1955 Chevy & 1947 Buick Slantback - Show Car Makeover! - Pictures & Videos

[Mike Phillips]

1955 Chevy & 1947 Buick Slantback - Show Car Makeover! - Pictures & Videos


I shot this "walk-around" video right after we buffed out this 1963 Plymouth Fury, just now getting to upload it to YouTube.

1955 Chevy & 1947 Buick + Sonax + Dodo Juice + Perfection!

Mike Searle's 1955 Chevy Sedan Delivery

Right after Mike arrived we did a Test Spot on the driver's side fender. While most people would look at Mike's 1955 Chevy and think the paint looks GREAT in reality, the paint was completely stained with embedded dirt.

The thing is you can't see the dirt until you buff on a section to remove it. MORE IMPORTANT is it's really only easy to see embedded dirt on WHITE CARS.

But think about it... if the paint on Mike's hot rod has embedded dirt and you can see it... don't you think all colors of car paint gets dirty BUT YOU CAN'T SEE IT?

The answer is YES and that's why periodically, especially if your car is a DAILY DRIVER, besides claying the paint you want and NEED to use some type of paint cleaner to remove the embedded dirt. If you don't remove it, then when you wax you simply seal the dirt into the paint.

The more time that goes by and the more you just wax the paint, the cloudier and cloudier it will get as you continually seal in more and more dirt.

Make sense?

Now let's take a look. Here's Mike's car and in this picture it can be kind of hard to see where I buffed on the top of the front driver's side fender.





It's still hard to see the before and after difference, but for reference, I've taken the same picture above and placed an arrow pointing to the tape-line where I buffed on the front edge of the fender and left the back side of the fender along.





Now look... see what I mean by embedded dirt on and to some level, "in" the paint.




By machine polishing the paint with a high quality compound, polish or pre-wax paint cleaner, you will effectively remove the embedded dirt and restore the TRUE color of the paint.

In this case we're working on a basecoat/clearcoat finish so the dirt is embedded onto and into the clear layer of paint create a dirty cloudy film that blocks your eyes from seeing the true white pigmented color under the clear layer.

Robert Diterlizzi shared the way he explains clear coats to his customers and I really like his explanation so I'm sharing it here and giving him credit for it...

"The clear coat is like a window to the basecoat"

By that he means in order to see the true color of the basecoat the window, or in specific words, the clear coat needs to be clear. By clear, we mean free from any,

• Above surface bonded contaminants
• Embedded dirt
• Swirls and scratches

All of the above work to cloud your view to the color under the clear layer of paint. So in a way, the clear coat, that is the clear layer of paint over the basecoat is like a window to the basecoat. If you want your car to look great you need to clean and polish the window covering your car's body panels.



By the time we finished buffing out both the 1955 Chevy and the 1947 Buick the colors of the paint jobs literally changed before our eyes.

Besides changing to BRIGHTER white color, we also restored SMOOTHNESS to the finish and GLOSS COMES FROM SMOOTHNESS.

This why in the after pictures, you will see amazing gloss and shine.


Before I start posting the process pictures followed by the after pictures, first I would like to thank a few people....

First, I'd like to thank Mike Searl and Mike Gelter for TRUSTING Autogeek with their hot rods. One of the hardest obstacles detailers find difficult to overcome is to earn the trust of people that own cool cars so that they can "touch" them. And by the word "touch" I mean detail them.

So thank you Mike and Mike for trusting Autogeek.


Next I'd like to thank my team of incredibly hard working, talented and passionate "Car Guys". These projects are not only a lot of physical work but there's a certain level of mental work that goes into them because you MUST be focused on the task at hand so mistakes are not made.

Some of the guys left early so they're not in the below picture but you know I appreciate all your hard work too....

So thanks guys!




Now onto the process pictures....

[Mike Phillips]

So you can see above how Mike's 1955 Chevy might look good to the average person but in reality it was in dire need of some paint cleaning and polishing.


Now let's take a look at Mike Gelter's 1947 Buick Slantback....

Here's a few shots before we wipe her down and start removing the overspray paint and overspray undercoating. While in these shots, to most people the paint looks really good.

The reality is, the paint is covered in overspray paint and undercoating and as rough as the pavement in the parking lot. The paint is also dirty with embedded dirt just like Mike's 1955 Chevy. So while it looks good to some in the pictures below, the paint on this car is going to go through an amazing transformation.

The white pearl blue paint job is going to change to a brighter white and the gloss is going to skyrocket!

