Aston Martin DB9 - Limeprime Enhancement

[Jimmeh]

Aston Martin DB9 – Enhance and Protect

2006, ~4k miles (I think..) Owned from new.

The owner had seen this report and asked for similar treatment. The main concern being Protection. It never did have the Dealership Lifeshine/Supaguard back in ’06 and hasn’t had any pampering since.

*Process*
• Wheels/Tyres & Arches cleaned
• Sills/shuts flushed
• Pre-wash/Rinse
• Two-Bucket Wash/Rinse
• De-tar/clay-bar session
• Water sheeted to aid drying/dried
• Single-stage with the rotary; polishing
• Lay down some protection
• Seal wheels / Dress tyres / Dress trim / Treat britework
• Light hoover / Leather cleaned and fed / Dash cleaned
• Engine Bay wiped and dressed accordingly

Wheels/Tyres and Arches
- Rinsed
- Megs Super-degreaser onto tyres and scrubbed
- G101 onto alloy facing and into dish – additional Degreaser onto Callipers
- Callipers and nut-housings cleaned with a fine detailing brush
- Inner rim of the alloy cleaned with an EZ Detail Brush
- Spoke behinds were cleaned with a wheel mitt, as were the rest of the flat faces
- Arches flooded with G101 and agitated with a Vikan Brush – rinsed

Pre-wash / Wash stages
- Body rinsed with mist from pressure washer
- Snow-foamed and left to dwell for 6 minutes
> intricate/detail areas worked in the meantime with fine brushes
- Foam blasted off the vehicle, taking loose debris and grit off with it
- Re-foamed with Valet PRO ph neutral and buckets filled
> Two-Bucket wash: One rinse bucket. One solution (DoDo Supernatural) bucket
- A panel washed at a time – wash mitt returned to rinse bucket often (remove lifted particles)
- Shampoo solution rinsed and vehicle prepped for de-tar/clay bar session

Decontamination
- Tardis sprayed liberally on lower quarters and softened tar deposits. Residue wiped away with clean microfibre
- A Mild clay-bar helped lift bonded contaminants – overall, the Aston wasn’t too bad
- Water sheeted over body panels to aid drying
- Dried with mega plush Miracle Dryer and using ‘pat’ technique

Cleansing
- DoDo Juice LimePrime used to A) Cleanse. B) Polish. C) Nourish.
- Blue 3M Polishing pad switched to a firmer, yellow, pad. Removed all light surface defects

Protection
- First thin coat of DoDo Juice Supernatural was layed down. A second coat to follow..
- Chemical Guys Wheel Guard used to seal the wheels
- Belgom ALU used to clean/protect the britework

Dressings
- Tyres took two applications of CG New Look Trim Gel
- Exterior trim (mudflaps..) also received some New Look Gel

Interior
- Light debris hoovered
- Leather Cleaned with G101 wipeover
- Leather conditioned with Liquid Leather
- Dash/door-cards had a G101 wipeover – leather dressed as applicable
- Pedals cleaned with a fine detailing brush and G101

Pictures

Upon inspection..

Now, I popped round to view this car several days prior to a date in the diary.. Upon inspection (whilst garaged), a fine strip on the tailgate caught my attention. Pig-tailing (sanding marks caused from DA) could be seen across the width of the panel. Shocking. This vehicles been owned from new.. Never had any third party work done.. WHY it’s had work, no one knows, but, they could of at least removed the sanding marks properly!

‘Haze’ caused by the pig-tailing can just be seen here:

Stretching across the whole panel:

*more on this later…*


General interior inspection..

A few scuffs, some light debris and pedals needed a good clean – easy enough


As per, the wheels were up first. Tyres – Alloys – Arches..

Some tar deposits broken down and removed. Pitting remained.

Rinse – Snowfoam – Rinse – Re-foam – Wash – Rinse

This combo, with the added benefit of DoDo’s new Supernatural shampoo, made the washing an absolute dream. I can’t begin to imagine how easy washing it will be NOW after it’s had the protection down.. Very slick combination..


“It has no protection…”

“aye, you’re not wrong!”

This is the most I could lift with the clay-bar. Generally, the car was ‘clean’.

A small tar deposit being broken down..

Some nice beading taking place now the QuikDetailer’s been out:

 

[Jimmeh]

Rather than grabbing the drying towel straight up, it’s wise to sheet water across the car’s panels. “Why?!” Well, see for yourself..

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The above beading photo was water ‘stood’ on the bonnet. Now, after the water sheeting, take a look at how little water remains:

Much easier now to run your drying towel across and dry the lot in one pass – Happy days.

Now, the suns been out once or twice already by now – I noticed some funny trails/swirls low down on the tip of the bonnet..

And elsewhere..

