1979 Pontiac Trans Am - all original - Rubbed down and ready to show!

[lane5515]

1979 Pontiac Trans Am – all original. 18,447 miles

The owner of this Trans Am was referred to me by a past client. The car was a barn find and the owner wanted to bring it back to life and start entering it in car shows. He has several collector cars so I’m hoping this turns into more details in the future. This Trans Am has the original single stage paint and was in need of some serious attention.

Condition upon delivery
I’d call this car a 20 footer. When looking at it from 20 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. Heavy water spotting, swirls and scratches covered the entire vehicle. The single stage paint was thin, oxidized, had crows feet in several areas and also some cracking on the bumpers. After looking over the vehicle with the owner, he said do whatever you can to make it look its best.

This car was a perfect candidate for the #7 rub down which I had never completed before but Mike’s articles were very helpful in laying out a plan.

I started this project with the Tires, Wheels and Wells. Overall the wheels were in good condition.


Wheels, Tires and Wells
The tires were cleaned with Shine Supply Wise Guy 1:3 and Tuff Shine Brush.
Wheels were done with Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner, 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 McKee’s Hydro Blue.




Next I moved on to washing and decontaminating the paintwork.

Wash

I completed a rinseless wash with McKee’s N-914

Decon
- Clayed with Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay



Time for the #7 Rub Down
I used Meguiar’s #7 and terry cloth towels to complete this process. I did the entire car 3 times and left the #7 on overnight before removing. This was a time consuming process that proved to be very beneficial. The oxidation was removed and the paintwork looked much better when finished.


Polishing the Paintwork

I took several paint thickness measurements on every panel. The 40 year old paint was “whisper thin” and had areas of dark shadowing which I believe was the base coat primer. I needed to be very careful and informed the owner before proceeding.

Here are some before shots showing the condition of the paint throughout the entire car.










After doing some test spots I found Blackfire One Step was safely removing the swirls and leaving a nice glossy finish.

Polishers used
- Rupes Mille
- Flex 3401
- Rupes Mini
- Rupes IBrid


Before/After Shots














LSP

- M37 Hi Def Paint Sealant

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.

Interior

Basic wipe down and vacuum was all that was needed.


Finished Pics
























Thanks for looking! All comments and criticism is appreciated.

[TPup]

Great save. Beautiful car!


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[LSNAutoDetailing]

Holy Jim Rockford J-Turn!!! For starters the owner must be beside him/herself. You got the water spots out, not only removed the corrosion but highly polished the stainless steel exhaust tips and made them look chrome!

The vehicle is now in show car condition. I hope it wins an award at a show, because the trophy belongs on your shelf!

Amazing project/ amazing work.



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[Route246]

That is a really nice job. That is one heck of a barn find, too.

[SWETM]

Awesome work and write up and pictures! Fun to save an original car. You did a thorough job and would be surprised if you don't get any more jobs from the customer.

[Farson]

What a transformation! Nice job


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[Mike Phillips]

1979 Pontiac Trans Am – all original. 18,447 miles

Always enjoy reading about survivor cars like this one. 18,447 miles means the engine is just now broken-in.

The owner of this Trans Am was referred to me by a past client. The car was a barn find and the owner wanted to bring it back to life and start entering it in car shows. He has several collector cars so I’m hoping this turns into more details in the future. This Trans Am has the original single stage paint and was in need of some serious attention.

My guess is the owner will ONLY trust you with all his cars moving forward.

Condition upon delivery
I’d call this car a 20 footer. When looking at it from 20 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. Heavy water spotting, swirls and scratches covered the entire vehicle. The single stage paint was thin, oxidized, had crows feet in several areas and also some cracking on the bumpers.

After looking over the vehicle with the owner, he said do whatever you can to make it look its best.

The condition sounds about right for something this old. Years ago I wrote an article about doing your best with what you had to work with and your restoration of this car is a text book example of what I was talking about.

"Taking your car's paint to it's maximum potential"

This car was a perfect candidate for the #7 rub down which I had never completed before but Mike’s articles were very helpful in laying out a plan.

