2010 Black Camaro Full Polish-Out w/FUZION & Lifted Silverado

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Whats up guys, Ive got a day off so figured i'd do a write up on a very sweet 2010 black Camaro SS that we had the pleasure of polishing out a couple weeks back. I spoke with the owner and he had it 'detailed' once the year prior. Well this 'detailer' promised the owner (Joe) the he could remove all the swirl marks and also do the interior. Joe told me the guy worked alone and was in and out in 6 hours and said "Oh well some of the swirl marks just couldn't be removed"...:-\...i've heard that song and dance before, but I assured Joe that he wouldn't experience the same thing with us.

We talked extensively about what our process would be and of course, just as importantly, what would need to be done to maintain the finish. He was currently taking it to a hand wash place that he had a year pass for...and the car was for sure kept very CLEAN, but was swirled like crazy.

We settled on a double pass, being that this was black and surely needed some help. We went out there on a Saturday morning (a nice long hour drive lol) to start early and do our thing. First thing we noticed was he had a very nice clean garage set up...which is ALWAYS a plus when doing mobile work...second thing we noticed was this was a very sweet looking Camaro with orange (NOT red, i made the mistake of calling them red when he sent me photos and he QUICKLY corrected me hahaha) vinyl striped down the middle.



Sweetness. This was going to be our second of three black cars of the week...we had just done a Z06 Vette 3 days prior. We had worked on a 2011 Camaro before...we found the paint to be pretty soft, it would haze quite a bit after compounding, but cleared up nicely when followed with 205 on a foam polishing pad.

So we pulled her out and took at look at her in the sun and well... we saw exactly what we expected...swirls galore.


Ranging from the roof:




To the quarter panels, which the sun was hitting quite nicely to really show how bad they were:



And the door.....well...man the door was a hot mess:




So basically, we had our work cut out for us....but to us, thats awesome. We love working on black and love a challenge...so it was on!

As i said before, the car was pretty clean...i'll give the car wash place props for that. The wheel wells were very nice and dressed, only minimal brake dust in the barrels of the rims and the car was just so-so dirty. BUT, even though it was pretty clean, we needed it cleaner...so we got to work.

My sister and I work kinda like a pit crew...we always have SOMETHING we're doing...whether its unpacking gear, setting up the equipment for the next step, RE-packing gear to get it the hell outta the way, or just performing the task at hand on the car...we're on a constant move...so first up was the tires and rims. This is my job (lucky me lol)....usually my sis will spray the tire that i'm working on (tire cleaner on tires and wheel wells and Wheel Brightener on rims), but since this was a polish out job, we needed good before pictures of the car in the sun....so she went around and took the photos (as seen above) while i worked the tires. These were pretty clean as i said, so i just used some APC on the tires and the rims...the rims were painted except for the spokes, which appeared to me to be polished aluminum, and wheel brightener, being that its acid in a bottle, is a no-no on those...so i played it safe...

I LOVE my EZ Detail Brushes...they work very well in the barrels...combined with a pressure washer, you can get the entire rim very clean without taking the wheels off.



Ive found that on really nasty tires, a good way to clean them without having to scrub like crazy and get all messy, is to use the turbo nozzle on the pressure washer...then spray them from bottom to top...the reason for this is so that im not washing away the cleaner before the pressure washer actually hits it...if i start at the top..im going to have a lot of water just running down the tire washing away my cleaner...if i start at the bottom..the cleaner isn't removed until my PW actually BLASTS it away. For REALLY bad tires, i still have to scrub, but for intermediate ones its a good technique that leaves them nice and clean. THESE tires however were very clean, so a simple spray of APC and a fan spray PW was all that was needed:



After the tires and rims were nice and clean, it was time to pressure wash the 'big' debris off this thing (note my sis is busy taking all the pics/video and in between helping me keep the PW line straight...multi-tasking!)



