishing polish to truly enhance the gloss and clarity in the paint. After this tedious correction process, the surface was carefully cleansed and then coated with 2 thick coats of CQuartz Finest. The paint looked like an entirely different color... the photos don't do it justice.
After several days of work, and a total of ~20 hours of labor, I was glad to be finished with this one. It turned out great, and the owner was thrilled, which makes it all worthwhile.
Process
Tires: Meguiar's D103 4:1
Wheels: ONR then lightly polished by hand with M205
Wash: ONR
Tar Removal: Tarminator
Decontamination: Nanoskin Fine Grade Mitt with Glide as Lubrication
Tape: 3M Performance Automotive Masking Tape & Painters Tape
Paint Thickness Readings Taken
Compound: HD Cut on 6.5" & 5.5" Meguiar's MF Cutting Pads via Rupes LHR21ES and 3" Pads via Rupes LHR75E
Polish: HD Polish on 5.5" LC White Polishing Pads via GG and 3" via PC7424XP
Wash: ONR
Surface Prep: CarPro Eraser
Coating: CarPro CQuartz Finest
LSP: Reload (24 hours after coating application)
Glass: Meguiar's D120 and DI Glass Towels
Exhaust Tips: P21S Polishing Soap
Tires: CarPro PERL
Before
Inspecting the paint in the sun after it had been thoroughly washed and decontaminated. Defects were easily visible.
Inspecting the paint under LED lighting after it had been thoroughly washed and decontaminated
Hood in the sun before correction.
Hood in the sun after correction. The majority of light to moderate defects were removed which greatly restored color and clarity to the surface. There were some deeper defects that remained, however these are much harder to spot even in direct lighting.
This 50/50 shot does a great job showing the difference in depth and color. The corrected area on the left is clearly deeper and richer color, and the outline of the reflections are much more crisp and clear.
Fender before correction.
Fender after compounding.
Fender before correction. Notice the amount of deeper defects.
Fender after multiple compounding passes. As I mentioned, this paint was very hard. Most of the vehicle was compounded twice and some areas three times! (A total of ~8-16 passes with very slow arm speed and rather high machine speed)
Door before correction
Here you can see more improvement after 2 sets of compounding passes, but this particular set of scratches weren't going anywhere.
After correction was completed, CQuartz Finest was applied and the paint took on a completely new appearance. It was like glass!
CQuartz Finest is truly an amazing coating. Within minutes it is hard enough that it begins to repel itself. I wiped a small amount of coating on this section to demonstrate these properties - notice the tiny beads of coating that had formed immediately after touching the surface.
After applying CQuartz Finest, the vehicle was pulled out into the setting sunlight for inspection. Looking great!
The vehicle was left to cure overnight and I finished up the smaller details the following afternoon. Here is the exhaust tips before polishing.
After rubbing with P21S polishing soap.
Exhaust all polished and looking like new again.
The tires had an extreme amount of tire dressing built up on them. There was so much old solvent based dressing on the tire that it formed a thick, dull layer of goo on the surface of the tire. Notice how much deeper and nicer the clean section on the right looks. Note: The right side has NOT been dressed yet. This is just from cleaning the tire!
I used quite a few towels on this job (as I do on most jobs)
This vehicle is rarely driven (~25,000 miles on the odometer) and has never even seen rain, but it definitely needed some work. The paint was riddled with swirls, scratches, and holograms which created a duller appearance that simply lacked the 'pop' of nicely polished bright red paint. The paint on this Chevy turned out to be very hard and required an immense amount of compounding. This cutting phase was then refined with a finishing polish to truly enhance the gloss and clarity in the paint. After this tedious correction process, the surface was carefully cleansed and then coated with 2 thick coats of CQuartz Finest. The paint looked like an entirely different color... the photos don't do it justice.
After several days of work, and a total of ~20 hours of labor, I was glad to be finished with this one. It turned out great, and the owner was thrilled, which makes it all worthwhile.
Process
Tires: Meguiar's D103 4:1
Wheels: ONR then lightly polished by hand with M205
Wash: ONR
Tar Removal: Tarminator
Decontamination: Nanoskin Fine Grade Mitt with Glide as Lubrication
Tape: 3M Performance Automotive Masking Tape & Painters Tape
Paint Thickness Readings Taken
Compound: HD Cut on 6.5" & 5.5" Meguiar's MF Cutting Pads via Rupes LHR21ES and 3" Pads via Rupes LHR75E
Polish: HD Polish on 5.5" LC White Polishing Pads via GG and 3" via PC7424XP
Wash: ONR
Surface Prep: CarPro Eraser
Coating: CarPro CQuartz Finest
LSP: Reload (24 hours after coating application)
Glass: Meguiar's D120 and DI Glass Towels
Exhaust Tips: P21S Polishing Soap
Tires: CarPro PERL
Before
Inspecting the paint in the sun after it had been thoroughly washed and decontaminated. Defects were easily visible.
Inspecting the paint under LED lighting after it had been thoroughly washed and decontaminated
Hood in the sun before correction.
Hood in the sun after correction. The majority of light to moderate defects were removed which greatly restored color and clarity to the surface. There were some deeper defects that remained, however these are much harder to spot even in direct lighting.
This 50/50 shot does a great job showing the difference in depth and color. The corrected area on the left is clearly deeper and richer color, and the outline of the reflections are much more crisp and clear.
Fender before correction.
Fender after compounding.
Fender before correction. Notice the amount of deeper defects.
Fender after multiple compounding passes. As I mentioned, this paint was very hard. Most of the vehicle was compounded twice and some areas three times! (A total of ~8-16 passes with very slow arm speed and rather high machine speed)
Door before correction
Here you can see more improvement after 2 sets of compounding passes, but this particular set of scratches weren't going anywhere.
After correction was completed, CQuartz Finest was applied and the paint took on a completely new appearance. It was like glass!
CQuartz Finest is truly an amazing coating. Within minutes it is hard enough that it begins to repel itself. I wiped a small amount of coating on this section to demonstrate these properties - notice the tiny beads of coating that had formed immediately after touching the surface.
After applying CQuartz Finest, the vehicle was pulled out into the setting sunlight for inspection. Looking great!
The vehicle was left to cure overnight and I finished up the smaller details the following afternoon. Here is the exhaust tips before polishing.
After rubbing with P21S polishing soap.
Exhaust all polished and looking like new again.
The tires had an extreme amount of tire dressing built up on them. There was so much old solvent based dressing on the tire that it formed a thick, dull layer of goo on the surface of the tire. Notice how much deeper and nicer the clean section on the right looks. Note: The right side has NOT been dressed yet. This is just from cleaning the tire!
I used quite a few towels on this job (as I do on most jobs)
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