56 Chevy Bel Air, Show Car Quality, 32+ Hours

[imported_JoshVette]

UPDATED PICS FROM THE SHOW ON PAGE 7



ALSO UPDATES ON HIS PLACING SECOND PLACE IN THE SHOW, DALLAS AUTORAMA, ONE OF DALLAS LARGEST ANNUAL CAR SHOWS.



SECOND PLACE!!!!:woot2:



Hey guys, this was to date my longest detail ever. The owner called me and asked for a show quality detail. We talked about what that meant and how long to expect. Without seeing the condition, I estimated around 20 hours since it's a classic and has lots of trim and fixtures on it to work around, but I was in for a surprise as the paint was hard as nails and hammered....



So here it is, a 1956 Chevy Bel Air, blue and white combo inside and out with a serious engine.



There was so much to this detail I'll do my best to remember it all, I took over 270 pics documenting every step, but I'll only post the main ones.



Please don't ask me how much I charged or how much it cost or whatever, I will not divulge that kind of private information. Thank you.



Guess I'll start with the deliver, the car was trailered in from about 2 hours East of Dallas and when finished will be put in the Autorama Show this coming weekend so it had to be absolutely perfect when I finished.



Here's the Bel Air coming off the trailing about to make my garage it's new home for the next 9 days...

Pretty cool huh?



First I started with the interior. It was pretty dirty and since half was white it showed everything so I really had my work cut out for me.:nervous2:



Here are some before pics of the interior.

It's really hard to see how dirty the white really is in these pics, but once you see them cleaned you'll know.



This is my basic process for cleaning the interior. Everything got dusted and vacuumed, then I use the PC with a soft bristol attachment which worked well and saved me a lot of energy. Sprayed the vinyl with 303 and use the PC at speed 4. This cleaned it up nicely.



Here's me working with the bristol attachment cleaning the seats and door.

After working with the PC, I rewiped it all down with a MF towel and more 303.



You can really see the white pop now.



before

after

The rest are after shots.

I basically sprayed the mats with 303, brushed them out and wiped them down.

Not quite done with the interior, stay tuned....

 

[imported_JoshVette]

Still not done with the interior. Remember this is going straight to a show so every aspect of the vehicle must be absolutely perfect.



Next was the metal trim on the interior and painted dash.



All the trim and column was hand polished with Blue Magic Metal Polish and then treated by hand with Zaino AIO x 2. The dash was also hand polished and waxes with Zaino AIO x 2, it gave it such a beautiful glow and awesome slickness, you just have to touch it.:chuckle:



Here's pics of the chrome trim and dash after polished and waxed.

Now that the interior is basically finished, it's onto washing and claying the car. I know all of you know how to do this, so I'll just blow threw it. However I did find a nice tool for getting inside and around lugnuts, I got it at Wallyworld for like $1.85.:chuckle:



I always do tires, rims, wheel wells first.

If you look closely you can make out the tool I'm using for the lugs, it's the absolute best I've ever used....

You can see how it really squeezes in there cleaning the actual lug and the rims around the lug.

Here's washing with two buckets of course and leaf blow drying.

Prerinse, it really wasn't that dirty, just needed to know some dirt off the wheel wells...

My new Zaino buckets with grit guard which I absolutely love.....a little pricy, but very nice and professional looking IMO.

Rerinse then blow dry with my 240mph electric leaf blower from Lowes.

This is a great way to get water out of the cracks and such...this is actually before I blew off the hood.

Now that it's washed and clayed you can really see the swirls.

Next, I turned my attentions to the engine bay. I machine polished and hand polished all the chrome trim 2-3 times and hand washed everything, then cleaned and wiped down with a MF and some 303, then hand polished all the painted surface and bay walls with Zaino AIO x 2 to give it a nice pop and glow with lots of slickness.



About 4-5 hours total just on the engine bay alone.

Here's me machine polishing the metal and chrome parts with a white pad with the PC and Blue Magic Metal Polish.

Q-tipping parts I can't otherwise reach inbetween.

Now that the chrome is clean and most all the knooks and crannies cleaned out, time to polish and wax the painted surfaces with ZAIO.

Even the underside of the hood got the special treatment.