After that was done, it was time for the prep wash....Dawn soap to strip off the wax and get everything 100% clean...Foam Cannon!!!



Sorry but i love that thing lol. Works great with my little Karcher X Series Pressure Washer...also known as my Wolverine Washer, cause its black and yellow with a big X in the center like Wolverines outfit lol.

After soaking a couple minutes it was time to hand wash and then rinse clean. Again, my sis taking the pics/vids and then coming to help wash...shes kind enough to wash the lower parts since I'm freakin' Andre the Giant and dont particularly like reaching that low (though later i'll be laying on the ground polishing...)



Then it was time for the rinse..my turn to snap a pic...



After that...we pulled it back in the garage and started drying. I go around with a blower to get all the water out of the cracks while my sis goes around and soaks up all the water...it makes life SO much easier if you really take a couple extra minutes to really make sure that all the water is blown out of the body lines, emblems, gas chamber, lights, mirrors etc...because once you start polishing...if there is water left...guess what...it will FIND its way to your pad and then you get sling city...and you also get water introduced to your product...and eventually your pad over saturates quicker than it should....so by making sure the blowing step is done correctly, it saves time in the long run. PLUS, when you go to tape, you don't have water seeping out of the trim edges and causing your tape to come off.

Now we come to the clay step...we had a fresh Wolfgang clay bar (personally i think its the same kind of clay as the Blackfire Clay...same color/texture etc.) but thats another story. Either way it works pretty well..and using the Blackfire clay extender/cleaner...it helps me get some extra uses out of the claybar. I used ONR/water mix for my lube...it seems to allow the clay to be a bit more aggressive without being OVER aggressive...again, just my opinion...I just hate feeling the clay hydroplane.



The car wasnt bad but...as usual...the clay was absolutely necessary:



While i clayed my sister went and set up the buffers, pads and polishes and then wiped down the door jambs, trunk jamb and under the hood (water always ends up there too).

Then she started taping while i finished up claying:



Emblems and trim all taped and protected..as well as the vinyl strips down the center of the car. We've also started putting a towel over the front and back windshield...its just SO much easier to cover those areas than to have to deal with ALL the dust from compounding getting up under the windshield wiper and in the spaces on the edges of the windshield...again, just another time saver prep-step.

Next we taped off our test area on the hood. As i said before, we've done a 2011 camaro (and a couple other 2010's but they were re-painted so...bit of a different story). On the 2011, Megs D300 and MF cutting pad followed by Megs 205 and LC polishing pad turned out a beautiful finish...so we figured we'd try the same combo here.

As of late, we close up the garage, turn on our dual halogens and set them at an angle and then use our sungun as a direct light source. Ive found that even in direct sun...paint can look perfect, but inside under a double light source...depending on the angle and distance of the lights...a slight haze can sometimes be visible on soft paints...so thats why i'm now setting up lights like this.

Here is what our test spot looked like before:




Ohhh yes, swirly goodness! I know some swear against it, but i like using the Flex 3401 with Megs mf pads and D300 for my cutting....does it haze...yes...but guess what...it hazes when using a regular DA also if you look close enough...and then sometimes you don't even have to look that close...its very easy to see. So i figure id rather get that extra correction from the flex since its gonna haze up either way.

As expected...the flex, D300 and MF cutting pad left a haze...but the haze is very even and uniform and the marks are very very small...205 on a polishing pad usually clears this up NO problem.

Here i am on step 2...with the griots, 205 and a LC white pad:



After the polish was removed i did a wipe down with Eraser (thanks to Mark for the sample)...check out our results and well...i'll let the picture speak for itself...






Nuff said? Yeah i thought so too. Now as stated above, i checked with my eyes (no pics) using several different angles to make sure there was no micro-hazing/marring left...and I can gladly report, there wasn't. SO...we had our combo for this car.

