Rasky's Auto Detailing: '66 Corvette 427/425hp wet sand and buff

This car belongs to the same owner of the ?68 Vette I did back a few months back. The owner originally only wanted to have it buffed out like I did on his ?68. After looking over the car with him a little more I talked him into doing full wet sand too. IMO the texture of the paint looked very poor and badly needed to be smoothed out. The orange peel had a very tight texture that distorted and blurred out what little reflection the paint had.


A little info on this car:

This is a numbers matching 1966 Corvette 427/425hp. It has 58,XXX original miles on the car and underwent a frame off restoration about 3.5 years ago. Pretty much every nut and bolt was replaced, and the car has not seen rain since. There is approximately 1500 miles on the rebuilt motor, and I believe the owner said it was putting down around 575 hp.

Yes he does have the stock wheels too! :D


My process for wet sanding and correction was as follows:

Wash - Optimum No rinse

Clay - Meguiar?s Mild Clay/Last Touch

Wet sanding - Initial cutting was done with Meguiar?s 2000 grit sand paper, followed by 3000 grit.

Step 1 - Meguiar?s M105 via rotary and a Solo heavy cut wool pad.

Step 2 - Meguiar?s M105 via rotary and orange Classic LC foam pad.

Step 3 - Finishing was done with Meguiar?s M205 via rotary and a Meguiar?s W9207 foam finishing pad. (M205 finished off VERY well on this car and I saw no improvements by following it with PO85RD or UF)

LSP - Wolfgang DGPS 3.0

Wheels and chrome ? KAIO

Glass ? Meguiar?s D120

Tires ? ARO / Hyper Dressing 3:1



Before pics
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In the following pics try to notice the texture of the paint, lack of gloss, and distortion of the florescent light refection
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Left fender
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Roof
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Right rear
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Left rear?some deeper scratches likely from getting fuel
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Car has some pretty deep swirls and marring too
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Wet sanding hood
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I stopped after doing the hood and decided to try compounding a spot before moving on to wet sanding the whole car. I wanted to be sure the paint would polish out easily first?a little tip I got from the great Mike Phillips. ;)
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All edges were taped off as I worked a section during the first buffing step to prevent any chance of rubbing through on an edge. For the most part all panel heights lined up very well with only the passenger side of the hood being a little higher than the fender (rare on a lot of older cars)
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50/50 shot
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After pics, indoor
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Nice smooth reflection?notice the clarity of the reflection vs. the before pics in the same angle. (It would have been nice to not have emblems on the car)
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Left fender
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Roof
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Right rear
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Left Rear
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Areas where there was swirling/marring in the halogen lights?crystal clear now
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I love this stuff!
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Great job on the vette Chad, looks insane. My cousin had got one before being ship to Nam (68), but he never return to enjoy his vette. It was the same color vette he had. It did bring back some memories. Thank you for sharing and Great work on this beauty!
 
Words can't even describe the change you did to the finish.
Excellent work.

I'm really going to start studying wet sanding. It seems like it can really add to the clarity of the final product. When do you decide to wet sand vs. just compounding like I did on the Mercedes? Would I have gained anything by wet sanding the car first?
 
Beautiful job, Rasky. I can't say enough on how ugly those wheels are.;)


Words can't even describe the change you did to the finish.
Excellent work.

I'm really going to start studying wet sanding. It seems like it can really add to the clarity of the final product. When do you decide to wet sand vs. just compounding like I did on the Mercedes? Would I have gained anything by wet sanding the car first?

Wetsanding is great at getting out some major defects, but only use it as a last resort. If you're not careful, you can do a lot more damage than good. I speak from experience!:)
 
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. Great job on that detail Rasky!!! The paint looks amazing man on one of the coolest designs of car's ever made. Seriously you have a great simple way of doing write-ups that is a pleasure to read and your pictures are spot on. Thank you very much for sharing!
 
Looks great Rasky, thats a sweet ride bet it hauls the mail.:thumbup:

Thank you!

I asked the owner if I could drive it down to a local park for some pics. All I can say is that thing sounds bad A$$! The cam is not over the top, but it definitely has a nice lope to her, and with the side pipes she sounded a lot like a stock car! :thumbup:

Great job on the vette Chad, looks insane. My cousin had got one before being ship to Nam (68), but he never return to enjoy his vette. It was the same color vette he had. It did bring back some memories. Thank you for sharing and Great work on this beauty!

Thanks Angelo!

I have actually warmed up to the color after being around it for a while. ;)

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. Great job on that detail Rasky!!! The paint looks amazing man on one of the coolest designs of car's ever made. Seriously you have a great simple way of doing write-ups that is a pleasure to read and your pictures are spot on. Thank you very much for sharing!

Thank you Todd! That means a lot coming from you. I would like to do more in depth write ups, but I'm just not the well spoken of a guy I guess. :o


Excellent work Rasky!!!!! The car looks awesome!!! :thumbup:

One of my all-time favorite cars!!!! :)

Tim

Thanks Tim! This is definitely my favorite year Vette to work on...I just love the lines. If they didn't ride like a Mack truck I wouldn't mind having one some day. ;)

Rasky, WOW!!!!!
jk

Thanks Jack! :)
 
WOW! Excellent! Love the writeup and the change!

This car belongs to the same owner of the ?68 Vette I did back a few months back.

Do you have a write-up of the 68 somewhere? I apologize in advance if I missed it. I looked under "find other posts by Rasky" and didn't see it.
:thumbup:
 
Just stellar work Chad.........:notworthy:

Great write-up and excellent pictures......!


My brother owns a 66 Nassau Blue Coupe, a 350 with knock off wheels........

Did you notice any difference with single stage paint when using 205 vs. your normal paint corrections in general......?
 
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