Rasky's Auto Detailing: '66 Corvette 427/425hp wet sand and buff

**RaskyR1** · 05-20-2009, 11:20 PM

This car belongs to the same owner of the ’68 Vette I did back a few months back. The owner originally only wanted to have it buffed out like I did on his ’68. After looking over the car with him a little more I talked him into doing full wet sand too. IMO the texture of the paint looked very poor and badly needed to be smoothed out. The orange peel had a very tight texture that distorted and blurred out what little reflection the paint had.

A little info on this car:

This is a numbers matching 1966 Corvette 427/425hp. It has 58,XXX original miles on the car and underwent a frame off restoration about 3.5 years ago. Pretty much every nut and bolt was replaced, and the car has not seen rain since. There is approximately 1500 miles on the rebuilt motor, and I believe the owner said it was putting down around 575 hp.
Yes he does have the stock wheels too!

My process for wet sanding and correction was as follows:

Wash - Optimum No rinse

Clay - Meguiar’s Mild Clay/Last Touch

Wet sanding - Initial cutting was done with Meguiar’s 2000 grit sand paper, followed by 3000 grit.

Step 1 - Meguiar’s M105 via rotary and a Solo heavy cut wool pad.

Step 2 - Meguiar’s M105 via rotary and orange Classic LC foam pad.

Step 3 - Finishing was done with Meguiar’s M205 via rotary and a Meguiar’s W9207 foam finishing pad. (M205 finished off VERY well on this car and I saw no improvements by following it with PO85RD or UF)

LSP - Wolfgang DGPS 3.0

Wheels and chrome – KAIO

Glass – Meguiar’s D120

Tires – ARO / Hyper Dressing 3:1

Before pics

In the following pics try to notice the texture of the paint, lack of gloss, and distortion of the florescent light refection

Left fender

Roof

Right rear

Left rear…some deeper scratches likely from getting fuel

Car has some pretty deep swirls and marring too

Wet sanding hood

I stopped after doing the hood and decided to try compounding a spot before moving on to wet sanding the whole car. I wanted to be sure the paint would polish out easily first…a little tip I got from the great Mike Phillips.

All edges were taped off as I worked a section during the first buffing step to prevent any chance of rubbing through on an edge. For the most part all panel heights lined up very well with only the passenger side of the hood being a little higher than the fender (rare on a lot of older cars)

50/50 shot

**RaskyR1** · 05-20-2009, 11:21 PM

After pics, indoor

Nice smooth reflection…notice the clarity of the reflection vs. the before pics in the same angle. (It would have been nice to not have emblems on the car)

Left fender

Roof

Right rear

Left Rear

Areas where there was swirling/marring in the halogen lights…crystal clear now

I love this stuff!

**RaskyR1** · 05-20-2009, 11:23 PM

Mid day pics

Evening pics

Undercarriage

Motor

Total time invested was around 22 hours.

Thanks for looking,
Rasky

**termigator** · 05-20-2009, 11:35 PM

Awesome job Rasky. Those were my favorite corvettes, but those wheels are just about one of the ugliest I've ever seen.

**Rsurfer** · 05-20-2009, 11:37 PM

Super job Rasky. What did you do around the emblems? Did you remove them or just worked around? How did you get the sand marks out around the hood scoop? Sorry for all the questions.

**RaskyR1** · 05-20-2009, 11:48 PM

Originally Posted by termigator

Awesome job Rasky. Those were my favorite corvettes, but those wheels are just about one of the ugliest I've ever seen.

LOL...no body likes the wheels!

Originally Posted by Rsurfer

Super job Rasky. What did you do around the emblems? Did you remove them or just worked around? How did you get the sand marks out around the hood scoop? Sorry for all the questions.

Unfortunately I had to tape off the emblems…not something I like doing, and it’s also why a car should be wet sanded properly before putting the car back together. I taped all panels all about ¼ inch from the edge when sanding. If you ever wet sanded before it’s not easy removing the sanding marks when they are super close to an edge. I tried to get as close as possible to all edges, and at the same time leaving it easy to buff out.

If you look as some of the after pics you can see the peel still next to the emblems…harder to see outside though.

**bunyz06rabbitt** · 05-21-2009, 02:20 AM

My gawd Rasky! I still can't get over the way you finish those tires. That subdued look, I love it! The way you confidently just move forward with the sanding, the buffing and bringing out the final brilliance is just too much! Amazing Rasky! Do you ever have like, a couple... or several cars lined up, ready to go into treatment, much to the chagrine, dismay and disillusionment of your unemployed (ain't worked in over a year) neighbors?!...LOL. And I'll say it again...Detailing God, Mirror Finish!

**jugodegolf** · 05-21-2009, 08:06 AM

Originally Posted by RaskyR1

LOL...no body likes the wheels!

Unfortunately I had to tape off the emblems…not something I like doing, and it’s also why a car should be wet sanded properly before putting the car back together. I taped all panels all about ¼ inch from the edge when sanding. If you ever wet sanded before it’s not easy removing the sanding marks when they are super close to an edge. I tried to get as close as possible to all edges, and at the same time leaving it easy to buff out.

If you look as some of the after pics you can see the peel still next to the emblems…harder to see outside though.

Killer!!! nuff said on that. (need a bowdown smiley)

note on the wetsanding. I was toying with a older chevy truck yesterday, no clue what he had under the hood, wasn't enough though, anyway truck needed some Rasky love for sure.