Oakes

I bring you a complete overhaul of this 2006 Evolution IX in Tarmac Black, the vehicle has been washed once in the last year and was in desperate need of a proper detail. The vehicle needed to be done in preparation for a photoshoot so my task was to make sure nothing went untouched, having an entire week at my disposal I went over everything and also documented as much as possible. Both fortunately and unfortunately this Evo was an excellent candidate for paint correction, so I was able to use this to my advantage as you will see in the pics below.

This particular vehicle, just dyno'd 609hp 519tq making it quite a machine, now it looks just as good as it's dyno sheet.

Process:
Full wash/degrease/clay
Menzerna Power Gloss - Orange (heavier areas)
Menzerna Intensive Polish - Orange
Menzerna 203 - Green
Menzerna Final Polish II - White
Optimum Opti - Seal
Pure Caranuba wax
Blood, sweat, tears, sweat and dedication

To start off, here are a few before photos of the car as it arrived, before the wash/degrease/clay of the vehicle






A quick snap of the clay bar



After the full degrease/wash/clay the vehicle was dried and then pulled outside in the remaining daylight to get an inspection of the paint condition. Once that was done, I pulled it back in to see how it looked under the spotlights...these photos show pretty well what I was up against.






Back inside:

Oakes

After figuring out the best combination of pads/polishes, the correction got under way. As you saw with the before pics of the paint above, these photos show the difference between the corrected and uncorrected portions of the panels. Now onto the 50/50 shots!

Starting off with the passenger rear quarter panel:






Now for the trunk 50/50 photos







A brief half shot of the wing side blade



Here is a bigger scale 50/50, this shows the difference between the corrected rear as opposed to the uncorrected front door

Oakes

After almost a total of 25 hours spent just on the paint correction alone, these photos document the condition of the paint in comparison to the before photos above. Ran into a few hiccups, such as a pad failing and polish drying too fast or not at all, but the final result truly shows the work that was put in. These pictures were taken after the correction, but before the sealant and wax were applied, I'll let the pics do the talking...









Some direct sun shots of the paint, reassurance that the job was done right.

Oakes

Everybody's favorite pics, the FINAL results, pictures were taken after the sealant/wax application and it's final wash, start it off with the reflection photos and then the all around vehicle photos. It is a HUGE relief to finally be done this particular Evo..














Full vehicle shots:








Hope you enjoyed looking! Comments appreciated!

-Oakes

Spd-Kilz

iTrader: (35)

Amazing work. It's such a pain to get a black car to look good.

I especially liked this picture: the reflection of the shelving unit looks so realistic I thought it was a hole in the car.

uLs1a

iTrader: (22)

Looks really good.

_JB_

iTrader: (33)

Wow good job!

The Crazy Sweed

iTrader: (1)

Awesome job! I wish I had the patience and products to do such a good job!!

shaun

wow great job!
why is it that most nice imports are porly taken care of.
i know my black benz is a bitch to take care of but i try my best to do so and the only washing it in one year thats just stupid.
i went up to a very nice exspensive mall in atl and in the valet was a newer red ferarri and the car looked like ****! i mean my camaro would put rings around it over and over.
some people are just dumb lol.

SteelCityYaga

You would think with all the technology and engineering that went into those vehicles they would have spent the time to find a harder clearcoat.

Good job dude!

Oso SS

iTrader: (3)

that paint looked like **** until you got ahold of it.

Scira

iTrader: (4)

That's awesome! Way to bring that paint back to life

jeffrey G

holy ****! Nice job man.

Oakes

Thanks guys! In the owners defense he's been starting up his new shop and has been very busy and the car was also down getting built.

I agree with the paint though, Mitsubishi really failed miserably with it

Yahelou

iTrader: (23)

wow, incredible job. my car next please. haha.

EsCrasston

iTrader: (1)

very nice work! did you use a rotary for everything?

Oakes

Thank you, bring it on over

Thank you! I didn't use the rotary at all actually, a combo of the PC and the Cyclo buffers

MYSTIC-1SC

iTrader: (14)

wow very nice results. If you don't mind me asking how much money do you usually bring in doing a job this extensive, because as you said you had quite a bit to correct with the condition of the paint on this evo.

green28

iTrader: (8)

Amazing work. Makes me want to get off my butt and go clean my car, cause it looks dirty after looking at your finished pictures.

EATSGTS

iTrader: (2)

looks like somebody washed it with 180 grit, good job man