For those reading this into the future, my article on using #7 to restore antique and original paint is for cars where it's IMPORTANT to the owner to do everything possible to SAVE the original paint because they do NOT want to repaint the car. I point this out because there's always a Facebook expert that will read about someone using this technique and without ever having used this technique or READING my article they'll spout out their recommendation, which usually has nothing to do with what the owner of the car with the original, single stage paint wants. Duh.

Here's the short version of the article,

The #7 Rub Down Technique by Mike Phillips


Here's the original and most in-depth version,

The Secret to Removing Oxidation and Restoring a Show Car Finish to Antique Single Stage Paints


Here's all my articles on #7

All Mike Phillips #7 Show Car Glaze Articles in one place

I started this project with the Tires, Wheels and Wells. Overall the wheels were in good condition.


Wheels, Tires and Wells
The tires were cleaned with Shine Supply Wise Guy 1:3 and Tuff Shine Brush.
Wheels were done with Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner, 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 McKee’s Hydro Blue.

Incredible and dramatic before and after results.

Next I moved on to washing and decontaminating the paintwork.

Wash

I completed a rinseless wash with McKee’s N-914

Decon
- Clayed with Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay



Time for the #7 Rub Down
I used Meguiar’s #7 and terry cloth towels to complete this process. I did the entire car 3 times and left the #7 on overnight before removing. This was a time consuming process that proved to be very beneficial. The oxidation was removed and the paintwork looked much better when finished.


Polishing the Paintwork

I took several paint thickness measurements on every panel. The 40 year old paint was “whisper thin” and had areas of dark shadowing which I believe was the base coat primer.

Correct. I looked at the pictures you posted showing a black ghosting effect under the paint, that IS the primer and it's now the natural patina for the original paint on this car. Here's my article on whisper thin.

Whisper Thin Paint on Classic Cars by Mike Phillips - Be Careful!


Just to note - I can't count how many Horror Stories I've read where the "detailer" instead of getting head knowledge and taking the careful approach to the paint on a car like this will instead do their normal knee-jerk procedure of COMPOUNDING the dry, brittle paint and basically exposing the black primer to the point where the owner must repaint the car.

I needed to be very careful and informed the owner before proceeding.

Here are some before shots showing the condition of the paint throughout the entire car.

Excellent job documenting the before condition. For those reading this into the future, if you want to show the world what you can do then learn how to take great BEFORE pictures. Once you do the work, you can never go back in time and get the before pictures. So if you don't have them, then all you can do is TALK about it.

The power in the after shots is created in the before shots

After doing some test spots I found Blackfire One Step was safely removing the swirls and leaving a nice glossy finish.

Polishers used
- Rupes Mille
- Flex 3401
- Rupes Mini
- Rupes IBrid

BLACKFIRE One Step uses amazing abrasive technology and I think this was a great choice to tackle this antique paint that as of the time of this reply to your thread is 39 years old.

BLACKFIRE One Step

Before/After Shots

Incredible work and top notch photography work. Love that you have figure out how to use the gallery to share pictures and now they won't disappear like all the pictures all the people that used Photobucket have lost.

LSP

- M37 Hi Def Paint Sealant

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.

That's the way you do it!

Thanks for looking! All comments and criticism is appreciated.

Freaking incredible work. Also top notch write-up sharing your project.

Thank you for sharing. I rarely use the bow down emoticon but this thread has earned it.

[JDGolden]

Wow, I'm blown away by the results on this one. Absolutely incredible, and the response you got from Mike proves it. This is an instance where I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall to see the customers reaction.

Paint is only original once. As Mike said, the primer shadows are now just a natural patina of the ORIGINAL paint. I can't get over how clear and slick the finish is.

Maybe I missed it, but what did you use on the tail pipes?

[Wknd Dtlr]

That's an incredible save. Very impressive work!

What pad did you use with the BF 1 step?

[Black Bowtie]

Awesome Job, great save!!