Jimmy Vegas
11-06-2016, 01:30 AM
I would like to start this with a big "Thank you" to everyone on the forum for all of their great advice, BillyJack for his friendship and sharing his wealth of experience, and certainly to Mike and all the gang at Autogeek for giving us this great place as well as a king's ransom's worth of instruction.
After months of reading, learning, and practice on my daily driver, I began to work on my Chevelle's paint tonight. I didn't document each step, but will as the car progresses. Tonight, I began with the trunk using Wolfgang Uber Waterless Wash (http://www.autogeek.net/wolfgang-uber-rinseless-wash.html), then a Mother's Clay Kit (http://www.autogeek.net/motcalgolcla.html), which pulled a ton of contaminants out of the paint. Since the surface wasn't feeling as smooth as I'd like, I then switched to Backfire Poly Clay, with got sufficiently dirty in the process as well. Even though the deck lid was feeling nice and glassy, I figured I'd give it a shot with my Nanoskin fine pad on the trusty PC. Now it was smooth! (I never thought to do the baggy test. My bad.) I didn't decontaminate with IronX (http://www.autogeek.net/carpro-iron-x-lemon-scent.html) as there is NO WAY I'm spraying that inside a closed garage. I was born at night, but it wasn't last night.
53338
The polishing begins.
53339
Actually, an orang pad
after 1/2 of the deck lid.
Although that may have sounded like overkill, this car sat in a climate controlled garage for just shy of 10 years while I was living in Las Vegas, trying to get settled to the point to bring it out, etc. (A long story for another time.) During that time, she caught just a few washes when I was home visiting in warmer weather.
Again, pictures to come but there is quite a bit of swirling in the paint, so I began with a Buff and Shine Orange (http://www.autogeek.net/buf-580g.html) pad and some Mckees 37 360 (http://www.autogeek.net/xmt-360.html). The car was repainted in 1985, so it's not the original single stage paint, but it is some hard lacquer with a clear.
The 360 wasn't quite strong enough, so I grabbed a fresh pad and some HD Cut (http://www.autogeek.net/3d-hd-cut.html). After working in 2X2 section, doing 6 section passes each, I can see a big difference. As you can see from the above photos, the pads became black as they further cleaned the paint. I finished with BlackFire Total Polish and Seal (http://www.autogeek.net/blackfire-total-polish-seal.html) on a B&S white pad to leave a little protection behind until I can work some more.
I'll be working on it through the winter and posting progress as I do. I can't believe how much was picked up in my orange pads just from the trunk alone. All in all, I put about 2 hours in on the trunk alone. I expect to spend at least that much on each panel before I can get to the point to start doing "normal" polishing, but I appreciate all the advice. Please keep it coming.
After months of reading, learning, and practice on my daily driver, I began to work on my Chevelle's paint tonight. I didn't document each step, but will as the car progresses. Tonight, I began with the trunk using Wolfgang Uber Waterless Wash (http://www.autogeek.net/wolfgang-uber-rinseless-wash.html), then a Mother's Clay Kit (http://www.autogeek.net/motcalgolcla.html), which pulled a ton of contaminants out of the paint. Since the surface wasn't feeling as smooth as I'd like, I then switched to Backfire Poly Clay, with got sufficiently dirty in the process as well. Even though the deck lid was feeling nice and glassy, I figured I'd give it a shot with my Nanoskin fine pad on the trusty PC. Now it was smooth! (I never thought to do the baggy test. My bad.) I didn't decontaminate with IronX (http://www.autogeek.net/carpro-iron-x-lemon-scent.html) as there is NO WAY I'm spraying that inside a closed garage. I was born at night, but it wasn't last night.
53338
The polishing begins.
53339
Actually, an orang pad
after 1/2 of the deck lid.
Although that may have sounded like overkill, this car sat in a climate controlled garage for just shy of 10 years while I was living in Las Vegas, trying to get settled to the point to bring it out, etc. (A long story for another time.) During that time, she caught just a few washes when I was home visiting in warmer weather.
Again, pictures to come but there is quite a bit of swirling in the paint, so I began with a Buff and Shine Orange (http://www.autogeek.net/buf-580g.html) pad and some Mckees 37 360 (http://www.autogeek.net/xmt-360.html). The car was repainted in 1985, so it's not the original single stage paint, but it is some hard lacquer with a clear.
The 360 wasn't quite strong enough, so I grabbed a fresh pad and some HD Cut (http://www.autogeek.net/3d-hd-cut.html). After working in 2X2 section, doing 6 section passes each, I can see a big difference. As you can see from the above photos, the pads became black as they further cleaned the paint. I finished with BlackFire Total Polish and Seal (http://www.autogeek.net/blackfire-total-polish-seal.html) on a B&S white pad to leave a little protection behind until I can work some more.
I'll be working on it through the winter and posting progress as I do. I can't believe how much was picked up in my orange pads just from the trunk alone. All in all, I put about 2 hours in on the trunk alone. I expect to spend at least that much on each panel before I can get to the point to start doing "normal" polishing, but I appreciate all the advice. Please keep it coming.