Its has been a while since we had a posting because we are actually in the mist of switching into another platform to showcase our work (Youtube). Anyhows, Here we have an Kia Optima K5, one of the most luxury Kia can offer to you. The owner, has had 2 cars done by me already and wanted the last car (the wife’s car) to be detailed and coated as well.

Upon arrival, the car looks decent from a distance but you might know, I am never impressed with that.

Just by the standard walk around the car, we already see many stains.

Rain stains.

Stubborn stains leftover from the rain.

A deep scratch with some bacterial/fungus growth on the edges.

More black stains.

Even the door handle area is so black, we had to use a cloth to open the door. (It was that disgusting.)

The general view of the car was not even close to acceptable. But of course, that is why we are here.

The fuel door, when we poped it, scare the hell out of me.

Paint condition wide, we see lots of swirls.

More swirls found on the bonnet.

Hologram damages.

The swirls might not look severe on photo due to the colour but trust us, it is very severe.


So we started of with the decontamination. Before. Disgusting??

After cleaning.

We kept rinsing the edges and it just didn’t stop spitting out black stuff, so we decided to remove the chrome trim. To our HORROR!

After cleaning the area.

So after hours of cleaning, we started with the polishing. On the left, the panel looks way darker than the original colour. You can see the line right on top of the Kia wording.

After paint restoration. Following photos were taken under the sun.

After hours of restoring the paint, this was the final outlook before we washed the car in preparation for the coating application.


We applied Opti-Coat™Pro Plus as the finishing and the car stayed with us overnight. Imagine the look on the owner’s face when he saw the car the next morning.

We have with us an almost new Porsche Cayman with us today. The owner purchase the car from another fellow enthusiast that claims to had upkeep the car to its tip top condition with many love on the exterior as well. But those claims were far from true when the paint condition was diagnosed. Read on to find out more.

Upon arrival, we had the standard walk around to spot for any irregular paint defects and damages. It had rained earlier in the morning and the water beadings are actually showing alack of paint protection already.

The first damage we spotted was some deep random scratches. Notice the water beadings we mentioned above, its safe to say that the paint had zero wax on it. Zero wax = zero protection.

As we move on, watermark etching was spotted too.

On the rear spoiler, you can actually see more watermark etching.

On the rear boot, deep scratches can be seen from miles away.

Constantly parking near a tree had cause some tree sap to also etch onto the paint.

Combine those scratch and tree sap, you get a pretty big mess!

After we wiped down the car, the earlier scratch is even more visible!

Now, here comes the shocking part! Check out the circled area. The sunlight at the time of the photo was not even bright but it is showing some really bad polishing marks. Probably done with cheap polishers, with the wrong polishing pad combination and the wrong product!

This condition can be seen throughout the entire car.

If its visible even on the softest lighting, its consider a horrible polish job.

As we dig deeper into the mess, we found some lighter scratches on the paint.

Now when we apply proper lighting, we can see that the so called “well maintained” was a scam? You be the judge.

More swirls and scratches around the paint.

Fuel door was also significantly damaged. Noticed the white spots around the door, those are the residue left over by the polish.

Swirls and tree sap etching is visible also on the front bonnet.

The swirl level is deemed to be at the critical stage, if nothing is done, the paint will start to fade and oxidize into a matte surface.


We spend about 2hours washing the car, claying and decontaminating the car of tar spots, metal particles, etc. It looks shiny now but its all an illusion!

After some fiddling with different polish combinations, we found the perfect one for the Cayman, check out the before and after on this shot.

As for the swirls and tree sap etching, This is a before.

This is an after shot. Fortunately, the tree sap did not etch into the paint and was removed with ease.

The result of restorations on the doors.

On the rear quarter panel which the deep scratches use to be at.

As perfect as we want to claim our work to be, it can never be 100% flawless. On the circled area, there is actually a leftover scratch that we could not removed. Might not be visible, but it is there.

After close to 6hours on detailing and polishing the car, its now the true black with the true shine.


Upon finishing the job, we did some videos, snap some photos. Check it out.

Not everyday our client had follow our work for many years and became friends with us. Today we are here doing a second round of paint restoration after the Tezza been repainted with the top of the line Glasurit paint. The client also had me purposely drive my weekend ride so that this photo can be taken. xD

Upon arrival, the car is just at the washing bay ready for us to wash. Being a repainted car, many end users always feel that there is no damage after a fresh paint job. But you are probably wronng. Here is why.

After the wash, we reparked the car back into the shade.

Looking at the car, the glasurit paint is really glowing.

Some glue marks are leaking down.

There were some unknown cement looking etching on the roof.

And also on the door handles.

Paint shop finishing is usually very rough and unrefined.

And the typical paint shop cutting compound is very aggressive, usually leaving behind swirls and holograms.

When looking closer on the damage we spotted more swirls.

On merely a phone LED we can reveal how unrefined the paint is.

Glasurit paints are really a pain-in-da-a*s the correct.

It took us many many passes to get to this finish.

As night fall we took closer photos of the paint.

Remember Before.

After paint restoration.


About 10hours of paint restoration went into the paint to have it refined and smooth. The finishing? Is not something words can describe. Check out the photos.

We have with us an Audi A4 that was the owner initially wanted just a light polish. After diagnosis, we found that the paint was in pretty bad condition. During the restoration, we were able to restore the paint to a near spotless condition. We advice the owner that its was OK for coating, Hence he opted for our Optimum Lustré.

Upon arrival, the car seem to look clean and still rather glossy.

Coming closer, we can see some muddy water splash probably from rain.

Watermarks are one of the most common paint contamination faced by almost every Malaysian car.

Because this car was is Ipoh, Perak. The water mineral content there is rather high, causing a heavier watermark stain situation.

