1938 Plymouth Sedan Streetrod Extreme Makeover!

[Mike Phillips]

1938 Plymouth Sedan Streetrod Extreme Makeover!


Blackfire & Cyclo Tag Team
For this project we're going to use Cyclor Polishers, Cyclo pads and Blackfire compouns, polishes and waxes

[Mike Phillips]

Mike Gelter dropped the 1938 Plymouth off around noon today, the sun had been out most of the morning as you can see by patches of blue sky in the background....




By the time we unloaded the car and moved it in front of the Show Car Garage you can see from shooting from the opposite direction that dark clouds are moving in.
So no full sun shots to capture the before condition outside.





From this angle under cloudy skies the finish actually looks pretty good but looks can be deceiving, especially under cloudy skies.




Which would you rather have? 1938 Plymouth Streetrod or 2013 Honda Civic Si?




Before
This is a before shot... wait for the after...

[Mike Phillips]

Here's some shots showing what the paint looks like under florescent lights inside...

[Mike Phillips]

A shout out to Cody Sutherland the President and CEO of Cyclo Tools for sending us some pad, aprons and cord clips for tonight's project.

Thank you Cody!


Here's Trey and Jeff modeling the beautiful Cyclo Aprons!









We have 8 Cyclo Polishers with yellow foam cutting pads ready to go!





Cyclo pads come in a variety of levels of aggressiveness and gentleness and are very high quality.






Thank you for the very nice Cyclo apron, these ought to keep the new guys clean and looking good as they buff out this Plymouth.




Tonight we'll be using the new BLACKFIRE SRC Compound followed by the BLACKFIRE SRC Finishing Polish and then sealing the paint by machine using the BLACKFIRE Midnight Sun.

[Mike Phillips]

Besides swirls and scratches, the entire exterior of the car feels like #40 grit sandpaer as revealed using the Baggie Test.

[Mike Phillips]

To remove the contaminants on the paint and glass we're going to use the 4" Cyclo Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads on the Cyclo polishers.

Cyclo Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads




First a lesson on how the Cyclo Polisher works and how to use it to mechanically decontaminate paint using Cyclo Nanosking Autoscrub Pads.






Here's Oswaldo from Brazil tackling the back of this 1938 Plymouth...





The glass was just as contaminated as the paint so we decontaminated all the glass too...








Here's Ray working on the front fender...





Rodney sprays some Blackfire Clay Lube onto the hood and his wife Pauline shows the guys how it's done!









Teamwork
Lots of team effort goes into these projects and that's how we're able to do a complete multiple-step show car detailing process to an entire car, (and a large one at that), in just a few hours.

This is what we'll be doing in Kentucky next week for the TV show My Classic Car.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....

When detailing a car, after removing the above surface bonded contaminants like the overspray paint we found all over this 1938 Plymouth, the next step is to go after the below surface defects like swirls and scratches.

For this we're going to use the new formula Blackfire SRC Compound with Cyclo Yellow Foam Cutting Pads and of course the Cyclo Polishers.

First a lesson on how to prime a clean dry pad and how much product to apply after priming to work a section of paint about 20" square.











Here's the results after just compounding!




Time now for everyone to get busy....

Robert DiTerrlizzi talking with Oswaldo as Oswaldo works on the driver's door...







In the back is Antti helping Felix and down below to the right is Frank helping Pauline...






That's Joe knocking out the roof....







Antti is one of the core group of guys that comes to our Thursday night projects and he's also a great teacher...





Ray has been to two or three of our Thursday night projects and he's working on the hood...





Oswaldo is a MACHINE!





Tonight was Franks' first time here and that's his friend and regular here at Autogeek John coaching him...









I'm usually the one taking pictures but I do in fact try to lead by example and that means getting down and getting dirty to buff out the lower sections...





Extreme concentration... we treat all the cars we work on as though they were our own...





Single Stage Paint on the Trunk Lid
Here's Frank working the trunk lid... we found out that the trunk lid is in fact single stage metallic paint while the rest of the car is basecoat/clearcoat. Frank actually found this out because when he inspected the face of the pads on his Cyclo polisher they were BLACK.

That's a sign of the oxidation on the actual aluminum flakes in the paint coming off and onto the pads. I'll take a picture of the pads today to share in this thread.





Jesse from Autogeek's Customer Care Team really does nice work on these project cars...






Oswaldo working the door... he's using a version of the technique called

Kissing the finish

That's where you place fresh product on your pads and then touch down the face of the pad to the panel you're going to buff...







This is Victoria, Oswaldo's girlfriend, she too is from Brazil and decided to join in the fun and show us guys how it's done!
















Next up... machine polishing.....

[Mike Phillips]

Continued.....


Here's Frank polishing with Blackfire SRC Polish and Green Cyclo Polishing pads....






This is how you do it right... you focus on the task at hand...





Look at how glossy the paint is becoming!





John polishing the front fenders...





Felix and Antti polishing the roof...




Antti polishing the hood...





Ray talking to Victoria as he polishes the back of the Plymouth...





Antti getting into the tight areas around windows...





This was the first time for Felix to join in the fun here at Autogeek's Show Car Garage and you can tell he's serious about shine!




His reflection in the paint is like a mirror...





Here's Victoria working on a fender...




This was her first time using a machine to polish paint...









Lots of real-estate on a 1938 Plymouth Sedan...





Tim going over technique with Felix...





The polishing is just about over so it's time to remove the 3M Blue Vinyl tape protecting rain gutter rail common to classic cars...





3M Blue Vinyl Tape
Here you can see the 3M Blue Vinyl tape protecting the entire length of the rain gutter rail. Most people don't tape this off and if you look you can see where the paint is burned off. Not here at Autogeek's Show Car Garage, we always tape these areas off to protect them...





This is actually Frank carefully and slowly pulling the tape off at an angle...





Next up... time to seal the paint by machine waxing with the Cyclo polisher and Blackfire Midnight Sun....

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...


Sealing the paint

At this phase we're ready to seal the paint and for this we're going to use Blackfire Midnight Sun Ivory Carnauba Wax and apply it by machine using the super soft Cyclo white foam pads.














































Next up... time to remove the wax....

[Mike Phillips]

Next up...


How to carefully remove a coat of wax


First up I demonstrated how NOT to use a microfiber towel to wipe-off wax...



Don't scrunch-up your microfiber towel and wipe this way...





Don't lay your microfiber towel flat and wipe this way...





Do fold your microfiber towel 4-ways
Do fold your microfiber towel 4 ways and then place your hand on top of the towel grasping the edges of one side between your thumb and hand to grip the folded towel and then carefully wipe off the wax.





Then after a quick lesson everyone works together to wipe off the Blackfire Midnight Sun Carnauba Paste Wax.