It’s time to wake up the Kestral.. Load a 3M polishing (blue..) pad with my favourite product, Limeprime, and make a few passes. “Nope, let’s try that Yellow pad..”. “Nope! OK, so, Menzerna FF 106FF?. “Sorted”

It took a few more passes than I originally hoped – the Aston had much tougher paint than that of the Porsche Boxster S that I had my grubby hands on last time..

Well the lower ¼ of the bonnet is done, but, if I’m honest, the rest of it is too hot to touch, never mind polish!

A sleazy 50/50 attempt:

Working round the vertical panels, I hoped to revisit the bonnet and roof last (it was scorching hot at this point – nightmare)

^nice popping from the flake now


Light swirling to be seen on the boot lid and rear clusters – all removed with Limeprime and a spot pad..

In action..

What? No one likes tan-lines, right?


And afterwards:

106FF used on a cut/polish pad to remove said pig-tailing on upper boot-lid:

A few befores.. (you can clearly see the sanding disc edge)

A general after:

Pushing late in the day now - starting to feel a bit ‘warm’.. I’m well hydrated at least; brought a Buxton (..other natural bottled water variants ARE available) 10-pack this morning and I’ve drank 6 already.. *ugh*

First coat of Supernatural is put down.

Onto the ‘fins’..

And once buffed, “bling!”

3pm, more water and my sarnies please!!

Alloys sealed with CG Wheel Guard:

 

[Jimmeh]

Tyres dressed with CG New Look Trim Gel x 2 (hour apart between applications)

Now, other than interior work, I was left to face the bonnet and the blistering roof..

I didn’t fancy manoeuvring it into the garage; some funny angles I’m not familiar with an the unfamiliar drive – I’ll have to make do with the bonnet in the shadow cast by the garage..

D’OH! “Typical..”

Just the bumpers left the work now (Kestral (rotary!) is a bit warm – needs a rest!)

Front grille suffered from some pretty epic water spotting:

Belgom ALU and all is better:

ALU also introduced to the tailpipes..

We’re getting somewhere! Time to tickle that Interior..

Hoovered and pedals ‘tooth-brushed’:

Leather fed with Gliptone’s Liquid Leather (still to venture into the LTT world)


Now what’s left? That’s pretty much it! The owner is some 40 minutes away, so, let’s take a peak in the ‘bay:

A light wiping over and appropriate areas polished/dressed..


*FINISHED.*

You can probably tell I like the DB9 – everything about it.. The lines, the style, the image, the noise(!).. SO, it’s only right that I capture LOTS of after photos for us all :thumb:

 

[Jimmeh]

Am-a-ZING!!

Power. Beauty. Soul..

8hours 15 minutes put into this one for you – and I enjoyed every minute of it (apart from the bird poo, some red spider midgets that stole my sandwich, the lack of jaffa cakes and the sun burn!)

YES YES!

Thanks for reading

Jim

 

[heli_madken]

Absolutely beautiful Jimmeh wish I could get those sorts of results, car looks stunning bet the owner was chuffed

 

[NHN]

Very nice mate.

 

[1210tech]

Nice work as always mate :icon_thumright:

The pig tails on the boot lid will be from the factory. I've lost count how many Astons I've done that have been covered in them, its really bad that they don't sort them out and let cars leave the factory like that

 

[quattrojames]

Top Job! Nice results and an interesting write up :thumbsup:

 

[A3Tom]

Lovely car and great work....looks fantastic.

I'm a bit of a DB9 fan too, such an awesome looking car

 

[Jimmeh]

Thanks all.

Nice work as always mate :icon_thumright:

The pig tails on the boot lid will be from the factory. I've lost count how many Astons I've done that have been covered in them, its really bad that they don't sort them out and let cars leave the factory like that

Why would there have been sanding on this region? Have you seen it located here before? Where do you work, if you don't mind me asking?!

 

[N8]

Stunning Jim, dunno why all astons are in this boring colour. I'll be in touch soon to sort out our tag team jobs.

 

[1210tech]

Thanks all.



Why would there have been sanding on this region? Have you seen it located here before? Where do you work, if you don't mind me asking?!

I am one half of sportscarprotection.com

The boot lid will have needed flatting after painting. Its defo from the factory though, I have seen it on factory fresh Astons. I did a DB9 about a year ago that was covered, roof, doors, wings-front & rear....basically every major panel, but as i said, i have seen it on quite a few now that are brand new from different dealerships

Ian :icon_thumright:

 

[S3 HODGE]

Nice Jim, Bet the owner was very impressed with the result.

 

[S3 Rav]

great work mate

 

[WX51TXR]

Nice work mate, hard graft in the heat but well worth it for the end results. As said above, the majority of Astons are blighted with pigtails, due mainly to insufficient time being allowed on the production line to remove the sanding haze leftover from flatting back the hand painted panels. It's a real shame, especially considering how special and expensive Aston's are.