Dan's Garage - R35 Nissan GTR - Solid Black - Opti-Coat

[Caffeine Fiend]

I'll start by saying that it's not often you get to work on such a special car.

A car who's owner is, in some circles, renowned to be highly exacting in his level of standards and someone who takes OCD to extraordinary lengths.

So to be asked by this person to assist him in paint-correcting and Opti-Coating his pride and joy, a car that he's dumped as much money and effort into as many people do for major home renovations...well you just don't say no.

This has been a collaborative effort between myself and the car's owner. To date, a total of 30 man-hours have been spent on paint correction alone over the last two days.

There is still more a little more to do tomorrow (Sat) before the Opti-Coat goes down, but here are some progress pics which I thought you might enjoy.

The car as presented. Certainly one of the best-kept solid black cars on the road.



Some gratuitous engine bay shots of the modified goodness within



Seemingly innocent, yet hiding approx 430+kw at all four wheels.






Up close though the marring and water spotting becomes apparent












This was the story all over the car. It's worth noting though that GTR clear is amazingly soft. Softer even than Honda clear. So it's not so much a case of "how are there so many swirls" as "How the hell are the swirls so light?"

After spending some time playing with different polishes and pads, we were getting the best initial correction results with HD Uno on white CCS

Here you can see after one pass the swirling has been removed, but there is still micro-marring which is what's causing the hazing











Playing around with the camera settings to better capture the hazing, but deeper swirls removed:






I was on primary correction duty, while the owner followed me and finished down. Here is the result after several passes of 3M UltraFina on a black CCS expertly finished down by the owner.








Working the tight areas with UltraFina at low speed on rotary with extension bit:



This is the process we have been following with some good success. The car is not yet complete, however below are some progress shots of the completed areas.

[Caffeine Fiend]

Gloss and reflection levels are amped up very high as a result of the level of correction we're chasing. The owner commented that the black seems so much deeper than before. These photos represent bare, post-corrected panels. No glazes or waxes of any kind.


















Roof




























































































More to come. Stay tuned

[SarcasticOne]

fark you get to see some serious car porn....
i would say i hate you... but it's more jealousy of the results of your hard work
keep it up

[Yeldarb]

Wow. You're not even finished yet. Looking amazing ready Dan.

With the clear being so soft, what's the future for these cars.
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[RadiantKnackers]

Excellent work, both of you. I can well understand and appreciate that level of perfection, and how hard it is to attain.

[LOOPYMPS]

Make sure you do a good job coz I'm going to buy it off him.

[Caffeine Fiend]

Thanks Guys, we're now finally finished and I'll add the last lot of pics below.

With the clear being so soft, what's the future for these cars.

The clear on these GTRs is 'self healing' which means that to a degree some scratches minimise. Having said that it's not perfect (as you can see in the first pics there is still some residual marring left behind which quite badly impacts on gloss after a while). It also requires copious amounts of sunlight to repair itself.

As a result of this type of clear though, it is incredibly soft. It has to be in order to do what it does. It also makes it incredibly hard to refine. The microfibre towels that I normally use for other cars without any issue whatsoever were leaving marks behind in this car. The isopropyl wipe down prior to Opti-Coating, which normally takes about 30 mins on any other car, took almost three hours on this car. So slowly I had to go in order to avoid marring the paintwork. The owner had continual marring issues just applying waxes!

It's a great paint for 95% of people who want a nice looking car, but for the 5% who want an exceptional looking car, like this, it's a nightmare. Made all the more difficult by the fact that it's a solid (non-metallic) black. Probably the reason why Nissan have now replaced this colour in the range with a metallic black.

Here's a riveting video of the same paint 'self healing' on an Infiniti





I've heard rumours that Nissan have in fact discontinued the self healing paint all together for new GTRs due to its problematic nature, though I don't have confirmation on that.

[kevstewart]

Amazing - must be awesome to work on such an outstanding car

[Caffeine Fiend]

After three days and approx 50 man-hours, here are the results in all their Opti-Coated glory. I'm still amazed at the gloss, depth, and clarity that was achieved. There's also a 'wet paint' slickness to the car now that is much more pronounced than before.























Nice pic of the titanium after-market exhaust also
































6023667e8c360503e5c40e24d17b1ec0_zps30b29166.jpg photo by Caffeine_Fiend | Photobucket

[Seba]

Awesome.

Hopefully he took you for quick thrash!! I hope those rims work IRL.

[slixx]

Unbelievable. Incredible
Great work guys. I'm sure it was worth it.

Guess the GTR isn't for the amateur detailed then? Hahaha

So now that it has the Opti-Coat, has that negated the self healing clear?


Peter "SLIXX"

[Caffeine Fiend]

Thanks Guys,

Yep it's not for the feint of heart, working on a car like this. I don't mind admitting there were a couple of times where I had to get up and walk away from it for a few mins out of frustration. Especially when I'd worked 15 mins to refine a small 2ft x 2ft section only to have it undone by microfibre streaks by not waiting long enough for the panel to cool before wiping off the polish residue. It really did test my patience to the limit.

It was by far the most challenging detail I've done to date. Nothing else is even in remotely the same vicinity. It's partially due to the difficulty of the car itself, but it's also partially because the car was already in what many would call 'immaculate' condition. It's relatively easy to make bad cars look good because the bar is already low. It's an entirely different challenge all together to make great cars look even better.

I've taken a lot away from it though and we're both quite pleased with the end result. Though you do develop a certain tunnel-vision when you're working on such a high level of perfectionism. Sometimes you have to step back, blink, and put things back into perspective. Otherwise we'd probably still be there refining!

Pete, yes the Opti-Coat should now negate the self-healing clear and make it much more easy to manage from a maintenance point of view.

[99GTT]

Insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice work matey


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[99GTT]

This almost looks chrome! Crazy clean



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[Caffeine Fiend]

lol thanks.

The owner and I were joking that he's now going to get defected by the cops for being a glare hazard on the road

[dazza]

2 words for this one, commitment and wow.
Crazy good Dan.

[Yeldarb]

Its covered in mirrors!

Dan, this is crazy. This is also a career. People would fly you around the country to prep their cars for shows.

Apparently there are a couple of Zondas in the country. Are they next

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[Caffeine Fiend]

Hahah thanks Brad. It may very well head that way career wise. Who knows

Our next collaborative project is likely to be a nice yellow Lamborghini Murcielago later in the year.



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[Chuckie Cheese]

If you ever come to WA, don't expect to go home as we won't let you.

Nice job!

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[markeymagz]

damn!!!!! love your work, ive been seeing all the cars you have posted and well done. Wish you were in NSW i'd for sure get you to do my car.
Keep the good work up.