A 17 year old's sins erased-1999 orange Camaro with 21k original miles

[richy]

I was looking forward to doing this car. I can't remember doing an orange car before. This 1999 Camaro has 34,000 km on it which is equivalent to 21,000 miles....it deserved to look like the low mileage car that it was!

Here it is when it came to me:





The wheels had been powder coated:








The black top and side panels were heavily swirled:











The car was quite heavily swirled:















There were a few challenging spots to fill too: one right on the tip of the nose and one scratch along the underside of the back bumper as well as many, many miscellaneous different ones:











To start, the wheels and tires were done. The barrels were cleaned with Tarminator, followed by Zep Citrus. The faces were cleaned the same as well as a demoted wash mitt and Megs HW. The tires were cleaned with Zep 505 and the wells with LATA. The barrels were shot with Aqua Bead after cleaning them to give them some protection since I wasn't going to be removing them for this job. I didn't charge the customer for that.

The car was then washed with Megs HW followed by a decontamination step of IronX paste. It was then brought inside and clayed with a CarPro Clay Towel. The wheels, tires and wells were then blown off with the Master Blaster.

Now it was time to see what would work on this heavily swirled, 17 year old paint. My usual combo of Flex 3401 + TB black wool and M100 was not cutting it (literally). I had to go old school on this old school car: Dynabrade rotary at around 1400 rpm with a fair amount of downward force. That was literally the only thing that would cut down deep enough to remove a satisfactory amount of swirls and scratches. I really wanted this car to look great! Now that I found out what was going to work well, I sparked up a beautiful cigar that Don had sent me: a "La Gloria Cubana Serie R Black". Strong and lovely! Kinda like the job I was doing. Since I was being so aggressive with that first step, I decided to follow it with a mid aggressive step that I normally don't have to do. That step was Flex 3401 + B/S yellow pad + M100. That was my insurance policy against any rotary marks showing...although to be honest, I couldn't see any. My final step was Flex + M205 + white B/S. I was quite happy with the outcome. The cost range that the customer had in mind did not allow for perfection, and frankly, I didn't want to be thinning out the clear too much anyway. I think this was a responsible, yet aggressive combo. All the panels got this as well as the rear tail lights.

The black roof and side panels were a real chore. I used the same procedure on them but some sections took 4-5 passes to remove the marks. I took 1.5 hours just to do that area. It really showcases the car with the contrast, so it was important to me that it be done very well. You'll see how it turned out.

After being prepared for coating, 2 coats of Americoat were applied to the wheels, paint, head and tail lights as well as side and rear glass. The tires were shot with Opti Bond via my air gun. The windshield got treated to DG Rain Repel.


I was lucky to have a glorious day in which to shoot it. Here are the results with the sun high in the sky at noon:




















No more paint chips visible on the front end:





Nose chip filled in very nicely I think:






As did the one on the rear bumper:














Not perfect, but much better.






The rear pipes were hand polished with M205 and coated too:














Happy camper driving away....

[brad911]

Great breakdown of the challenges and what you tried through the process. (London ON here)
Keep posting your work!
I'm a FG400/SF3500 kinda guy....a MF cutting pad with M105 wouldn't have done the job initially?

[FrankS]

Nice job Richy!

What pad and compound did you use with the rotary on the first step?

[7.3powerstroke]

Really appreciate how you break down your processes. Fantastic job on the car! Thanks a bunch Richy!

[AZ Mike]

What pad and compound did you use with the rotary on the first step?

Beautiful job.

[Billy Baldone]

Richy, excellent work as always. You turned me onto the TB wool pads, and they cut very well, I'm just curious, have you tried a long throw, mf pad and Flat Top? This is my heavy cut combo now. Thanks.s

[richy]

Great breakdown of the challenges and what you tried through the process. (London ON here)
Keep posting your work!
I'm a FG400/SF3500 kinda guy....a MF cutting pad with M105 wouldn't have done the job initially?

Thank you! I am out of M105, but M100 is pretty close to it in cut. I have found that even the cutting mf's don't have 1) the bite that the TB's do and 2) don't finish down nearly as well (especially when using the Flex).

Nice job Richy!

What pad and compound did you use with the rotary on the first step?

Thanks Frank. I used M100 + TB black wool, the same combo I tried first with the Flex.

Really appreciate how you break down your processes. Fantastic job on the car! Thanks a bunch Richy!

Thanks kindly. I think that's how we all learn from one another is to do it that way.

Beautiful job.

Thanks kindly Mike!

Richy, excellent work as always. You turned me onto the TB wool pads, and they cut very well, I'm just curious, have you tried a long throw, mf pad and Flat Top? This is my heavy cut combo now. Thanks.s

Yes, I have tried both the cutting and finishing mf pads with the Rupes 21. They don't cut as quickly or as deeply, nor do they finish down as well as what I can do with the TB pads. I keep buying them thinking they'll improve, but the bar is set VERY high with the TB's. That's my opinion and my experience. I know a lot of people do well with the mf pads. I just don't like them as much.

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Richy, great work! Scary that 100 & Flex didn't cut the mustard at first... Good thing you worked the rotary well.

[Sizzle Chest]

Nice work!!! Great thread and pictures too! It used to be swirl city~not anymore!

Love those TB blacks!!!!

[fly07sti]

Great job my friend! Would've been perfect if you could've talked the customer into taking that front plate off. Are they required in Canada? Glad you enjoyed that LGC SerieR.