Affection to Detail: Supra full wetsand

[Affection to Detail]

UPDATED AT BOTTOM

What originally started off as a quick wet sand and one stage polish took a turn for the worse and was suddenly becoming one of those jobs you wish you never started. I’ll apologise now for the amount of pictures. I think it surpassed 50hrs but I lost track after a few days as the job was done over two weeks working around other work I had booked in. Likewise the photos. As I worked I just took pictures along the way. What with resizing, watermarking, uploading and composing, this write up has taken a bit of time so I hope everyone can draw something from it. If anything, never to bother undertaking a full wet sand

One thing which I'll always remember about this job was not how hard it was or how much work I put into it, rather that the nite I left after the initial inspection my partner of nearly 3 yrs split up with me. It was hard working pushing through the job with that on my mind all the time but these things are sent to test us. I'd just rather they weren't all at the same time!!

The workshop.



The car in question, a Toyota Supra, had been resprayed by the owner but due to a change from the usual lacquer of choice, caused problems, the main one being major orange peel. This is pretty apparent in the picture below.



The test panel, done one week earlier, consisted of a quick once over with some 2000 grit and then a black 3M pad with a Fast Cut Plus and Ultrafina mix was used to remove the wetsand marks. For a small section this took all of 5 mins. Pretty fast if I had to be honest and so it didn’t seem that it would take much longer than a usual detail.



Further images showing extent of orange peel and visability throughout sanding process.







The job was booked in for the following week and I arrived with plenty of wet and dry that was pre-soaked. Work started on the front arch and continued down the drivers door. All seemed to be going to plan apart from the sandpaper being consumed at a rate of two or three A4 sheets per a panel. After repolishing a few sections it was found that RDS’s were being left, either through poor paper quality or matter getting stuck between the surface and paper face. It didn’t help with the lacquer still being soft. Defects were easily instilled but weren’t so easy to remove.

Door fully sanded by hand.






At this point it was decided to move onto some Mirka Abralon 2000 grit pads. These caused some issues on the front arch which was left alone for the time being to have more lacquer applied. Paint depths varied across the whole vehicle from 140 in the door shuts up to 900 on some sections. This also varied across the panels and seeing that the orange peel was uniform on each section, the clearcoat would have to be taken down evenly meaning that some areas would become pretty thin. If this wasn’t done, noticeable areas of orange peel would have been left.

A 77mm Mirka Sander was then purchased along with 2000 and 4000 grit pads along with the interface pad which turned up two days later. This would help over the curved sections of the body. The main issue with the small throw was the lack of cut that the pads gave. This made it hard going and was going to push the time through the roof. Work stopped until the weekend as other work was booked in for Thursday and Friday.

Due to the slow going, I decided to try a different approach. The client had a 150mm DA which was tested and using the pads brought previously, was having a much faster cutting effect into the orange peel. Due to the soft edge of the pads, pigs tails weren’t so much of an issue as they didn’t bind like sanding discs and a solid backing pad would. An interface pad was also purchased for this machine to enable it to work on the curved panels easier, picking up the really tight sections with the Mirka. It was decided to increase the work time rather than using a more abrasive pad. Test panels showed that the heavier grits weren’t being removed as easy and I didn’t wish to instil defects that couldn’t be removed.



Front arch with 2000 grit.



Paint crazing was removed later through localised sanding process.



Video showing sanding process on bonnet.

YouTube - Wetsanding via orbital sander

Full shot of car nearly sanded.



Lower sections of bonnet were carried out with Mirka as the 150mm wasn’t getting to all the paint surface.



Slowly getting round the whole car.



Roof shot showing some signs of orange peel still.



Rear bumper and arch areas, shots showing work process.












This process continued round the car, using the 2000 grit on the 150mm machine to do the larger sections, picking up everything else like side skirts and bumpers with the Mirka. The roof caused a lot of problems and after 6 separate passes with 2000 grit didn’t come up like the rest of the car so it was decided to leave this for the time being. Continual sanding can get very boring so inbetween I picked up on the leather seats. The client only wanted them cleaning initially, but there were some bad scuffs on the black sections and I knew I had a black leather scuff kit so got to work. The following images show the initial cleaning of the white sections, which whilst badly cracked still came up a lot better than before, along with the scuff touch ups.

50/50 shot on leather base.







Upper section before and after.





Bolster before and after.





Headrest before and after.





Passenger side bolster before and after.






