New Car Prep: Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

What's up guys, is today an exciting day? We are working on the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, an absolutely stunning car, incredible, in fact it's as fast as a 991 gt3 in Nuremberg, you should go get it, which is terrifying, that's how crazy these cars are etc. In today's episode we're going to talk about how to polish a new car and generally, you guys know me. I don't want to polish a new car, but if it needs it, then they should do it. In this case, that's how it is. We're going to put a clear bra in the front here and then, more importantly, we're going to reflow the entire car, including the clear bra, so put it to the side.

We'll talk about that throughout the video. Here's an interesting backstory on this car, this car came from DC, Washington, DC, all the way to Connecticut and it caused rain leaks in the northeast and all of that got mixed up so the gentleman who owned this very nice man decided put duct tape here on the Bumper and hockey tape type hockey tape I guess on the hood now I don't necessarily blame them, that makes sense, you don't want to get Rock chips right before you put on a see-through bra, but on the hood I'll show you some interesting.

Things have happened because of the glue and I think because of the rain, so as always I'll call Kevin Brown because he seems to have all the answers and I'm sure he'll have something to say about this. It's carbon fiber, so the hood is carbon fiber, the roof is carbon fiber on the driveshaft, carbon fiber, so I think the glue did some weird things and we're going to take it out with the polisher. This is where I made it. I don't think we're going to do this particular part, you know, today, so anyway, that and a lot more in this episode.

I'm driving protected, so they take each other on top of each other. Oh, what pain. Oh, here, okay. First test drive in the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio and I'm sure I'm ruining that pronunciation from the start. I have to say the seat is absolutely incredible, it's really very stiff, it gives me that feeling of sort of like a racing seat in Sparco Recaro that kind of thing, but at the same time it's really plush and comfortable, but it's firm. I don't know how to explain it the right way, it's like someone punching you in the back. but in a comfortable way and that all sounds horrible.

The next thing I see is that the steering wheel is beautiful and has Alcantara in all the right places. Now I'm a big fan of Alcantara and he has a mix of Alcantara and leather which I prefer. all Alcantara but this is a wonderful mix the next thing you see are the paddle shifters. I'm obsessed with the s1 paddle shifters for up to whatever you want to call it a year and they have to be attached to the steering wheel, center piece here, not the actual steering wheel, so if I turn the wheel to the right it doesn't go well with the steering.

I don't like that look, it's actually a solution to the column, it's what I was looking for so I really like it, plus they are huge so if you're in a corner and you're turning the wheel you always know where it's up , you always know we're down, that's a big problem for me in terms of driving right now, it's really not that pleasant. "It's Lida drained, it snowed last night, some kind of weird mix, so clearly I can't do anything. I'm in non-sport mode because this isn't my car and there are only a couple of them in the US and me" .

I'd like to give this back to the newly detailed guy in a see-through bra, but I have permission to drive it, so I'm certainly going to drive it. I just went over a snowbank and we're sliding, baby. He said possible ice and snow just appeared well that's good I'm happy to let you know that overall from what I've read and what I've seen so far with this car it's pretty spectacular put it into perspective. you guys know I'm a big Porsche fan, it's the 991 gt3, we all agree, it's a pretty amazing car, it runs almost at the same time as this car at the Nurburgring, which is a mental bunker, this is a four-wheel drive car doors, I mean, you could put your kids in this thing, so Alpha did an amazing job overall, the fit and finish, I think it's absolutely spectacular, so in the details, put on a see-through bra and then reflect the car first, the sticky and hockey tape had to be carefully removed, the hockey type tape on the left.

Behind some residue from the glue that would later be removed with a healthy wash and a pressure washer, I then turned on the old pressure washer and turned on the burner to get warm water as it was about 25-30 degrees when we started this initial cleaning. I pre-rinsed the paint end wheel to remove any caked-on snow crumbs, then mixed foam and put it in a foam cannon to dissolve any lingering sauce while I waited a minute or two for the boost to do its job. I started cleaning the beautiful rims with a silk cloth. Brut and boost mix after another warm bath, it was time to take it inside and evaluate the paint.

