Drastic before/afters of in-progress Trans Am resto...

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drew.haynes

New member
So I am maybe half-done polishing my 93 Trans Am. After some horrendous body work I thought it would never look good again. I'm thankful for the worthless body guy who trashed my paint... as it caused me to find autopia and get more into detailing.



My process so far is 3M 39002 P-It II on a Yellow LC pad, followed in some areas by SSR1 on a White LC pad.



Before - Fender (How bad can it get on NEW paint??)

b3.jpg




After (Should I do another pass of 3M or just leave those remaining swirls?)

a1.jpg




Before - Hood (Maybe it's just me, but I think those are holograms... old guy doing body shop for years, you'd think he couldn't get away w/ that by now)

b2.jpg




After - (The dots are some splatter I missed last night)

a2.jpg




Before - Nose (ZERO gloss under halogen or direct sun. VERY visible sanding marks)

b1.jpg




After - Better? (The rings on the front are also some polish I forgot I put there! I'll get those off later)

a3.jpg




I'll post another thread when I've done 3m on the rest of the car and SSR1 on the whole car... followed by either S100 or #26 liquid.



I wanna know what you guys think. Should I do more in the areas I already worked... good enough... not good enough yet?





Drew
 
That is great work! Sorry about the body shop guy, have you asked him what happened? Anyway, I would definately go with the SSR1 on the whole car. One thing to remember with the SSR1 is that it taks awhile to break down via PC. Start at speed 2 to spread and speed 5-6 to work and breakdown polish. Dont be surprised that it takes 2-5 mins a panel even to fully break it down and turn that flashed translucent color. Hope all goes well, you are on the right track.
 
AZ Ferrari Man said:
That is great work! Sorry about the body shop guy, have you asked him what happened? Anyway, I would definately go with the SSR1 on the whole car. One thing to remember with the SSR1 is that it taks awhile to break down via PC. Start at speed 2 to spread and speed 5-6 to work and breakdown polish. Dont be surprised that it takes 2-5 mins a panel even to fully break it down and turn that flashed translucent color. Hope all goes well, you are on the right track.
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Thanks alot. Think I should do another pass of 3m in any of those areas? Some of them still have noticeable DEEP swirls from his rotary. Prolly a wool pad he found out behind his shop.
 
Holy crap; those are some amazingly hideous halograms. I think you might have some hazing left over from the 3M on the yellow pad; SSR1 might not be aggressive enough to take it all out. I'd hit it with SSR2 on a white, or FPII on a white (or opt polish on a white) etc.. some low to moderate level polish on a polishing pad just to continue cleaning up the swirls/hazing/halograms - still you've come a long way and it looks infinitely better.



Edit: Just saw your last reply. If there are still some deep halo's/swirls I'd repeat the process, though I still think it might be wise to have another step in between the 3M and SSR1.



Cheers.
 
Picus said:
Holy crap; those are some amazingly hideous halograms. I think you might have some hazing left over from the 3M on the yellow pad; SSR1 might not be aggressive enough to take it all out. I'd hit it with SSR2 on a white, or FPII on a white (or opt polish on a white) etc.. some low to moderate level polish on a polishing pad just to continue cleaning up the swirls/hazing/halograms - still you've come a long way and it looks infinitely better.



Edit: Just saw your last reply. If there are still some deep halo's/swirls I'd repeat the process, though I still think it might be wise to have another step in between the 3M and SSR1.



Cheers.
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I have some SSR2.5 I can use... but it's on an orange pad currently. I'm trying not to mix up my pad/product combos too much until I get some spare pads. What about DACP on Orange LC in between the 3M and SSR1? DACP should be closer to SSR2 than SSR2.5 right? I may be able to pick up soem DACP today... I want to start trying more Meg's products so I have more I can get OTC.
 
Hrm, neither SSR2.5 or DACP are really light cut... if I had to pick one I'd go with DACP but on a white, not an orange. Even better would be some Megs #80 speed glaze; but that between the 3M and SSR1 on a white pad and I bet you get great results; you might be able to skip the SSR1.
 
Picus said:
Hrm, neither SSR2.5 or DACP are really light cut... if I had to pick one I'd go with DACP but on a white, not an orange. Even better would be some Megs #80 speed glaze; but that between the 3M and SSR1 on a white pad and I bet you get great results; you might be able to skip the SSR1.
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Hmm. That still leaves me w/ the one of each pad problem. Think it's ok to use #80 on my white pad that I've used SSR1 on?



Also... are you basically saying #80 is more aggressive than SSR1 but less than SSR2?
 
drew.haynes said:
Hmm. That still leaves me w/ the one of each pad problem. Think it's ok to use #80 on my white pad that I've used SSR1 on?



Also... are you basically saying #80 is more aggressive than SSR1 but less than SSR2?
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I think what I'd do is try 80 first, if it works you're golden. If not, clean the pad then use SSR1.



Yes, 80 is more aggressive than SSR1 and less than 2, imo. It's probably more similar to 2 than 1.
 
That is as horrible as I have ever seen anyone swirl paint...and that is about as good as I have seen anyone bring paint that bad back! :bow



I agree with Picus, go with #80, especially on black, definitely adds a richness you can't get with most other polishes. I'd also finish with #26 over S100 too, it'll be noticably deeper and darker on black.
 
Scottwax said:
That is as horrible as I have ever seen anyone swirl paint...and that is about as good as I have seen anyone bring paint that bad back! :bow



I agree with Picus, go with #80, especially on black, definitely adds a richness you can't get with most other polishes. I'd also finish with #26 over S100 too, it'll be noticably deeper and darker on black.
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#26 liquid won't take any of the S100 underneath off?
 
That's fantastic progress! I would definitely recommend an intermediate polish/pad combination before going to SSR 1.
 
Scottwax said:
Sorry, I meant use #26 in place of S100.
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Ok cool. After seeing that S100 reflections picture on black that you put in the gallery... if you say something looks BETTER than that on black... I'll trust you on that.
 
ZaneO said:
That's fantastic progress! I would definitely recommend an intermediate polish/pad combination before going to SSR 1.
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You agree with the others on the #80 recommendation and white pad not orange? That's probably what I will do.. if I can find any place in town that carries more Meg's Pro products!!!
 
drew.haynes said:
Ok cool. After seeing that S100 reflections picture on black that you put in the gallery... if you say something looks BETTER than that on black... I'll trust you on that.
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S100 gives great reflections but liquid depth is not its strong suit.
 
Scottwax said:
S100 gives great reflections but liquid depth is not its strong suit.
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I'm too n00b to know the diff in something looking wet or something looking deep or something looking reflective. Lol. Maybe I'll just take ur advice and knowing the difference in those will become a little more apparent. :2thumbs:
 
Stickman81 said:
Awesome, Awesome job.

Keep us updated.
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Def will do... thanks alot. It's coming along slow because I only work on it maybe every other night near and during dark... too hot even then, especially w/ the halogens. :eek:
 
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