Presidential Detailed: 2008 Corvette Z06

PresdntialDtail

New member
Well, I had a great thread planned out for this detail since I learned so much in the process of this detail but I loaded all of my process/before pictures onto my pc to make room for more pictures and my PC crashed and I lost EVERYTHING. Lucky I still had the second half of the pictures on my cameras memory card. So there will only be afters in the post.



This was my first corvette(the clearcoat horror stories are true BTW ;) ) and of course it was black and literally brand new with less than 200 miles on it. Thanks to Kevin Brown, Joshvette, and Aaron from AC Detail I got this sucker done, it took forever and a day I think mostly due to my own mistakes. Mistakes your asking? Dont worry, I didnt mess anything up! The car looked relatively good for what it was, but there were some deeper swirls that needed to come out to get this car looking 100%.



My mistake was going too aggressive with too high of speed, eliminating the swirls I was after, but now I had instilled my own wool marring that I chased for days on end! Just out of the blue Kevin Brown happened to message me, and see how I was enjoying M105 and if I had been using his process, and I reluctantly told him that I hadn't(dont ask me why not, I guess I thought hard clear-high speed/aggressive polish). So after talking with Kevin Brown for hours and hours over the week, we got the Corvette back into shape!



Just to clear things up, I did try less aggressive products which did not remove the defects I was looking for. I ended up going to M105/Burgandy Wool at 1500-1800 rpm with no priming like Kevin recommends. This removed the deep swirls I was after, however it left some wool marring that was VERY difficult to remove. After talking with Kevin for hours, I ended up going over the car with M105 on Meguiars new Burgandy Foam 2.0 pad, this pad is incredible! Ill be buying many more to come! Anyways, this step did its job using the Kevin Brown method(pad prime, bead on panel, 1-1200rpms) and had the car glowing, but in direct sunlight it still had very obvious buffer trails as expected and some fine micro-marring from the pad. I then went around the car again with SIP/White and we were CLOSER, but still holograms. I then went around the car with 3m Ultrafina on a UK 3m finishing pad. The end result, PERFECTION!



After several days on end thinking I will never finish this car, I was amazed when I pulled it back out in the sun. There were ZERO swirls in the car and the depth and reflectivity were outstanding. The owner was also very pleased, and we scheduled his 08 STI(teasers later).



The car was topped with two coats of Opti-Seal and then two coats of P21S 100% Past Wax. The wheels were also polished with Adams Metal Polish and then sealed with two coats of Opti-Seal as well. Enough talking! Heres the finished product!



PS. I saved the best pics for last! ;)



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I saved the best for last, the ones we all want to see. FULL SUN! ;)



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The owner was happy enough to also schedule his 2008 STI, a hack detailer got ahold of this one for sure! :wall :buffing:

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But I gotta get this one of the way first..:waxing:

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Looking sweet!!! . You always have to follow with a compounding foam pad after wool on the tempermental Corvette clears and finish polish at suuuupppeeeerrr slow speeds or you will chase the micro marring which causes grown men to cry.



Those sun shots really show true correction.
 
dang I was scrolling past all these sweet shots of the black vette than OUCH big swirls on that red.



looks sweet. Been looking forward to practicing these 105 methods....but hopefully not on a vette...LOL
 
A vette is the best place to use the new methods! TRUST ME! If I had started with the Kevin Brown method, which I actually tried on the rear facia, I would have finished in half the time I actually spent.



Using the Kevin Method, I was able to go from M105/Burgandy Wool to M105/Tan Finish pad with little to NO holograms OR swirls. If I had a PC I could have done this entire corvette in two steps using M105!!! Unfortunately I didnt talk to Kevin soon enough..so I had to do it the long way.
 
I had a solid 5 days with this car, by the last couple days I was tired of looking at it! But as we all know it all pays off in the end when you can pull it out in the sun and just look at it shine with not a swirl in sight! ;)
 
bufferbarry said:
looks great man! the twank did it again!!!!!!



Haha! Where do you know my twanksta name from? :D

EDIT: Just realized its under my avatar. Is that where youve seen it? haha!



PS.. this is what I get to play with tomorrow! :buffing:

And its NOT the STI:secret



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Nice job, that Z turned out incredible. Too bad it took so long though huh, they always do, wait till you get one with a few years worth of defects and swirls to correct....:bolt



I don't even play around with Vettes anymore, way too much work.... they call asking and I throw out a 4 figure number and I usually don't hear back from them.:nixweiss



You did good on that one, got a Vette under your belt so now you have a better idea of what it takes for the next time around.



Good job.



Josh
 
JoshVette said:
Nice job, that Z turned out incredible. Too bad it took so long though huh, they always do, wait till you get one with a few years worth of defects and swirls to correct....:bolt



I don't even play around with Vettes anymore, way too much work.... they call asking and I throw out a 4 figure number and I usually don't hear back from them.:nixweiss



You did good on that one, got a Vette under your belt so now you have a better idea of what it takes for the next time around.



Good job.



Josh



Thanks Josh, and thanks for giving me some pointers as well! Id still be working on it if it werent for the people in this community! haha! I think Ill take your word on the high quote for vettes next time around..:thx
 
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