My biggest challenge yet. 2000 red Camaro SS (Long post.. lots of pics)

[35TH LE]

This car was in some realllllly bad shape. Its a friend of mines car and I told him Id do this for him last year. Back then I was more of a rookie with machine work and at the time I impressed him with a sample by hand after washing his car at my house, we were in a local parade the next day. At that point I had only machine detailed a couple cars and really didnt have a solid grasp on what kind of work it would take to fix his car. So.... last Sunday we finally both had a day to do this and I went to work. I was intimidated but I gave it all I could with only using a PC.



Here is the sample I did for him BY HAND months and months ago.....











Not perfection... but looking at what I had to work with the 5 minute Megs ScratchX x 2 + 1 coat of Megs cleaner wax by hand did work pretty well.



Heres some befores from last Sunday. The car had HEAVY pitting... I couldnt touch the pitting with the PC.









Im not familiar with sanding marks but does this look like someone tried to color sand the car and wasnt successful? There was a lot of this all over the car... along with deep scratches everywhere.

[35TH LE]

Heres some comparisons...





You can see the block where I taped off in this pic..





This was about as good as I could get it with a 2 step polish... #83 with the Megs burgundy cutting pad and then #80 with the yellow Megs polish pad.





Heres where the detail started to suck... I decided on 2 steps... Megs cutting pad and #83 then a pass on the whole car with Megs polish pad and #80. However... my friend decided he didnt want to stay late so told me not to worry about the polish pad and #80. :furious: While my back wasnt complaining I didnt like leaving the car micromarred.. but I had no choice. So since he lives an hour from me hes going to let me rotary the car after winter passes. I had no choice but to settle with that... even though the car looked 100xs better then when I started.



Process...

-Gold Class Wash

-Sonus block grey clay and Last touch lube

-Megs burgandy cutting pad and #83

-Megs finishing pad and #21

-Megs #38 for tires and trim

-Flitz for exhaust tips and wheels

-Stoners for glass

[35TH LE]

Heres some afters... sorry for the crappy lighting. I was dark when I finished. To top it off on my last picture my batteries died.. which from past experiences means my previos couple dozen pics turn out with crappy quality. The black on the hood is a matte black vinyl, not paint... not supposed to be shiney.

[35TH LE]

I cant wait to get good with the rotary and make this car look like the mirror it deserves to look like.



Heres the ULTIMATE gratification....



My friend went to the local 7-11 to get cash to pay for the detail after I was done. Not more the 5 MINUTES after I finished the car he got THREE compliments while just at 7-11!!!!!!!!! Both of us were happy! :woot2:

[mr.ikon]

lookin real smooth. but i just hate when you got those little dots. i have the same problem with my car.

[Scottwax]

Good thing that GM clear is pretty hard, because even with an aggressive pad/83 combo, the marring appears to be very minimal...and look way better than the starting point.