150k Vette, show car detail

[TH0001]

Background story:

The son of the owner of this Corvette recently passed away. This was emotinal to the owner for obvious reasons as well as the fact that he (the son) had designed and built the car shortly before passing away. Before I was contacted, the Corvette was run over at dealership by a Semi Truck and the had to be repainted and repaired. The bodyshop who did this left the in semi horrible condition, with swirls, spiderwebbing, thin paint, and runs through out the car. Also the car was coated in horrible overspray (the paint felt like sandpaper and required over 3 hours of claying).

I orginally posted this write up (well a different version of it) on the Meguiars website as well as Corvetteforum.com. The bodyshop owner saw the vehicle online and threatened to sue the owner so I had the threads removed (even though the bodyshop, which was not and will not be named did the bad work).

This job took a total of 3 days (not including the orginal visit out there to inspect the car and quote a price). In the end over 20 hours where spent detailing the car and I will break this write up into the days and the order in which I did it.

Products used:

Intial wash

Meguiars NXT Wash
Meguiars lambs wool wash mitts x2
Meguiars Blue Mild detailer clay, 2 full bars lubed with Meguairs Last Touch cut 1:1
Dried with the Absorber
Eagle One All Tire and Rim spray on the the tires and rims
Meguiars APC, cut 4:1 in the wheel wells

Polishing/Compounding

Hitachi SP rotary buffer
Meguiars (porter cable 7274) G100 ROB
Meguiars #84 Powercompound Cleaner
Meguiars #83 DAC/P
Meguiars #82 Swirl Free Polish
Meguiars #80 Speed Glaze
Meguiars #7 Showcar Glaze
Meguiars 7006 Cutting pads
Meguiars 8000/8006 Polishing pads
Meguiars 9006 Finishing pads

Paint sealent/protection

Meguiars #21 Synthetic Sealent
Meguiars #16 Carnuba Wax

Interior

Meguiars APC 10:1
Meguiars Quik Interior Detailer spray
Meguiars Natural Shine protectent
Meguiars Detailer Line Leather Conditioner and Cleaner
Meguiars NXT Window Cleaner

Misc.

Meguiars NXT All Metal Polysh
Meguiars Exterior Detailer Protectent
Meguiars HotTires Tire Shine
Meguiars Hyperdressing, cut 3:1
tons and tons of various towels and microfibers

Okay lets get started

Day one: Intial Inspection

I had taken my son to a nearby waterpark so I stopped by and checked out the Corvette

What I discovered was horrible overspray on all surfaces of the body as well as the blemishes I mentioned earlier in the post....



I taped of a section and made on pass of #83 on the rotary and found that 80 percent of the blemishes came out @1500 RPM



Different view of the same thing. You can see some specs in the two pictures. These are tiny bits of yellow overspray in the paint from the bodyshop. Again the entire Corvette felt like sandpaper.



A small teaser of the Corvette, the Ferrari in the background and the vintage gas pumps in the garage.

[grease]

^^^teasin is for chics, post the pics

[TH0001]

Day Two

Day two started out early with an intal wash using the two bucket method...



Then I bucked in for three hours of claying until the paint was glassy and smooth...



Some of the defects...

Swirling and scratches



Some of the runs in the paint





Some of the marring in the sunlight...



I started my correction by wetsanding the runs in the paint with 3M 600 grit, then wetsanding with 1500 grit, 2000 grit, and finally 3000 grit.

Then those areas where polished with #84 on the rotary with a cutting pad at 1500 rpm...

Afters of the above pics





Then I began by buffing the entire car 3 times with Meguiars DAC/P (#83) on a 8006 polishing pad using the Hitachi Rotary. The first two times @ 1500 rpm, and the time I made my intial passes at 1200 rpm and throttled down to about 600 rpm for the final pass to refine the polish.





Before...



After the intial pass around the car, I'll save the real afters until the end



After washing, claying, wetsanding, buffing and polishign I was getting burnt out on working the paint so I turned my attention the CCW aluminum rims. I taped off an area (to the right, about 3 inchs long) and worked Meguiars NXT All Metal Polysh real well to see if I could notice a difference....

Side by side with the unfinished areas



Seeing a big difference I set off to polish each rim by hand but after spending the better part of an hour on the first rim I had to increase my efficency. I put a Meguiars 9006 finishing pad on the rotary and loaded it with Meguiars NXT All Metal Polysh. Then I polished the rim at 600 rpm until the rim was covered in black paste. I wiped clean and repeated for 2 passes per rim. Then I used a microfiber and polished all the nooks and crannies.

End result was a chrome like finish that was haze free and deep...



As you can see in the picture it was getting late and time for a break...

[sneek]

Great work!

Is that mess with the bodyshop cleared up?

[TH0001]

Day Three

Day three started with a detour into the entire bay. The engine bay and paintwork was first wiped with a damp chamios then Last Touch Detailer spray and a microfiber. After all was clean the rubber and plastic was treated to Meguiars Hyperdressing cut 3:1. The paint work under the hood including the covers and jams recieved Meguiars #7 and Meguiars #21.







Then I started back on the paint by polishing the paint with Meguiars #82 with a finishing pad and the PC...



After finishing with the #82 the once scratched and rough paint was now perfectly smooth and defect free (to the 99th percentile). I am not sure why the glare appeared in the picture as there where no defects...







The I worked #7 into the paint using a foam pad and removing while damp. Working a 4' x 4' seciton at a time then removing and moving back to the next section before rewiping the first...



Then I wiped the doorjams and polished then with #82...



I applied Meguiars #21 sealent using the PC with a finishing pad.



As the first coat cured I went to work on the misc. items. Windows, dressing the tires and wheel wells, ect....

I also started on the interior by vacumming and shampooing the carpet with APC. Then I used qtips and interior detailer to clean every crevice.

Then I applied a second of #21 and went back to the interior. Meguiars Natural Shine on the plastics and leather conditoner on the expansive leather that covered the interior...







I pulled the car into the garage for the day and snapped off a couple pictures to show the awesome reflectiveness of 21 on a properly prepped surface...

[TH0001]

Day Four

The final day...

After ensuring that the 21 had enough time to cure properly I topped it with Meguiars #16 Carnuba by hand...



As it cured I tended to a few final detailes such as polishing the exhaust and undercarrage and under the doorhandles...



I reapplied dressing to the tires and wheel wells and coated the rims with #21 to lock in the shine. I applied Exterior Trim Detailers to all weather stripping and bodywork plastic...

Then I remember that I forgot the trunk.



Okay, the afters..

[Scottwax]

Incredible work on that horribly butchered Corvette!

One thing though, there is no way the body shop would have a leg to stand on in court. I would have called their bluff and counter-sued for the damages to the Corvette's finish. It can be done too, my brother won his suit against the bodyshop that ruined his truck.

[firegate]

Wow, awesome turnaround. The paint looks incredibly wet.

[GregCavi]

Great turnaround!! Its a shame what that shop did to it!!

Greg

[twitch]

Whoa man you did an absolutely wonderful turnaround on the 'Vette. It looks fantastic!

How'd he do at the show?

[BMW335i]

Nice job, those paint runs were scary...

[TH0001]

Thanks for the compliments...

As far as I know the body shop situation was never resolved....