Saturday, July 20, 2013

Gaining momentum...

Well, again it has been ages since I have been able to update the blog for everyone. Things have been cranking here over the past few months and I hope to be able to get some more posts going here over the next few weeks to let everyone know what has been taking up all our time. 

Opti-Coat is in Demand:


Since finishing the Porsche Cayenne Opti-Coat, I have had 4 more clients inquire and request the Opti-Coat treatment on their vehicles. Usually I am too busy working to take photos describing the process but on this 2013 Audi S7 I had some time to document the process for everyone to see. 

A great client called me to tell me he has replaced his BMW 550xi with an Audi S7 and wanted to get an X-Pel Ultimate full frontal coverage and Opti-Coat to protect the car for the New England winters. At first I was skeptical of the swap for him, as he is a diehard BMW fan, but after driving and working on this S7, I was blown away with the interior design and the cars overall driving characteristics. 

After getting the car in, I attacked the interior first. Since this S7 only had 40 miles on it, this was a very simple conditioning of all plastic, vinyl, and leather components. Using mostly Zymol vinyl and Treat along with some other products, we had the interior all protected for the dust, dirt, and moisture that a New Enlgand summer can bring to it...

Gorgeous cockpit to put some serious miles on in a hurry with this car's powerplant
More details of car's interior components. Love the seat stitching.
Carbon fiber accents everywhere...

After finishing up the interior we started on the exterior prep work for the Opti-Coat. Due to Audi's notorious hard clear coats, this car was unscathed in terms of scratches and swirls. This afforded us to skip the usual paint correction process and get right to work cleaning the paint with Klasse AIO and applying the X-Pel Utlimate.

X-Pel Ultimate full hood piece being installed...

After installing the X-Pel to the hood, fenders, front bumper and headlights, we allowed the car to sit overnight to allow proper bonding of the material to the paint before applying our Opti-Coat. The fact the heat and humidity was so high only made this more critical. Anytime any vinyl or clear bra is installed in high humidity you can expect a much longer bonding process than normal. 

The next morning brought even more heat and humidity so applying the Opti-Coat was a bit more difficult than usual. All paint not covered in X-Pel was done first, followed by the X-Pel covered areas and finally the wheels and brakes.
Opti-Coat being applied to the rear hatch...

Flashing up on the roof...

Paint sealed and wheels removed...

Calipers being covered...

Huge 6 piston Brembos...

Wheels covered and flashing up...

Can't forget about the inner barrels...

After greasing the hubs and torquing the wheels: 90lb ft for the S7 we pulled applied some Optimum Car Wax to even out everything and then pulled her outside to check the outcome.









Another nice outcome. The only issue we had was again the humidity and the flashing that occurred more than normal when delivering. After speaking with the owner a few days later, all flashing had subsided and the car looked great. What's more, the vehicle now had enough protection to last 5+ years without much if any maintenance in terms of paint care.

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