Tru_Shine
New member
For this detail, I traveled out to Dandrige TN to take on a this beautiful Electron Blue Metallic C5 corvette.
The customer wanted the paint perfect and swirl free and he wanted me to apply Optimum coating, aka Opti-guard.
Opti-Guard or Opti-Coat is a Semi permanent coating that will prevent your paint from getting damaged by bird poop, bug guts, acid rain. it will never fade, and you will never have to wax your car again. will will discuss more of this product later on in the write up.
Lets get this going and see what we are working with.
When I arrived the car wasn't in that bad of condition, but there were a few areas that needed attention.
It was very difficult to capture some of the defects due to all the metallic in the paint.
I start with cleaning the wheels. For this car, I used P21s wheel Gel. it is a pH balanced wheel cleaner that is safe for any type of wheel surface. and has GREAT cleaning abilities.
For getting deep into the wheels when cleaning I grab my EZ detail brush and the Wheel woolie. these brushes are great for getting into tight spots at any angle. Especially for those wide corvette wheels.
Next is the Foam Bath, I prerinse the surface dislodging and heavy and loose debris of the paint and then coat the entire car with a thick foam.
This gives the dirt a suspension and lubrication while washing with the sheep skin mitt.
Grit guards and sheep skin mitts are Detailing 101, a must have in every arsenal
Next the car is dried off and brought in for the surface prep. I clay the surface using clay magic blue fine clay and tape off all plastic trim with Meguiars prep tape.
Like I said before, it was a little difficult to show the defects with so much metallic, but here are a few pics of before and afters.
Driver fender before
After
Here is a pic of the gas cap before and after.
The taillights were pretty bad, so I used a 4in LC cyan pad and m105 to polish them out.
Here is the area around the convertible top. This vette had some pretty bad scratches around where it comes in contact with the paint.
But after further inspection i found that the top does NOT touch the paint. So all of these marks had to be induced by peoples finger nails or jewelry. take a look at what i mean.
here is the corner where most people grab to lift up the top.
here is picture showing that the top doesn't touch the paint. and most of these scratches are outside the area
One of the main concerns for this corvette owner was that the top was scuffing up the paint around this area, so now we know that's not the case. after I polish out these scratches they are gone for good as long as he is careful when lifting up the top.
Here is after it was polished out.
Now for the Trunk
For cutting and polishing, i used the MF cutting disc and and M101 on the Dynabrade. and finished down with Optimum Finish polish on the LC Black pad.
Here is an area that someone had tried sanding on a scratch. to bad they failed to remove the sand scratches. lol
After the proper buff and polish.
So now for the Opti-coat, I finished down the paint with optimum Finish polish which is prefered by optimum when using opticoat.
and after that, Optimum recommends a good wash or using ONR (Optimum No Rinse) to clean the surface.
So here I am going over the entire car with ONR in quick detailer formula.
Now its time for the Magic sauce! I am such a hard core believer in this product. it is mind blowing on how it keeps your car cleaner long, and prevents bugs from sticking and bird poop from etching and looks like glass when full cured.
Applying it one panel at a time making sure there are no high spots when it cures.
After all said and done. I apply Zaino Z16 tire shine on the tires.
and for the wheels I applied Opti-seal to help protect the wheels and repel brake dust and keep the wheels cleaner longer.
I also treated the convertible top with 2 coats of RaggTop convertible top treatment letting each coat fully cure before applying the next.
After all said and done. It was Midnight when I finished the car. So unfortunately there are no Sun shots, but here are a few in the garage when I finished.
Thanks for viewing, have a blessed day!
-Eric Witt
The customer wanted the paint perfect and swirl free and he wanted me to apply Optimum coating, aka Opti-guard.
Opti-Guard or Opti-Coat is a Semi permanent coating that will prevent your paint from getting damaged by bird poop, bug guts, acid rain. it will never fade, and you will never have to wax your car again. will will discuss more of this product later on in the write up.
Lets get this going and see what we are working with.
When I arrived the car wasn't in that bad of condition, but there were a few areas that needed attention.
It was very difficult to capture some of the defects due to all the metallic in the paint.
I start with cleaning the wheels. For this car, I used P21s wheel Gel. it is a pH balanced wheel cleaner that is safe for any type of wheel surface. and has GREAT cleaning abilities.
For getting deep into the wheels when cleaning I grab my EZ detail brush and the Wheel woolie. these brushes are great for getting into tight spots at any angle. Especially for those wide corvette wheels.
Next is the Foam Bath, I prerinse the surface dislodging and heavy and loose debris of the paint and then coat the entire car with a thick foam.
This gives the dirt a suspension and lubrication while washing with the sheep skin mitt.
Grit guards and sheep skin mitts are Detailing 101, a must have in every arsenal
Next the car is dried off and brought in for the surface prep. I clay the surface using clay magic blue fine clay and tape off all plastic trim with Meguiars prep tape.
Like I said before, it was a little difficult to show the defects with so much metallic, but here are a few pics of before and afters.
Driver fender before
After
Here is a pic of the gas cap before and after.
The taillights were pretty bad, so I used a 4in LC cyan pad and m105 to polish them out.
Here is the area around the convertible top. This vette had some pretty bad scratches around where it comes in contact with the paint.
But after further inspection i found that the top does NOT touch the paint. So all of these marks had to be induced by peoples finger nails or jewelry. take a look at what i mean.
here is the corner where most people grab to lift up the top.
here is picture showing that the top doesn't touch the paint. and most of these scratches are outside the area
One of the main concerns for this corvette owner was that the top was scuffing up the paint around this area, so now we know that's not the case. after I polish out these scratches they are gone for good as long as he is careful when lifting up the top.
Here is after it was polished out.
Now for the Trunk
For cutting and polishing, i used the MF cutting disc and and M101 on the Dynabrade. and finished down with Optimum Finish polish on the LC Black pad.
Here is an area that someone had tried sanding on a scratch. to bad they failed to remove the sand scratches. lol
After the proper buff and polish.
So now for the Opti-coat, I finished down the paint with optimum Finish polish which is prefered by optimum when using opticoat.
and after that, Optimum recommends a good wash or using ONR (Optimum No Rinse) to clean the surface.
So here I am going over the entire car with ONR in quick detailer formula.
Now its time for the Magic sauce! I am such a hard core believer in this product. it is mind blowing on how it keeps your car cleaner long, and prevents bugs from sticking and bird poop from etching and looks like glass when full cured.
Applying it one panel at a time making sure there are no high spots when it cures.
After all said and done. I apply Zaino Z16 tire shine on the tires.
and for the wheels I applied Opti-seal to help protect the wheels and repel brake dust and keep the wheels cleaner longer.
I also treated the convertible top with 2 coats of RaggTop convertible top treatment letting each coat fully cure before applying the next.
After all said and done. It was Midnight when I finished the car. So unfortunately there are no Sun shots, but here are a few in the garage when I finished.
Thanks for viewing, have a blessed day!
-Eric Witt
