A couple of months back i posted a write up on a black C7 Stingray we saved from God knows what - since then I've received at least 4 calls from people booking appointments for CQuartz Finest - this however was the first Vette.
While 3 years old it only had about 13k miles on it, but its black and black in Arizona is stupid hard to care for. Between the heat and the hard water we have….hard water spots are often an issue:
Oh and of course swirls, but thats a given. The owner had tried polishing it himself…and i'll be honest, ive seen a heck of a lot worse attempts, but the problem he was having was finishing it down. The whole car basically looked like it was heavily micro-marred but with some deep stuff here n' there as well. After we spoke to the owner in extent about our process and recommending a coating…we booked it. Correction, CQuartz Finest, CQuartz Dlux for trim and a wholllllle lot of gloss!
Day 1 started out as a prep day - washing, decontaminating, cleaning wheels/wells/barrels/tires
Here she is, ready for her bath:
Barrels of the wheels were quite dirty:
But we fixed that…love this wheel cleaner:
Wheel woolies to reach deep into the barrels:
Check out the new shirts!
Ok back to the detail…the most awesome wheel brush ever used to clean the faces:
And of course its a Vette…so it had bug splatter:
Serious dirt behind the license plate and the tips were….yeah, they just needed some work thats all:
Then it was time to foam her up! I love Iron-X Wash as our prep wash…things like those bugs clean off relatively easily without needing any type of bug remover in most cases…not to mention it goes on like shaving cream:
Next we clayed it and then it was time to pull it into the sun and see how it looked all stripped down with no waxes etc on the paint:
All surfaces were covered with the micromarring..and all top surfaces had a ton of water spots:
Bird bomb etching….
More hard water spots and hazing:
Rear hatch had the same thing:
Sides were all micro-marred up as well. From afar the paint looked black but in direct light it definitely had more of a greyish hue:
Solution? Meguiars 205….this was an all Megs kinda detail. While many use 205 to polish with..it can also make for an excellent cut when super heavy compounding is not needed. Less dust, easier wipe off and a cleaner finish with much less marring to polish up.
Teamed up with the Rupes 21 and a Megs Microfiber Finishing pad…made for some amazing defect removal:
CLEAN YOUR PAD! I swear i cant emphasize this enough, but even while compounding, cleaning your pad after every section has so many benefits….Less marring, less build up on the pad, the pad stays fresh longer, it continues to give a consistent finish section to section. You end up using less compound/polish. Its just a good thing to do.
We spent the rest of the day cutting the defects…with 205. Pausing only for that same black C7 (ironic huh?) we did a couple months back - as he comes in regularly for washes now.
All compounding was completed and Dani managed to polish nearly 2/3 of the car while i was working with "Lil Rupes" as Dani calls it (The 75LRH) to cut the small areas that needed extra attention.
Here is Dani doing the final polishing with 205 and a black finishing pad:
This process worked well into the night, we didn't finally knock off till close to 10. The next morning we were up and at it again, i pulled it out into the sun to see how we were looking…and i swear I WAS impressed with our work:
Note this is naked paint…no CQuartz Finest on it yet, this is just after polishing…and it looked that great.
But there was still more work to be done. Both bumpers and the rear hatch still had to be polished, as did the small areas (like side mirror and the painted area behind the headrest). Back to work:
For those who dont know…this machine is worth every penny…Kevin Brown is the man for polishing tools…all day everyday!
Checking to make sure all is good:
Gloss sure was good:
After all the polishing was complete, it was time for an Eraser wipe down…gotta make sure all of those polishing oils are off the paint before applying Finest.
Hey look, the Eraser blue matched our new shirts
Designated towels used ONLY for Eraser….being careful not to mar the finish in any way:
Double checking….yup…all is good, no filling or marring here:
While 3 years old it only had about 13k miles on it, but its black and black in Arizona is stupid hard to care for. Between the heat and the hard water we have….hard water spots are often an issue:
Oh and of course swirls, but thats a given. The owner had tried polishing it himself…and i'll be honest, ive seen a heck of a lot worse attempts, but the problem he was having was finishing it down. The whole car basically looked like it was heavily micro-marred but with some deep stuff here n' there as well. After we spoke to the owner in extent about our process and recommending a coating…we booked it. Correction, CQuartz Finest, CQuartz Dlux for trim and a wholllllle lot of gloss!
Day 1 started out as a prep day - washing, decontaminating, cleaning wheels/wells/barrels/tires
Here she is, ready for her bath:
Barrels of the wheels were quite dirty:
But we fixed that…love this wheel cleaner:
Wheel woolies to reach deep into the barrels:
Check out the new shirts!
Ok back to the detail…the most awesome wheel brush ever used to clean the faces:
And of course its a Vette…so it had bug splatter:
Serious dirt behind the license plate and the tips were….yeah, they just needed some work thats all:
Then it was time to foam her up! I love Iron-X Wash as our prep wash…things like those bugs clean off relatively easily without needing any type of bug remover in most cases…not to mention it goes on like shaving cream:
Next we clayed it and then it was time to pull it into the sun and see how it looked all stripped down with no waxes etc on the paint:
All surfaces were covered with the micromarring..and all top surfaces had a ton of water spots:
Bird bomb etching….
More hard water spots and hazing:
Rear hatch had the same thing:
Sides were all micro-marred up as well. From afar the paint looked black but in direct light it definitely had more of a greyish hue:
Solution? Meguiars 205….this was an all Megs kinda detail. While many use 205 to polish with..it can also make for an excellent cut when super heavy compounding is not needed. Less dust, easier wipe off and a cleaner finish with much less marring to polish up.
Teamed up with the Rupes 21 and a Megs Microfiber Finishing pad…made for some amazing defect removal:
CLEAN YOUR PAD! I swear i cant emphasize this enough, but even while compounding, cleaning your pad after every section has so many benefits….Less marring, less build up on the pad, the pad stays fresh longer, it continues to give a consistent finish section to section. You end up using less compound/polish. Its just a good thing to do.
We spent the rest of the day cutting the defects…with 205. Pausing only for that same black C7 (ironic huh?) we did a couple months back - as he comes in regularly for washes now.
All compounding was completed and Dani managed to polish nearly 2/3 of the car while i was working with "Lil Rupes" as Dani calls it (The 75LRH) to cut the small areas that needed extra attention.
Here is Dani doing the final polishing with 205 and a black finishing pad:
This process worked well into the night, we didn't finally knock off till close to 10. The next morning we were up and at it again, i pulled it out into the sun to see how we were looking…and i swear I WAS impressed with our work:
Note this is naked paint…no CQuartz Finest on it yet, this is just after polishing…and it looked that great.
But there was still more work to be done. Both bumpers and the rear hatch still had to be polished, as did the small areas (like side mirror and the painted area behind the headrest). Back to work:
For those who dont know…this machine is worth every penny…Kevin Brown is the man for polishing tools…all day everyday!
Checking to make sure all is good:
Gloss sure was good:
After all the polishing was complete, it was time for an Eraser wipe down…gotta make sure all of those polishing oils are off the paint before applying Finest.
Hey look, the Eraser blue matched our new shirts
Designated towels used ONLY for Eraser….being careful not to mar the finish in any way:
Double checking….yup…all is good, no filling or marring here:
