2000 Camaro Brought Back from the Dead

[detaildoc]

This is my friend's 2000 Camaro. The paint was in really bad shape, oxidizing and with really deep swirls and scratches. The wing on this thing was really beat up. This car has been going through the car wash since 2000 and it has never been clayed, polished, or waxed. Given the extent of the damage and the cc being rock hard, this was a 1 1/2 days project. Below is my list of materials as best as I can remember:



Wash and Dry:

High pressure nozzle, wool mitt, and Lowes GS Sponge

2 buckets with Grit Guard

Ultima Paint Guard Wash

Metro Vac N' Blow

2 Pakshak's 24" x 36" Waffle Weave Micro Fiber Towel



Tires:

Sonus Rim Bright

Ace Powersticks

Ultima Tire & Trim Guard Plus v2

CG Wheel Wax



Windows

Meguiars NXT Generation Glass Cleaner

Sonus Glass Polish & Chrome Cleaner

2 Pakshak's 16" x 16" Waffle Weave Micro Fiber Glass Towel



Clay:

Clay Magic

ONR as Lubricant



Interior:

Metro Vac N' Blow

UDM with brush attachments

Ultima Interior Shampoo and Ultima Autospa Dual-Foam Interior Applicator

Sonus Cockpit Detailer and Sonus Total Eclipse

Pakshak's 16" x 16" Ultra-Smooth Micro Fiber Towels

Sonus All in One Cleaner

The Edge yellow and blue Detailing Swab Foam Tips

Craftman Portable Fluorescent Light



Rubber and Plastic Trim:

Sonus All in One Cleaner

Ultima Tire & Trim Guard Plus v2



Headlights:

UDM, 4" LC orange and white pads

SIP, Meguiars Plast X, 106ff



Paint:

Flex and UDM

SIP and RD

LC foamed wool pad; 6.5'' LC yellow; 6.5", 5.5" & 4" LC orange; 6.5" & 4" LC gray

Ultima Autospa Dual-Foam Exterior Applicator

The Edge black and blue Detailing Swab Foam Tips

Craftman Halogens

Infratech CM5300 - COLOR MATCHER CM5300

Pakshak's 16" x 16" Ultra-Edgeless Micro Fiber Towels

Pakshak's 16" x 24" Ultra-Plush Micro Fiber Towels

Pakshak's 4" x 6" "Big Kahuna" Ultra Micro Fiber Foam Applicator Pads

Z-5 x2, Z-2 x1, ZFX Flash Cure Accelerator, Z-16 between layers, Z-8



BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

[mazdaguy]

Beautiful Job, looks brand new~! That sucker is wett!

 

[TSC17]

Wonderful turnaround!

 

[imported_Sludge1]

That is pretty close to a miracle. The before pictures were awful, I never expected after pictures that good. Fantastic job. :bow:bow

 

[s.o.m.SS]

Great work. Did you get to the headlights?

 

[Thomas Dekany]

Stunning transformation!!!!!!!

 

[Ollever]

How did you go about polishing the exterior sail panels ( the black triangles right behind the side windows ), they always seem to stay swirled up on me, and I can't tell if they are acrylic or what material they are. Anybody with a 4th gen camaro/firebird is more than welcome to chime in on this one, this has been a long standing trouble spot for me. Thanks

 

[BigAl3]

give yourself a pat on the back, beautiful job!



p.s. what did the owner think?

 

[detaildoc]

Great work. Did you get to the headlights?

Yes I did. The headlights were as bad as the rest of the car and took several passes with the orange pad and white pads, SIP, PlastX and 106 ff to restore.

 

[Scottwax]

Huge improvement! Looks so much better now.



Having done a few Camaros with that rock hard paint, I know what you went through. :nervous2:

 

[detaildoc]

How did you go about polishing the exterior sail panels ( the black triangles right behind the side windows ), they always seem to stay swirled up on me, and I can't tell if they are acrylic or what material they are. Anybody with a 4th gen camaro/firebird is more than welcome to chime in on this one, this has been a long standing trouble spot for me. Thanks

I used my UDM at speed 4.5 with a 4" LC orange pad and SIP, followed by the gray pad with RD.

 

[detaildoc]

give yourself a pat on the back, beautiful job!



p.s. what did the owner think?

Thanks! She and her family were stunned :soscared:. They could not believe the transformation. In fact, she had been thinking about selling this car, but after she saw these results, she actually changed her mind. Now she is is feeling bad about all the work I put into it, and she keeps insisting to pay me, but I keep declining since she is a friend of mine. I told her that it was a pleasure working on this car and to just take me out to lunch if that will make her feel better, which she accepted, but keeps insisting that in addition to lunch, she still has to buy me something else or pay me. I am just happy that she is in love with her car again and keeping it.

 

[detaildoc]

Huge improvement! Looks so much better now.



Having done a few Camaros with that rock hard paint, I know what you went through. :nervous2:

Thanks! It was a real PITA. This morning I woke up feeling as if someone beat me up with a baseball bat .

 

[detaildoc]

Oh, one more thing. I told her to bring back the car next weekend so I can add some DWG, which I did not have the time or energy left to do. I also wanted to let the Z8 cure before applying the DWG as the LSP. DWG is a must for me.

 

[BigAl3]

She and her family were stunned :soscared:. They could not believe the transformation. In fact, she had been thinking about selling this car, but after she saw these results, she actually changed her mind. I am just happy that she is in love with her car again and keeping it.

that's the best part, seeing the reaction on the owners faces and making them proud to own their car once again... :woot: :clap:

 

[imported_shine]

Woah! Nice job. It looks like a different car now. What's your opinion on the CM5300? How does compare to the halogens as far as showing defects?

 

[Ollever]

I used my UDM at speed 4.5 with a 4" LC orange pad and SIP, followed by the gray pad with RD.

Thanks, I wasn't sure how aggressive I could go on those things. By the way, great work, it looks fantastic. That paint is the classic, easily scratched, hard to correct variety, what a pain to work on.

 

[detaildoc]

Woah! Nice job. It looks like a different car now. What's your opinion on the CM5300? How does compare to the halogens as far as showing defects?

I really like it, but I would not consider it a substitute for the halogens, but an addition to. This was my first time using the CM5300 (thanks Phil for that great deal on those) and from this experience I found that there are some defects that the CM5300 can pick up that the halogens can't and vise versa. I guess it depends on the color of the car and the natural lighting conditions.

 

[imported_shine]

I really it, but I would not consider it a substitute for the halogens, but an addition to. This was my first time using the CM5300 (thanks Phil for that great deal on those) and from this experience I found that there are some defects that the CM5300 can pick up that the halogens can't and vise versa. I guess it depends on the color of the car and the natural lighting conditions.

Thanks, that's interesting. I am considering picking one up as well from DD with the current sale...

 

[Obsessive1]

Amazing transformation.