Black C5 Z06 3-step

[The Critic]

One of my co-workers owns a black, C5 Z06 Corvette. Ever since I began working with him, I have been trying to convince him to let me fix the nasty swirls on the Corvette's finish. Well, that day finally arrived last weekend-- we scheduled 8 hours together to make it happen.

While I did not take any before pictures, the paint's condition was very similar to the "before" pictures in this thread: BMW Jet black gets PWNED by Tru Shine + Opti Guard application! - TennSpeed (http://www.tennspeed.net/forums/showthread.php?t=30687)

As you can see from the "borrowed" pictures, the finish was in very bad shape. There was a lot of work to be done in only 8 hours. And even though we would be working together, my co-worker had never used a polisher before.

To make matters more challenging, most of this Corvette had been repainted. Some panels reacted differently than others. During polishing, I found lots of sanding pig tails and some strange swirl-like defects that would not come out.

Here were the combinations that we used for the various steps:

Menzerna FG400, Flex 3401, Lake Country Hybrid Blue Cutting Pad - Compounding Step
Menzerna FG400, Rupes 21, Meguiars MF Finishing Discs - Compounding Step
Meguiars M101, Flex 3401, Lake Country Hybrid Blue Cutting Pad - For the hood (due to severe defects) and a few stubborn areas

Meguiars M205, Flex 3401, Meguiars W8207 Polishing Pad - intermediate step to remove micro marring
HD Adapt, Flex 3401, Buff & Shine Orange Pad - for areas with heavy micro marring due to M101 usage

CarPro Reflect, Rupes 21, Rupes White Finishing Pad - finishing step
CarPro Reflect, Flex 3401, Lake Country HT Crimson Pad - finishing step

We used nearly all of the products and tools in my arsenal to find the most efficient and effective way to remove the defects. My co-worker did a pretty good job considering it was his first time with a polisher; although some of the areas he did could have turned out better if we had time to go over them again. Overall, I think we got about 60-70% correction. Personally, I am not fully pleased with the outcome...since we basically got 1-step results despite doing 3-steps. :wink2:

Ultimately, the goal was to make a major improvement, and I think we accomplished this. Working on this car taught me a lot, as non-metallic black paint is absolutely brutal to work on. The toughest part about this project was to finish out the paint as well as possible. On this particular car, even M205 was leaving some extremely faint micro marring. In the end, doing the extra finishing step with CarPro Reflect was well worth it since it brought the finish to a new level of gloss.

Products Used:
Adam's Car Wash Shampoo
Meguiars D140 Wheel Brightener
Iron-X Spray
Nanoskin Medium Grade Wash Mitt
Optimum No Rinse diluted 1:5 (for Nanoskin Mitt)
Meguiars M101
Menzerna FG400
HD Adapt
Meguiars M205
CarPro Reflect
Meguiars DA Microfiber Finishing Discs
Meguiars DA Microfiber Cutting Discs (for testing only, no improvement in cut compared to Finishing Disc, it only resulted in more micro marring)
Lake Country Hybrid Blue Cutting Pad
Meguiars W8207 Polishing Pad
Buff & Shine Orange Light Cutting Pad
Rupes White Finishing Pad
Lake Country Crimson Finishing Pad
CarPro Eraser
CarPro CQuartz UK Edition
CarPro Reload (Applied over CQuartz UK per instructions)
Optimum Opti-Bond (tire dressing)

Tools Used:
Rupes 21
Flex 3401
Lake Country Changeable Backing Plate System
Brinkmann MaxFire Dual Xenon Light
Wheel Woolies
Various MF towels

By the time we finished, the sun was already setting. These pictures were taken after a single coat of CarPro CQuartz UK, but before Reload was applied as a topper.

And yeah, we were in a hurry and did not clean the wheel barrels, shame on us...

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t218/SodaJunkie/be5e427e-c9b9-40ee-9b88-5dc1af90ae6c_zps820d6742.jpg (http://s161.photobucket.com/user/SodaJunkie/media/be5e427e-c9b9-40ee-9b88-5dc1af90ae6c_zps820d6742.jpg.html)

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t218/SodaJunkie/DSC_0073_zps4f4a7bfa.jpg (http://s161.photobucket.com/user/SodaJunkie/media/DSC_0073_zps4f4a7bfa.jpg.html)

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t218/SodaJunkie/DSC_0071_zps8149b7ac.jpg (http://s161.photobucket.com/user/SodaJunkie/media/DSC_0071_zps8149b7ac.jpg.html)

Here are all of the pads that we used: :shocked:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t218/SodaJunkie/91E1D57C-1809-4AE0-AC4C-D01D472E5E33_zpshrvc68y7.jpg (http://s161.photobucket.com/user/SodaJunkie/media/91E1D57C-1809-4AE0-AC4C-D01D472E5E33_zpshrvc68y7.jpg.html)

Total time = 8.5 hours.

