Aston Martin DB7 Vantage
This Aston Martin DB7 Vantage turned up for a full paintwork restoration detail.
We did a pre detail inspection, and found a few paintwork flaws, most caused by poor washing practices. These are all 'fixable' using safe polishing techniques-
Took the DB7 down to the wash bay, leaving the steering on full lock, to give me access to the front inner arches.
Filled the Suds Blaster with Meguiar’s All Purpose Cleaner-
This is my wheel cleaner of choice, especially when some of the clear coat on the wheels looks a bit suspect. No harsh chemicals or high pressures here. –
Soaked the inner arches at the same time, the Meguiar’s All Purpose Cleaner foaming nicely from the Suds Blaster-
After rinsing and the re-applying the APC to each wheel and inner arch, I agitated using a multitude of brushes. You can’t get the Megs Wheel Brush behind the callipers on a DB7, so I rolled the car forward 2’ and swapped steering lock.
After rinsing down the whole car, a strong mix of Hyper wash was made up. Using Lambswool Eurow washmitts, and a 2 bucket method the car was washed, one panel at a time. Care taken to ensure every last bit of grit was washed from the channels and crevices.
Clayed with Sonus Green, very very carefully using Meguiar’s Last Touch quick detail spray as lube. This is after claying a section of the roof –
I used three bars in total, taking extra care, as I didn’t want to induce any more marring into the paintwork of this one. After claying, the lower sections treated to Panel Wipe, to remove any bonded road tar. The car then washed again using a normal mix of Hyper Wash, using new Eurow wash mitts and a two bucket method again.
The car now taken up to the polish shop. Dried using Meguiar’s Water Magnets, and spritzing of Last Touch QD spray. Wiped down after drying with a MF, to see if I’d managed to wash away any swirls.
Worst luck, they were still there –
It’s a blue one. Most cars start to look better after a good safe clay bar session, even ones straight from the dealers-
The V12 Vantage Engine–
The job stopped here overnight.
Quick Detailed the car with Meguiar’s Last Touch, even though it’d been parked in the polish shop all night. Put a second coat of Megs Hyper Dressing on the tyres and inner arches, then started to mask. -
The swirls clearly visible under the shop lights.-
After masking, I spent just over an hour sorting out my polishing combo. The paint on Aston Martin’s turned out to be very very hard to polish, but not to inflict marring into .
The combo turned out to be-
Poorboys SSR3 by rotary with Yellow SFX pad on speed 4.5
Poorboys SSR3 by rotary with Yellow SFX pad on speed 4.5
This first two sets of passes shaved a total of 10 microns from the DB7 paint, removing a lot of marring, but inflicting a load more of their own. Worse though was that all the random scratches were now highlighted.
Menz Powergloss Compound by rotary on Yellow Lake County pad on speed 1.5 on the Metabo to ‘cut’ out most of the random scratches. The marring this caused was a little unsightly.
Menz Intensive polish by PC on orange Lake County pad.
Menz Final Polish on LC White pad, by PC. This last step really making the final difference to the quality of shine on the DB7.
Mid way through polishing –
All bumpers etc were cut in using –
Menz PG on Yellow 4” LC spot pad.
Menz IP on Orange 4” LC spot pad.
Menz Final Polish on White 4” SFX pad.
Glazed with Clearkote Red Machine glaze – by hand.
Glazed with Clearkote Red Machine Glaze – by PC with black LC pad.
Sealed with Poorboys EX-P - We did a second coat of this straight after, to ensure coverage.
Waxed with Poorboys Natty’s Blue. Spit shined with Pinnacle Souveran using Megs Last touch as spritz.
Demasked, dusted down.
Dressed trim with Megs #38 Tyre and Trim gel.
Cleaned the glass with Megs Glass Cleaner Concentrate.
Cleaned the wheels / door shuts etc with Klasse All In One 2nd coat of AIO on the wheels
Applied a coat of Klasse Sealer Glaze to the wheels.
We then rolled the DB7 outside into a late afternoon sun to inspect –
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