150k Vette, show car detail

Todd@RUPES

Todd@RUPES

Just a regular guy
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....



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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



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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.



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



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Day Two



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



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



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Some of the defects...



Swirling and scratches



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Some of the runs in the paint



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Some of the marring in the sunlight...



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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



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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.



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Before...



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



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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



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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...



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



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



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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...



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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...



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



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



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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...



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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...



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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...



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



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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.



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Okay, the afters..



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:eek: :bow



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



How'd he do at the show?
 
TH0001 said:
Thanks for the compliments...



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



He ought to call a lawyer, especially if you have a lot of good before shots. When my brother first got his truck back (hail damage) from the body shop, I took pictures of all the runs, sags, overpsray, sanding marks under the paint, excessive orange peel, etc. Very helpful when they went to court.



I wouldn't let that crappy shop get away with messing up that car....they shouldn't even be in business if that is typical of their work.
 
You worked very hard on that car and obiusly it shows, the dedication and the outcome leaves me speach less. I definetly will be looking at this page more the once due to the knowledge over flow i have recieved, you made look at Meguairs from a different pespective (just a little), overall your respect is due.



WELL DONE LAD:2thumbs:





P.S. I agree with Scott (Get those bastards)

If you want ill come over there and slap them for you
 
Great car and great work - amazing!



The shop has no legs to stand on even if they were named in the thread. I know it's scary when people start throwing the word 'lawsuit' around, but people like that need to be stood up to and held to task. Free speach is worth fighting for. Best of luck either way!
 
what a shame that shops get away with stuff like that. Did they think someone putting so much hard work into a car would not notice that their work is very poor. If that happened to my car I know I would go straight for the good old baseball bat and start smashing some faces in Joe Pesci style. :) I really would not do that but I can't lie and say that I would not at least think of it.
 
Scottwax said:
He ought to call a lawyer, especially if you have a lot of good before shots. When my brother first got his truck back (hail damage) from the body shop, I took pictures of all the runs, sags, overpsray, sanding marks under the paint, excessive orange peel, etc. Very helpful when they went to court.



I wouldn't let that crappy shop get away with messing up that car....they shouldn't even be in business if that is typical of their work.
Click to expand...



Agreed! I emailed the bodyshop on the owners request and sent them pictures I took (about 20 or so, showing every run, some of the thin black paint, in which the yellow is visible underneath, spots of clear coat that where thin, ect..)



I recieved a call from the bodyshop owner, pissed off, who was curious as to who details a car using a halagon light. Apparently they charge you 15k for a paintjob and pay some idiot 10 dollars an hour to buff it out. I told the owner of the car I would gladly submit my bill to the bodyshop owner but he refused.



FWI, I normally charge 50/hr and this details was well over 20 hours. I felt the body shop was responsible for this, but instead they threatened to sue us....:grrr
 
If I were you, I wouldnt be afriad of mentioning thier name. Dont ya wanna protect others from using this body shop?



I know its your *** on the line, but what grounds do they have to sue? Great work?



The only grounds they have to sue on are defamation. I know in Canada, in order for the plaintiff to succeed in this kinda lawsuit, he (body shop) would need to prove that you

A. directly attacked his reputation

B. the remarks must be harmful

C. the remarks must be clearly aimed at the plaintiff

D. the remarks must be conveyed to a third party.

This is based on the idea the defamation in and of itself is false and malicious.



There are exceptions, and this is where youd succeed.

A. the defamatory remark must be accurate. which yours OBVIOUSLY would be, you have enough pictures to prove it

B. qualified priviledge (basically this means that your remarks were well-motivated...ie, when an employer gives a negative review but an honest job reference)

C. as a citizen, you can make fair comments on the work, without malicious intent, and that the remarks are from good intent



Personally, Id fight them. When a body shop, or any shop of any kind does bad work, thats one thing. People makes mistakes, people screw up, its part of life. But when they criticize the customer for complaining, and then say their work is fine, that shows a huge lack of thought and care for their work, and more specifically the customers product.
 
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