1956 Oldsmobile Rocket 88

[Mike_Phillips]

This last weekend, I buffed out a very nice show car for a gentleman I met at a recent Corvette clinic.



Pictures and the write-up are here (http://www.showcargarage.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=307)



The main goal was to take the finish to a higher level by removing the random isolated deeper scratches, (RIDS).



I started at 8:15am and finished right at 12:15am. Probably 9-10 hours of this was running the rotary buffer.



Interesting thing about the paint was that the dark green/gray metalic was basecoat/clearcoat, and the yellow was single-stage.



This was a large, but fun car to buff.

[tom p.]

FANTASTIC and what a striking color combination! Grrrrrrreat job!

[Juggalo]

That`s a stunning color. Great job:xyxthumbs I can`t say I`ve ever took that long to do a car though.

[stilez]

Just absolutely amazing!



Might I ask how much you would charge for a job like that?

[Scottwax]

Great looking car and nice work as always, Mike.



Wow! 9-10 hours with the buffer? :eek



Seeing that car makes me want Friday to get here even faster, I have a `32 Highboy and `57 T-bird to detail for the Good Guy`s Auction. The owner of the Highboy says the car has about $115,000 into it and the whole interior is leather, so he asked me to remove my shoes before cleaning the interior.

[AMP01]

Mike,



That looks fantastic! :bounce :xyxthumbs :bow :cool:



One of these days when I am down in your neck of the woods, I would love to stop by and check out some of your detailing techniques!



Once again, that car looks sweeeeet!



Cheers,

AMP01 formerly AMP99:p

[godofthunder]

Yay! Oldsmobile! I LOVE IT~!

[explorer]

SUPER JOB MIKE, IT LOOKS WONDERFUL:bow





Scott, I personally do not think this guy had to ask you to take your shoes off, knowing your work I know you would do as you see fit, like allways:bow :bow :bow your work speeks for it self:xyxthumbs

[explorer]

BY the way this is the type of picture I need on mypictures from the past thread, still empty, be a pal Mike and put it there so we can get the others to follow one of the masters:D :bow

[Mike_Phillips]

Originally posted by GSRstilez

Just absolutely amazing!



Might I ask how much you would charge for a job like that?



First of all, as corny as this may sound, I actually hate charging anything to polish-out the paint on a car. (I never use the word detailing to describe polishing paint because to me, detailing is what you do with a toothbrush after your finished).



Typically, I charge $300.00 to $400.00 per day to work on someone`s car. For most cars, I need 2 days.



In the case of the this particular car, I committed to doing it in a single day. That was probably a mistake on my part, but I don`t have lots of free time, so I do what I can.



Next for these customers, I will be polishing their 1965 and 1967 Corvettes. For these two cars, I will definitely require 2 days for each car.



The reason I hate to charge money for polishing paint is because it changes the dynamic of the entire process, and in my opinion, it adds a negative dynamic.



To compensate and overcome this dynamic, here`s what I do, (this is going to sound strange or corny, you can decide which),



I mentally adopt the car as my own. Then, I treat the car as if it were my own. And... when it comes to my car, I always do everything I can to take the finish to its maximum potential. When I do this, then time is never an issue, and thus neither is the money. Don`t get me wrong, I like money and can always use so more, I just don`t like feeling like I have to do something in certain amount of time to make X-amount of $$$.



That takes all the fun out of the project and for me, that`s a big part of polishing the paint on a car... the fun of it.



And that`s the strange part, taking a diamond in the rough and polishing it out to a glistening gemstone is a lot of hard work that brings with it a certain amount of risk. You see, paint is a thin, delicate coating, it is easily dulled and easily scratched. Making a mistake on someone else`s toy is an expensive lesson in the "School of Hard Knocks". Been there, done that... don`t want to do it again.



Even though it`s a lot of hard work, filled with danger, (not like in the James Bond/exciting kind of danger, but in the boring/liability kind of danger), it`s also fun and rewarding.



The before and after pictures of this particular project don`t show the real story. The car started out looking great, what I did was remove the thousands of isolated scratches out of the finish and then bring the clarity and gloss up to a higher level than it already was. So while up very close there is a dramatic difference, from 10 feet away, it`s not to dramatic. It`s easy to take an old oxidized Mustang and do a before and after. It`s a lot harder to take something that already looks great, and take it to the next level. (It makes you work a lot harder).



Today I`m going to try to set-up a day next week to apply the new NXT Tech Wax to Sniper (http://hotrod.com/featuredvehicles/113_9802_snipe/)



Now this will be fun.



Mike

[Pats300zx]

Outstanding work Mike..simply gorgeous....:bow

[Spilchy]

Can you please describe your process with the rotary on a car like that?



For example, what rotary did you use? What setting? What product(s) with which pad at what setting? With single stage paint like that, I`m all the more curious.



What was your process from start to finish? Wash? Polish? Glaze? Wax?



I`m curious to know the game plan you used to tackle the job.

[Mike_Phillips]

Hi Spilchy,



By the way, Don Knots is one of my all time favorite actors. I really like movies like,



The Shakiest Gun in the West

The Reluctant Astronaut

The Love God

How to Frame a Fig

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

The Incredible Mr. Limpet, etc.





You know, I started doing this for all the cars I detail. The idea is to share what I did and what I used to get the results I obtained.



Here`s an example using the black BMW I buffed out for lasts years Bimmerfest.



http://www.showcargarage.com/restoring_a_show_car_shine_to_a_1991_e34_bmw.html



As you can see it`s not finished. That`s because it takes a lot of time to type of the words, create the pictures, code the .html, upload everything, check out all the links, etc.



It takes time.



At the same time, I have a how-to book that talks about all of this stuff that I need to finish.



And then there are cars to buff out. I have also captured most/many of the cars I have buffed out in my life on 35mm film and could do write-ups on.



There just isn`t enough time.



But... I`ll try.



What I was hoping to do was to see if anyone was interested in going with me on a buff and kind of document it first hand and post what they saw.



Just an idea...



Mike



p.s.



Here is a picture I accidently left out of my write-up on ShowCarGarage, it was the Feather Sanding Technique (FST), I use to remove RIDS.

[Ryan]

Hello Mike. I just checked out the writeup at Showcar Garage. Great work. Definitely the kind of stuff that I like to read. I want to know a little more about the work. How did you get the pad around those edges. Are you familiar with the 2" pad for the rotary?



Ryan

[Mike_Phillips]

I am not familiar with a 2" pad for the rotary, but for tight areas I did use a 3" pad for cutting.



Mike