Uber Auto Conditioning
New member
This nicely done replica came to me with the original intent of just a basic clean up but once I saw some of the paint defects I knew it would need just a little bit more. The owner wanted to take it to a popular car show here in MN called "back to the 50's" so it had to be looking its best. The interior was redone recently so it was in decent shape but any time saved on the interior was quickly applied to the exterior as it was in need of the majority of the work.
Upon picking it up I learned that there was also some recent body work done last fall. For those that are new to detailing: body shops don't have a great reputation for leaving paint looking its best, in fact it is just the opposite. They are known for quickly running an aggressive pad/polish combo over the paint and leaving many defects such as swirls, haze, sanding scratches, buffer trails, and holograms. Body shops are known for production and pushing out lots of cars, not quality and perfection. Wether it is body work on a late model car or restoration work on a classic, it is often a good idea to hire a detailer with paint correction abilities to refine the finish properly and bring out the best finish possible.
Knowing the car had some potential body shop paint damage and the weather being overcast, I had to wait until a proper wash was done to see what kind of condition the paint was in.
Starting with the interior which wasn't bad at all.
A few scuffs from getting in and out of the suicide opening door.
Little bit of dirt hiding behind the seat and the rear tonneau cover hatch.
Scuffs on the white walls
Since the car didn't have a top it is important to protect the interior during the wash process from any overspray that could get on the upholstery. I always keep a few drop cloths and towels handy for situations like this.
Using a P21S wheel gel and Optimum Power Clean (OPC) combo I quickly started breaking down built up dirt on the wheels and tires. Aggitation was achieved with a Tuff Shine tire brush and Swissvax detailing brush.
Wash process was carried out with a foam bath consisting of Chemical Guys Citrus Wash and OPC, followed by a 2 bucket wash of Chemicals Guys Citrus Wash and Clear using a microfiber wash mit. The car was dried with a waffel weave micro fiber towel and a Master Blaster blower that uses filtered and heated air to safely remove water from cracks and crevices.
Once the outside was washed and dried I got to work on the interior. OPC was used with multiple brushes and compressed air to clean door panels and upholstery. Carpets were vacuumed and lightly shampooed. Since the interior was fairly clean to start with, I was able to budget my time into some of the more intricate details such as metal polishing that normally isn't included in this level of a detail.
Some of the control levers near the steering wheel were polished and sealed. The lower lever is done, upper one is not.
It's a slight difference but noticeable. Here is another angle. Again, the longer lever is polished and the shorter one has not been polished yet.
Quick 50/50 of the sill plate located in the jamb area.
Finished interior:
With the interior finished I covered it up to protect it from any polishing dust or any other contamination from cleaning the outside.
Wheels were washed but still had water spots from previous conditions so they needed a little bit of polishing.
A much better reflection after polishing:
Wheels cleaned and polished, tires dressed with 303 Aerospace Protectant to give it a classic, low gloss shine.
Not too much was done in the engine compartment but the owner had some "blingly" valve covers and air cleaner so I took a few minutes to make them shine.
After:
The exterior was then clayed with Pinnacle Ultra Poly clay using Optimum No Rinse as lube. There was moderate contamination that was removed along with some light overspray.
Once the exterior was free of bonded contaminants I taped up any areas that needed protection from the paint polishing to follow. Tape protects sensitive areas from getting damaged by the polishing pad wether it be burning a rubber seal or rubbing through a painted edge. In this case a lot of the taping is done to prevent excess compound and polish from getting in tough to clean areas like hinges for the hood.
Time to check out some of the defects in the paint. WARNING: These images are not easy to look at and may shock and offend you.... stick around though because they do get better, promise!
Compound left in the hood hinge from the body shop.... this is why you tape things off
The silver paint was sprayed really dry, check out the orange peel texture near the bottom of the pic
Looking at it from this direction you can see how uneven the paint texture is.
This could be caused by either not enough coverage of clear coat (repaint to fix) or just dry spray that didn't lay out great (extensive wet sanding and buffing to fix). Since both fixes are fairly major I settled for just a light polishing on all the silver paint on this car and focused the correction on the maroon paint.
The cowl and hood were refinished last fall and you can see here the texture difference between the two panels.
This is caused because the painter had easy access to the hood for sanding and buffing but when it came time to do the intricate cowl area he got lazy and said screw it. The result is a hood that has been wet sanded flat then buffed and a cowl area that still has orange peel and hasn't been touched. Here is another angle, look at the difference in texture when comparing the reflection of the two overhead flourescent lights.
If you look closely you can see there are even dirt nibs in the cowl. Unfinished and unprofessional work that will be addressed later in this write up.
More swirls:
The silver paint was very rough and needed a lot of work, maybe even a repaint so like I mentioned above, it was only lightly polished. Here are some defects though.
Remember how I said body shops are notorious for leaving paint looking terrible? Let's take a look at some of the body shop induced damage.
Hazy reflections
The body shop refinished the top portion of the car meaning the tail end, cowl, hood, tops of doors, etc. Everything from the silver two tone divider up. The weird part is they painted it the wrong color. I guess it is kinda close but the bottom maroon color is a nice classic solid color and the refinished areas are more of a brown root beer metallic color. This next pic is of the front of the hood where it meets the grille section. You can see the hood is the brownish metallic color and on the grille it starts brown metallic at the top but you can clearly see where the painter blended it into the solid maroon color near the bottom. So looking at the bottom corner of the hood the color difference is obvious between the two panels.
As mentioned before: Interior protected, trim taped off, and wheels covered.... ready for some long hours of compounding and polishing.
50:50 on the first fender, the test panel.
Finished panel
Here are two quick vids of the correction process (HD is highly recomended)
36 Auburn Before - YouTube
