05 Subaru WRX Wagon Paint Correction
Here are some pictures of the severe swirling. Keep in mind that these pictures were taken after the car had been thoroughly washed using the two bucket method with a grit guard and clayed (this car had some serious contamination), so you are not seeing anything that can be washed off. This is pure damaged clear coat probably caused by years of automatic car washes and I wouldn’t be surprised if they used steel wool at some point (ok, maybe a little bit of exaggeration). In defense of the previous owners, Subaru paint is known for being super soft and scratching if you look at it wrong. Not to mention that black cars are usually the least forgiving to improper care, but that’s enough talk for now… you need to see for yourselves.
This small sample of pictures gives a pretty accurate representation of the eyesore that this paint job was when the sun hit it right. When I bought the car I knew that it had some pretty good swirls in the paint as I was viewing it under the lights of a gas station at 8 PM (maybe not my best idea) but I didn’t know the extent until I got to view the car in direct sunlight and under halogens. Needless to say this car was going to need some serious correction. So lets get on with it
Here is the list of supplies:
- Chemical Guys Citrus Wash and Gloss
- Detailed image fine grade claybar
- Griots random orbital polisher
- Lake County 5.5 pads with a Lake County 5 inch back plate
- Menzerna Power finish with LC orange pad
- Meguiers 105 with LC orange pad
- Meguiers 205 with LC white polishing pad
- Blackfire Wet Diamond Sealant with Polycharger
- Poorboys World Natty’s blue paste wax
- Lots of microfiber towels
Once I pulled the car into my carport as it was getting dark and the temperature was probably about 30 degrees or below I taped up one side and got everything ready to start polishing. This is what the halogens revealed:
Notice the large door mark to the left of the halogen from someone hitting me with their door in a parking lot a few days after I got the car. I’m just glad this was before all of the work I was about to do.
I started out with Menzerna Power finish with a Lake County Orange cutting pad. I was able to get rid of all the swirl marks and clear coat blemishes minus some deeper scratches that I wasn’t planning on trying to get out due to the fact that I didn’t know the history of this car and I didn’t have a paint thickness gauge to know how much clear coat I was working with. The Power Finish did leave some holograms of its own though, which is to be expected with the soft Subaru paint. I then tried to finish down using Menzerna Super Finish with a LC white polishing pad. Despite how well the Power Finish performed I couldn’t say the same for the Super Finish in these circumstances on this paint. When I say circumstances I mean the below 30 degree weather that I assume was messing with the Polish because no matter how long or short I worked the polish I couldn’t get it to finish down hologram free or remove easily. After doing one side of the car using the Menz Power Finish I decided to call it a night since I was FREEZING.
I had to wait a week or so before I could pick back up, but when I did I utilized a friends enclosed garage and brought the Meguiers twins (105 and 205) along for the ride. Megs 105 and 205 use non-dimishing abrasives so that the work time is shorter and you get more results faster, where as Menzerna polishes use diminishing abrasives that continually get finer and finer. Menzerna products are some of the best on the market but for whatever reason, they weren’t what this job called for. Here are a few shots of the Meguiers twins in action:
You can definitely see the line where the uncorrected panel meets the corrected panel and you can see the metal flake in the paint, which was previously hidden by scratches start to shine through.
Before:
After:
After finishing all of my correction work I moved on to a coat of Blackfire wet diamond sealant applied with my griots polisher and a LC crimson pad. I let the sealant cure overnight and buffed it off in the morning. Due to time constraints I didn’t have time to snap any pictures until a week later when I was able to give the car a wash followed by a coat of Poorboys Natty’s blue paste wax by hand. Here is how it turned out:
From this:
To This:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Remember where someone hit me with their door right after getting the car?:
Now This:
Here are a few more:
You can see one of the deeper scratches on the top of the back door that I wasn’t able to fix because it is through the base coat. although I was able to make it look better it would take some touch up paint to fix this.
Now you can really see the Flake in the Obsidian Black Pearl Paint
The sealant should provide protection for up to six months and with proper care this car should be looking good for years to come. I would suggest using a sheepskin wash mitt or comparable soft wash medium to greatly reduce the chances of re-inducing marring to the paint.
If you have any questions, comments or if you are interested in me detailing your car feel free to contact me via the contact page at the top or post in the comments below. Thanks for reading!