Now for some after pics of the engine bay, literally everything you will see was hand polished and waxed, even below the radiator parts you can't really see.

 

[imported_JoshVette]

Next up is step by step write up of paint correction. 18 hours just working the paint.:soscared:



So here's the enemy.

The hood didn't seem as bad or hard as the rest of the car, it polished out nicley after about 2 passes with the rotary, white pad, menz IP at 1500-1700rpms. But my goal wasn't 95%, it had to be 100% perfect, so I went over it all about 4 times.



Here's the hood after about two passes.

before

after

Same process as the hood.

Me polishing

after

This is all just the intial polishing and testing to see what it needed, but the sides proved to be much different.



These swirls were so bad and paint so hard, I had to cut it with 100% twisted wool pad with Menz PG at 1500rpms, then go back over with an orange pad and IP at 1500rpms 2 times then back again with a white pad and IP at 1700 1-2 times.



Basically this paint had to be polished 4-5 times to get it 100% perfect.



Here goes.

Me polishing with heavy cut wool and Menz PG

after, plenty of holograms, which was to be expected, but the swirls were almost gone.

Me polishing out holograms with orange cutting pad and Menz IP at 1500rpms. It got 2 passes and my back was injured putting some much pressure into this paint for 18 hours.



spreading it here, about to work it in.

after

Now time to refine and jewel the paint.

Me polishing with a white pad, Menz IP at 1700rpms then turned down to 1000rpms.

You can really see the polish breaking down nicely.

Perfect, now to just finish off with the PC and Zaino Fusion ZPC.

Each panel took me nearly two hours, so I won't post all the pics, but I'll post up a few more after shots of the rest of the paint.

 

[imported_JoshVette]

a few more before and afters of the paint.



roof before

roof afters

this area of the trunk took about 6 passes as it was pretty hammered.

after

Even the door jams were hand polished with ZPC and waxes with ZAIO.:xyxthumbs

After all the polishing, I rewashed it and then focused on the chrome trim and doing final touch ups of the engine and small areas that might have compound poweder in it.



I hand polished all the chrome with Blue Magic Metal Polish, (I didn't document this part though, sorry)



After the chrome and trims was up to specs, I polished the rims. This was an elaborate process as well.



I started with 0000 steel wool and lightly cleaned off all the oxidation and stains, I did this on the rims and exhaust tips only. After that I used the Mother's Power Ball and Blue Magic to make them pop, it worked perfectly. Then finished it off with a Dirtex wipe down with a MF towel.



Here's me with the power ball.

afters

Now after all was said and done, I went back over it all to rejewel the paint just to give it more depth and pop. I redid the whole thing with the PC, orange pad with ZPC and then back over with a white pad and Z5 x 2 and I believe it was finished and ready for pick up, 32.5 hours later.



I was tired, sore, and back muscle pulled. Oh did I mention the car was dropped off 3 days late so I had to work it around all the other cars I was detailing in my schedule that week. The 56 Chevy nearly killed me....:faint:







So finally the long awaited after pics.

 

[imported_JoshVette]

So here are the final shots, ready for the show.



I did soooo much more work then what I actually documented as well as posted up about, there's just so much I can type about and take pics of.

Now I have to admit, these are not direct sun shots, there was a little cloud cover, but it's all I had to work with.

Total hours spent,

18 paint

4 engine

3 interior

1 suspension

2 wash/clay

3 chrome and trim

1 waxing

.5 trunk







Thanks for looking,

Josh:2thumbs:

 

[jfelbab]

Wow, Thanks for posting those pictures. I owned a 56 BelAir back when I was a kid. It was a Green/White Turboglide (two speed automatic). I quickly traded it for a 57 when they came out and then a 58 Imapla SS (348 ci.) when that model arrived. Thanks for bringing back some good memories.

 

[RIDDLE]

wow, since its a show car, i dont envy you having to clean the engine bay

:kewlpics

 

[Brian_Brice]

Awesome Josh, very nice thorough work.



May I suggest putting the pics on the next page? If you load this page anymore it will freeze many computers, just a suggestion.

 

[Todd@RUPES]

Three words--- Hall of Fame!



Great work on an gorgeous car Josh. Thanks for taking the time to do the write up and post it, it really looks amazing. DFW has a new sherrif in town...

