1969 Camaro Z/28 Rally Sport, Mercedes S600

**Scottwax** · 11-12-2009, 11:51 PM

2007 Mercedes S600. Just a basic detail on this one, hopefully a more extensive detail this spring. This 2 year old car had never been detailed but it washed weekly (or perhaps weakly!) at the local Mercedes dealer, which happens to be about 5 minutes from the owner`s office. After going over the car with him and pointing out the swirls induced by machine washing, he seems intent on washing the car himself from now on. For now, he just wanted it cleaned up and some protection for the winter.

I washed the car with ONR and clayed with Opti-Clay. Two years of no waxing, polishing or claying really showed in the brown gunk the clay was pulling off the car. I polished the paint with my Meguiars G110 DA polisher using a yellow Meguiars polishing pad and #205. Did a nice job minimizing the swirls but the car needs several hours of rotary love.

I finished the car off with Clearkote`s Carnauba Moose.

==============

1969 Camaro Z/27 Rally Sport. I`ve been itching to detail this car since my customer bought it off a dentist (who was going through a divorce) back in 2005. The car is a numbers matching (with the original DZ302 engine) car and the interior is original. It also has the optional chambered exhaust, which instead of mufflers, has crimps in the pipes about 18" apart all the way down the exhaust.

The car had been repainted and since it was not the correct Hugger Orange, my customer sent the car to be painted. The car had no rust (I believe it is an original Texas car) and needed very minimal work to be made perfectly straight. Unfortunately, the shop doing the work was taking in money from new customers to finish the cars already in the shop and my customer happened to show up the day the county Marshall`s office was raiding the shop. He was able to get the car out that day. The body work had been done, the exterior primered and the door/trunk jambs painted, along with the engine bay.

Off to House of Hot Rods in Mansfield (TX) to be finished. Eventually. The shop appears to do top quality work but it takes them forever. The owner of the Z/28 decided to have the engine gone through while the car was down having the paint job finished and by late 2007, the shop called and told him the car was ready. He picks up the car, and 3 miles from the shop, the engine throws a rod. Turns out whoever built the engine (not sure if it was House of Hot Rods or they farmed it out) left off a rod bolt. How is that even possible to miss something like that? Anyway, the block wasn`t ruined so it was gone through a second time and was back at the shop in November of last year. No idea why the engine wasn`t put in until March and it then took another 8 months to finish what little else the car needed. The owner of the car is obviously a bit PO`ed at how long it took to get the car.

He called me yesterday to confirm he had the car and wanted me to come out and clean it up. I wasn`t sure what to expect when I saw the car since I had no idea how well the shop buffs out paint. Well, now I do. They definitely have someone there who knows what they are doing. Zero rotary swirls and only very minimal spider swirls plus some light marring on the trunk lid. The quality of the paint job itself is superb. Other than some minor orange peel on the right front fender (may have been marred up during the engine installs and reshot), the paint is pretty close to perfect. Door and trunk jambs look superb as well. If the owner decides to sell the car, he`s going to have me wetsand the right front fender (could be the difference between a #1 and a #2 car), otherwise for now he will live with it seeing as he didn`t even notice it until I pointed it out and even then it didn`t seem to bother him.

I went over the car with my G110, Meguiars yellow polishing pad and #205 and it cleaned it up very nicely. I then applied a coat of Optimum Opti-Seal followed 30 minutes later by a coat of Optimum Car Wax. The bumpers were polished with Optimum Metal Polish.

You`d think after waiting 4 years to detail this car, I would have charged the battery in my camera (especially after noticing yesterday it was getting low on juice), but you`d be wrong.

I got all the pictures possible before my camera died.

The engine bay needed nothing but a quick wipe-down.

The interior just needed vacuuming and wipe-down. Had to take this picture with my camera phone.

**tenorplayer23** · 11-13-2009, 12:53 AM

The orange Camaro is unbelievable..............including the story. Whoever did the bad engine job has no idea what it would have really cost them if they had wrecked a numbers matching block!! You`re right, how did they miss that fastener??? Duh!?

Especially like the close-up shot of the trunk lid. Amazing "glow". It really stands out! Paint + Opti-Seal + OCW looks fantastic. That`s my combination right now, as well......just wish I had the Z sitting in my garage (or safe).

See ya. :wavey

**MarcHarris** · 11-13-2009, 03:49 AM

Scott you must be the hardest person to keep track of. Noone pumps out more quality work.

The S600 is a beauty and I hope you get to give her more future work. Would be a shame to have such a pimpin` car in sub-par condition.

