1987 Corvette Show Car Makeover - SONAX Showcase

[Mike Phillips]

1987 Corvette Show Car Makeover - SONAX Showcase

SONAX Show Car Detail - 1987 All Original Corvette

Here's how the Corvette looked when it first arrived, to the untrained eye it looks good because it looks shiny.







Even though the paint is shiny though it's far from perfect and the finish quality it not acceptable to the owner who has helped us transform and restore show car quality finishes to a number of projects in the past.

Here's how the paint looks to the trained eye... These picture were taking using the flash from my camera on different locations around the car. The car has very low mileage and has probably never been buffed but from wiping and washing the entire finish has swirls.









There's a few random isolated deeper scratches here and there too...






These are interesting...







Burned-Through Corvette Emblem Edges
The first thing I do when buffing out a late model Corvette is look to see if the edges of the plastic emblems have been burned off by the other guy

By this I mean often times a detailer will run the edge of their buffing pad into the edges of the emblem and burn the black outer coating off and expose white plastic underneath of it.

Here's a tip... tape-off Corvette emblems before machine buffing, especially with a rotary buffer.

Hood Emblem - Still in great shape!



Rear deck emblem - No problems here!



Tires need some help...



Contaminated Paint
I had the owner Forrest feel the paint for contamination using the Baggie Test and even with low mileage and years of protective garage storage the paint still had above surface bonded contaminants that needed to be removed. For this we used detailing clay.



The picture of this clay was taken after claying only the hood...



Machine Polishing
After we clayed the paint and then taped-off all the trim, (look at the Corvette Emblem on the hood), and covered the glass and interior, (the top is down), we then started removing the swirls using rotary buffers, Lake Country Hybrid Polishing pads and the new SONAX Fine Abrasive Paste.

Paul and Forrest tackle the hood...



Bumblebee
Paul is using the DeWALT 849X I call the Bumblebee because of the black and yellow coloring. This one has the hoop hand attached but note how Paul chooses to place his hand directly onto the head of the polisher. By the way, Paul buffing out large boats most of the time and is a seasoned pro behind a rotary buffer.



Here's Forrest working with the Flex PE14 sans handle...



Here's Juanito working another 849X only this is one of the DeWALT I have in the studio with neither the stick or the hoop handle attached.





Here's Ken working the Makita 9227C



Here's Tim working the lower portion of the driver's door using a Flex PE14...




Machine Jewelling
Next we switched over to Lake Country Gold Jewelling Pads and machine applied the SONAX Nano Polish, for this everyone stayed around the 600 to 800 RPM Range and re-polished each square inch using only light pressure while cleaning our pads often.





Forrest really liked the results from this step...

[Mike Phillips]

Here's the results BEFORE we applied the SONAX Polymer Net Shield...







De-tape and Seal with SONAX Polymer Net Shield
After we removed all the masking tape and cover-up towels and wheel maskers we re-wiped any residues off the paint and then applied the SONAX Polymer Net Shield






Apply by hand
Directions on the label say to apply by hand to a small section, work in and the remove before moving onto the next section.



Careful wiping
While some of the guys were applying the Polymer Net Shield, others were carefully wiping off the excess using the very soft, rolled edge green microfiber towels.



Here's Jeff carefully wiping off the SONAX Polymer Net Shield using perfect technique...







And here's the beauty shots...






































Here's the products behind the wet-paint look...



And here's the A-Team that made the magic happen...

[Mike Phillips]

Shout out to Buddy aka Audi X2 and his lovely wife Marita for the Hot Sauce they sent me for Christmas. Forrest sprung for pizza dinner so I let anyone willing give them a try...

This is Blaire's After Death...






Here's Juanito pouring some Jalapeño Hot Sauce onto Forrest's pizza...



Mmmm, mmmm good....



Shout out to Louie's Wife!
Thank you for making delicious homemade cookies! They were awesome!




Pizza decimated...




Car guys doing what car guys do...




Checking out the Vette engine and talking shop...

[Mike Phillips]

On Autogeek.net


SONAX Profiline Fine Abrasive Paste

SONAX Profiline Nano Polish

SONAX Polymer Net Shield



New products from SONAX!





Here's two DeWALT 849X Bumblebee's and one Makita 9227C Rotary buffers set-up with 6.5" Hybrid pads and 5" Flexible Backing Plates.




Here's the Flex PE 14 Rotary Polishers with 4" backing plates and 5" Hybrid White Polishing pads.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

I was looking for that tape and im glad to hear they will be availible on AG.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Let us know how the 5" hybrids handle on the Flex Mike.

[Mike Phillips]

Let us know how the 5" hybrids handle on the Flex Mike.

I use them all the time on the rotary buffer and they work great.


I have not worked on this Corvette yet but from memory the paint on these classic C4's, like their modern brethren, are on the hard side.

Since the swirls are light in the finish I'm going to take a guess they are also shallow so the combination of Hybrid Polishing Pads on Rotary Buffers with the SONAX Fine Abrasive Paste will hopefully remove them without any trouble.

If they don't we can always get more aggressive pads.

Of course, the first thing we always do on any car project is a Test Spot to helps us determine paint hardness as well as dial-in a process that works to one small area. Once we dial in our process then we duplicate it over the rest of the paint.

Can't encourage and endorse the practice of doing a Test Spot enough to both Newbies and Seasoned Pros...


How To Do a Test Spot
(and why it's so important)



The Nano Polish is supposed to finish out hologram free so we're going to finish out using only rotary buffers and then apply the Polymer Net Shield.


Should be a fun project and Forrest has been great about helping us with some of our other projects. He's back home on Christmas break from college so after tonight he should be driving around in really cool Corvette with a blinding finish.

[axel06]

another magical day in the detail bizz

[RedXray]

Mike do you know if the Nano Polish is a SMAT or Dat abrasive? I didn't see that on the Autogeek store description of the Sonax polish.

Also Is this going to be a live broadcast?

[Mike Phillips]

Mike do you know if the Nano Polish is a SMAT or Dat abrasive? I didn't see that on the Autogeek store description of the Sonax polish.

Also Is this going to be a live broadcast?

Don't know.

Here's what I do know... going to follow their instructions for both products.

Start with firm pressure at 800 RPM make section passes then increase speed to 1200 RPM, reduce pressure and make section passes.

Todd Helme was in the office yesterday and tested these products out on what I believe is a factory black finish on a co-worker's car and results looked incredible.


Just for fun I'm going to test these products with some LC Ultra-Fiber Microfiber pads on both rotary and DA's.


Just waiting for Forrest and the rest of the wrecking crew to get here now...

I might take a few pictures with my cell phone and post on the fly using the AG App if there's any interest...