Low Mileage '80 Vette, Exterior Paint correction: Rasky's Auto Detailing

RaskyR1

Rasky's Auto Detailing
1980 Corvette L82, 16,XXX miles, exterior paint correction



I was contacted by the owner this spring to detail this low mileage beauty and it was scheduled for my Premium exterior service (2-step correction). Upon inspection the paint appeared to be in good condition with moderate swirls and a few RIDS and the 2-step was able to achieve at least 95% correction. While the car has very low miles on it, it had been repainted at some point in its life…overall a very nice car though and the interior was mint…of course I forgot to take a pic. :(





Process:



Wash - ONR

Tires – Cleaned with Optimum Power Clean and dressed with Meguiar’s Hyper Dressing

Wheels - Sonax Full Effect, light polish with Optimum Metal Polish

Paint correction - M105 with a Surbuf pad on the GG6 followed by M205 with a crimson LC pad on the GG6. Bumper covers were done with Sonax Paint Cleaner and a 4” tangerine LC pad…(more about that below).

Glass - Meguiars D120

LSP – Blackfire Wet-Diamond







Before pics

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Putting my new brushes to use

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Swirls were a little hard to capture…

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Lots of areas that had TOGW!

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My initial test spot was with D300/MF, which worked well on the light swirls, but the paint was hard and a more aggressive method was needed for the deeper stuff, M105/Surbuf worked better and even finished down very well!

Single Stage paint…being a repaint I was expecting BC/CC.

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The 50/50 shots were with D300/MF





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This one was with M105/Surbuf…not the best shot as it was the top of the fender but you should be able to see it.

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All sharp edges were taped up…Corvettes are notorious for sharp edges, and burning through them is very easy to do. There were actually several areas where the edges were already burned on this car (which were documented prior to correction) so I wanted to be sure I didn’t make things any worse. 3M fineline tape works great for these areas!

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You can actually see the sharp raised edge here

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Gas doors have very sharp edges too!

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There are always going to be those cars or paints that come along which really pose a challenge or require some thinking to correct…well, this was definitely one of them! As I worked my way around the car M105/Surbuf was working amazingly well, right up to where I started on the rear bumper! The second I started hitting the bumpers, everything I tried dried up right away and it dulled the paint big time! See pic below

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After trying about 6 different polishes (M105, D300, M205, M83, M80, and even M07), various pads, rotary, DA and hand, I began to be concerned. I gave my good buddy Kevin Brown (aka – Buff Daddy) a call to discuss some possibilities to the problem. Kevin suggested a few options and it was finally decided to try a few other polishes, possibly some which were water based. In the mean time I figured I’d get the rest of the car done first and worry about the bumpers last as I was pressed for time. While I was working my fellow detailing buddy Justin stopped by looking for some product samples. I showed him the issue I was having and he volunteered to help try some things out while I continued working on the rest of the car. He immediately asked if I had any Sonax Paint Cleaner on hand, having read Todd Cooperiders review on it recently, he thought that would be a good place to start. Of course I had some and he went to town applying it by hand first. Almost immediately we saw signs of improvement! Whew! Dodged a bullet on that one! Here is Justin helping me out… thanks for the free labor Justin! :D

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Nice work Chad. That's some pretty fancy taping around the filler door, even followed into the little divot! And it looks like you have another Vette on deck? Cool.
 
mikenap said:
Nice work Chad. That's some pretty fancy taping around the filler door, even followed into the little divot! And it looks like you have another Vette on deck? Cool.



Thanks Mike!



That fineline tape is very flexible and bends around curves much better than masking tape. The '77 Vette in the garage belongs to my best friend, who actually bought my house when I got married, the bikes are his too. We did the '77 last year. ;)

Dirk Diggler rides again! ’77 Corvette, full wet sand and buff by Rasky’s Auto Detail
 
Looks good. I know those 80's vettes have tough paint to work with and they weren't the best quality either. You made this one look proud!
 
RaskyR1 said:
Thanks Mike!



That fineline tape is very flexible and bends around curves much better than masking tape. The '77 Vette in the garage belongs to my best friend, who actually bought my house when I got married, the bikes are his too. We did the '77 last year. ;)

Dirk Diggler rides again! ’77 Corvette, full wet sand and buff by Rasky’s Auto Detail



Ok, I remember that one now. That was another monster detail. But forgive me for asking...what is TOGW? I know what TOGWT is, but I don't think it's the same thing!:bounce:
 
Brad B. said:
Looks good. I know those 80's vettes have tough paint to work with and they weren't the best quality either. You made this one look proud!



Thanks Brad!



Shiny Lil Detlr said:
Very nice, Chad! Love the lines of those C3s.





Thanks Charlie!



mikenap said:
Ok, I remember that one now. That was another monster detail. But forgive me for asking...what is TOGW? I know what TOGWT is, but I don't think it's the same thing!:bounce:



TOGW = The Other Guys Wax. :D
 
Looks good chad! Did you wind up leaving the bumpers after I hit them with the sonax/pc/4"black pad or did you wind up trying d301 on them as well?
 
Phishy4 said:
Looks good chad! Did you wind up leaving the bumpers after I hit them with the sonax/pc/4"black pad or did you wind up trying d301 on them as well?



Thanks Justin! I ended up spot hitting a few areas with a 4" Tangerine and Sonax. I did try some D301 just to see what it would do. The D301 seemed to wipe off easier, but no difference in finish that I could see. ;)



jimmie jam said:
Very nice result! i have a 78 and 79. the factory paint is really bad out of the St. Louis plant.



Thanks Jimmie! I haven't work on one with OEM paint in a loooong time now. :)
 
Excellent work as always Rasky. One question: did you leave the bumper with just the Sonax as protection (since it's an all in one) or did you put a wax over top of it?



-Kody-
 
Ch96067 said:
Great work and very tight taping! How long did the whole polishing take?



Thank you! I had a few interruptions to the polishing throughout the day, but I'd guess around 8hrs of actual polishing. I had to go over many areas several time to get out some RIDS, so that added a lot of time.



kakeuter said:
Excellent work as always Rasky. One question: did you leave the bumper with just the Sonax as protection (since it's an all in one) or did you put a wax over top of it?



-Kody-





Thanks Kody!





No, I did top it with BFWD. ;)
 
RaskyR1 said:
Thanks Kody!





No, I did top it with BFWD. ;)



Thanks buddy, I'm working on a SL65 AMG Black Series Coupe that is mostly carbon fiber substrate and the softness of the clear is unlike anything I've ever dealt with. I haven't bought the Sonax AIO since I am planning on putting Opti-Coat on the vehicle for added protection against scratches. I figured it would be a wash to do the AIO just to go back and wipe it down with alcohol to prep for the Opti-Coat, so I am trying to finish down with 85rd, just so difficult to wipe the car with alcohol and not get marring.



-Kody-
 
kakeuter said:
Thanks buddy, I'm working on a SL65 AMG Black Series Coupe that is mostly carbon fiber substrate and the softness of the clear is unlike anything I've ever dealt with. I haven't bought the Sonax AIO since I am planning on putting Opti-Coat on the vehicle for added protection against scratches. I figured it would be a wash to do the AIO just to go back and wipe it down with alcohol to prep for the Opti-Coat, so I am trying to finish down with 85rd, just so difficult to wipe the car with alcohol and not get marring.



-Kody-



If the finish is super soft and scratches easy I would look into finishing with something like Optimum Finish, GTechniq P1/P2, or even UNO....that way you won't need the IPA wipe-down and further risk marring.
 
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