'05 Shanghai Red GTO taken to the next level by autoLavish

**jlb85** · 08-23-2009, 11:35 AM

I'm not well versed in the GTOs, but I believe this is a special edition GTO in a special color called Shanghai something

Its hard to focus when this color stares at you! It is stunning! The vehicle was in very good shape, but had swirls and needed some protection. The owner said spare no expense. Luckily, it didn't take much to take it to the next level. The client also requested Zaino as a LSP, which I like on highly metallic paints like this since it shows off the particles instead of drowning it.

Here is the patient when we arrived, clean and well taken care of, proper for a special vehicle:

We decided to attack it as follows:
- wheels and engine
- interior
- exterior

First was to clean the wheels. Since they are aftermarket wheels with both polished and painted portions, I opted to use a dedicated wheel cleaner, in this case P21S Gel. Usually APC does an excellent job as cleaning wheels, but it can affect aluminum. The wheels only needed cleaning and a coat of wax.

Tires were dressed with 3M Tire Restorer, not that there is much tire to dress! These are the widest possible on this GTO. The fenders are not only rolled, they are cut! The owner took a cut off wheel to the fender lip to make way for the tires. They still rub some. With so much power, even these tires are inadecuate

Next was the interior. I have always though that the GTO interior, probably due to being designed outside north america, is one of GM's nicest, especially the seats. Full leather surfaces, great support, and nice aesthetics. The interior was wiped down with Woolite at 10:1 with various MF towels, then dressed with Finish Kare's Poly Shield, which left a not-too-shiny but slick finish. However, with the grained leather and good bolstering, these seats did not feel slippery. I could have never used this on my E36 M3 leather seats, or I would be sliding into the door

The interior was also vacuumed with the Dyson.

No before pics, nothing really to capture. Here are the afters:

the exterior was then clayed with Pinnacle Clay and DP Final Gloss as a lube, then tapped in preparation of polishing.

The finish presented some swirling:

I broke the hood up into sections to strategize the best method to full correction:

and hit it with M105 on a white pad on the Flex LTW rotary. This provided adequate correction, but of course left significant trailing:

...so I followed up with M205 on a black Megs pad, but the marring was still there! OK, so rotary on this car was not going to be the right choice. The clear was just too soft and the swirls too deep. I needed to use a compound, so I pulled out the PC 7424 which had not see compounding action in a long time!

I loaded the PC with an orange pad and decided to try the new Megs Ultimate Compound. While at Meguiar's a few weeks ago, Mike Phillips showed us that the Ultimate is close in aggressiveness to M105, but has a different particle technology to make it easier to use and provide a better finish. M105 has diminishing particles, meaning the particles are big but soft, almost chalky, and break down while working the compound. Non-diminishing particles do not break down. The Ultimate has Nano-particles, meaning the abrasives in the mix are very small, but hard. The more work you put into the UC, the more it works. So you can polish with UC without waiting for it to "flash" or break down, or keep on going to cut further. This combo (orange + UC on PC 7424) worked great!

Here is a pic of the same marred finish after this combo:

**jlb85** · 08-23-2009, 11:36 AM

Then I followed with M205 on a white pad, one of my favorite finishing polishs on a slightly more aggressive pad, to knock down the M105/UC while continuing to correct.

I then did a few passes with Megs Machine Glaze on a Black pad on the PC 7424 for a nice finish

Some Zaino Z2 was mixed up with ZFX and applied to the vehicle with a MF applicator (Zaino recommends cotton, but I find MF to work better). A second coat was applied before calling it quits for the day.

Here are the afters:

In all it took around 11 hours. This is definitely my favorite red color I have ever worked on.

Thank you for looking!

**Meghan** · 08-23-2009, 12:32 PM

I love it, nice color and great detail! Meguiars 105/205 is a nice combo to work with, bet the owner was very happy to have you achieve those results!

**ryandamartini** · 08-23-2009, 02:32 PM

Very nice.

So you liked the ultimate compound? I think I am going to pick up a bottle as Meghan refuses to put the DP swirl removers back into production..(The best DA polishes ever...)

Cant wait to try it out

Again, great work on a cool car

**2003 GMC Denali** · 08-23-2009, 03:56 PM

Very nice job !

I'm sorry to see Pontiac go, like it did.

Someone on my Denali Site bought a G8-GXP.

One of 1829 made.

Why they got rid of Pontiac and not Buick, is beyond me.

**tenorplayer23** · 08-23-2009, 09:02 PM

Is the Shanghai xxxxx (?) a red or really an orange? Looks very orange in the sun, but a little "redder" in the shade.

See ya

**Nappers** · 08-23-2009, 10:08 PM

Very nice Goat you got there!

Very nice that you showed your steps and what resulted with each step, great for others so if they work on similar GM cars of those years can learn!

Good show!

**GMC83** · 08-23-2009, 10:15 PM

Awesome work, that red is glowing.

**gmwb5** · 08-28-2009, 07:30 AM

Very nice.

**SweetJazz** · 08-30-2009, 11:48 PM

Beautiful detail and color!

M105 and Ultimate Compound both use non-diminishing abrasive technology. Ultimate compound is tailored for the retail market and the M105 is directed at the paint reconditioning market. Did M105 change recently?