Aspen White Subaru WRX Sti - Detailed by Lawrence

[lawrenceSA]

Anyone who has been following my work for a while now will know I've liked Scoobies since I was a kid. So far I have been fortunate enough to detail 3 (all black) - 2 in 2013 and a 1 in 2014, so I was really looking forward to getting my hands on one again :grin:


This car is new to the current owner and was in desperate need of a detail. The previous owner had unfortunately given the car little love and it showed, sometimes in the most horrendous ways as you will see later. The owner is changing the wheels so I was asked not to worry about detailing those - they had clearcoat failure in places (mostly the lip) and I can only assume that someone had been polishing these with a metal polish, thinking they were exposed metal when in fact they were sprayed with clear coat - but you know me - I simply couldn't let the car go without cleaning the wheels :lol: its the first place I look and it would just be so wrong (to me) presenting a completed car back to the owner with dirty wheels, which would detract from the overall look of the car...


Here is what they looked like before, with the biggest problem being the solvent based tyre dressing which had been slung up off the tire onto the fender lip (and of course down the sides of the car too) - one of the main reasons why I prefer to use water based dressings.





The fender wells were sprayed with Carchem Citrus APC @ 1:5 though a foaming spray nozzle, left to dwell, agitated with a Daytona wheel brush and pressure rinsed, then dressed with Autofinesse Dressel. The tires cleaned using the same process but using a Mothers tyre brush, and dressed with Carchem Tyre and Trim Gel. The wheels were cleaned using Valet Pro Billberry @ 1:5 and Wheel Woolies.


After





The rest of the car was not overly dirty








My usual approach to washing the car was used.


Pressure rinse
Foam - Valet Pro ANSF
Pressure rinse
TFR - Valet Pro Citrus Prewash
Pressure rinse
2BM wash - Carchem Luxury Shampoo
Pressure rinse





No visible tar spots were found on the paint, and so at this point all the paint and glass surfaces were sprayed with Carchem Revolt to remove the embedded 'iron' contamination . It was left to dwell then agitated with a dedicated wash mitt and minimal bleeding was observed (a good thing indicating that not much of this type of contamination had been present in the paint - although bleeding pics are cool for the net, in reality you want to spray iron remover onto the surface and not see any reaction).


The car was then given a final foaming and pressure rinse, before being pulled back into the garage to be dried (ONR + WW drying towels) in preparation for further decontamination. All the glass and painted surfaces were then clayed using Shield Heavy Duty Clay with ONR as lube.


I knew that these cars have soft paint and my initial test spot with a finishing polish/pad (Menzerna SF4000 / Lake Country Crimson) yielded around 80% correction. I then switched to a White Lake Country Hybrid which was slightly better. After a few more combos I eventually settled on Menzerna PF2300 on a white pad - all using the Flex 3401. Paint readings varied from 70µ to 90µ on the roof and 95µ to 125µ on the remaining OEM painted panels with the repainted sections ranging from 170µ to 285µ


The previous owner had attempted to remove a bunch of stickers that were present on almost every panel but had gone about it in the worst possible way - they had used force to 'rub' the sticker residue off, instead of using the appropriate chemical to dissolve the residue, allowing you to gently and safely wipe it away.


The sequence of before/after pics below is the end result and are pretty much indicative of the before/after condition of all the panels.


Before





After





Before





After





Before





After





Before





After





There were some rather deep scratches in a few places that I was able to safely improve a fair bit, but not completely remove


Before





After





I had also initially wanted to try polish out the yellow staining in the paint here but as you can see, someone has already polished off the clear coat on the top edge of the panel, so I was not prepared to further thin out this area - sometimes you have to know when to leave things as they are instead of chasing 'perfection'.





Whilst in the bootlid, the rubber was removed and cleaned using Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner, and the painted areas cleaned/polished/protected using Autofinesse Tripple.


Before





After





The door shuts were also cleaned using the same process.


Before





After





The paint was then protected using Collinite #845 which was applied, left to set up for 45 minutes then buffed off.


The exterior plastics were further cleaned using Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner then dressed using Carchem Tyre and Trim Gel.


Before





After





The exhaust tip was first cleaned using Carchem Citrus APC @1:5, then polished using Meguiars NXT All Metal Polish


Before





After





The few remaining details were then tackled...


Door and window rubbers
Clean - Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and rubber cleaner
Protect - Aerospace 303


Glass
Clean - Autoglym Fast Glass, multiple MF towels
Rain repellent - Wynns C-thru


Badges & Emblems
Clean/polish/protect - Autofinesse Tripple, Q-tips, MF towels


Interior
Vacuum - Flex VL35C
Interior Plastics - Carchem APC @ 1:20, various brushes / Autofinesse Spritz
Interior Carpets - Brush, vacuum, Mothers Carpet and Upholstery cleaner, brush, vacuum
Seats - Valet Pro Citrus Prewash @ 1:100, MF Towels
Pedals - Carchem APC @ 1:20, various brushes


And finally on to some pictures of the completed car.
































Total time taken 32 hours


As always, thanks for looking and any comments or questions are welcome.

[MartinQ]

Lawrence,

First let me say im a huge Subaru fan too. You did great with the process and you can tell by the photos you have the right attitude going into it. I spent 25 hours ( paint only) on a "sonic yellow" blaze yellow 02 Bugeye have done prolly 20 Subarus and your right the paint is soft with these cars. Great work Huge thumbs up.

I have read a few of your threads Amazing, Dedicated work.

Marty

Subaru FTW

[FrankS]

Excellent work and attention to details Lawrence!

[fly07sti]

If I ever find myself in South Africa with my Sti, I will Most definitely be seeking you out to spend as much time as you'd like detailing it. lol
Great write up as usual man, keep up the good work.

[coles_paint_correction]

Great job Lawrence, I've always liked these cars as well someday i'll have to buy one!

[Gray Bishop]

That is AMAZING work on some of the softest paint around. Well done sir.............

[lawrenceSA]

Thanks you all very much for your kind words

[Aaryn NZ]

Absolutely outstanding Lawrence!

Man that poor thing was hammered, OUCH! I swear I threw up a little when I saw all that tyre dressing sling . . . I drove past a local car dealer last week & saw the yard boy with a pump sprayer applying a good thick coat of tyre dressing . . .

Great post my friend, well written, informative, superb pictures & first class workmanship. Great turn around Lawrence, enjoyable!

Aaryn NZ.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Top notch work Lawrence! What an amazing transformation.

Thanks for sharing. Enjoyed the read.

[Marc08EX]

Great work Lawrence!! Made the paint look brand new! It's now gleaming.

That's my favorite body WRX/STi.