Water Spots in Brand New C8 Corvette - DOCUMENT PRE-EXISTING DAMAGE

[Mike Phillips]

Question...

When polishing an entire car, as done with this Corvette, then going back to wipe-down the whole car, how do you insure that you've removed all of the defects to your satisfaction before moving on around the car?

Good question.

First thing to do is dial-in my Test Spot - usually where the defects are the worst.

If my process removes the defects where the paint defects are the worst I have confidence my process will take care of all body panels.

I'm a panel-by-panel guy. I do each step one panel at a time so that I can inspect my work in real time. If not to my satisfaction I'll repeat the step, either to areas of or to the entire panel as necessary, until it is to my satisfaction before moving on to the next panel. Then, once the first step is completed I'll proceed panel-by-panel with the next step, or steps, if any, in the same manner.

That's a great approach and a lot more careful and thorough than my approach.

It just seems to me that if you polish the entire car before going back to wipe-down, there's a fair chance that you're going to find areas that need more work during that wipe-down and inspection. At least that is my experience.

I understand that a test spot to determine the process and effort needed was most likely performed, but a test spot is just that - a test spot, not the entire car.

This is more of a process question, not necessarily specific to the subject Corvette or directed exclusively to Mike, so please chime in with any thoughts you may have.

You're spot-on about about the test spot process but assuming all the paint is the same paint, if my test spot process works for the worst panel it should work for all panels.

Also - the paint on the new C8 Corvettes is soft, almost stupid soft. So it don't take much to correct them. We de-badged this car and i a couple of places there were deeper scratches from the de-badging process. I just spit on some 3M Trizact #5000 and hand sanded the deeper scratches to flatten them out and feather them out. Then buffed with the NSP 45 and the same RUPES white foam finishing pad on the CBEAST and Presto-Chango the sanding marks be gone.


I really don't like buffing out and coating these modern Corvettes purely from a lazy-point-of-view. Too many planes.


Great questions, thanks for asking and I coated this car last night and then stuck a fork in it, called it done and kicked it out the door.

[kgs365]

Mike any finish photos before you booted it out the door?

[Mike Phillips]

Mike any finish photos before you booted it out the door?

Here you go,

2020 C8 Corvette Detail by Mike Phillips

[2black1s]

"Sweet Ride" is all I can say.

I lied... I can also say it's my favorite color.

[Bobbykart]

Mike I would love to drive to Florida and have you do my wife’s Arctic white C8 vert that arrived last week. But...., here in San Diego and COVID and all.
I will post photos after I polish and wax. You are the MASTER

[2black1s]

What is the paint finish like on these C8s? I haven't seen one up close yet.

Hopefully an improvement over the C7s which were horrendous.