After this I continued on round the front end, near the badge and scoop areas. A few more test sections were carried out to ascertain if 4000 grit would be needed. It was deemed easier if the finer grit was used as it gave a more refined finish before the polishing would begin and I also believed it would save time in the long run. Once done the finish achieved was much nice and had a more uniform satin finish to it.

Finish on bonnet after initial sanding.



Due to the harsh compounds being used the pads were being consumed faster so more boxes of 3M compound and polishing pads were sourced. Not easy at such short notice as the local 3M supplier had been broken into the night before which turned the short trip into a 3hr hunt for supplies. Continuing on from the test panels and 4000 grit sanding, panels were being polished up using two passes on a 3M compound pad with FCP and UF, finished off with a 3M black polishing pad with EFC and UF. On the panels with the harder lacquer the finish was fine although even using a polishing pad and UF fine marring was left here and there which is being delt with once the paint has cured fully.



Side shot of sanded panels.







Test section on bonnet.







Bonnet showing difference between polished and sanded sections.



This picture still shows some of the original sanding marks that were removed after.





Arch polished up.



Working round rear bumper.



Defect checking, paint seems pretty clear.



Side panel finished.



To complete the front bumper the buffer was stripped of its handle to allow access into some of the tighter areas.





Finished shots of car.























Whilst I would have liked to try the 150mm Mirka machine, I couldn’t not find stock anywhere in time for the job and could not justify the outlay for a machine I hadn’t used. In total £280 was outlaid to complete the job, I didn’t fancy breaching £400 buying another machine, based on the fact it may not be used more than once every few years.

Hope you enjoyed the long read. The following track is one that I feel sums up the job, bringing back memories of the sun bouncing off the body panels whilst I worked in temps upto 31 degrees and unknown humidity!!! I think its the fact it pictures a lot of the beach in the video and it was where I'd rather had been most of the time. It makes me feel happy and sad at the same time and I think it will be one of those tracks that will always stir my mind, possibly not always for the better!

YouTube - Reflekt feat. Delline Bass - Need To...

Thanks

Nad

P.S. Just to add, I couldn't get any pics of the sanding marks, but suffice to say, getting the gloss back is easier than removing the sanding marks and I'm sure anyone that has done this before would agree. Glossy paintwork doesn't garuntee a defect free finish. Anyone could just pass this off as finished to the untrained eye so check and check again to ensure those marks have gone. Also, there is still room for improvement but time was passing rapidly and the finish achieved was well past what the client was expecting anyway. I would guess around 90% of the orange peel was removed.

P.P.S. Also a big thanks to the Client, very understanding when things were going wrong and very accomodating. Looking forwards to doing some more work again with them.

P.P.P.S. Just remembered something else. The defects that were originally left on the drivers side the client was happy to leave, although I wasn't. I felt it detracted from the vehicle. Solved it by cranking the rotary right up with FCP and the compound pad. You could really smell and feel the heat off the panel but it sorted it. It wasn't something I fancied carrying out over the whole car though! Also due to the heat, I did use Menz 3.02 on parts of the finishing process and it seemed to work nicely at these temps.

Update:

After checking out client's post on the Supra forum, one side looked a bit hazy. We knew there would be some issues anyway due to the paint softness what with polishes not breaking down properly. I just felt this needed an attempt at addressing now seeing as its going on a stand at Japfest on Saturday.

There were a few issues with their wax application as well which I've discussed with the client. Don't think they had buffed it off on the roof but hopefully some PC action should sort it. Think the paint is still pretty soft as 2/3 of the bonnet had really fine straight marring on it as well, I assume from the washing or waxing process. All run over with a finishing polish again but unfortunately the sun went in so hopefully its all fine.

[Ronnie]

WOW!¬!! breathtaking recpect is due well done!!!!!

[V8burble]

Good God that was some OP

What a spell binding read and picture trail. Spectacular results and a truely awsome bit of dedication, under lets say difficult times for you.

Thanks for taking the time to post

[pits]

one word-WOW!

[*MAGIC*]

Top Job Nad

[Brisa]

This should be on the front page! Really is a top job and great to see a finish like that can be brought back to perfect.

[butler2.8i]

Simple stunning work nad, the dedication you`ve shown desipte the issues in your personal life proves it takes someone highly committed to be a high level detailer.

[-Alex-]

incredible. any High res w/o the watermark by chance? or maybe any with the water mark in the corner?? amazing work!

[P.M.V.Gavin]

i am speechless that is one awesome job done and car

[Toscane]

That's a hell of a job brother! All I can say is, wow!

By the way do you have any close-ups of that Toyota badge with horns or do you know where to get one?