Hammered Black Z06 Corvette Brought Back to Life!! (98 Pictures)

RickRack · 03-30-09, 11:31

This Z06 Corvette is probably one of the worst ‘newer’ cars I have seen in a while, maybe even ever! I can’t believe such a sweet car could have been neglected so bad…

Things have been extremely busy lately, so I have been booked up several weeks in advance. I had a very busy week scheduled and I received a phone call to ‘squeeze’ this car in because it was sold and getting delivered in a couple days. Of course, the nice guy that I am, says “Sure, bring it on down!” Huh….. What a mistake that was!

When the car arrived at the shop, it looked bad enough, but I could tell the car had recently been waxed and I was sure that it would look even worse once it was completely stripped. Sure enough, I asked the owner and he said that he ran it through the car wash and had them ‘glaze it’.

Time was crucial, as the car needed to be finished in less than 48 hours. I was told not to worry about the minor little details, just concentrate on getting the paint as perfect as possible since the new owner was very picky and said he would refuse the car if it had swirls in the paint.

Preparation:

I did a quick wash, then used Spray Nine cleaner on a damp microfiber towel to strip away any wax, sealant or glaze that was embedded in the paint. I rewashed the car, clayed the exterior using Sonus green clay, rinsed and dried. I didn’t bother cleaning the wheels, tires, wheel wells or engine bay since they weren’t too bad and time was a factor. Once dry, I used compressed air to remove any leftover water from all cracks and crevices, then wiped the exterior down with 91% alcohol to ensure a proper surface for polishing. All trim and other crucial areas were masked off.

Before Pictures:

Below is what the car looked like after prepping the car for polishing. As you can see, the car was absolutely hammered to say the least. From the looks of it, some of the panels had been previously wetsanded and poorly refinished, resulting in sanding scratches, holograms, wool pad marring, etc…The rest of the car had all kinds of damage as well, including deep scratches, pitting, stone chips, you name it…

The drivers side door had some very deep etching, which was really weird. I am guessing it was caused from some sort of chemical that has an adverse reaction with the paint. I tried compounding the door to remove it, but it was too deep and required wetsanding to fully remove it. Below is what the door looked like…

RickRack · 03-30-09, 11:34

During Pictures:

Due to the limited amount of time I had to work on the car, I did a test panel to see if a 2-step polishing treatment would get the car looking good enough for delivery. Of course, this didn’t do much, so I knew I had to break out the wool pad and heavy compound to get the results I was looking to achieve. After some testing, I chose to use Mark-V MV350 using a black lambs wool pad to level the paint and remove the deeper defects.

Below is what the passenger side door looked like after MV350/black wool pad…

To remove the compounding haze and wool pad abrasions left from the MV350/black wool combo, I used MV350 using a green American Buffing cross-cut foam pad, followed by 3M 80349 (UK) Ultra Fine Compound using a flat green LC pad. This worked amazing as you can see in the pics below. These pics were taken after an alcohol wipedown before any final polishing was done.

I moved around the entire car using the same process mentioned above.

Passenger side ¼ panel before…

Passenger side ¼ panel after…

The entire hood had been previously wetsanded and had some pretty deep scratches present. After polishing the entire hood with MV350/black wool, MV350/green AB foam and 3M 80349/green LC foam, a few deeper RIDS were not fully removed as you can see below. I was reluctant to go any further due to the fact that the clearcoat had already been diminished enough from wetsanding.

Hood before:

Hood after… (notice the few RIDS remaining):

I attempted to compound the drivers door using Mark-V MV350 compound on a black lambs wool pad to remove the etching and other defects. The etching was too deep and required wetsanding to fully remove it. I wetsanded a few spots with 3000 grit wetsand paper, which did the trick. Below is what the door looked like before…

Door before:

Door after wetsanding, MV350/black wool, MV350/green AB foam and 3M 80349/green LC foam:

Left fender before:

Left fender after MV350/black wool, MV350/green AB foam and 3M 80349/green LC foam:

Here are a few pictures to show what the car looked like after the MV350/black wool, MV350/green AB foam and 3M 80349/green LC foam combo before any final polishing was done.

RickRack · 03-30-09, 11:35

After all of the major polishing was completed, I gave the car a quick wash to remove all of the dust and polish spatter in all of the cracks & crevices, door jambs, etc…

For the final polishing step, I used 106fa on a flat LC black pad which really made a difference and left the finish ready for the LSP. After finishing all of the polishing, I gave the car a quick alcohol wipedown, followed by a Zaino Z6 wipedown.

I chose to use Blackfire Wet Diamond paint sealant since I have only used it on light color cars before. It went on & off very easy and gave the car a nice look.

Here are the final results:

Nice reflections:

Outside:

Mmm, horsepower….…

Thanks for looking!

TSC17 · 03-30-09, 11:44

Rick...my friend...your work never ceases to amaze me! You're continually raising the bar for the rest of us. Bravo!

stotte20 · 03-30-09, 11:47

wow that was awsome. you really do set the bar for when it comes to finishing a car the right way. i wish i got the kind of cars you do to detail

Pats300zx · 03-30-09, 11:49

Awesome job Rick. From the look of things at the shop business is booming. Congrats.

RickRack · 03-30-09, 11:54

TSC17- Thanks Todd! I really appreciate the kind words.
You and everyone else seem to be getting better & better too, so I have to stay on top of my game!

stotte20- Thanks a lot! I have been detailing for almost 20 years now, so it takes time...

Pats300zx- Thank you Pat! The shop is doing very well. It's gonna be a very busy summer!