Project "HOOD" (product or pad)

[heavychevy]

I have a spare hood from my 01 corvette that I replaced when I got a cutsom one so I have been using it to conduct tests of different products and their effectiveness. Of course, like any anxious bone headed rotary newbie, I started off with the Rotary and the Optimum Polish on a orange pad even though I found it too much for some other vette related test peices.



I have spent a good part of the last 3 days in the garage with some Halogen lights (the heavy duty industrial lamps) going at it with the hood sectioned off to see what products work the best. This is what I have found.



1 What has worked best on this car is the more aggresive compounds on the less cutting pads (gray,blue) lets the paint get heated and moreso manipulated than all cutting power.



2 If I did use a heavy cutting compound with the rotary, going behind the Rotary with the same pad on the PC lessens the cutting done by the Rotary.



3 The final spider webbing is a @#%#^#$ to get out and very easy to put back, all your stuff has to be perfectly clean done to the towel used to take it off.





this is the best result I have gotten so far. I have no idea how much clear coat has been removed and really dont care because the hood is my test subject and I have actually tried to burn it to see what it takes to burn the clear. I have figured out how to get the same result with less cutting, and that is the best thing.

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[imported_GregCavi]

honestly you picked the worst kind of paint to learn the rotary on. I have hundreds of hours on the rotary and consider myself quite skilled with it, and I can't and will not attempt to finish perfect on corvette paint because it is so finicky. If you had regular paint other than the rock hard paint on the vette, im sure it would look much better. Try optimum polish or menzerna fpii on a finishing pad @ 800-1000 rpms and see what that does.



Greg

 

[imported_rydawg1]

I have been detailing cars for 15 years and corvettes have extremely hard paint. On corvettes I use Presta 1500 polish with a rotory and a wool pad on high speed. I know you all think it sounds crazy but it works unbelievable. I have done over 200 plus vettes. GM paint itself loves wool pads. It takes heat to clean the paint. If you have not used a wool pad then I would be careful and stay away from the edges. After you have it shining like glass use 106ff and a pc with a white lc pad. The finish will look better than anything! Presta 1500 polish is amazing for vettes.

 

[heavychevy]

Yeah this paint is a #@#$^@#, I have a wool pad and may try it on the hood, I'm still new to the Rotary so I'm still trying each product on each pad. Those were preliminary results after OHC on orange pad, OC on white pad, OP on White pad, XMT 1 White pad, and XMT Finishing Glaze on blue pad. At this point I have tried almost every combo and still am far from perfect but I'm still learning and as of right now my process will be SSR 1 on Gray pad at 1k RPM (followed by pc on same pad), OP white pad 1000-1800 rpm, XMT Glaze and souveran. Until I learn a bit more to use any more abrasives.

 

[heavychevy]

just tried the wool pad and it's far beyond my capabilities.

 

[DSVWGLI]

I have been detailing cars for 15 years and corvettes have extremely hard paint. On corvettes I use Presta 1500 polish with a rotory and a wool pad on high speed. I know you all think it sounds crazy but it works unbelievable. I have done over 200 plus vettes. GM paint itself loves wool pads. It takes heat to clean the paint. If you have not used a wool pad then I would be careful and stay away from the edges. After you have it shining like glass use 106ff and a pc with a white lc pad. The finish will look better than anything! Presta 1500 polish is amazing for vettes.

If it is heat that cleans (removes swirls) paint then a foam pad should be better as they create more heat than wool. But you want to be very careful when heating up the paint with a rotary, as that can lead to paint burn. There is also no need to use the rotary beyond 1700 - 2000 rpms, after that you are asking for trouble. When you say you use the rotary on "high speed" what rpm are we talking here? I think I should warn people right now that if you are new to the rotary stay away from speeds over 1200 rpms until you have more time with it other wise you may need a new paint job!!

 

[heavychevy]

I have just done a search on all the threads about vettes and the clear issues. After that I dont feel so bad. There is certainly a lot more I can do but now I see that the 7 or so hours I have spent just on this hood alone are about on par for what it takes to get my car to where it needs to be. The front of the hood has some serious pitting I am guessing from the snow/salt it encountered before I owned it in the Chicago area. I am trying not to use the Rotary on my car at all until I can at least get this hood to 95% and I have on isolated sections but I have to get the whole thing there.





Bad thing is that I track my car (427 Twin Turbo etc etc) Road racing and drag racing.

 

[heavychevy]

I thought I should at least post some pics of where the hood started so you can see how far it has come. This hood had sat in the same performance shop that my vette has been sitting at for the past few months.



This is the part of the hood that didnt get baraged with the PC/Rotary and all kinds of stuff.

These are the most recent pistures of the progress I have made and it consists of OHC (yellow pad 1800 rpm), OC (white pad 1500 rpm), EXP, Souveran, XMT Glaze, and topped of with OP (blue pad 1500 rpm)

what surprised was that when I went back to not only the part that wasnt touched, but a part that had major marring from me trying to use a wool pad that ZPC Fusion did such an awesome job by itself with nothing but a white pad.

And this is the top corner that took two passes to get from this

to this

this is the part with the wool pad marring.

here it is after one pass with the PC and ZPC Fusion and a White pad, no marring left over either. needless to say that ZPC Fusion is my cleaner wax and starter from now on, this stuff is incredible. I had always loved it but sadly rushed to a bunch of other stuff since I got the PC.

Here is the car until I get busy detailing. I'm waiting until I track it this weekend at road atlanta before I detail it as it is the last detail of the year.

 

[whitejavaS500]

WOW.! N/O but im glad you found here, that vette isnt looking too god, but itll look unreal when complete. GOod luck man.

 

[heavychevy]

WOW.! N/O but im glad you found here, that vette isnt looking too god, but itll look unreal when complete. GOod luck man.

Yeah I know I got it out of the shop two days prior to that pic. It had been in the shop for about 3.5 months. I had to put 500 miles on to break in my new pistons which I did in 24hrs :laugh: . Part of that included a 2.5 hr trip to a drag strip near macon ga (no i didnt race) but the parking lot there is gravel an dirt and sand, ALL OF IT. So it sat around all day with high horepower cars driving by blowing dirt and dust all over it. My car would never look like that otherwise.