63' Corvette

[wowo]

This is a 63' Corvette that is owned by a local funeral home owner. The story of the car is a bit long but it had seen some abuse in it's life. The owner wasn't expecting perfection but we did the best we could. As a preface the clear on this car was extremely hard as
evidenced by the process. Sorry for my spelling folks doing this in a hurry.

Process:

Presoak w/gilmore and Gold Class followed by wash with Gold Class and a Walmart Euro Mitt.

Car was then dried with absorber and the engine tackled using tarminator and several scrub brushes and alot of muscle.

Car was then rolled into the garage and clayed

Rims: Tarminator then scrubbed using #1 steel wool and followed by megs metal polish. Spokes untouched due to owner possibly replacing them in the near future.

Tires Scrubbed with Westleys bleach white X3 and then coated in armor all tire foam. Excess dirt wiped off and then followed by a coat of no touch.

Paint Polishing: Started off with polishing pad and #80 on the PC. After finding that that did nothing jumped up to OC on a megs cutting pad. Still nothing. Then jumped up again to OHC on megs cutting pad. It was doing something but not what Dan and I wanted. So we bumped it up one final step to the most severe thing in our arsenal. A wool compounding pad and OHC which still wasn't taking out all the swirls. It was finishing down without micromarring which is evidence to the toughness of this classics repaint.

Final Process on the paint was OHC w/ wool compounding pad 1500 to 2100 rpms followed by Megs Cutting pad and OHC 1500 rmps. Then followed by Dan with the PC and a sonus SFX-1 pad with megs 83 on speed 6 to take out any holograms. The surface finished down micromarring free from this combination but some of the deeper swirls still remained.

Paint Protection: We decided to finish with a coat of max wax as the red was just begging for that carnuba warmth it offers.

And now onto the main event.....pictures!
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1601-2.jpg
Here she is upon her initial sudsing
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1602.jpg
Here is the motor...Sorry no afters
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1603.jpg
The wheel all sudsed up waiting for some love
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1605.jpg
Wheels still waiting for that love......
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1607.jpg
Post Wash with Dan working on the engine
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1611.jpg
Dan worked hard on the wheels can you tell which side he has done?
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1610.jpg
The tools of choice
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1614.jpg
The convertible top needed a major cleaning as you can see
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1619.jpg
Swirls and Haze in the finish before
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1618.jpg
Swirls and Haze diminished leaving a nice clean reflection
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1621.jpg
Top polished bottom untouched.

Afters:
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1648.jpg

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1639.jpg

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1634.jpg
Couldn't really do much for the interior it needs to be redone

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1646.jpg

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1642.jpg

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1655.jpg
Theres the love :)
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1636.jpg

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/CIMG1665.jpg

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/th_CIMG1656.jpg (http://s120.photobucket.com/albums/o194/jlb765/?action=view&current=CIMG1656.flv)

[Reddwarf]

Sweet! What turnaround! Such a shame it has been so neglected.

Looks like you took that Funeral Parlor owner's DEAD car and brought it back to LIFE! ha ha pun intended!

[Gary Sword]

Nice job and a nice car that needs a little restoration. One of my neighbor's has a white 63 covertable without the side pipes. His is in excellant condition. He has had the car since 1965.

[wowo]

The side pipes aren't orginal Gary they were put on by the previous owner. When he put them on he didn't take the old ones off though so it has one exhaust that functions and one that doesn't...go figure.

[killrflake]

Really hurts to see such a nice car let go to the condition of that one. People should realize if they can't or have no interest in keeping the car nice, maybe it's time to sell it to someone who will enjoy giving it the care it deserves.

[MoparAddict]

Nice turnaround man. TO bad it wasnt a split window. was the paint easy to work with? Im doing a black 72 stingray next weekend.

[Jimmie]

It looks great but reading your detail it sounds like a candidate for the Menzerna ceramiclear polishes.

[supercharged]

Beautiful job on a classic!!!

[Nica]

Very nice job, that vehicle is in great condition considering the age. The paint looks dripping wet, the rims look good.

Very nice detail I enjoyed it, thanks for sharing.

[AL417]

I saw the post title and immediately thought ''oooh a 63 split window, those are cool". It wasn't a SW but it's still a very hot convertible that you did a nice job on. I hope the owner does something with those rims fast. I could barely look at them.:)

[wowo]

MoparAddict- can't really comment on the paint hardness as this car was clearly a repaint. They are fiberglass though so some of the scratches you might see are actually the fiberglass cracking. Just something to keep in mind.

Sorry all about the split window, I was dissapointed to as was my neigbor who is a huge corvette fan. The owner is thinking about replacing the rims but later in the day told us that he wants to sell it also. So I'm not sure if he's going to sink that kind of money into it to sell it.

Thanks again for all the compliments it was truly a cool car to work on. Nothing close to a porsche or a ferrari but a nice little piece of history.

[Grimm]

Really hurts to see such a nice car let go to the condition of that one. People should realize if they can't or have no interest in keeping the car nice, maybe it's time to sell it to someone who will enjoy giving it the care it deserves.

IMO I see nothing wrong with this car. Sure it's not perfect, but I'm guessing it has had a repaint in it's life and nothing else. So for being nearly 45 years old, I'd say it's in great shape. Not everyone can spend the thousands of dollars necessary to restore a car to pristine shape, myself included. Mine isn't going to win best in show either, but it's a car I was willing to afford, and I can drive it anytime without worrying about it.

That being said, nice job on the detail.

[P1et]

That is some nice work there, beautiful Corvette. The wheels could probably need a little bit more cleaning, the spokes still show are being dirty...

[wowo]

The owner was thinking of replacing them that's why they weren't touched as per his instructions.

Thanks for all the great compliments everyone.