1968 Pro-tour Camaro - AG team effort

[pittpens24]

I am a newbie here. Came for help detailing my Camaro for a car show. Want to personally thank each and everyone one of you who posted up to help me pull this detail off.

Quick rundown of the stats for all you car buffs:
572 BBC- 742HP/689TQ

Tremec 6-speed magnum trans

Currie 9" rear with 4:11's and Detroit Locker posi unit

Aftermarket subframe with tubular a-arms and QA1 coilovers, frame connectors and a mini tubbed 4 link setup with QA1 coilovers out back

Wilwood manual disc brakes on all 4 corners - 6 piston up front and 4 piston rear plumbed with stainless steel brake lines throughout
275x18 Toyo tires on 18x9.5 Boze Splitters up front chased by 335x18's on 18x12's

Frame off resto done in my garage with exception of body prep and paint

Custom interior built by me and upholstered professionally

Onto the details about the detailing:

Had issues blowing a water pump rear gasket on the race pump. Dumped out almost 4 gallons in about 20 seconds so you could imagine the mess - have a cowl induction hood so not only was the engine bay and entire bottom of the car covered, so was the windshield, roof etc.
Obliviously was towed home which resulted scratches on my $5000 wheels from the straps and an off load in my driveway around midnight. Washed the car in the dark with a 2 bucket system to the best of my ability, dried and put on the lift where it sat for 2 months working out the new pump and radiator/shroud/fan setup collecting dust.

Cleaned the entire bottom of the car including wheel wells with DuPont First Klean to remove antifreeze traces and oil residue

Followed up with Meg's APC cleaner diluted 10:1

And finally Lucas speed wax

For the paint:

Washed with 1oz to 2 gal of ONR using a single bucket with dirt trap, Megs MF mit and a spray bottle full of ONR mix as a pre treat

Dried with a waffle weave MF towel

Scratches and webbing was light so it did a test spot with Menzerna 3500SF and a white 5.5" LC CCS pad on my PC 7424xp. Wasn't liking the pad feel so for the heck of it tried a green LC CCS pad and liked it much better. Buffed off and did a final wipedown.

Wiped clean with Gyeon Prep and all I could say was WOW. Huge difference in appearance after the oils were removed!

Applied Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant with a blue pad on my d/a to the entire car. Let dry 45 min to an hour and buffed clean. Did a final wipe and let dry overnight for about 15 hours before applying a 2nd coat. All I could do was stare in awe. Looked like the car had a fresh coat of clear.

Wiped down with Pinnacle Crystal Mist about 48 hous later that added more depth and gloss.

Wheels and tires:

Cleaned with ONR and a MF. Dried with MF

Polished with Mother's aluminum polish and a foam polishing cone. Followed up by hand polishing with a mf

Wiped residue clean with DuPont First Klean

Polished with Mother's Billet Aluminum Polish by hand a foam applicator and wiped with a mf

Wiped clean with Dupont First Klean

Topped with Wolfgang Concours Metal Sealant.

Used this same process by hand to all of my polished stainless steel trim, billet door handles and billet tail lights.

Tires were cleaned with Wesley's tire cleaner and a tire brush and topped with Meg's Ultimate Black Tire Coating in the aerosol spray can.

Interior was wiped down with Meg's Natural Shine Protectant

Glass was cleaned with Meg's glass cleaner diluted 10:1

Engine bay was wiped with Meg's APC and followed up with Pinnacle Crystal Mist.

Thank you again for all of your help and of you have any other recommendations, I am all ears.

Fyi car show was not judged, but was nice to hear from multiple people that I had the nicest car there from over 3000 cars made all my hard work worth it!

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[Mdjas]

Im new here but a def gear head as well. And all i have to say is wow!! One heck of car and your detailing on it is top notch. That pop and shine is intense and amazing. Great job on the build and the detailing.


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[Mdjas]

Also its great to see people building and enjoying the classics. Thats the only way. All that hard work probably puts a big smile on your face when you hit the go pedal!! Lol


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[MarkD51]

Your disaster story reminds me a little bit of a somewhat similar occurrence I had with a basically brand new 1990 Dodge Cummins I had bought. I think it was about 6 months old at the time. Had a 727 Torqueflight Tranny.

Went to pull it out of the Garage one morning. Got halfway out and stopped for a second, then hit the gas, and there was nothing! I'm like WTH?! Put it in reverse, nothing! Shut it off and got out, and was flabbergasted at what I saw.

A simple Transmission Cooler Line Rubber Hose with the El Cheapo screw type clamp came loose at the Cooler. There was what looked to be literal gallons of Tranny Fluid all over the Garage Floor and Apron, all over the Front End, all over Under Hood, what a nightmare mess!

And now I'm stuck with this 3/4 ton 4x4 and there was no way of pushing it back in the Garage by myself, vehicle's like a tank with that 1000 lb motor up front.

I forget how much Tranny Fluid I had to buy, luckily there was a neighborhood Parts Shop a few blocks away, bought a literal case of the stuff, and the good stuff wasn't cheap.

Once I made the repair, re-filled, it was first cleaning up the garage floor, went through tons of towels and paper towels, rubber gloves with gasoline and towels to try removing the floor staining, then off to the spray wash where pocket fulls of quarters were used under hood, front end.

At least such didn't happen to me many miles away from home, and out on the road, possibly towing my bass boat at the time I had this truck, I would've had to been towed or worse.

[SWETM]

Your Camaro is amazing!!!

Awesome story of the build of the car and all enhancement done to it.