Coming to the paint condition, we were able to see some aged swirls.

Because this is a second hand used car, the existence of swirls is perfectly normal.

Swirls and watermark spots visible on the fenders.

More swirls on the front bonnet.

Spotted a deep scratch on one of the door.

Taillights had suffered quite abit of swirl damages as well.


During the wash, we were able to spot that the surface had zero protection.

We clayed the surface. This was the clay before.

After claying 1 small panel.

After completing the claying procedure, we moved on to the deep scratches first. Before.

We were only able to reduce the scratch while the surrounding scratches were removed.

After completing the paint restoration, swirl free.
 
On LED Spot lights. Swirl free.

On the roof, there were some minimal damage left over, bare in mind that the paint had never been polished for many years.

Just a few passes of polish and you can visibly see a difference in tone. (Left: Corrected)

Taillight damages are rather hard to perfect. But here is our attempt.

After. Although its not perfect but the difference is still massive.


The windows were stained with watermark and is affecting the driving visibility.

50/50 watermarks removed.

See how massive of a difference.


After many hours of Paint restoration, the finishing Optimum Lustré was applied. Check out the glossy finish.

We have with us today a very special, 99% full factory condition Mark 2 Toyota Soarer, we didn’t even know it was a mark 2 until we saw the vin number and refereed to Mr. Google. The owner of this sweet ride had arranged with us to have the car fully restored and coated for a long term protection, thats right, a 30 year old car, virgin stock is here for an ultimate pamper session. Read on to know more.

Well, The car already looks rather good and clean for a start but 9 out of 10 white cars has suffered the acid rain stains which is the blackish looking stuff on the paint that no matter how much you wash or wax the car, it just would not go off. Same goes to this ride.

The owner of the car left us with full access to the car for a few days to slowly restore every inch of the car to 30 years ago.

So we looked into every inch of the car looking for any contamination or stains. Here we can see that someone polished the headlights and leftover some residue.

The typical build on up areas like these.

The very special door hinge style on the Soarer was rather filthy too.

Some random stains probably from tree sap.

The Pegasus logo that is the symbol for the Soarer was everywhere on the car. This section as usual was covered in sand

The standard exhaust was probably also 30 years old, rusty, oxidation and no longer has any bling to it.

Moving onto the bumper areas, we found more wax or polish residue on the tight edges.

Most detailers would probably miss this spot but we search every inch of the car for things to clean.

On the roof, which is pretty normal for a car of this age, we found some oxidation starting to spread from the edges.


Stains build up on the rubber trims.

The fuel door area was surprisingly not that dirty for a 30 year old car.

Some paint transfer was spotted on the doors probably from a motorbike passing through and accidentally hitting the car.

The fear of water leaking into the car was real, but the silicone application skill was a little poor hence we see the unevenness.

The bumper areas were no doubt full oxidized.

Combo-ed with some unknown stains that looks like oil spills.

Looking closer on the bumper we can actually see micro cracking on the clear coat which indicated that the clear coat had already failed.

Side signal markers are made of plastic, and over the years of UV exposure, its a common sight to see faded amber markers.

As we spend a full day just on cleaning, night came, using the street light we were able to spot some visible scratches on the paint.

On a LED, the scratches looks not too bad.

Swirls on a different section


As we spent many hours cleaning, check out the smaller detailed in cleaning.

Pegasus logo has some cleaning done too.

As we were polishing we also spotted some bird dropping stains. This had probably been there for a very long time.

We were able to polish and reduce the stain mark.

Some stains were just too etched to remove.

Coming back to how the paint looked after much detailing. Swirl free.

More swirl free examples.


Just to double confirm on the spot light as night fell, swirl free.

Some areas on the boot could not be fully restored hence you still see a small amount of swirl. Like in this photo the top left at the light, you can see that 1 little line.

The next day we continue on with polishing and we attempted to clear off the oxidized bumper. Although we were able to gain reflection, but what really happened was the clear coat got fully removed. In the photo you can see the area we polished has a better reflection but the metallic flakes from the clear coat is no longer there, causing the surface to become a “solid white” surface instead of the pearl white. We adviced the owner and it seems like the area will be scheduled to be repainted.

Remember the sad looking exhaust, after hours of manual hand polishing, we got it back to a bling condition.

So you remember how was the dull side marker looking like?

Here is how it looked after restoration.

As we finalized the finishing, we gave the engine bay a dash of cleaning and look at how virgin in this!


The vintage looking wheels had definately seen better days. Looking at its condition, we guessed that the wheel might had been restored before.

A closer look on the brake dust build up.

More brake dust stains on the little lip of the wheels.

We sprayed on some pH neutral brake dust dissolving agent to break down years of build up.

This chemical although pH neutral, it comes with a very awful smell. But it works and when comes in contact with brake dust will turn purple.

After a triple soaking session on the wheels, check out how much it has dissolved and leaked onto the porch.



After about 5 days of restoration this is the ultimate results of a fine fine restoration.
 

Not everyday you get to see a car like this moreover work on one that is this mint. The owner of this sweet ride just got the car repainted into a candy blue colour, as we all know paint shop finishing is usually very much unrefined. Read on.

Because it is a rather heavy job, the car was left to us for few days.

The 19 year old taillights were pretty scratched up.

A few days after the paint job, there were some rain and the car was left to dry naturally, hence the light watermark.

Some areas had bad hologram damages.

Some had light swirls.

Some had heavier swirls.

Some areas were just sand paper scratches.


For some technical difficulties, the after paint restoration shots were not saved. But this was the pre-finishing wash at night before we applied the wax.

and of course we polished the beautiful sounding Blitz Nur Spec muffler.

Check out the water beading.


Finally, the gloss and reflection and the face of a happy owner.