2011 Camaro

[richy]

This vehicle was my first for this season...what a way to break back into it..a 3 stage correction! The vehicle was to receive OG and I was looking forward to trying a method that I had been told about by both Yvan and Chris Thomas. But first, onto the paint and what I was dealing with.

Here it is as it arrived. Our area is so dirty with construction, the owner actually cleaned it before the trip to my house. Didn't stay clean long, eh?!?















First up was cleaning the paint to see the true condition.

Wheels/Wells/Barrels/Tires:

Wells were cleaned with LATA APC
Tires cleaned with Zep 505
Wheel barrels sprayed with Tarminator and allowed to dwell
Wheel barrels and faces cleaned with Zep Citrus.

Wash/Foam:

The car was foamed with Megs Hyper Wash
That was followed by a strong mix of DG 901.

Clay:

While still wet, it was brought inside and clayed with CarPro foam block.


There were several chips, including 2 very visible ones on the hood and elsewhere. There was a paint transfer scuff on the right front fender. The big news was the many light scratches from using a car wash. This was the typical rock-hard GM clear too. Here are some shots of what the issues were:







I tried to capture the scratches, but the pics weren't good enough.


Paint Correction:

I was eager to try the Rupes on a full blown, challenging job. In addition, I had M101 and M100 to try as well. First up was the combo of the Megs mf cutting pad and 101. I was disappointed. That combo got out some of the scratches, but not all. And, it took longer than a pass with a rotary could. Also, the 101 was leaving a haze. You can't work it as long as you can 105. Hmmmm. Next up was the 2 different pads I got from Corey. I know Bryan loves the one. Still weren't doing it for me, with either 101 or 100. I even broke out my most aggressive mf pad, by Surbuff. It got a lot, but not enough for me.
So, I old-schooled it. Rotary+Tuf Buff black wool+ M105. Works great. I was using one pass but before removing, misting for a 2nd, shorter pass. In a lot of cases that would do it. Sometimes a 2nd pass was needed. I also started using the M100 with the wool too. I found it to have a shorter working time than 105 does, but, it corrects quickly. Again, you can mist it to extend the working time a bit.
I like to end up with a high gloss polish, so I like to do an intermediate step to remove any possible wool evidence and get the paint ready to jump. That stage was done with a yellow B & S with M100. For my machine, I started using the Rupes for this. It did extremely well, but, I wanted to use the Rupes for the final stage and really didn't want to have to keep changing the pads. My solution? Use the Flex for this stage: Flex+Yellow B/S+M100=Holy Moley!! It was interesting to change back and forth between the 2 machines. The Rupes seems so much more sophisticated, but the Flex does the job.
Last stage was first attempted with Opt Hyper Polish. It was OK, but lacked the jump that M205 was giving. So the final stage was Rupes+M205+ white B/S.
Here are 2 shots of it after polishing, before being cleaned and coated:





Chip Repair:

The chips were filled using GM black spray paint applied with either a pointy toothpick or mf micro applicators. Unfortunately I ran out of paint prior to filling them all.
The pair on the hood were leveled with the Flex/100 combo and then refined with Rupes/M205.

Coating:

I had spoken to Yvan, who I really respect for his Optimum coating experience as he was one of the very few Beta testers for it. He reminded me of something that Chris Thomas had also mentioned to me: Use an air gun to assist in the drying of the coating prior to removal. Yvan was even kind enough to give me a link to a $12 drying gun from Princess Auto that I picked up on Friday. The timing can be tricky if you do it too much, but once you get the hang of how long to apply air, it speeds up the job a bit and makes the surface a bit more glossy. Not a ton, but some. The wheels were also coated.

Exhaust Tips:

Optimum Hyper Polish on 0000 steel wool followed by Colli Metal wax


Exterior Trim:

CarPro Dlux

Tires:

Duragloss Wet Shine sprayed via Air Gun.

Glass:

Coated with Optimum Glass coating on exterior. Interior cleaned with KD cloth.

Interior:

Vacuumed.

Final Presentation wipe down with UWW.

AFTERS:














End Result of Chips on Hood:















Boy, it felt great getting back into it again. What a gorgeous machine to do work on as well! Comments appreciated.

[david11g35]

Top notch work, once again Richy

[NickZ28]

Awesome work Richy...wanna do mine? LOL

[cartman57]

Incredible job. Nice way for the season to begin.

[daveinsweethome]

beautiful work, how did you body handle this job?

[Sicoupe]

Awesome work!!

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Geeeeebussss, buddy! EXCELLENT job!!!!!!

Even though that was your first time with the Rupes, I get the vibe you weren't overly impressed?

[spiralout462]

Gloss City!!! Hard work paid off!

[silverfox]

Great job. The car is a blast to drive. As nice as they look, they were made to drive it like you stole it.

[Marc08EX]

Great job Richy!!! The Camaro looks brand new!