white gecko
New member
Last month I made a trip to southern california to look at this 2002 Z06 and if the paint was original and the rest of the car was in good order I would be taking it home. There were definitely issues with the car but it looked pretty good and I knew I could bring it back and up to my standards. This car is also going to be used to demonstrate to clients what can be done on their cars. So I pulled out all the stops on this one and gave it everything in my arsenal to get it looking the absolute best.
Some of the issues on this car were: hard water spots, greasy plastics and leather, heavy random isolated deep scratches (RIDS), swirlmarks, dull and hammered wheels, and heavy orangepeel
Products used:
-CG Citrus Wash
-Foamaster II Foam Gun
-2 Bucket Method with Grit Guards
-Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner
-Daytona Speed Master Wheel Brush
-Swissvax Wheel Brush
-Meguiars APC 4:1
-#0000 Steel Wool
-Mothers Chrome Polish
-Zaino ZAIO
-Stoner's Tarminator
-Leather and interior plastics cleaned with Zaino Z9
-Optimum Opti-Seal
-Meguiars 105
-Meguiars D300
-Menzerna PO203
-Menzerna PO85RD
-Edge twisted ply wool pad
-LC PFW pad
-Meguiars MF cutting disc 5.5" and 3"
-Meguiars MF finishing disc 5.5" and 3"
-LC orange pad 5.5" and 4"
-LC tangerine pad 5.5" and 4"
-LC white pad 5.5" and 4"
-LC black pad 5.5" and 4"
-Meguiars 3" foam interface pad
Machines used:
-Makita Rotary
-Griots Garage 6" DA
-Griots Garage 3" DA
-Porter Cable 7424XP
LSP:
-2 coats of Swissvax Concorso applied 12 hours apart
I took the car along the coast on the trip back to the Bay Area. It seemed like a much more enjoyable drive than the dullness of I-5. So I took the opportunity to get some pics along the way home from so-cal.
I got it home safe, but it was right back to work for me. I took this on the trip to Napa where it rained and rained and then guess what..........? It rained some more! So it was a little rough looking by the time I got it home. This is proof corvettes don't melt in the rain, they just get dirty...
First up on the list after the wash and decon step was the exhaust tips and lower valence plate.
Looking better after some Megs APC cleaner followed by #0000 steel wool and Mothers Chrome Polish. Simple, but effective. Sealed with Zaino ZAIO to make future cleaning easy.
The exhaust needed some polishing as well. The same method was used here as with the valence plate.
Polished up and looking nice again
Next up was to tackle the heavy waterspots on the lower bumper sections. I've done many corvettes and I see issues on almost every one in these same spots, they just often get overlooked.
After.....
The other typically neglected areas....
Bam!! Application of products that WORK give results like this. Some Meguiars 105 on a microfiber towel followed with some Meguiars 205 to give it that glossy look again.
The reverse lights were in bad shape. After just trying some typical correction and it not being enough, I decided to wetsand out the heavy defects. 3M Trizact 1500 and 3000 grit were used then followed by M105/D300, M205, and 85RD were used to remove the sand scratches and return the gloss. I've seen a significant increase in brightness from the lights since this correction.
Next up was the center section behind the license plate and reverse lights. Yes, no one ever sees here...but the corners are very visible and trap dirt where its difficult to reach and clean. So in keeping with the "all out" theme on this car, measures were taken to really make this neglected area look great.
Yes I even corrected the paint in here....
After correcting the paint, it was waxed to lock in that shine and make it hard for dirt to stick to those hard to reach areas.
Tail lights were removed and the "flush mount tail light kit" was removed for good. Once the lights and kit were out and more of the paint would be exposed, it needed correction as well.
This was lurking under every light....
Correcting the paint to bring the gloss back with the Griots 3" with Megs 3" interface foam and the Megs 3" microfiber pad with the usual combos from above. The interface pad works great for the sharp curve that makes up the tail light openings and allows the pad and polish to do its job in those tight areas without putting excessive pressure on the edges.
In my opinion the C5's look way better without a rear emblem, and as you can see it was filled with scratches and hard water deposits, so off it came!