And the finish you got is awesome too. Don't know what brand and quality you have on your mf towels. But anything that touch your amazing Camaro I would want to be useing top notch quality products. The Rag Company Eagle Edgeless 350 and 500 is of a very high quality to use as waterless wash or rinseless wash or polish removal or QD/spray wax or sealant wipe off. If you like the Waffle Weave kind of mf drying towels you have their Pluffle. That's like a WW and an ordinary mf nap towel mixed together which is liked by some and think they like it when you rinseless wash and waterless washes. Dry me a River WW is a high quality 70/30 blend mf drying towel that also is very nice. Then you have the Gyeon range of mf towels which also has a high quality from them. Griots Garage PFM Drying MF Towel and the other PFM style purpose towels is also very great.

One product that could give your wheels and chrome trim and Billet trim. Is the Polish Angel Supersport Wheel Coating. It's based on PTFE and TiO2 which makes the maintance of it very easy and also a high gloss from it. You use very little of product with this and all of the PA products. Spray it on the mf towel and spread it out and another mf towel to buff it up with. And it goes over other products as well so not so finicky as a full blown ceramic coating. And even if it last up to 6 months you can ad it before a car show. Just do it 24 hours before at least so the TiO2 can reach it's highest gloss. Also very good water sheeting and self cleaning ability from it so when at the car show you can do a quick wipe down with something like McKees 37 N-914 rinseless wash in QD dilution or waterless wash dilution. So you maintain the look from it with no other interfearence of other protection or glossenhancers. Some tips that you can look up and see if you find it interesting. It's much about to keep it as swirl free as possible when you have polished it to perfection and have it protected.

Thanks for shareing the story about your Camaro! And it's awesome to get the compliment comments on it on the car show I could imagine. Keep shareing your adventures on the car shows you are at.

/ Tony

[JDGolden]

Beautiful car and beautiful work. That paint is BLACK!!!! Any interior pics?

[Sizzle Chest]

Your Camaro came out great! Looks awesome!

[pittpens24]

Your Camaro is amazing!!!

Awesome story of the build of the car and all enhancement done to it.

And the finish you got is awesome too. Don't know what brand and quality you have on your mf towels. But anything that touch your amazing Camaro I would want to be useing top notch quality products. The Rag Company Eagle Edgeless 350 and 500 is of a very high quality to use as waterless wash or rinseless wash or polish removal or QD/spray wax or sealant wipe off. If you like the Waffle Weave kind of mf drying towels you have their Pluffle. That's like a WW and an ordinary mf nap towel mixed together which is liked by some and think they like it when you rinseless wash and waterless washes. Dry me a River WW is a high quality 70/30 blend mf drying towel that also is very nice. Then you have the Gyeon range of mf towels which also has a high quality from them. Griots Garage PFM Drying MF Towel and the other PFM style purpose towels is also very great.

One product that could give your wheels and chrome trim and Billet trim. Is the Polish Angel Supersport Wheel Coating. It's based on PTFE and TiO2 which makes the maintance of it very easy and also a high gloss from it. You use very little of product with this and all of the PA products. Spray it on the mf towel and spread it out and another mf towel to buff it up with. And it goes over other products as well so not so finicky as a full blown ceramic coating. And even if it last up to 6 months you can ad it before a car show. Just do it 24 hours before at least so the TiO2 can reach it's highest gloss. Also very good water sheeting and self cleaning ability from it so when at the car show you can do a quick wipe down with something like McKees 37 N-914 rinseless wash in QD dilution or waterless wash dilution. So you maintain the look from it with no other interfearence of other protection or glossenhancers. Some tips that you can look up and see if you find it interesting. It's much about to keep it as swirl free as possible when you have polished it to perfection and have it protected.

Thanks for shareing the story about your Camaro! And it's awesome to get the compliment comments on it on the car show I could imagine. Keep shareing your adventures on the car shows you are at.

/ Tony

Thanks Tony!

I have stock in a few MF companies LOL. Bought a bunch here at AG, couple from the crew at CG, and even some from California Car Cover when I bought my car cover. I do have my favorites by far and have learned what works great for polishing and removing oily products such as polishes and glazes do not work as well for sealants and waxes from my newbie experiences thus far into this venture anyway. Waffle weave towels are ok, just purchased one of those Gyeon silk something drying towels and man is that thing amazing! blows away the waffle weave that I have.

You mentioned that before about the PA Wheel Coating and I am so happy with the Wolfgang, I may just give that a try as a topper since it claims to be compatable.

Water sheeting I could care less about to be honest on this vehicle. It will NEVER see rain and to reinforce that I would never drive it, I deleted the windshield wipers altogether lol.

The greatest comment I got on the car came from 2 people who actually worked on it. One was from the Body shop who painted it, the other was the owner of the upholstery shop. The car went from the body shop to the upholstery shop so both saw it for the 1st time polished to its full potential. Was a great feeling for them to be wow'd

[pittpens24]

Beautiful car and beautiful work. That paint is BLACK!!!! Any interior pics?

Thank You.

Yeah that is the blackest black I could get. It is House of Kolor paint.

Sorry site wouldn't let me load anymore from my phone???? Had to wait til I got to work to get my laptop fired up. Here ya go

[Paul A.]

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate luck mechanically. Sounds like it was in good hands for the perfect repair and it's now sorted out and back to 100%!

That is a PERFECT '68 Camaro and probably exactly how I would have it. Beautiful detail work and evidenced by the white stripe pop on the hood of that last pic.

Hell, I just wanna see the undercarriage!

Nicely done, pittpens24! Be proud, my friend...very proud.