95 Firebird Hack Bodyshop Repair

[mrclean81]

I was contacted by a friend of mine who had his 95 Firebird repainted a couple months ago and wasnt happy with it. Apparently the body man promised a lot for a little, and my friend got what he paid for. After talking with him on the phone, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I told him this was nothing that could be fixed in a few hours, and I would prefer to do it in my bike shop as opposed to doing the mobile thing. He agreed, and the next day it was delivered. He was nice enough to run it through the coin op car wash first, so all I had to do was a basic ONR wash and clean up the wheels and exhaust tips with some Iron X before starting.







Not so bad, right?



Wrong. The windows and rubber seals were caked in overspray, compound and wetsanding splatter in all of the cracks, and tape residue on the seals that wasnt oversprayed.









The front bumper was a mess. After talking with the owner more, I found out the painter messed up the front bumper so bad he had to sand it down to nothing and start over. He was in a hurry and mad about it, and forgot to sand the primer first, so the paint turned out very textured and orange peeled..almost to the point of it being unrepairable. He also painted the badge silver and cleared over it when he cleared the bumper. This caused him to get a fat run right next to the badge, and the owner was well aware that it was going to be a risky repair, but told me to just do what I can with it. There was also a beard hair on the other side that he hadnt even noticed.



Random sanding scratches and swirls were throughout the car.

[mrclean81]

The first call of action was getting the mess cleaned up that the body shop left him. This was done with some HD Touch, a cheap Dollar Store brush, and lots of careful scrubbing.



The owner told me the body man had suggested the Turtle Wax Black Box to hide the swirls and give some protection, so I knew this thing was full of fillers. I found that out AFTER the ONR wash lol. I went around the whole car with CarPro Eraser, then a Medium grade Speedy Prep Towel with Touch as lube.



Once the fillers were removed, the true condition of the paint was apparent. Deep sanding scratches covered the entire car, and the orange peel was even more predominant.





The first thing I wanted to address was that horrid front bumper. I knew it was going to be a challenge getting that run and the beard hair sanded out without getting into not only the badge, but the body line as well. This is what I came up with.






I spent a good amount of time getting the sanding scratches out by hand. Once I had worked out the area around the badge and was a little more familier with this paint, I went ahead and wetsanded the front bumper with 2000 grit and a soft block, then used the Griots 3 inch polisher and a 3000 grit Trizac disk.





The surrounding areas were masked off first, but the tape was removed for the sake of pics (just in case Big A is reading)

The tight areas were then buffed out to a great gloss with the DeWalt 849x outfitted with a 3 in backing plate and LC pad. Optimum Hyper Compound was the weapon of choice on this car.

[mrclean81]

I ended up having to wetsand the roof and rear spoiler with the same method.





Once the horizontal areas were finished, it was time to get started on the sides. I really wanted to wetsand them as well, but time and the budget wasnt going to allow for that. They were very swirly..



I removed the tail lights at some point around Midnight on day two and polished them as well because the swirls and scratches were driving me crazy.



Once I had finally made it around the entire car with the Hyper Compound and Buff n Shine MF pads on the rotary, I switched up the the GG6 (3rd gen) and Buff n Shine MF Finishing pad and Hyper Polish.



After a few wipe downs with Eraser, I installed a decal kit he recently purchased, went around it again with HD Touch, and gave it a coat of Opti Seal. The tires recieved a coat of Blackfire Tire Gel, the exhaust tips were polished with Garry Dean`s Robo Shine, and the fender wells got a little Hyper Dressing.
This car was never intended to be perfect, but Im happy with the end result and I thought the owner was going to pass out. He was in a big hurry when he picked it up, but I was able to get a few pics as it was backing out of my shop.













Thanks for looking

Nathan Flannell
Flannells Pro Detail
618-203-9763

[sprocketser]

Wow , great turnaround mate ! Bodyshop have some bad reputations because of hackers like the ones that trashed your buddy s ride , sadly it s getting worst .

The real good bodyshops pay for that .

But it can be said of lots of fields too .

[Ronkh]

What a turn around !!!!

[holland_patrick]

not feeling the hood or the firehawk stripes but i love me some firebird...

[mrclean81]

Thank you

not feeling the hood or the firehawk stripes but i love me some firebird...

Im with you. The stripes arent my cup of tea either, but it was the owners wish to have them installed. He loved it, so Im happy with it.

[Todd@RUPES]

How many hours did that take you?! That was an absolutely stunning turnaround!!!

[mrclean81]

Thanks Todd. I had 25 hours in the detail, and another 5 in the decals.

[sprocketser]

Almost a full workweek ! Did some kickass job man . Keep it on .

[mrclean81]

Almost a full workweek ! Did some kickass job man . Keep it on .

Just about. I finished it in 2 1/2 days, just worked some long hours on it.

[Orinda Auto Detail]

You killed that one buddy! We call you captain save a bird!!

[Ronkh]

captain save a bird

[sprocketser]

Just about. I finished it in 2 1/2 days, just worked some long hours on it.

That s some big fast job mate !