Rescued from Hell: 1969 Corvette Convertible

[richy]

My father bought this car to flip it. To say that it was in rough shape is an understatement. He will be getting it back into shape mechanically and whatnot but wanted me to try to repair the interior. As for the paint? Well, he thought he'd have to paint it but really didn't want to. He didn't think I'd be able to turn it around. I didn't know whether I would or not either. As you will see, it was really badly oxidized. This job was going to be interior only if the paint didn't correct, or a big job to try to turn it around.

When I got it, I didn't even bother washing it or the tires or anything. I thought that on the off chance the paint did turn around, I would just ONR the paint and then correct it from there. Here's how it was when it arrived to me. He had removed the seats for me to be able to clean the interior better and also to do them better as well:

















No oxidized paint here, no sir! OMG!!





The wheels were in good shape as my dad had already removed them and polished the rings and had painted them black.






The chrome had seen much better days too. I ended up being able to improve them marginally, but not much unfortunately.







OK...are you ready for the interior. Don't be eating anything when you see these pics!
























Here are the seats:











So, there we are. Good thing I was up for the challenge. First up: the interior. I was thanking my lucky stars that I had purchased my Mytee extractor last year!! First step was a thorough vacuum. That alone took quite a while. I then got the extractor heating up. I decided to use a Zep product that I bought about a year ago but hadn't tried yet. It had been describe to me as being very powerful: Zep Premium Carpet Shampoo. I mixed it up in a 32 oz bottle. Very little is needed: it's very concentrated.

I then sprayed my Zep cleaner on an area and then agitated it with my DA and carpet brush. For giggles, I also compared it to LATA to see which one would work better. The LATA suds up a lot more which was harder to clear from the carpet, and it did not clean any better than the Zep. The win goes to Zep for that product. After agitating, I would extract. I worked this combo heavily. I used 1.5 bottles of cleaner mix on this car...for a 2 door!!! It also took me 3.5 hours to complete. How did it turn out? Let's see:
























OK, another make-sure-you-don't-have-anything-in-your-mouth warning: This is what came out of my extractor at the end. I swore it looked like bloody used oil:

[richy]

The door panels were cleaned with my AG knockoff interior cleaning pad and the Zep cleaner. It was then treated to a couple of coats of Ultima Interior Guard. They did not come out as well as I had hoped they would:








The seats were cleaned with the AG pad with Zep, and then extracted. The vinyl and the cloth was treated with UIGP. They cleaned up nicely:






Now it was time to play with some paint! Got me a cigar lit up and got out my trusty flex 3401 and my black tuf buff pad. I was first going to see if it could be saved at all. I wanted to try my Shine Supply Flat Top compound a second time. What a test for it!! And did it pass..with flying colours! I found it to remove the oxidized haze really well too. I then went over the area a 2nd time with a white B/S pad + M205. Holey moley...I was going to be able to make a car outta this thing! I'll be damned.

Here's a 50/50 shot of the LF fender which was my guinea pig panel:








Now that I knew it was going to work, I wanted to test the Flat Top against 2 strong competitors: Americut and M105. Both had the same reaction: they were able to remove the oxidation as well as the Flat Top did, but the removal of it was a lot harder. FT it was for the rest of the car. Now, as far as the level of correction I was going for with this car: None! This thing has many issues and really needs a repaint, but I know that it isn't going to happen. There were many places that really needed touch up paint, but that was not available. The car had been repainted years ago (and not with a Corvette paint my dad said) so I just had to make it presentable. Period. The other thing that held me back was that I had no clue how thick the paint was on this car as it had originally been white, not red. So I needed to clean it up as good as possible while treading very lightly indeed. So scratches and whatnot that did not come out in the initial pass were ignored. The bumpers got the same 2 step process to them.

After the 2 step correction process, the car was wiped down with Eraser. The LSP of choice? I chose CQUK for it as I figured it would hold up very well until well after the car was sold and furthermore lock in the paint so you stopped having a red rag every time you wiped the paint. I forgot how much I hate single stage paint. It's just so dirty. The bumpers were coated too.


Well after 17 hours, I think it's worthy of going through an auction. Here we go:




















Some reflection shots:


















Here's one last shot, and thanks for looking! Comments always appreciated!


I wouldn't need to manage my anger if people would manage

[Alansr]

Amazing work!
Since it has been resprayed do you know if it's a single stage or clear coat?

[Bobbykart]

OMG, only a detail fanatic can appreciate! That is so cool.

[davey g-force]

What a turnaround Richy! Great work

[gibson24]

Great work there. A+

[ihaveacamaro]

Richy, you've been working on some really cool cars lately!! I'm so jealous lol

Great job on that!!

[House of Wax]

Outstanding. That's one of those interiors where you open the door, your jaw drops, and you don't know where to start. Always loved those old Stingrays

[dcjredline]

Auction? I bet you could get more out of a private sale. I think an auction is an insult to that great work!!!!!

[spence]

Wow, impressive work