Built LT1 Hybrid Impala SS (It burns Rubber and Gas)

Tru_Shine

New member




This 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS was a sweet car and sounded real mean! definitely not your average Impala. With tons of mods under the hood and even more on the suspension setup, This is one mean Taxi cab! The car is now pushing somewhere around 500hp at the crank, and runs an 11sec Quater mile!



There wasn't much sun out and it was a cold morning so I had to dress accordingly. here is the car when I first got there.



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Kind of a dull reflection



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and the wheels could definitely be deeper and glossier.



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With all of the track time that this car gets, there was TONS of rubber all under the bottom of the rear bumper and all up in the rear fender wells. (Which you will see in a bit) *I used Stoners Tarmonator to help with the removal of the rubber buildup*



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I started off by applying some P21s wheel gel to the wheels and letting it dwell for a bit. These wheels are Polished Aluminum. So it is VERY crucial that you use a pH balanced wheel cleaner on them. A lot of wheel cleaners are acid based and a lot of degreasers are Alkaline based both of which can harm the polished surface. This P21s wheel gel is Safe on any wheel surface.



after the dwell period, the wheels were then agitated with a EZ detail brush and other various brushes to get in all of the areas of the wheels



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Once that was completed I snow foamed the car with a mixture of APC and Dawn soap to clean all of the oils and previous waxes off the car.



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The Snow foam method is designed to suspend the dirt up off the surface of the paint to prevent scratching to the paint,along with the two bucket method with two grit guards.



once it has does it's job, I then rinse it all off to remove any suspended dirt, that way when I goto mitt wash the car, there is as least amount of dirt that could scratch the surface.



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Then I give it another coat of foam for the 2bucket/Mitt wash



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After the the car was rinsed and dried off, I pulled it into the garage, and you could see the pile of rubber that I sprayed off while washing that was left behind.



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The next thing we did was remove the wheels, to get polished and sealed later on in the detail.



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Next I clayed the car with Clay magic Fine clay w/ lube, and then taped off all black plastic moldings.



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Now that the car is prepped for the polishing, let's see what I was working with.



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So I got a new toy and I wanted to try out a new method for Paint correction. This whole correction will be done with a Griot's Garage 6in Orbital DA and a Surbuff pad using Meguiars M105 and a LC hydrotech Tangerine pad with M205 polish.



here are some pics of the Griot's in action using the Surbuff pad.



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Then I check to see the level of correction with my Brinkmans duel xenon swirl finder.



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after the Surbuff/M105 combo, I polished it with the Tangerine/M205 and this is what I got.



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As I made my way arround to the rear, I got a chance to get some more of that rubber off with the tire out of the way.



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I took a break from the paint polishing and started polishing the wheels. I used some Busches polish and a microfiber towel.



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after the wheels were polished I coated each wheel with two layers of PB's Wheel sealant, letting each layer haze and then wipe of and reapply.



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In person there was a tremendous difference in depth and gloss and I tried to capture it with the camera.



The one on the Left has been polished, and the one on the right has not.



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After the wheels were finished and put back on the car. I got back to the paint correction.



here I am using the Cyan pad with M105 compound.



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I changed out the backing plate and put on the 4in BP and used a 4in Cyan pad on the door pillars.



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After all of the paint was finished I applied Black Fire Wet Diamond to the paint using a 6in Blue LC pad.



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Since it was about 1:30 am when I finished I had to come back the next day for sun shots.



but here are the Final Shots



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then the next day pics



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Wetness!



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Thanks for viewing, have a bless day!



 
i have always loved those impalas, but the only thing holding me back on buying 1 is the engine, i hate LT1's with a passion.....i like the owners chice of wheels, they are aftermarket but with the OEM look.....great job on the detail my friend!
 
WOW, sick work as usual! Car looks incredible now, especially the finish after the correction work!!
 
Sludge said:
Fantastic detail. It looked like there was more rubber in the wheel well than on the tires. :) Beautiful clear, deep finish. Nice job.



lol, your telling me!



LS1-MEX said:
i have always loved those impalas, but the only thing holding me back on buying 1 is the engine, i hate LT1's with a passion.....i like the owners chice of wheels, they are aftermarket but with the OEM look.....great job on the detail my friend!



