96' Cobra Hammered White Paint (56k take a hike)

[ReLoaDeD BuLLiT]

Got started on the Cobra's paint today. (it is in very rough shape...even my most aggressive pad combo isn't doing squat on this paint without 5-6 passes per pad. :shrug:



Process:

1. washed entire car with dishwashing soap to strip all wax off the vehicle
   
2. claybarred entire car with megs claybar kit
   
3. used burgundy wool (red) and menzerna power gloss 5x via rotary
   
4. used megs m205 w/ orange ccs pad
   
5. 2 coats of poorboys ex-p sealant
   
6. 1 coat of s100 wax
   

Also, it's VERY difficult to see the swirls unless you look at certain angles, as shown here:



BEFORE:

AFTER:

This is just a 'teaser' thread of the full detail. I will be working on this car for a week straight due to the poor paint condition. Even though it's white, you can still see the paint is rough. frown2.gif

 

[ReLoaDeD BuLLiT]

Got the passenger side fender done (but didn't get any good before shots or afters unfortunately.



Made a huge difference on the door, it's just hard to tell because it's a white car :\





Before:

About 2 hours of wet-sanding and polishing with a purple-foamed wool pad and some m105 utilizing the kevin brown method, we have this:





AFTER:

 

[ReLoaDeD BuLLiT]

Made some progress on the roof today. MAN was it worse than the hood! After 10 total passes, I finally got it how I wanted it. I had to use M105 and a burgundy wool on it due to how deep the swirls/rids were.





Here's some pictures of the progress:







BEFORE:

AFTER:

Update from today: (01/09/10)



Took the wing off to be able to correct the entire trunk.

Took the trunk off to clean the disgusting grunge out from underneath it:

As you can see, it really needed it:

It was going to take a lot of scrubbing and soaking to get this trunk area back to where it should be, so I soaked with Meguiars All-Purpose cleaner, and then thoroughly scrubbed all areas with a mr clean magic eraser and an old toothbrush.

Me spraying down the areas and letting them soak:

Here's me scrubbing the areas with a magic eraser until it fell apart:

Scrubbing the hard to reach areas with a toothbrush:

Just a little bit of grime I'd say:

Further pics of my progress will be up later tonight/tomorrow

 

[ReLoaDeD BuLLiT]

Here's a few shots from today. I blew out all the dust/dirt and wiped the trunk area down with IPA, and did 3 base coats of white, and 3 clear on top of that.

Had to step up on the trunk much like I did on the hood. It was in rough shape. I went with 4 passes with a Megs burgundy wool with some m105 with the Kevin Brown method, and was able to get an easy 95% correction on the left half of the trunk lid as shows:

vv money shot...very difficult to get white to have a deep gloss/shine with no LSP (sealant/wax)

^^notice the gunk left under the spoiler on the passenger side holes on the trunk lid...vs the holes on the driver's side.

 

[ReLoaDeD BuLLiT]

Finished the rest of the trunk today and mounted the spoiler back on. Here are some 50/50 shots of before/after on the spoiler between all the swirls and the huge deep scratches:

Here's a huge nasty scratch on the back of the spoiler:

After some wet sanding with 1000 grit, followed up with some 3000 grit and being hit with some M105 compound and PFW, we have this:

All finished:

Finished up the back bumper and wet sanded a few deep scratches that the pfw/105 combo wouldn't remove...





Left rear bumper:



BEFORE:

AFTER:

Right rear bumper:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Over the years, all sorts of mold, grime and dirt accumulated and was caked on the hinges and the jams. With some good old fashioned elbow grease with an old clean rag and some Meguiars All-Purpose Diluted and a toothbrush, I was able to get the jams/hinges looking almost brand new! :thumbsup







Driver's Side Door Jam Before:

Driver's Side Door Jam After:

Driver's Side Door Hinge Before:

Driver's Side Door Hinge After:

Passenger Door Hinge Before:

Passenger Door Hinge After:

Passenger Door Jam Before:

Passenger Door Jam After:

All jams were dressed with S100 wax

 

[ReLoaDeD BuLLiT]

The interior of the car was actually in much better shape than the exterior. Only took me 45 minutes to wipe everything down and protect it. I plan on doing the seats tomorrow. Dressed all trim/dash pieces with 303.

