Aston Martin Vanquish Carbon Edition – correction, PPF and Gtechniq coatings
The Carbon Edition takes an already dramatic V12 Vanquish and adds exposed carbon almost everywhere it can, which makes it two jobs rather than one — lacquer over carbon does not behave like paint under a machine. This car had four days with us: a two-stage machine polish, paint protection film on the panels that take the damage, and Gtechniq coatings over the top.
Stripped back and assessed before anything else
The car was washed and fully decontaminated, and the wheels came off so the arches, the barrels and the backs of the spokes could be cleaned properly rather than rinsed at. With the paint clean, we inspected it under high-intensity lighting — the only honest way to see what you are dealing with before a pad touches the car.
Correcting the carbon as well as the paint
The carbon fibre sections had arrived with heavy DA sanding marks and haze sitting in the lacquer, which dulls the weave underneath and turns it into a grey blur. Polishing those back is the difference you can see in the carbon 50/50s in the gallery: the weave sharpens and reads as carbon again. The paintwork had its own machine-induced sanding marks and swirls, cut back with Meguiar’s DA microfibre cutting pads and then refined on a Rupes LHR 12E Duetto with a soft finishing pad, with the tighter areas worked on the LHR 75E Mini and a TA50.
Film where it earns its place
The owner asked for paint protection film on the panels that take the punishment: bonnet, front bumper, front wings, side skirts and mirror caps. The logic is simple — having just spent days correcting the paint, you want the next stone chip landing on film rather than on the work.
Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light and EXO v2
The paint was sealed with Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light, a nano-ceramic coating that cures as two layers: a softer, flexible under-layer and a top layer that sets extremely hard. The combination resists swirling and is close to impervious to extremes of pH, and Gtechniq guarantee its performance for five years. EXO v2 went over the top for the hydrophobics. The wheels, already off the car, were coated in Crystal Serum Light as well, so brake dust and road grime have far less to bond to.