Yeah, he wanted to keep the motor that goes with that model, he could have put the Ls1 and made a couple more hundred horse power, but he wanted to keep the LT1. and yeah the wheels are pretty popular for the Impala guys, but are now discontinued. this car was really cool.



dsms said:
WOW, sick work as usual! Car looks incredible now, especially the finish after the correction work!!



Thanks David!









here are some pretty cool vids of the car.



11.89 in the 1/4 mile



YouTube - SSLED+-+11.89.wmv



399.5 without NOS on the dyno



YouTube - Dyno through open headers



and a crazy vid of this big Taxi skootin on the autocross track!



YouTube - SSledETR20080308
 
Tru_Shine- I'm still a sucker for those old B-bodies, and that DCM paint looks great when it's well-detailed. Great job and a good write-up too :xyxthumbs



I see he has a set of Todd's Wilwood brakes too!
 
Wow! This came out looking pristine. I could only imagine how much of a pain in the butt it would be to remove all of that rubber. Looks great thanks for sharing :)
 
SSick turn around! I'll have to check out that Surbuf pad. So you used a surbuf +105, then a tang +105? Or did i see a Cyan pad in the mix too?
 
Amazing work, you did a nice detail besides the late 60's Impalas these have to be my favorite. With all that rubber it looks like you could make a couple of spares.
 
Thanks Everyone!







Accumulator said:
Tru_Shine- I'm still a sucker for those old B-bodies, and that DCM paint looks great when it's well-detailed. Great job and a good write-up too :xyxthumbs



I see he has a set of Todd's Wilwood brakes too!

thanks, this thing had all kinds a goodies! sounded crazy too!





a_guerrajr said:
great work! love the write ups



i love those models. wish i had one like that.



Thanks bud.



BMAPARTS said:
Wow! This came out looking pristine. I could only imagine how much of a pain in the butt it would be to remove all of that rubber. Looks great thanks for sharing :)



yeah, rubber just kept on coming out of all kinds of places. lol



tssdetailing said:
SSick turn around! I'll have to check out that Surbuf pad. So you used a surbuf +105, then a tang +105? Or did i see a Cyan pad in the mix too?



First was the surbuff/105 (mAKE SURE you spritz it with water when it dries up, but keep on working it) and then once that is done, there will be zero spider webs but lots of Haze on the surface. so to take away the haze I used the tang/205. and that is what you see in the 50/50 shots. I did use the Cyan/105 on certain areas but mostly the Surbuff/m105 for cutting.



Labster said:
Great turn around Eric! I see you got yourself a van now, great looking set up!



Yeah, I love my new van! it's way better then a Trailer! next are the wheels!



dmw2692004 said:
that looks awesome to polish! so many flat surfaces!



Nice job! Love the car!



yes it was a very nice car to work on. and the surbuff blew me away on this chevy paint.



bigfish528 said:
Amazing work, you did a nice detail besides the late 60's Impalas these have to be my favorite. With all that rubber it looks like you could make a couple of spares.



That is the truth!



DaGonz said:
Very nice work!

Thanks Gonz!

Got_Leather said:
Excellent job, Eric!!! Keep up the great work!

Thanks DJ, I am kind of Jealous of you right now, getting to take pics with all of the "All-Stars" at SEMA :D





nice, you can tell the clarity difference with the wheels.



no shots of the engine ??

No, I didn't do any work under the hood and I forgot to take any pics, sorry! just a regular LT1 with NOS lines and a big intake system :)



Jean-Claude said:
:drool:

Good job on one of the sickest cars of the 90's.

Thanks Mr. Van Damme :D

sacdetailing said:
hey Eric, nice work as always man! btw how did you like the surbuff pads? i picked mine up but haven't tried on my griots yet.



I am in love with them. before I watched Bryan Burnworth (AKA: gmblack3) use them on a live detail video, I hated them, the 105 kept drying up on me. but then I watched him spritz the water when it dried, and then he kept working it. So I gave it another try and It blew me away!!! It has so much more correction then the Flex/PFW and its faster and easier on the back! I went out and bought a bunch of them.
 
wow, more correction then pfw? must be kidding me, i gotta try em. as soon as possible.:chuckle:

u got a link to the video or something? i gotta check it out.
 
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