I will try to get some pictures in the daylight.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

So far the Vette looks pretty good.

Too bad you guys did pretty much a 3 step and recieved one step results.

I wouldnt think those are under the clear. I will wait for further judgement upon seeing the daylight pictures of the car.

[CamaroSS27]

nice work, I really need to do my z06 but it is bad and certain areas are not cutting enough, I need to pick up some m101. How did the m101 do on the z06?

[281]

Nice work!

[MshawnBauer]

Nice work, I wish we could see b4 pics. I hear you on the fender areas, lol. I occasionally have to drive on a gravel roads and I get a similar issue on my cars! Makes me bananas!

[The Critic]

Yeah, I wish I took some before pictures. I was trying to spend as much time on the car as possible so I did not stop and take pictures.

So, bad news. I checked over the car in daylight and found uniform "tick marks" all over...which I am almost certain are from carpro reflect. It looks like I'll have to re-do the car if the owner agrees.

[281]

That sucks!

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

So, bad news. I checked over the car in daylight and found uniform "tick marks" all over...which I am almost certain are from carpro reflect. It looks like I'll have to re-do the car if the owner agrees.

Man that really is unfortunate Michael.

Maybe offer to try and polish again? Or see if you can do a test spot or two with alternate polishes.

Let us know how it goes.

[Mike Phillips]

Working on this car taught me a lot, as non-metallic black paint is absolutely brutal to work on.



Really need to have all your ducks in a row that's for sure...





Yeah, I wish I took some before pictures. I was trying to spend as much time on the car as possible so I did not stop and take pictures.



Heard that a couple of times in my life...

The power in the after shots is created in the before shots (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/tricks-tips-techniques/21216-power-after-shots-created-before-shots.html)








So, bad news. I checked over the car in daylight and found uniform "tick marks" all over...which I am almost certain are from carpro reflect.



Just to double check... did you do a test spot and work all the way through to at least the last machine polishing step and then check your results.

How To Do a Test Spot (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/50162-how-do-test-spot.html)






It looks like I'll have to re-do the car if the owner agrees.




This is where you want to do what I call troubleshooting your process.


The below is copied and pasted from this thread and shows how to do some troubleshooting.



http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/74121-am-i-doing-something-wrong.html


What you want to do is called, troubleshooting. You troubleshoot to find out where the root cause of the problem lies.

Step 1: Buff a section with the M105

Step 2: Re-buff just a portion of this section the the TSR

Now inspect the results.

If the section you buffed with the M105 has scratches these are either,

A: Deeper scratches we call RIDS and you should probably learn to live with the deepest.

or

B: DA Haze - This is the haze the "aggressive" nature of a compound and normally a cutting foam pad can leave behind. This can be normal as long as it comes out with the next less aggressive process.


Now inspect the section you buffed with the Wolfgang TSR.

If you see still see the deeper scratches like described in A: above, then these scratches are deeper than the shallow scratches that you did successfully buff out. You can either go back to M105 and tweak your technique and continue removing more paint and this will level these deeper scratches.

Maybe someone can share the picture of the 3M Post-it note I posted to a number of threads so this guy can get an understanding as to how thin factory paint is.



If the scratches are gone then the scratches you were seeing were likely DA Haze, also called Tick Marks also called micro-marring.

If the paint is now looking pretty good, test out the Finishing Glaze, it should make it look even better.


The Big Picture Idea is to troubleshoot to see where the scratches either started are are being induced in your process. Not always a bad thing, just how it is.

Clear coat paints are scratch-sensitive. Remember this.


Hang in there...


:dblthumb2:

[Mike Phillips]

More on troubleshooting....

Place a tape-line on an affected section and then buffing on only one side of the tape-line. Real quick you can see if you're "affecting" the surface and removing the defect or not.


For this type of troubleshooting you need to start out testing the least aggressive POLISH you have to find out what it will take to remove whatever left the tick marks behind.

If the first product you test doesn't' do the work then do the test again using a more aggressive polish but remember to test in a NEW section of paint. Testing in the same place will give you a false reading.

Do you have any Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover?



:)

[The Critic]

Mike – thanks for going over this with me on the phone yesterday. I always appreciate your insight and your experience with these matters. To recap for the others, after the final polishing with CarPro Reflect, the surface looked perfect under a Brinkmann light. It was only after the wipedown with Eraser and the application of CQuartz UK, did diagonal “tick marks” appear over the entire vehicle. During an in-person conversation, another individual also experienced a similar issue with Reflect, but on soft paint. I should mention that I did talk with CarPro and they suggested some different techniques to try – which I will follow-up with.

Smack – I’ve extended the offer to the owner. I told him that I’d be more than glad to re-polish the vehicle and re-apply UK on my dime to correct the issue if he finds the appearance to be unsatisfactory.