BEFORE









More to come....

[Mike Phillips]

First, here's the products we used to transform these two classic hot rods...


Keep in mind, you don't have to own a classic hot rod to get these same kind of results, the key to show car results comes down to quality product and good technique. That means no matter what it is parked in your garage or driveway, if you use these products with good techniques you'll get the same great results and Autogeek carries all of these products.





Pictured above and in the order we used them....


Deailer's Waterless Auto Wash - To wipe these classics clean
(We never wash classics to avoid getting water into places where it can cause rust)

Nanoskin Autoscrub Towel – Medium Grade

We only used this on the 1947 Buick as it was covered with overspray paint and undercoating. The 1955 Chevy had been clayed and waxed by a detail shop a few weeks earlier and did not need to be clayed or "decontaminated".


Detailer's Universal Clay Lubricant

We used the Detailer's Universal Clay Lube with the Nanoskin Autoscrub Towel as a lubricant while rubbing the towel over the paint.


Sonax Profiline Nano Polish 3/6 1000 ml

We used this on the 1947 Buick Slantback


Sonax Perfect Finish 4/6 1000 ml

We used this brand new Sonax polish on the 1955 Chevy.


Dodo Juice Diamond White Hard Wax 250 ml

We machine applied the Dodo Juice Diamond White Hard Wax to both hot rods....


Tools
Here are the tools we used to machine polish the paint to perfection on both hot rods...

Flex XC 3401 VRG Dual Action Orbital Polisher


Rupes Bigfoot Polishes


Griots Garage 3 Inch Orbital Polisher

We used the 3" Griot's to machine apply the wax and to also machine polish the stainless steel grill on the Buick and the trim on the 1955 Chevy.

Marine 31 Stainless Steel Liquid Polish and Marine 31 Stainless Steel Liquid Sealant
We used these products from the Marine 31 line to machine polish the stainless steel on both hot rods.


Lake Country Hybrid Buffing Pads

Lake Country Microfiber Pads - For the Stainless Steel

Rupes Buffing Pads


To get any of these products for your detailing projects or if you need information about any of them simply call our Customer Care Staff at,

1-800-869-3011


And our Customer Care Staff will be happy to answer your questions

[Mike Phillips]

Here's the after shots... note this is the first time I've used my new Canon Rebel T5i for a Thursday class. It's a little different than the T1i I've been using the last 4 years and I still need to do some tweaking of the settings for the lighting in the garage...

[Mike Phillips]

Here's some shots of the A-team in action...

[Mike Phillips]

Here's the shots showing how we machine applied the Dodo Juice White Diamond Hard Wax...



Marcus and Rich
I met these guys at this years Mobil Tech Expo. I taught 7 classes at this last year's Mobile Tech Expo and in all the classes I let the guys know that we do "Extreme Makeovers" and "Show Car Makeovers" on Thursday nights and they are all welcome to attend.

So have a few months Look who pops in to joining in the fun... Marcus and Rich from the 2013 MTE






Here Rich is poking just the edge of the Rupes 4" White Finishing Pad into the jar and then turning the on/off switch on and off quickly to get a little wax on the pad.




Here's Rich machine waxing the Buick...





Here's Den machine waxing the slant part of the slantback. Don't forget, sometime in the near future we're going to see Den's freshly restored black 1969 GTO.




Here's Tim easily machine waxing the curved panels on the front clip...







Chris aka Italian Guy waxing the huge trunk lid...




While the Buick is getting waxed, John get the White Microfiber Gloves out and ready to go...




Rich working around the Buick...




Wipe-off Time
The Dodo Juice wax states to allow the wax to dry 3-5 minutes, so as soon as we're done applying the wax it's time to wipe it off....





Look how glossy the paint is turning.... that's what you want out of any type of basecoat/clearcoat finish, a smooth, clear high gloss finishin...




Here's Nick getting the front splash apron...




Good Team Effort...





After we machine waxed and wiped-off the Buick, it's time to tackle the 1955 Chevy Sedan Delivery....






























Here's the owner, MIke getting into the action and helping us to wipe his car down...









Looking like a show car finish to me...





Good job guys....

[masterpartha]

Wow another amazing transformation. Fantasticwork there guys.

Clicking photos, creating show car finishes, doing write ups, videos and classes, Mike Phillips you're an inspiration.

Cheers guys.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Nick McKees37]

Concentration.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Awesome guys!!!

[sproketser]

Great results again , what can be said ! lol