Partial Wet Sand Enhancement Detail - Ford Focus ST500 with Auto Finesse Desire

[RussZS]

The Focus ST500 is a limited edition run of 500 pre facelift Focus ST's, each loaded with equipment including scarlet leather Recaro seats, Xenon headlights, sat nav, rain-sensing wipers and limited edition decals.


This particular example was without its decals and had seen some paint on its rear quarter, which had been finished poorly with signs of pig tailing, sanding marks and very poor clarity in the clearcoat. The rest of the car was suffering from very heavy swirling.


The aim of this detail was the wet sand the repainted area to improve its appearance, then to enhance the paintwork to remove as much swirling as possible. I also took the opportunity to try Auto Finesse Hide out on the Leather Interior...


A few befores:

DSC03390 by RussZS, on Flickr

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As always, wheel area first with Smart Wheels, G101 and various brushes:

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Followed up with IronX to remove embedded brake dust:

DSC03405 by RussZS, on Flickr

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Next the car was foamed with AS Duet:

DSC03407 by RussZS, on Flickr


(That's after 5 mins dwell)


Next:


- Hand washed with AS Duet
- Rinsed
- IronX applied to entire car to remove any fallout
- Tardis to remove tar


Then the car was moved inside for claying:

DSC03411 by RussZS, on Flickr


BH Clay Soft:

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The car was then dried with CG Wooly Mammoth:

DSC03414 by RussZS, on Flickr


I decided to wet sand the rear quarter first, then machine polish the rest of the car afterwards.


Some pics of the rear quarter:

DSC03408 by RussZS, on Flickr

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As you can see, very poor general finish and reflections!


Now ideally I'd be getting this panel perfect, but given that the rest of the car is very 'orange peely' from Ford, my aim was to restore the depth to the paint, but not remove the Orange Peel completely.


Depth wise, we were looking at an average of about 650 on this panel:

DSC03422 by RussZS, on Flickr


I decided to begin with 2500 grit, then follow up with 3000. This combination was chosen to not remove the peel completely, but to finish down the poor finish as well as possible and to try to 'match' the rest of the car.


I also had the issue that various areas were worse than other parts of the panel, so I changed pressure and working time based upon this.

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After 3000:

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I corrected the 3000 with Scholl S3 and Scholl Spider Pad:


(Slightly out of focus - apologies)

DSC03439 by RussZS, on Flickr


After:

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The peel is still present, but the reflectivity and depth have been restored.

DSC03448 by RussZS, on Flickr


I then began working on the rest of the car, which was averaging about 170 microns:


Before:

DSC03415 by RussZS, on Flickr

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Old ST stripe residue still present:

DSC03458 by RussZS, on Flickr


After:

DSC03520 by RussZS, on Flickr


Now I had a real struggle finishing down well on this paint. Megs 205 and Menz 106FA were leaving very faint holograms which were simply not acceptable.


Britemax Black Max came to my rescue and allowed me to finish down perfectly using a 3M Finishing Pad and DA:

DSC03473 by RussZS, on Flickr


The Hide Pair was used on the interior along with Spritz:

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Mint Rims on the wheels:

DSC03479 by RussZS, on Flickr


Mercury on the exhaust:

DSC03482 by RussZS, on Flickr

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Crystal, Revive and Black Onyx used in their respective areas:

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LSP for today was Auto Finesse Desire...

DSC03480 by RussZS, on Flickr


Curing:

DSC03481 by RussZS, on Flickr

 

[RussZS]

and finally, some afters...

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Next up, we have a yellow Camaro...


Thanks for reading!

DSC03518 by RussZS, on Flickr


Russ.

 

[James28]

Very nice! Wet sanding looks interesting!

 

[johnbryan45]

When are you going to detail mine

 

[Gally]

Just read it on DW Russ. Simply superb work mate.

I know black shows off work really well but you've done a superb job there and it shows.

Opinions on Blackmax?

 

[MatthewR]

loverly work there russ!

 

[Auto Finesse]

Looking fresh Russ.

 

[JD]

Superb, Mr Aston!

 

[Eddie.]

Superb as always, love the ST500, love it even more after a detail like that!

 

[Toby]

Great work as always mate.

Some nice 50/50's.