Torch Red C5 Corvette Polished to Perfection by Unique Car Care!!

This beautiful C5 Corvette has been babied all of its life and has never seen rain. The owner takes meticulous care of the car and has put a lot of work into the car over the years. Some of the customizations include a custom paint job (ghost flames on the hood & side panels), custom airbrushing underneath the hood, custom painted/airbrushed engine bay pieces, lots of chrome, custom interior, exhaust, etc., etc., etc?


When the ghost flames were added to the exterior, the entire car was wetsanded, then re-clearcoated. Whoever did the paintwork, did an excellent job, but after years of wiping the car down with terry towels, quick detailers and improper washing techniques, the paint needed some serious attention. If anyone has ever seen Torch Red in person, it is an amazing color. Just by looking at the paint, you could easily tell that the paint was lacking something.


When the car arrived, it was very clean, but the paint looked noticeably dull and had severe swirl marks covering the entire exterior. The owner was eager to bring it back to life and get the paint looking its best. I assured him that we would do our best to make it perfect and to make sure he brought his sunglasses when he returned to pick the car up! :cool:


Ryan and I had a very busy week, so I didn?t take many before or during pictures. Here just a few to show how the paint looked before any polishing took place...


In the sunlight (before)?

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Under the halogens (before)?

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As you can see, the paint had a very dull and hazy appearance and lacked the vibrancy this color usually has. The owner was meeting up with some fellow Corvette owners and Ryan and I really wanted him to be the envy of everyone. This car is well known in the area and the owner loves to show it off at car shows, cruises and parades, which means that this car was going to be a rolling advertisement of our work. It was our goal to make the car look its absolute best and make it turn heads everywhere it goes. We planned on putting our blood, sweat and tears into the car until we squeezed every last bit of gloss out of the paint (as usual!).
 

After a bit of testing, we narrowed down our process and went to town! The first stage was definitely the most time consuming. Due to the severity of the defects and hardness of the paint, we chose to use Micro-Surface Black Lambs Wool pads paired with Menzerna Power Finish PO203s. Since the car had been re-clearcoated and we had no idea how thick the clear was, we were extremely careful and worked the PF at very slow speeds, performing multiple passes until we were happy with the results.


Normally, we would have used a heavy compound paired with an aggressive wool pad to save time, but our goal was to use the least aggressive method possible to make sure we did not remove more clear than we needed to. I prefer using PF with these pads because the PF has great lubrication and has a long working time. The carrier oils provide lubrication between the pad and the paint surface, which dramatically reduces any wool pad marring.


The Black lambs Wool/Power Finish combo worked well at knocking out most of the heavy defects, but required some refining to the get the results we were after. After completing the previous step, we wiped down the entire vehicle with a damp microfiber towel to remove as much dust & polishing spatter as possible before we went on with any more polishing.


Next, we polished the entire exterior with Menzerna Super Intensive Polish PO83 using a 3M orange ripple foam pad. This step did wonders and really seemed to bring the color back to life. The paint was pretty hard, but the SIP worked perfectly and left the paint ready for the final polishing step. After this step, there was quite a bit of dust present, so we decided to give the car a quick wash to remove anything that could potentially sctach/marr the paint now that we were almost done.


For the final polishing step, we used Menzerna Final Finish PO85rd on an LC flat black pad, which really amped up the gloss and made an insane glow! People were stopping and walking into the shop just to see the car in person because it was so bright. Everyone was asking ?Wow, what kind of wax did you use??. It was funny to see their face when we told them there was NO wax on the car yet! Then of course came the question ?How much do you charge??


Before any LSP was applied, we wiped down the complete exterior with 91% alcohol and inspected it thoroughly outside in the sun as well as halogen lighting to make sure the paint was absolutely perfect. Once it passed our quality control, we gave the exterior a quick Z6 wipedown, dressed the tires, polished all chrome & aluminum and did a few other little odds & ends.


For the LSP, we wanted something that would last a long time, but also have some WOW factor to back it up. We chose to use Blackfire?s Wet Ice Over Fire combo. First, we applied the Blackfire Wet Diamond using a gold LC CCS concours pad to ensure even coverage and let it set-up for about 20 minutes or so before removing with a fresh microfiber. After the Wet Diamond was removed, we closed up shop for the day and left the car inside over night. The next day, we blew off the car with some purged air and added a thin coat of Blackfire Midnight Sun carnauba wax by hand, which was like the ?cherry on top??


The windows were cleaned, then we pulled the car outside for some pictures?


Here are the final results!!

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Nice work on the Vette! You're right about Torch Red being a gorgeous color... As good as your pictures are, only seeing Torch Red in person can do it true justice.

Excellent job!:thumbup:
 
I normally don't dig those design things under the hood, but man, that looks pretty mean.

Also, holy nice stable of cars in the garage, WOW!
 
Oh Snap! :drool5:

That thing looks sick! Nice work guys! As Bill said, as good as the picture are, I'm sure it does no justice for what it looked like in person. The ghost flames look great too! :cornut:
 
Man what kind of glaze do you use?

Seriously, great correction work!

I was at Rick's shop last night searching the cabinets for Glaze. I found a bunch of bottles way in the back, all of which still had the seal on them.




Shhh...don't tell him but I switched out a bunch of his polishes with glazes too:tongue:
 
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