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1968 Pontiac GTO – original owner
This was the first time ever working on a car older than I am!
The owner of this GTO was referred to me by an individual that had me do his truck last fall. This GTO has been in the owner’s family since new and now has several people looking to buy it. The owner decided to get it looking right and entertain some offers to sell it.
The car rarely gets driven and usually sits in storage with a cover on it. When you see the before pictures you will see how much damage removing a cover can do to the finish. The car was repainted about 19 years ago – primer, base coat and triple clear. After looking over the vehicle with the owner, he decided to get the paint corrected and sealed and also have the top cleaned.
Condition upon delivery
I’d call this car a 10 footer. When looking at it from 10 feet away and out of the sun it looked pretty darn good. When you got close and the sun was out the defects were pretty bad.
I started this project with the Tires, Wheels and Wells. Overall the wheels were in good condition.
The tires were cleaned with Shine Supply Wise Guy 1:3 and Tuff Shine Brush.
Wheels were done with M37 Wheel Cleaner, Wheel Woolies, various brushes and CP IncrediFlair Mitt.
Wells cleaned with Shine Supply Wise Guy 1:3 and various brushes.
Tires were dressed with Opti-Bond 1:1 and Wheels sealed with CP Hydr02.
The next step was cleaning the convertible top. I’d seen videos of Mike using a PC with a Cyclo brush attachment so I thought I’d give this a try.
M37 APC and the PC with Brush attachment worked great.
Before
50/50
After
Next I moved on to washing and decontaminating the paintwork.
Wash
I completed a 2BM with CarPro Reset, Adams Wash Pad, and various brushes. Dried with Metro Master Blaster and GG PFM Towel.
The grill and emblems were cleaned with M37 APC and various brushes.
Decon
- IronX
- NanoSkin Medium Grade Wash Mitt
Polishing the Paintwork
I took several paint thickness measurements on every panel. The 20 year old paint with Triple Clear provided measurements ranging from 325 – 500+ microns!
Here are some before shots showing the condition of the paint throughout the entire car.
After doing some test spots I found GG Fast Correcting Cream with the Boss MF pad cut through the defects leaving a pretty nice finish. The final polish was Menz 3500 paired with LC white pads since the cutting step left some haze.
Polishers used
- GG Boss 21
- Flex 3401
- Rupes Mini
- Rupes IBrid
Two wipe downs with CarPro Eraser was done before moving to the LSP.
Before/After Shots
LSP
- M37 Hi Def Paint Sealant
This was my first time using this sealant and I really liked it. I machined applied with my pc and black LC Hybrid Pad and let it sit for a couple hours. Wipe off couldn’t have been any easier.
Finished Pics
Thanks for looking! All comments and criticism is appreciated.
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