97 Corvette repaint and full paint correction

**gofast908z** · 01-24-2012, 03:24 AM

A couple years ago I did a full detail on my dad's C5. Came out nice and he and my mom took it to So-cal for a vacation. Unfortunately on their way back it got hit by several large chunks of broken up cement that came falling out of a big semi truck.

Fast forward to a month ago.....the corvette underwent a full repaint. I asked the bodyshop to take it easy with the buffing after they did the wetsanding to leave as much clear coat material as possible. To the guys doing the work this translated into "oh we don't have to really do much at all..." Hack work ensued and left a severely scratched, swirled, and deeply scored surface. The paintwork itself was good, it was just the finishing work that was poor.

As this car belongs to my father, the job had to be exceptional. So the task was to tackle all the defects, and there were many. Sanding scratches, heavy swirls, DA sander pigtails, overspray, random isolated deep scratches (RIDS), holograms/buffer trails, etc....

35 hours was what it took to do a full correction on this car. Upon completion, the paint was above 98%+ flawless.

The pre-wash rinsing showcases strong water beading. This indicates the presence of a heavy glaze filler applied by the bodyshop. This will hide swirls, scratches, and other imperfections. Also explains why many cars look great after a bodyshop buffs them but look quite poor after a week or two.

Foaming the car to get it ready for washing...

Initial test spot on the hood. After compounding with a wool pad, serious correction resulted, but wasn't quite good enough. More extreme measures were needed.

Compounding finished and starting to look better, but still a long way to go.

Some of the paint issues around the car....

DEEP scratches

Some deep sand scratches

Making more progress....

After...

**gofast908z** · 01-24-2012, 03:25 AM

Ok.....it gets kinda bad here.

After heavy compounding with wool and rotary, the heavy defects were leveled out. Final polishing will remove the rotary holograms and restore even more gloss.

All paint correction work is now finished and the paint is ready for protection.

Since the paint is only a few weeks old it needs to be able to breathe and out-gas. Applying wax or sealant is not advised during this 30-90 day process. Luckily Chemical Guys Blacklight is a new product that protects the paint but allows it to continue the out-gassing process.

Gotta have the sun pictures to show the full correction.

**gofast908z** · 01-24-2012, 03:26 AM

Remember that trashed passenger door?.......

Looking better now!

Reflecting.....everything

Thanks for looking! I hope you enjoyed the read!

**MustangMikeFL** · 01-24-2012, 08:11 AM

Great job! Very thorough.

**lokichaos** · 01-24-2012, 08:20 AM

Looks amazing!! I think the most I've ever gotten on correction work is 80%. There are always some RIDS or stubborn swirls hiding around. I can only imagine the attention that vette must attract