Check out these photos from this summer that we pulled out of the NWAS vault!

As hard as it may be for you to believe as you read this blog post, this is in fact a brand new car. Many new cars come with paint defects straight from the dealership. Whether they happened at the factory, in transit, or at the dealership itself, brand new cars are often times delivered with unacceptable amounts of paint defects. Just like the brand new Ferrari 458 we had in, this Aston Martin DBS needed some serious work to correct what should be a perfect finish. There were numerous places where we even had to go as far as to "wet sand" or "color sand" the clear coat. This means that we had to take a very fine grit sand paper and level off the clear coat while lubricating both the sand paper and vehicle surface with water. This process is only to be undertaken by very skilled detailers and if taken too far or done improperly, can easily lead straight to a trip to the paint booth. Not only was the vehicle in serious need of a detail, the clear bra was also poorly installed and razor marks left all over the finish. This obviously wasn't up to the customer's standards and would have to be replaced.

Some photos of the vehicles condition when we first received it









After a snow foam and hand wash, we were able to get a better idea of what the current state of this Aston Martin's paint was.



What we found next was unexpected. Throughout most of the vehicle's finish, we found the remnants of the inadequacy of past detailers. Rids and "pig tails" from polishing paint with contaminants on it, dual action sander scratches, this car had it all.






Like I mentioned before the clear bra on this car was poorly installed. From cut marks on the clear coat to lifting edges to sloppy fitment around badges, this clear bra application had to go.









Not only was the paint full of polishing born imperfections, but there were numerous scratches all throughout the vehicle. NOTE each piece of green tape marks a scratch or imperfection in need of correction.

 

The first step before any polishing could occur was to wet sand all the scratches and imperfections that wouldn't simply polish out. Like I mentioned before, this requires several grades of sand paper, and several stages of polish.










"Ahhh that looks worse not better!" is the first reaction most people have when looking at a panel that has been wet sanded. Yes, while it does look like something went wrong, that is actually how it is supposed to look. It is just the effects of leveling off the clear coat. Once the top layer of that clear has been polished, it will shine like no other. After all the removable scratches were we taken care of, it was time to finally begin the polishing process.





Because the owner requested we remove the original clear bra that came on the vehicle, we then reinstalled a full frontal clear bra once polishing was complete.





"It looks better then it did when it was new!" is another common comment we get when delivering a vehicle. That statement just doesn't seem to cut it in this instance however considered how this vehicle was delivered. This Aston Martin DBS now looked the way a quarter million dollar car deserves to -- perfect.











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Check our our flickr gallery to see the rest of the photos of this Aston Martin DBS!

 

Awesome job guys, how much clear coat did you have to take off to get rid of all that damage?

The razoe marks look frightening.

 

Excellent work guys!

I love the shot looking down on the car; great shape and lines.

 

The clearcoat removal varied in areas with some places varying from .8Mils to even an unnoticeable amount of paint to remove the surface imperfections. There were some razormarks which did require fill prior to wetsanding to level out the surface properly. Overall clearcoat thickness on most vehicles are between 2-3Mils thick and require 1-1.5Mils for the UV protection to prevent color fading from below.