Aston Martin DBS – two-stage machine polish and coating
This black Aston Martin DBS came in for a two-stage machine polish — our Level 2 minor correction — with the wheels coated as part of the job. Black hides nothing, so most of the gallery is 50/50 shots: the same panel, one half corrected and one half exactly as the car arrived.
Level 2 minor correction, two stages
A two-stage machine polish is a cutting stage to remove the defects followed by a refining stage to bring the gloss back up behind it. At Level 2 the target is a minor correction: take out the bulk of the swirls and wash marks and lift the finish substantially, without chasing the deepest scratches and removing more clear coat than the car can afford to lose. On a car that gets driven, that is almost always the right trade.
Why black is the hardest test
Nothing exposes tired paint like black. Under a single point of light every fine scratch throws its own starburst, and that is exactly what the before halves in the gallery show: a dense web of swirls that reads in daylight as flatness and takes all the depth out of the colour. After correction the same light source reads as a clean point and the reflections hold their shape — the building, the sky and the edges of the clouds sit in the panel instead of smearing across it.
Carbon detail and coated wheels
The car’s carbon fibre sections were worked separately, masked up and off the car on the bench where the gallery shows it, because lacquer over carbon behaves differently from a body panel and is worth treating on its own terms rather than running over it with the same process. The wheels were coated as part of the job, so brake dust lifts away on a wash instead of bonding itself to the face.
Protected once the correction was done
Correction is only half the job: bare, freshly polished paint needs protecting or it starts collecting the same marks again on the first wash. This DBS was finished with Kamikaze Collection products — Miyabi Coat, ISM Coat and Infinity Wax, laid out on the wing in one of the gallery shots. Whatever the coating, the point is the same: a slicker surface that holds less dirt and washes with far less contact.
