64 Nova SS Revived from the dead by Tru Shine

**Tru_Shine** · 06-30-2011, 09:49 AM

This car is an older write up done back in December, just though I would share it here on autogeek. This 1964 Nova SS is one beautiful classic muscle car. It has had a rough life from the previous owner, but the new owner has lots of plans in store for it. Right now the owner just wanted the paint to be brought back to life to hold it off until the full frame up restoration. So he gave me a call and asked if I could work my magic. I was honored to be able to work on such a nice old school classic piece of American history. Lets get this detail going.

The paint is a Single stage paint which is notorious for fading, and this one had really bad water spot stains and some areas were basically bleached of the color.

This is the car when I first arrived for the detail.

You can tell how bad the paint was oxidized by how cloudy the reflection was.

Here are some of the spiderweb scratches

and some type of animal scratches

here are some more pics of the horizontal panels

looks like this emblem got bird bombed?

The car had quite a few chips to touch up

Over all the car is in great condition, but it still needs some luv'n

It was a Very cold morning, so I had to dress accordingly. I began the detail by giving it a thorough foam wash using my Foam Canon and Dawn Detergent.

letting it dwell

Then rinse off any heavy stuff

Re-apply the snow foam for the hand wash

Washing it in straight lines.

Getting into all the tight areas with my boar's hair brush

**Tru_Shine** · 06-30-2011, 09:49 AM

after the car was washed, I then rinsed it one last time.

To any detailers out there that have to detail in the cold weather. These gloves are AMAZING! They keep your hands Dry and Warm.

Next is the Clay bar step. This car had little tree sap spots all over it

Its kind of hard to see, but if you look close, these were all over the paint and windows.

here is the clay bar after finished, I had to kneed it a few times too.

So then the car was pulled inside for the rest of the job.

I started out with doing some touch up. there were a lot of spots to cover and I new it would take some time.

This touch up was more for just making them chips less noticeable. there were a lot of rusty spots that needed the rust scratched out of them and touch up paint applied.

here is one area were I removed the rust out with the corner of the razor blade.

after both of the scratches were cleaned.

Next I applied the touch up paint.

I apply a couple of layers and then let it all dry before I wetsand it smooth.

While the touch up paint dries, I start the paint correction on the lower sides of the car.

here are some pics with the Halogen lights.

And here is a 50/50

And then the Final outcome of this fender.

I experimented with different methods starting off.

My first choice was the FLEX 3401 and PFW pad using Meguiars M105.

It left some marks on the paint so I followed behind it with the Lake country Cyan pad and M105 to get those out.

It did alright, but I really wanted to use my Griots garage DA and a Surbuff R-series pad. I like the flex, but it takes a lot of back muscle to work it, and with the DA and surbuff pad, its just so smooth and cuts amazingly. Once you master the Surbuff pad you can correct the paint better and faster then a Rotary buffer with a wool pad.

So on the next panel I pulled out the Griots and Surbuff pad and got at it.

After making it down the driver side, I started on the trunk using the Griots 6in DA and Surbuff working in 2'-3' squares

Here is some of the progress

**Tru_Shine** · 06-30-2011, 09:50 AM

and here is a 50/50 of the trunk

To get into all of the tight spots, I got out my Rotary with a 3in Gloss-it backing plate and a 4in orange pad

Here is that touch up after the wetsanding and buffing. the color was a little off but over all it was a lot less noticable.

And this is the final outcome of the touch up at the end

This is the roof getting some M105 from the Griots DA and Surbuff pad. (You can tell that the paint is Single Stage from how the M105 is turning pink).

The Roof before

The roof After

This is the hood after

After all of the Cutting I polished the car using a LC hydrotech Tangerine pad w/ M205 on the Flex 3401.

The Roof

The Trunk

The Hood

My choice of Sealant was BFWD on a Blue LC finishing pad using my Flex 3401

**Tru_Shine** · 06-30-2011, 09:50 AM

While the sealant was drying, I cleaned the window and dressed the tires.

Before we pulled it out side for the Final Wipe down and walk around, I took some #0000 steel wool and polish and cleaned up all of the little rust pits on the chrome bumpers.

Next we pulled it out side for the final look over and wipe down.

Now for the reflection shots

the owner pulled it over to the side to get some posing shots, you can tell he was happy by the big smile on his face.

Thanks for viewing, have a blessed day.

**Flannigan** · 06-30-2011, 10:01 AM

Truly amazing work. It looks like that car has a brand new coat of paint on it when you finished!! I think the customer can put of a retoration for quite a while now. GREAT work!!!

**RaskyR1** · 06-30-2011, 10:06 AM

Great work Eric! That's one of my favorite classic cars too!

**VIP Reflections** · 06-30-2011, 10:29 AM

That must have been 1 happy customer. I have to say between this write up and the one you did on the Ferrari, im inspired. you really captured the magic my friend. you made me buy a camera after the Ferrari thread (got an Olympus). doing a G35 this weekend, hope to make a good writeup w/ good pics like this one.

**Tru_Shine** · 06-30-2011, 10:33 AM

Thanks Everyone

Originally Posted by VIP Reflections

That must have been 1 happy customer. I have to say between this write up and the one you did on the Ferrari, im inspired. you really captured the magic my friend. you made me buy a camera after the Ferrari thread (got an Olympus). doing a G35 this weekend, hope to make a good writeup w/ good pics like this one.

The camera I used for this write up is a Nikon d3000, and the one for the ferrari is a Nikon Coolpix p500. both are very good

**2kredbb6** · 06-30-2011, 11:12 AM

Amazed!

Mike Phillips · 06-30-2011, 11:15 AM

Very nice work and you did a really nice job of capturing the before, process and after pictures.

I have an article that explains the importance of capturing the before pictures because it's the before pictures that give the after pictures their power.

The power in the after shots is created in the before shots

Thank you for taking the time to put down your tools, frame-up and take great pictures, then after all the hard work of detailing the car was done, processing the pictures, adding words and creating a write-up that documents your process and will undoubtedly inspire others to follow your footsteps to success.

Awesome results, awesome write-up.