Aston Martin Vantage Polished & Opti-Coated

**Radarryan** · 07-19-2013, 12:22 AM

Hello all! First, as you look through please remember I am not a professional, just a dedicated enthusiast. Some of you all's work is just too out of this world! I do what I can, and so here it is.

This is my dad's car and I must say, it is a beauty! If you all have not heard the sound of an Aston Martin - YOU NEED TO! I think detailers that have worked on these British beauties can attest: the sound is second to none. Sorry Ferrari, the noise of the Aston has you beat (in my humble opinion

)

First, the process (I want to apologize for the lack of pictures. I didn't think I would post this until I saw how unbelivable the car looked. Then I knew my fellow AGs would want to see. At least I hope!)

I started by washing with Meguiar's Gold Class in the bucket and Detailer's Xtreme Foam Formula Auto Shampoo in the foam gun.

The wheels were cleaned with a combination of Meguiar's Deep Crystal Car Wash (the OTC cheap) and Eagle One All Wheel and Tire Cleaner (also OTC yet ranked by Consumer Reports as the best OTC wheel and tire cleaner.) Both were agitated with the large Daytona Speed Brush, Speed Brush Jr. (for in between the wheel and the caliper), and the boar's hair lug nut brush for the face and lug nuts.

After the wash, the car was clayed with Meguiar's OTC clay (white & mild) using Ultima Waterless Wash+ as clay lube. Following the claying the car was then dried with Guzzler Waffle Weave Towels.

As test spot was then performed with the following:
-Optimum Finish Polish with a Lake Country 5.5in Black CCS Pad
-Optimum Polish II with a Lake Country 5.5in White CCS Pad
-Meguiar's M205 with a Lake Country 5.5in White CCS Pad

The polishes and pads were chosen because the car was in excellent condition (Mike may classify this as very good, though!) and I just wanted to bring up the gloss even more. If I was going to go with the white pad, regardless I wanted to follow up with the grey pad just to amp it up another notch.

At the conclusion of the test spots (side by side by side), the car was pulled into the sun and my mom and dad were summoned to give their opinions. They could not tell the difference between the three (thought they looked equally as good), so I decided to go with option 1: the finish polish with a finishing pad to prepare the surface for the coating and remove any fine scratches from the clear.

After the car was polished out, a roughly 15% IPA solution was used to remove any polishing oil and prepare the surface for Opti-Coat 2.0. Opti-Coat 2.0 was then applied to all painted surfaces, the plastic splitter, plastic side mirror mounts, wheel faces, and back plastic assembly. Optimum Opti-Bond was then applied to the tires. After sitting in the garage for a few hours, my dad was anxious to show it off to fellow motorists.

Here they are!

From the left front with my dad inspecting the results

From the rear

From the back right

Close up of the right quarter panel and wheel

Awesome clouds over the hood and windshield

Ready to go!

I hope you enjoyed, I know I did! Just my opinion, but some of these pictures need to be viewed in full size to fully appreciate. I tried not to upload them too large, but large enough to see the shine and detail.

Happy Detailing!