First Heavy Detail

[Redvtwin2]

I wanted to share my first heavy detail since I've become involved in the hobby. I have always loved detailing and have paid enough for individual details from high end professionals to make my family wonder about my sanity. With that being said, I have always wanted to get into the hobby/profession, and, as a result; when I came accross a 1985 Trans Am with some serious cosmetic challenges I decided to dive in and document my first serious attempt.

First, the details of the car. It is a 1985 Pontiac Trans Am with 54k original miles
and one repaint which was said to have been completed in 2000.

There were several issues to address to include heavy swirl marks, an unbelievable amount of buffing holograms, and excessive orange peel which was consistent over the entire car.

My goals were to get the paint to at least factory levels of orange peel, to significantly reduce swirl marks, and to remove all holograms present. I did my best to get similar comparison pictures after it had been completed but there was some variance due to lighting/weather.

Tools:

1) Harbor Freignt Rotary Polisher

- 5" backing plate
- carpro denim pad (used 2 for entire car)
- Meguiars 105

2) Torqx Buf503

- 5" backing plate
- Orange hex pad, Chemical Guys
- White hex pad, Chemical Guys
- Meguiars 205
- Meguiars crystal wax

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[camaro2ssblack]

Wow great job man, I’d say you hit a grand slam on your first big league at bat!

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Looks great!!!!!!!!!

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[Dr Oldz]

Nicely done!!!

[Mike Phillips]

I say,


Freaking Amazing!


Speaking for myself personally, you started with a paint job in absolutely horrible condition and gave it a show car finish.


Nice work. Thank you for sharing.

[atgonzales]

Great work and great car, nicely done

[PaulMys]

Very nice!!

Great job on that, my man!

[Setec Astronomy]

In that 4th set of pictures, it looks like you really knocked down that orange peel, or is it just the lighting? If you did knock down the peel, that was with the denim pad on the rotary?

[Goonie75]

Stellar work

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[Redvtwin2]

In that 4th set of pictures, it looks like you really knocked down that orange peel, or is it just the lighting? If you did knock down the peel, that was with the denim pad on the rotary?

You are correct, I was able to knock down a substantial amount of orange peel with the denim pad on my rotary using MG 102 compound.

I didn't try to wet sand because I don't know anything about the paint job or how thick the paint was. As a result, if I would have, I would have started with a 2000 grit and figured thats close to what the denim pad would be so decided to go that route.

I initially attempted to use the denim pad with a DA to lessen the liklihood of a mistake since I had never used such a pad. However, the DA was making zero impact and I realized it would take an eternity to knock it down so I moved on to the rotary.

The rotary and the denim pad were very effective and I was very happy with the results. There is still orange peel but it is about factory paint amounts. A plus was the denim pad achieved a polished level that just required a finishing step afterwards so it saved me a step.

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