1968 Firebird, Full wet sand and buff: Rasky's Auto Detailing

[RaskyR1]

1968 Pontiac Firebird, Full Wet Sand and Buff.

This fine example of classic muscle actually belongs to one of my dealer accounts from back in the day when I worked for a high volume shop. The owner had purchased the vehicle as a personal collector/project car, and like most restorations, it has been a long tedious process over several years and it apparently lost some steam along the way. For those of you who’ve restored a car of this magnitude before you more than likely know exactly what I’m talking about. In fact, this car had actually been painted about ten years ago and was then tucked away for what turned out to be a very long hibernation. As she awoke from her long slumber this spring she was treated to a new convertible top, exhaust, tune, and finally an extreme make over by yours truly.

Prior to delivery I was under the impression that the car had not been cut and buffed yet, but it was blatantly obvious upon seeing the car that it had already been done by the painter. Unfortunately, that was also the era where the “rocks in the bottle” 3M compound was widely used by body shops which left very deep marring throughout the finish. While the finish was pretty smooth as far as orange peel, the paint had shrunk down considerably over the last 10 years which required some additional leveling.

The car actually arrived with 99% of the trim and chrome off the car, which is definitely a plus when you’re wet sanding. Here is how she looked upon arrival.




As you can see the painter was nice enough to leave me some 10 year old compound (concrete) left behind in cracks and throughout the vehicle.

Compound splatter on the wheels


“Like removes like”, a good friend once told me. M105 on a MF towel worked great for removing the left over compound in the jambs.



Having had plenty of prior notice on this car I had decided to order up some Mirka sanding disks that I’d been wanting to try for some time now. Normally 3M is my go to abrasive for sanding but several people I look up to had spoken highly of the Mirka abrasives and this car made for a great test subject. Below you can see the 1500 grit Mirka Royal Micro disks, and the 2000/4000 grit Mirka Abralon disks. However, since the car had already been leveled a good amount the 1500 disk were not used/required.


After a thorough wash with Chemical Guys Citrus wash n’ Clear mixed at a paint prep ratio, I pulled out my halogen and dual xenon lights to better inspect the finish. As you can see from the pics, the painter had left a LOT of deep marring and holograms in the paint.






A few RIDS and chips had been inflicted over the years. Most the scratches were fully removed and chips were touched up.






Marring shown with the Brinkmann Dual Xenon light




There was also undercoating over spray on several areas of the car which was removed with Tarminator




I zoomed in on the hood and took a pic to better show the amount of shrink which had occurred over the last ten years. As you can see this resulted in a dull distorted looking refection….wait until you see the after pic of this one!

[RaskyR1]

After the inspection was done and the majority of the undercoating was removed I clayed the paint using a mild clay and Meguiars Final Inspection as clay lube.


After claying 1/4 of the hood you can see the amount of surface defects that were still bonded to the paint.


Once I had the surface prepped I then tapped off all my sharp edges using 1/4 3M fine line masking tape. Since the car was initially leveled by someone else, I wanted to avoid any possibility of a strike through on all sharp edges. 3M fine line tape is expensive, but its benefits are well worth the cost on an application such as this. If you’ve never worked with this tape before I suggest picking up a roll and trying it out.



Car all taped up






For the actual wet sanding I chose to go with the Abralon 2000 grit disks followed by the 4000 grit disks. All sanding was done via PCXP with a Mirka foam interface pad. I did notice that the Mirka interface pad was significantly stiffer than the 3M ones I have. Not sure if it’s because my 3M’s pads are old and used or not but it’s just something that was noticed.


Some pics of the car all sanded waiting to be buffed.








This back section was the only area on the car where some hand sanding was needed and it had never actually been sanded before.


Normally I would finish sanding a car out with 3M Trizact 3000 grit disks, which makes the compounding step a breeze in itself, but these 4000 grit Abralon disks made it even easier!

My process for the sanding scratch removal and the refinement steps went as follows:

• M105 on the rotary equipped with a Meguiars Maroon Solo wool pad .
• M105 on the rotary equipped with a orange LC foam pad.
• M205 on the PCXP equipped with a black LC pad.
• 3M Ultrafina on the rotary equipped with a blue LC pad.
• (Some areas were done with 3” and 4” pads or by hand)

Initial buffing step


Hitting some tight areas with the 3” wool pad


Lowers got sanded too!


50/50 shots (Steps 1-3 only)






Deck lid turned out amazing!




The engine bay was also to receive a quick cleanup to remove the 10 years of dust…nothing crazy though.

[RaskyR1]

Now for some finished pics!
After the 3M Ultrafina




I pulled the car out for some sun pics...the sun had been a rare site the last few weeks and I lucked out on Mothers Day! LSP was 2x Blackfire Wet-Diamond

(I did later remove the black over spray on the front splash pan )






Rear deck lid




Love the hood pics












Smooth as glass!


Halogen shots




Brinkman Dual Xenon shots




Some cool reflection shots






Removed as much of the other guys compound as I could


Engine


Wheels/tires


Remember this close up pic on the hood?


How’s it look now?



Last but not least….car being loaded back up to head home and get assembled.



As always, thank you for taking the time to view my work,

Rasky

[richy]

Rasky..that was night and day. Excellent work there! How long did it take you to wet sand the car with the disks (only one step, not both of them)?

[WRAPT C5Z06]

You are so damn good at what you do!!

[Tom Weed]

Rasky,
thank you for taking the time to post this project, your work is very impressive and I'm definately impressed!!! That Firebird looks amazing!

I've got a lot of the Abrlon disks now that I've been playing with on a scrap hood I got, how would you compare the Abrlon's finishing ability compared to 3M?

[BimmerFerret]

You are so damn good at what you do!!

No kidding! What talent!!!!

[Lasthope05]

Rasky,
thank you for taking the time to post this project, your work is very impressive and I'm definately impressed!!! That Firebird looks amazing!

I've got a lot of the Abrlon disks now that I've been playing with on a scrap hood I got, how would you compare the Abrlon's finishing ability compared to 3M?

+1 I actually use the 3M trizact disks a lot and wonder how to two compare as I have always been curious with the Abralon pads. I know Abralon boast having a longer life than other sanding disks out there. How many did you use on this car?

[Slava]

That's just amazing, night and day.
Thank you for the write up.

[DARK HORSE]

As Always Chad excellent work and a great write up... You know I always enjoy admiring your work!! Thanks for sharing!!

Oh ya, I almost forgot; Sweeeeet car too.