I snapped a pic of the 50/50 shot and texted it to the owner (he was at work at this point). His reply was " Wow! What a huge difference!"...sorry but you can't beat an owner who can really see the difference between polished and unpolished paint ...it makes me feel like our work is that much more appreciated.

We then continued on...working every inch of the paint...literally. We now have 4-5 buffers set up for each job. I usually have my Flex 3401 set up for cutting with a 5.5" or 6" pad...and a PC set up with a 3" pad for small tight areas. My sis has the Griots set up for her 5.5" polishing pad and a PC set up for her 4" polishing pad. Then , if its needed, we have the handy Makita sitting there if some seriously heavy cutting is needed...with this car it wasn't.

So we finished the hood, quarter panel and then moved up to the roof. We TRY to do the roof before doing the doors, simply because you're doing some leaning over to reach the center of the roof...and you don't want to be leaning against the door you just polished. IF, for whatever reason we have to do the door first (be it circumstances or what have you...) then we will simply just open the door up so that we don't lean on it at all while doing the roof.

In this case, roof was first:



If you look towards the back, you can see the Meguiars box, that was a maintenance kit we brought him so that he could keep up the shine and swirl free paint (driving an hour for a maintenance wash is a little far )

Round n' round we went, it took us a good 8-9 hours...we did pause a couple times to talk with Joe when he got home, he was just blown away by how great the the finish was turning out. Then when i told him it wasn't waxed yet it really blew him away lol. He came out about 2 or 3 times asking "Are you ready to wax yet?"....we'd tell him not yet...a little bit later he'd come to ask again lol...i think he was as excited at the idea of seeing how thing would look with Fuzion as we were.

Finally after several hours of non stop polishing (except to talk with him and take 10 minutes to eat a sammich!), it was time...



Yes sir...THE wax. I really like this stuff...so glad i bit the bullet and bought it...goes on super slick and removes just as nicely...now that being said, heres a couple things ive found that really help with making sure application and removal goes smoothly.

First...after polishing, the car is dusty as hell again...period...everyone whos polished a car knows this. You can try to wipe it clean with a microfiber and some ONR or something along those lines...and yes, eventually you'll get it clean...but lately I just mix up a batch of ONR and just re-wash the whole car with it...period...i take a little detail brush with me and knock out any polishing dust that has found its way into small areas and then wash it off with my mitt and ONR. It just leaves everything prepped more appropriately than if you didn't do it IMO.

HOWEVER...I've found in a couple of cases that after doing an ONR and then applying the wax, upon removal i would sometiems get a spot or two where the wax would streak and it woudl take a little extra work to smooth it out (even thoguh i always use 2 towels when removing). What i BELIEVE is happening is that the polymers used in ONR are being left over on the paint even after drying, and then when applyign wax/sealant...the two are mixing and sometimes, depending upon the wax/sealant...they dont place nice together. So, just to be safe, after the ONR wash i now do an IPA or Eraser wipe down to make sure im still working with totally clean paint...thought i will admit I'd like to try Meguiars new rinseless wash which claims it uses NO polymers to clean...i wonder if that would eliminate the IPA wipe down step...?

Anyway...i started applying the wax by hand while my sis applied Wolfgang Tire Gel to all the tires...




Then after we finished up we started packing up everything we knew we were done with while the wax cured....like i said...a non-stop pit crew lol...ALWAYS moving and doing something. After allowing to cure...we started carefully removing the wax to reveal the finished product...all three of us had been waiting for this moment


The gloss and clairity of the paint was beautiful. We had busted our butts covering every inch of the paint...and all the hard work paid off....the paint looked like a beautiful black onyx.

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

We took this:





and transformed it into this:



And this nasty looking greyish mess that the other detailer said 'couldn't be removed"...




I laugh in his face....hahahahaha!





Even the poor gas cover that was a scratched mess was given much love..



But we say nuh uh...homie don't play that (shout out to Homie the Clown!)





Below the Camaro Decal..