 

[imported_JoshVette]

Wow, Thanks for posting those pictures. I owned a 56 BelAir back when I was a kid. It was a Green/White Turboglide (two speed automatic). I quickly traded it for a 57 when they came out and then a 58 Imapla SS (348 ci.) when that model arrived. Thanks for bringing back some good memories.

Yup, a lot of people have memories with these old Bel Air's, I must have had at least a dozen people stop me to talk about it when I was working on it. I quickly learned to keep the garage doors closed so I could get it finished, not to be rude, but I was clocking my hours and minutes so I could have an accurate cost so I couldn't be interrupted so much..:xyxthumbs



I've detailed a 56 and a 57 and have to say from a detailing stand point, I liked the 56 better, less chrome and not as dramatic fins and I like the hood emblem better then the bullets.:2thumbs:

 

[imported_JoshVette]

wow, since its a show car, i dont envy you having to clean the engine bay

:kewlpics

thanks, even though it came off a trailer he does drive it regularly and so there was quite a bit of cleaning to do in the engine.



Matter of fact, I found 2 mud dobber nests under the wheel wells....(mud dobbers are like wasps)

 

[imported_JoshVette]

Awesome Josh, very nice thorough work.



May I suggest putting the pics on the next page? If you load this page anymore it will freeze many computers, just a suggestion.

opps. hopefully people won't get too ticked at me....:wall

 

[imported_JoshVette]

Three words--- Hall of Fame!



Great work on an gorgeous car Josh. Thanks for taking the time to do the write up and post it, it really looks amazing. DFW has a new sherrif in town...

Thanks, I have to admit that I was highly inspired to step up my detailing to the highest level after reading quite a few of your Ferrari Concourso write ups.



Thanks again, Josh

 

[imported_themightytimmah]

That's beyond belief Josh. You musta wrecked your knuckles doing the engine, though.

 

[smokin180]

Awesome job as always .Your post are always great reading .Dash gauges are cool looking.

 

[gmblack3]

Like Pepe says, this one is Hall of Fame class for sure.



Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

[Rickrack]

Josh, this is definitely one of the best details I've seen in quite a while. You did an amazing job on the restoration and on the write up as well. It doesn't get much better than this!



Old cars take so much more time to detail, but I think the feeling you get when you have the finished product in front of you makes it all worth it.



So how did this customer find/contact you? Was he referred to you from the shop that you do work for? He is lucky to have found such a perfectionist to detail his pride and joy!



Great work Josh! I'm looking forward to seeing the next click and brag from you....



I can't wait til' spring so I can get busy detailing again!

 

[jfelbab]

Yup, a lot of people have memories with these old Bel Air's, I must have had at least a dozen people stop me to talk about it when I was working on it. I quickly learned to keep the garage doors closed so I could get it finished, not to be rude, but I was clocking my hours and minutes so I could have an accurate cost so I couldn't be interrupted so much..:xyxthumbs



I've detailed a 56 and a 57 and have to say from a detailing stand point, I liked the 56 better, less chrome and not as dramatic fins and I like the hood emblem better then the bullets.:2thumbs:

I always got a kick out of people trying to find the gas cap. Chevy hid it in the taillight assembly. Back then the gas stations were all full of attendants. Drive up and three guys would run out to wash your windows, check your oil and tire pressure and gas it up. Gas was about 22 cents a gallon and they would give you a bunch of crystal glasses for stopping there. LOL, really a good time to be driving a cool car. I seem to remember using a lot of Blue Coral at the time but I also recall using Simonize and Meguiar's stuff too. Blue Coral was a real chore to use and streaked like crazy. If you thought the 57 had a lot of chrome you should have seen my 58 Impalla SS. That was covered with chrome from one end to the other. Again, thanks for bringing back all those long forgotten memories. You did some excellent work.

 

[qballjr13]

You musta wrecked your knuckles doing the engine, though.

Awesome car...Amazing Detail!! Great write up...thanks for taking the time!



The skin on the knuckles is the first to go! Especially when you trying to clean it up before a show starts and the engine is still "warm"!



I can't wait to get my car back!!! :bawling:

 

[funfactor89]

amazing work. Hopefully someday i will be as half as good as you