Without further delay...here's some finals of the exterior of the car! Thanks to those who stuck around to see it! (I know white's pretty boring).

Lastly, I forgot to list this pic of the rag after I cleaned the door panels...man they were nasty.

 

[SonicBlue05GT]

great turn-around... i'd like to see full shots of her when it's all wrapped up.



how many miles are on her? she was hammered.

 

[Marj]

Sure couldn't use AP on my Mini, even windex takes the paint off the under side of the hood.

 

[mose]

Great job on the car!! Looks really great now!! You should think about getting one of those Wagner Steam Cleaners. It would have madcleaning the hinges and stuff a heck of a lot easier!! Way to stick with it though!! Gotta love the "details" in a detail!! :xyxthumbs

 

[Thomas Dekany]

Amazing work!!!:xyxthumbs:xyxthumbs:xyxthumbs

 

[ReLoaDeD BuLLiT]

great turn-around... i'd like to see full shots of her when it's all wrapped up.



how many miles are on her? she was hammered.

Thanks! Planning on taking some today or tomorrow when I get started on my girl's supra. 74k miles on the body, 24k on the motor

Great job on the car!! Looks really great now!! You should think about getting one of those Wagner Steam Cleaners. It would have madcleaning the hinges and stuff a heck of a lot easier!! Way to stick with it though!! Gotta love the "details" in a detail!! :xyxthumbs

Thanks! Gotta link?

 

[mose]

Here ya go!!



[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Wagner-500-Watt-Demand-Steamer-Cleaner/dp/B000I618NY%3FSubscriptionId=1X9ZT6T3H38AD5E1F6R2&tag=janglenet-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B000I618NY]Amazon.com: Wagner 905 1,500-Watt On-Demand Power Steamer and Cleaner: Home Improvement[/ame]

 

[Volantgc8]

I give you a ton of credit for what you just went through. I actually just came on the forums now for a little bit of help and I feel that your thread answers my questions.



I'm currently working on a '95 Cobra (black) with paint that is in just as bad shape if not worse. The roof looks like it was washed with a Brillo pad multiple times, but underneath that you can see hologramming from a rotary. I'm not even sure wetsanding would get me anywhere because I fear it would just go down to the primer!



I only have a PC so I've been using a 4.5in orange LC pad with Megs UC and 105 and the best I can do after 3 passes is getting most of the smaller scratches out and taking off any haze. At least the paint feels pretty smooth but it still looks really bad. (We're talking a 60% improvement here).



The car is just one of my friend's "toys" so we're not really worried about how it looks but I didn't think it was going to be this hard to remove the defects. Since it doesn't really matter, I'm just going to continue with a few passes of UC and 105 to get rid of the haze because it would be fruitless to wetsand this beast.



Thanks for this post and I give you props for the fantastic results you achieved!

 

[Apollo_Auto]

Holy poop on a stick! Nice job mang!

 

[ReLoaDeD BuLLiT]

I give you a ton of credit for what you just went through. I actually just came on the forums now for a little bit of help and I feel that your thread answers my questions.



I'm currently working on a '95 Cobra (black) with paint that is in just as bad shape if not worse. The roof looks like it was washed with a Brillo pad multiple times, but underneath that you can see hologramming from a rotary. I'm not even sure wetsanding would get me anywhere because I fear it would just go down to the primer!



I only have a PC so I've been using a 4.5in orange LC pad with Megs UC and 105 and the best I can do after 3 passes is getting most of the smaller scratches out and taking off any haze. At least the paint feels pretty smooth but it still looks really bad. (We're talking a 60% improvement here).



The car is just one of my friend's "toys" so we're not really worried about how it looks but I didn't think it was going to be this hard to remove the defects. Since it doesn't really matter, I'm just going to continue with a few passes of UC and 105 to get rid of the haze because it would be fruitless to wetsand this beast.



Thanks for this post and I give you props for the fantastic results you achieved!

Thanks for the kind words bro. If you have any questions, feel free to pm me!

Holy poop on a stick! Nice job mang!

LOL! Thanks dude