17 Year Old Pontiac Sunfire Wears Feynlab Ceramic

[richy]

This car belongs to my mother in law. I`ve typically used it for a test bed on new products and usually detail it once a year to apply the latest thing. Last year, I applied Richard Wright`s Gloss Shop coating to it. I must say, it held up well for the most part. Some of it had dropped off, but most of it was still behaving well. The car is starting to have some issues, so I`m not sure how much longer it will stay road-worthy. I decided to apply a product that will last it probably longer than it will survive: Feynlab Ceramic.

There are no before shots as I was in a rush to get it done in the time I had left for myself. The car was washed and foamed as usual. I used Riccardo yellow clay on it as it had some overspray on it from their building being painted. The clay got rid of it, in spite of the spots being almost a year old.

The paint was given a 2 step process of M100 + 3D black wool + my 3401. That was followed with a B/S orange pad + M205 + 3401.

For protection, the following was used: the black plastic door handles had faded and they were given a coat of Feynlab Black Plastic which blackened them up nicely. I followed that up with a coat of Ceramic when I was doing the paint. The side pillars were not compounded or polished due to the clear coat failing on them. The plastic chrome wheel covers were also coated with Ceramic (kinda funny when you see the rust beneath them, LOL). It did dramatically improve them however. The paint was then coated with Ceramic. The paint was then baked with an IR light. I finished it late at night and had to be at work the next day, so the shots are from inside my garage at night. Too bad I didn`t have a sunny day to shoot it as the metallic was impressive. The tires were treated to Opti Bond. Here it is:






























































If only I`d used Ceramic Pro...I bet they would claim their coating could fix this, LOL!







Thanks for looking!!

[VISITOR]

[Ferox]

Nicely done! I have to admit I laughed too when I spied the pic of that tire with the rust under the hubcap. ��

[fly07sti]

I bet the snow just slides right off that Sunfire!

[fightnews]

Nice job, I have 2 questions.

1 how many times have you compounded that car?

2 When you use an ir lamp to dry the car how does it cure all over the car? How does the infared hit all the paint at the same time? How big is the thing?

[Eldorado2k]

Wow.

[Mike Phillips]

Nice save Richy, she should hold up for another 17 years - at least appearance-wise.

[richy]

Thank you Sir!\

Nicely done! I have to admit I laughed too when I spied the pic of that tire with the rust under the hubcap. ��

Me too! I wouldn't have bothered doing anything with them, but I tried it on the first one and the chrome did come up better, so I thought: Why not? Besides, from a distance, the chrome gleams and the rust just looks like a dark background against it.

I bet the snow just slides right off that Sunfire!

Thanks Don! I told her to watch it when it rains. I find it almost hypnotic to watch the rain flood off of it when you're driving...oops, I guess that's distracted driving, LOL.

Nice job, I have 2 questions.

1 how many times have you compounded that car?

2 When you use an ir lamp to dry the car how does it cure all over the car? How does the infared hit all the paint at the same time? How big is the thing?

I don't always do the same 2 steps to it. Sometimes, I have just done a one step on it. My paint readings were in the 120's, which is spectacular for a car of that age. I had the material to play with, so no danger in doing so. Other than the few spots where the rust is bubbling beneath the surface, the rest of the paint is pretty darned nice.

As far as the IR light goes, I leave it on one spot until that area reaches 60C (140F) for 10 minutes and then wheel it over to the next panel. I try to time it when i"m about halfway done coating the car, so it's following me as I go. That way you're not wasting time at the end waiting for panels to bake. I think it's about 3 or so feet wide.

Wow.

Thanks kindly for both your comment and for taking the time to make it...always appreciated!

Nice save Richy, she should hold up for another 17 years - at least appearance-wise.

Thank you Sir! Too bad it's got some rust bubbling beneath the surface, because mechanically it's been in great shape. I also change her oil for her and have run AMSOIL in it for at least 10 years..maybe longer.

[Paul A.]

That car is defying its age with you taking care of it, Richy. That will fetch a better price at trade in or sale.

I also like doing family work.

[Jaretr1]

17 year old Sunfire is all you needed to say. Those cars werent supposed to last more than 10! Heck, Pontiac didnt even last!