This area was HEAVY with defects and would require 1500 grit and 3000 grit wetsanding to full remove. A special thanks goes to Bob from Auto Concierge for lending me his Defelsko 200 paint depth gauge to check the paint consistency before purchasing the car. A very kind favor to let me take it 500 miles to check out a car. Much appreciated!
All better....
Some of the issues on this car were: hard water spots, greasy plastics and leather, heavy random isolated deep scratches (RIDS), swirlmarks, dull and hammered wheels, and heavy orangepeel
Products used:
-CG Citrus Wash
-Foamaster II Foam Gun
-2 Bucket Method with Grit Guards
-Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner
-Daytona Speed Master Wheel Brush
-Swissvax Wheel Brush
-Meguiars APC 4:1
-#0000 Steel Wool
-Mothers Chrome Polish
-Zaino ZAIO
-Stoner's Tarminator
-Leather and interior plastics cleaned with Zaino Z9
-Optimum Opti-Seal
-Meguiars 105
-Meguiars D300
-Menzerna PO203
-Menzerna PO85RD
-Edge twisted ply wool pad
-LC PFW pad
-Meguiars MF cutting disc 5.5" and 3"
-Meguiars MF finishing disc 5.5" and 3"
-LC orange pad 5.5" and 4"
-LC tangerine pad 5.5" and 4"
-LC white pad 5.5" and 4"
-LC black pad 5.5" and 4"
-Meguiars 3" foam interface pad
Machines used:
-Makita Rotary
-Griots Garage 6" DA
-Griots Garage 3" DA
-Porter Cable 7424XP
LSP:
-2 coats of Swissvax Concorso applied 12 hours apart
I took the car along the coast on the trip back to the Bay Area. It seemed like a much more enjoyable drive than the dullness of I-5. So I took the opportunity to get some pics along the way home from so-cal.
I got it home safe, but it was right back to work for me. I took this on the trip to Napa where it rained and rained and then guess what..........? It rained some more! So it was a little rough looking by the time I got it home. This is proof corvettes don't melt in the rain, they just get dirty...
First up on the list after the wash and decon step was the exhaust tips and lower valence plate.
Looking better after some Megs APC cleaner followed by #0000 steel wool and Mothers Chrome Polish. Simple, but effective. Sealed with Zaino ZAIO to make future cleaning easy.
The exhaust needed some polishing as well. The same method was used here as with the valence plate.
Polished up and looking nice again
Next up was to tackle the heavy waterspots on the lower bumper sections. I've done many corvettes and I see issues on almost every one in these same spots, they just often get overlooked.
After.....
The other typically neglected areas....
Bam!! Application of products that WORK give results like this. Some Meguiars 105 on a microfiber towel followed with some Meguiars 205 to give it that glossy look again.
The reverse lights were in bad shape. After just trying some typical correction and it not being enough, I decided to wetsand out the heavy defects. 3M Trizact 1500 and 3000 grit were used then followed by M105/D300, M205, and 85RD were used to remove the sand scratches and return the gloss. I've seen a significant increase in brightness from the lights since this correction.
Next up was the center section behind the license plate and reverse lights. Yes, no one ever sees here...but the corners are very visible and trap dirt where its difficult to reach and clean. So in keeping with the "all out" theme on this car, measures were taken to really make this neglected area look great.
Yes I even corrected the paint in here....
After correcting the paint, it was waxed to lock in that shine and make it hard for dirt to stick to those hard to reach areas.
Tail lights were removed and the "flush mount tail light kit" was removed for good. Once the lights and kit were out and more of the paint would be exposed, it needed correction as well.
This was lurking under every light....
Correcting the paint to bring the gloss back with the Griots 3" with Megs 3" interface foam and the Megs 3" microfiber pad with the usual combos from above. The interface pad works great for the sharp curve that makes up the tail light openings and allows the pad and polish to do its job in those tight areas without putting excessive pressure on the edges.
In my opinion the C5's look way better without a rear emblem, and as you can see it was filled with scratches and hard water deposits, so off it came!
This area was HEAVY with defects and would require 1500 grit and 3000 grit wetsanding to full remove. A special thanks goes to Bob from Auto Concierge for lending me his Defelsko 200 paint depth gauge to check the paint consistency before purchasing the car. A very kind favor to let me take it 500 miles to check out a car. Much appreciated!
All better....
Thanks!