WOW that ugly...ok we fix...



And like i said, we cover every inch...so these little buggers right here:




were also removed....






I love our sun gun we made...its a love hate relationship...it makes everything SO crystal clear as to if the paint is right or not...and it is NOT bias, it will show you if the paint still needs more work lol...THIS paint obviously, does not.


Now of course by the time we finished it was dark...*collective sigh*....but wait! Joe was so happy with how the Camaro turned out, he wanted us back out 2 weeks later to give his lifted Silverado a good wash/clay and sealant. It sits outside, its BIG...and its going to continue to get washed at the car wash...but thats no reason for it not to be protected...it is a very nice truck...ANDDDDD while we were out there he wanted a maintenance wash on the Camaro...which meant it would be pulled out in the sun....and of course while it was out in the sun we just had to get some beauty shots of it in direct sun light, just to show ya that this thing looks good under our sun gun and under God's sun gun lol.




Sweet!





Oh yes...she looks nice...very very nice.

And for some beauty shots..








Al, what do you think of that??

"Hoo-Ah!!!"

The owner Joe had grabbed us a couple pics of his own the day right after the detail...good reflection shots for sure:






Owners reflection!!




This is for sure one of my favorite shots...



Oh yes my lovely...ready to roll out..




Now as the title said, and as i mentioned above, we did his beautiful lifted Silverado. I tried nicely to talk Joe into trading us the Silverado for the detail we did on the Camaro, but he insisted that our detail was worth much more than that.......ok just kidding he actually just told me "ummm, hell no!"...hey, was worth asking right?

Not a lot of before and afters here, just a couple shots of a clean, protected...very sharp looking truck...

Here it is with the Camaro tucked in the garage behind it:



I told you it was freakin huge right?






I'm 6'3...when i have to stand on the wheel to reach the center of the hood...ITS BIG!



I think i woulda looked good crusin around in it....but he didn't wanna let it go *sigh*...oh well, one day.

Coach (nickname for my sister) lookin all cool with her shades next to big fella,




And last but not least, us with the Camaro...yup...Windows and Wheels pimped his ride




WOW, long write up..but awesome detail...was a lot of fun..and was nice to come back two weeks later knowing Joe had already done one wash on it...and we were able to see that the paint was still in great shape. He used his Grit Guards, new wash mitts, good microfibers he got from us and of course...good technique...which is REALLY over looked with most things.

Hope you guys enjoyed the write up and photos...We actually used this detail to do sort of a photo shoot for a new video for our website....the video really shows some great footage of the before and after condition of the paint...if you guys have a spare 4 minutes check it out and tell me what you think.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPpVCtIv-40&context=C47eeb42ADvjVQa1PpcFPvSQuWnM2zaRMgnLvXr 4aHPdgEtBXcD5E=]Windows & Wheels Intro Video - YouTube[/video]

Thanks all for looking...

[Sick03stang]

Awesome job.

[Mobile detail]

I was actually detailing yesterday and thought of you. I haven't seen any write ups from you in a while. Sick work as usual, but I wouldn't expect anything but the best from you. Your work keeps getting better and better bro. Seems like the business is taking off. Congrats!

[Kaiser37]

Nice! Do you think the owner would eventually want a single stage process on the truck? Or did you already do that?

[bigez]

Awesome results! And great write-up too. It was pretty detailed, so I actually learned some from this as well. Thanks.

[Klasse Act]

Great family tag team on the BIG Camaro!

This sums it up right here for me!


The color black keeps people in business, so I guess its a good thing they keep painting cars this color and letting people who've got NO idea what they're about to get into buy them! I used to think there should've been a background check when people said they've gotta have black, LOL!

Once again, great work guys!

[mwoolfso]

awesome turnout, great narration, great teamwork. thanks!

[ArkayoDeetayo]

Great Job Andre and Coach

[rider9195]

Beautiful car! It seems like you have the detailing down to a science.