richy
New member
I don`t think I`ll be topping this week for a long time! First, that gorgeous Aston Martin, followed by this car. It is owned by a friend and fellow officer. He is the third owner since brand new. The previous owner had the car painted and it`s unknown who did it. Not the greatest of jobs, but OK. He just wanted it presentable...I had other ideas. We compromised and I ate some time to make it as nice as (reasonably) possible given the time budget. It was getting coated with CQuartz after being coated. The car has 53,000 km on it which is equivalent to 33,000 miles. IMO it needed to look as nice as its pedigree says it is.
Here it is as it arrived. I can sum it up in 2 words: shocking swirls!
There was a really big scratch/gouge out of the paint on the RF fender top. That got filled afterward as well as many, many chips.
First up was to clean the wheels. The faces were cleaned with Carbrite wheel acid (does wonders on chrome) which I did not allow to dwell for very long, followed by Zep Citrus and Megs HW with a demoted wash mitt. The tires were cleaned (multiple times) with Zep 505 and the wells were cleaned with LATA. There was a lot of wax residue in every seam, etc, so I also used a Race Glaze (soft) brush with Zep Citrus and dipped in the HW to try to remove it from the seams. It was only mildly successful in doing so. I had a lot to do on the car and wasn`t going to waste my time chasing stuff like that, so if it didn`t get it, it was left.
The paint was cleaned with Megs HW followed by IronX paste. I then brought it inside to clay. I started using the clay towel and I felt like I was rubbing it across a sheet of 150 grit sandpaper: rough as can be! I broke out the old school Riccardo blue which would turn to Riccardo black after every bloody pass. My wife had taken the camera to do something else so I wasn`t able to shoot the disgusting looking clay. The paint just look horrific at this point and my hands were shaking as I was lighting my cigar to evaluate my process. Often I find that re-paints can be very hard. This paint was hard, but not impossibly so. I was still using the 3401 + TB and ended up using a mix of M100 and M101 on the pad like last time. I was getting good correction, but each area really had to be worked due to such deep imperfections. Luckily there was lots of clear to work with so I wasn`t hampered there. That was followed by M205 and the Carpro gloss pad (Essence did not play well with this picky paint). Even after hammering away with the compound and then working the shine with M205, the pad was looking disgusting after only 3-4 passes. Usually I can get a panel or two until I have to clean the pad. Not with this paint. It was every 3 or so passes which got to be a big PITA. Here is a 50/50 shot to show what that combo would accomplish nonetheless:
It was working, albeit in a very time consuming fashion. The whole car was done with those 2 steps followed by being double coated with CQuartz original for the paint and wheels. Here are some inside shots. Unfortunately, it was finished on a cloudy day.
My father was a Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealer for over 20 years (GM dealer for 25) and I was working there when these cars came out. I vividly remember the excitement around them and how there was little to compete against them at the time. I sold one to my dentist. This was a great trip down memory lane for me, especially seeing the digital tach and boost gauge and the instrumentation. As I said...what a week!!!
Here it is as it arrived. I can sum it up in 2 words: shocking swirls!
There was a really big scratch/gouge out of the paint on the RF fender top. That got filled afterward as well as many, many chips.
First up was to clean the wheels. The faces were cleaned with Carbrite wheel acid (does wonders on chrome) which I did not allow to dwell for very long, followed by Zep Citrus and Megs HW with a demoted wash mitt. The tires were cleaned (multiple times) with Zep 505 and the wells were cleaned with LATA. There was a lot of wax residue in every seam, etc, so I also used a Race Glaze (soft) brush with Zep Citrus and dipped in the HW to try to remove it from the seams. It was only mildly successful in doing so. I had a lot to do on the car and wasn`t going to waste my time chasing stuff like that, so if it didn`t get it, it was left.
The paint was cleaned with Megs HW followed by IronX paste. I then brought it inside to clay. I started using the clay towel and I felt like I was rubbing it across a sheet of 150 grit sandpaper: rough as can be! I broke out the old school Riccardo blue which would turn to Riccardo black after every bloody pass. My wife had taken the camera to do something else so I wasn`t able to shoot the disgusting looking clay. The paint just look horrific at this point and my hands were shaking as I was lighting my cigar to evaluate my process. Often I find that re-paints can be very hard. This paint was hard, but not impossibly so. I was still using the 3401 + TB and ended up using a mix of M100 and M101 on the pad like last time. I was getting good correction, but each area really had to be worked due to such deep imperfections. Luckily there was lots of clear to work with so I wasn`t hampered there. That was followed by M205 and the Carpro gloss pad (Essence did not play well with this picky paint). Even after hammering away with the compound and then working the shine with M205, the pad was looking disgusting after only 3-4 passes. Usually I can get a panel or two until I have to clean the pad. Not with this paint. It was every 3 or so passes which got to be a big PITA. Here is a 50/50 shot to show what that combo would accomplish nonetheless:
It was working, albeit in a very time consuming fashion. The whole car was done with those 2 steps followed by being double coated with CQuartz original for the paint and wheels. Here are some inside shots. Unfortunately, it was finished on a cloudy day.
My father was a Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealer for over 20 years (GM dealer for 25) and I was working there when these cars came out. I vividly remember the excitement around them and how there was little to compete against them at the time. I sold one to my dentist. This was a great trip down memory lane for me, especially seeing the digital tach and boost gauge and the instrumentation. As I said...what a week!!!