Once I looked at the paint in proper lighting, I discovered that the tape had inadvertently caused vertical lines on my hood. This is when detail work gets interesting. and it was time to make a quick phone call later that day. I called Kevin Brown and described the situation to him and he was on the phone helping someone else and he said, let me think about it and try to figure out what's going on. is happening in the paint so I'm going to call him right now live on the actual show and I'm going to grab my microphone and he already has to say I hope he picks up Kevin Kevin, it's Larry, how are you?

Hey, I'm fine. I think going in that car is fine. I'm dying to hear you know the explanation and we're live right now on the show so say hello everyone. Oh great, hello and thanks for having me. You told me that tape was applied. to the vehicle and to your hands and I wanted to use a pretty strong tape and the thing about tape is you know it has the ability to restrict or limit the expansion and contraction of a base surface, so if it's a very strong tape, It's going to limit it more than one that's twisted and soft and flexible, so in this case it has carbon fiber, it has a composite bumper, it has very strong tape and it makes sense that the tape would restrict the pinching ability. contract extended without restrictions, so he printed it, so his job is basically to try to restructure or reform it.

An easy way to do it, you can try heating and cooling it repeatedly, you already know the light eater or just teach it or you. You can buff it and I would start with a very soft pad. You're not trying to remove scratches or anything, so you're just polishing to create some heat and push the surface a little bit, let it expand and move and come. re-rest in the way it was originally painted, so that's what I would do and I think that's what happened. I don't think you need to remove a lot of paint in your case, you are in a limited time period so you have the advantage of doing a lot of expansion and contraction, you have to do the work so you can get films, that's right, you put a protective film, so I'm trying to, I guess you know, warm it up a little bit.

I took a bite and hoped it was slow. I guess unless they know they can, otherwise just open it up and let it go back to rest. It originally stopped before the tape was applied. No, they should be quite successful. Well, I was pretty cool. So that's the explanation of why the paint did what it did. Armed with this knowledge, my goal was to warm up the painting by composing and polishing. The interesting thing is that there are no scratches or clouds that need to be removed, however, as we know the actual act of composing. on its own it generates byproducts that have heat that as detailers we try to minimize to avoid burning the paint, but in this case I'm actually looking to slowly and carefully generate heat to reflow the clear coat pretty well with the detailing principle of the method less aggressive. first, especially when the depth of the paint cannot be measured.

I started with M 205 polisher and a microfiber cutting pad, frankly because I feel comfortable with this combination after a few quick passes, the temporary 280.6 degrees Fahrenheit but little to no reflux. The effect occurred next, we used m 105 which is a type of compound and a microfiber cutting pad, the temperature increased to eighty seven point three, this showed signs of enough temperature to start reflowing into the paint, so than at this point, instead of using a stronger compound. Instead, we did what's called a half-step in the details, which is running the product a little longer and slightly increasing the downward pressure to get a temperature of almost 95 degrees while using the same product.

This was working, but it took a long time. I was wondering if I could take another half step by using a stronger pad in terms of heat generation but with a more lubricated liquid like in the M 205. Well, we have a little update here, so we have been using the 205 with microfiber. cutting disc and then on the high points using 105 with the microfiber cutting disc again with different heat and then we said okay maybe we'll try something else, it's about being a detailer, you're like mixing everything everything all the time , this is an additional cutting disc, what does that mean?

There is less foam when there is less foam, you actually transfer more power from the machine to the paint. That's a good thing in most cases, but in this case it's a good thing and a bad thing because, like I said, We're flying blind, so I don't know how much clear coat is on this car and it's a little dangerous, it's a bit, it's a new car so you know you have to be very careful, but it seems to be working so If we use 205 slow speed and extra cutting discs, you'll see how we start from very not very aggressive and getting a little bit more, a a little more, a little more, you have to take that time, that slow process, if you just jump, you can make a mistake, you ran out of paint and your week, your month, your year is over because you have to repaint a car new that only has ten holes in the country or whatever, so this is where we are now and it's working quite a bit.