That Z28 looks SICK. Sure the owner has waited WAY too long to be able to enjoy her, but WOW it looks great and is worth the time

**CocheseUGA** · 11-13-2009, 05:49 AM

Damn, too bad those pics are on photohost. I would have loved to see that Z.

**Pats300zx** · 11-13-2009, 07:56 AM

Amazing work Scott. That Camaro is "badass"v

**howareb** · 11-13-2009, 07:56 AM

Nice job, Scott. What a customer, to go through all that.

**audicoupej** · 11-13-2009, 08:22 AM

The MB looks dang good for just a 1 step polish to clean up 2 years of swirl-o-matic washes!

The Z/28 is just dripping wet. :spot I think I might need to pick up some OPS and the new version of OCW.

Great work as always Scott. I see you are using the G110 a lot. It sure is working well for you.

**GallagherAuto** · 11-13-2009, 12:28 PM

I love the Camaro!!! Great Job Scott.:xyxthumbs

**Got More Wax** · 11-13-2009, 12:47 PM

DZ Z/28!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!

Great work on both but, the DZ would make me giddy!!!!! Have never seen a DZ on any detail forums - truly a unique car!!!

Andy

**dschribs** · 11-13-2009, 01:12 PM

Great work. I have a `68 Camaro convertible that I`ve posted a few times on here.

How do you like the Optimum metal polish?? I`ve been using Vanilla Moose on my Camaro`s chrome - actually, got that from you. Do you think there`s any reason for me to buy Optimum`s metal polish if I don`t already have it??? Does it add anything to chrome that VM doesn`t?

I`m actually looking for a product to maintain the polished stainless trim around the windshield - you can see it on your pics. Would the Optimum metal polish be ok for that? Polished stainless is strange - It`s a bear to buff out to a mirror finish - yet it seems to show fine marring at the first sign of trying to maintain it...

Thanks!

**corrswitch** · 11-13-2009, 01:17 PM

Great story, thnx for sharing. Great work on the Camaro

**Bobby@Autogeek** · 11-13-2009, 01:26 PM

Great work. The 1969 Camaro Z/28 is awesome.

**Scottwax** · 11-13-2009, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by tenorplayer23

Amazing "glow". It really stands out! Paint + Opti-Seal + OCW looks fantastic. That`s my combination right now, as well......just wish I had the Z sitting in my garage (or safe).

Same here, excellent combo on my grey lustre metallic.

audicoupej-the S600 turned out better than expected but it still needs much deeper polishing than the owner was willing to pay for this time. First detail he`s ever had, hopefully that primes him for a higher level of want in the future.

dschribs-the main advantage of using Optimum Metal polish is it`s more aggressive on metal than VM is. If VM is giving you the amount of cut you need, there probably isn`t a real need for you to try OMP unless you really want to.

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

Just FYI, the Camaro is for sale. So is his `69 Dodge Dart (with a modified 340) and his 1992 Camaro Z/28 that has around 26,000 actual miles and is all original except he`s having the front bumper and the rear louvers refinished. Not sure what direction he is heading with respect to cars. The Dart and Z/28 took so long to finish he kind of lost interest in them and the `92 Z/28 was for his son, who at 6` 3" is a bit too tall for it and now has a Dodge truck.

**Got More Wax** · 11-13-2009, 02:31 PM

WOW!!!! The DZ`s go pretty regularly - when you can find one - for weel into $100k!!!!

Originally Posted by Scottwax

Same here, excellent combo on my grey lustre metallic.

audicoupej-the S600 turned out better than expected but it still needs much deeper polishing than the owner was willing to pay for this time. First detail he`s ever had, hopefully that primes him for a higher level of want in the future.

dschribs-the main advantage of using Optimum Metal polish is it`s more aggressive on metal than VM is. If VM is giving you the amount of cut you need, there probably isn`t a real need for you to try OMP unless you really want to.

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

Just FYI, the Camaro is for sale. So is his `69 Dodge Dart (with a modified 340) and his 1992 Camaro Z/28 that has around 26,000 actual miles and is all original except he`s having the front bumper and the rear louvers refinished. Not sure what direction he is heading with respect to cars. The Dart and Z/28 took so long to finish he kind of lost interest in them and the `92 Z/28 was for his son, who at 6` 3" is a bit too tall for it and now has a Dodge truck.

**tenorplayer23** · 11-13-2009, 03:13 PM

Scottwax, I`d be interested in the 69` Dart. Always wanted a Mopar, but the price Challengers & Cudas of that genre` (at least the real ones) are just so far out of reach these days.

PM me with some details (and pics, if the owner has some).

And, I am still amazed by how the Camaro looks. Like I said, the depth of shine on that trunk shot just amazes me.

Thanks in advance.

See ya. :wavey

Bob