Okay, let's finish this and now get the transparent bra. Once finished, the painting looked much better. The goal was to re-fold the lines on the hood so that the natural honeycomb texture was consistent throughout the carbon fiber. It was perfect? No, but my experience. Deep down he told me that this is where I had to stop to avoid the dreaded dilemma of details. Then, to give myself a little mental break, I focused on getting the car ready for the bra. One of my favorite functional aspects of the Giulia is the retractable front. spoiler despite not being able to lower manually on the dashboard, however, it automatically deploys at speed and retracts before parking, which can save you the heart-stopping creak that we have all unfortunately experienced.

There are two sixteen millimeter bolts holding the spoiler in place and I removed them so we could access the inside of the lip while I cleaned the fastener, after my little break the B pillars were polished as they were fully swirled for this n2o5 on a three-inch yellow whose best pad was used at the time. The white group ate with a drop of pizza n2o5. Now we've spent about six or seven hours polishing the paint, as you can see it looks pretty ridiculous. I'm excited, now the next step will be to reflect it. and we're going to put reflection on the clear bra once we're done, we still have a couple of hours left with that, so let's take care of the painting before we do that, let's talk a little bit. a little bit about ISO isopropyl alcohol and as you know, everyone talks on the forums, so let me give you kind of a general guide or starting point for you to work with this particular one: 91% isopropyl alcohol, you will mix it with water. your spray bottles now the ratio and again this is a little bit wider ratio will be about 30% to 70, so 70/30; 60/40 water is fine now if you use 70% isopropyl alcohol, generally speaking it's 50 to 50. ratio now why do we do that?

I just finished buffing the paint, it's full of oils and you know I did it 15 minutes ago, so the idea is to spray this on and wipe it off with a microfiber towel, light and nice and easy, without scratching, and that's . It will remove any of the residual oils from the polish and it won't fight with the reflection. Now I haven't polished it. I didn't polish the paint and I'm just applying reflection. You don't necessarily need it, but that's never the case. It's a bad idea, so I want to start by saying that when we're done we're going to put the reflection in there, we should be good about applying the reflection.

I use a crosshatch pattern to ensure all angles are met, but I avoid circles as much as possible for two minutes after application, the paint will look similar to this as it reflex cures, then simply use a microfiber towel to eliminate, no heat lamps, gas masks or protective suits are required. I recommend adding a second layer of reflection,then wait a few hours and top off with a moleskin like we did in this case, then I quickly polished the exhaust tips, resurfaced the tires, cleaned the engine bay and so on before heading back to DC. Alright, we're done and the car looks absolutely crazy and I have to say you know.

I read about this car. I looked at them, it's so cool how you're reading it. You know, sometimes you read it like oh, okay, maybe this car is crazy in person. Sounds great, feels great. I don't know how to describe it, but the doors closed really well, that's a big thing for me, it feels solid, yeah, they're actually a little light, it's kind of mind-blowing and you know, Google it or Wikipedia or whatever. , Nurburgring and look where this comes out in terms. A lot of times I'm nervous, it's destroying me.Coning zigs but I mean it's pretty crazy.

I'm not necessarily destroying them, but if you're beating a Koenigsegg, that's great anyway. The point of the video is that you get a new car, whether it's this one or anything in between, in theory you shouldn't. I have to polish the paint, that's in theory, so I don't want anyone to think, hey, you buy a new car and you have to polish it. It was a strange thing with the duct tape, the fact that they drove it here, who knows how. It was a long time before you knew the owner took it and maybe it was in the showroom.

I mean, this is a special car, so people touch it and rub it, so we had to polish it, but you shouldn't have to do that all the time. Why do you tell the dealer? Don't touch my car, the lead, the plastic, don't look at it, don't breathe it, don't think about it, they'll do anything to it, just give it to me and then you can wash it properly. and start the right routine or regime so anyway that's my little conversation once you're ready you can put highlights I put mud on the tires I vacuumed the engine the whole car looks perfect now it's ready to go and so Of course, you have a bra and can see the roads for the rest of your life anyway, if you have any questions email me Larry at mo NYC comm or visit my website mo NYC comm for more instructional videos on the Car care, as always. thanks for watching and see you next time