Starting the year with some American Muscle! 2013 ZL1 Polished & Coated

[zmcgovern45]

This vehicle belongs to a returning client who had purchased this Camaro recently. We decided on a one step correction process to remove the majority of the swirls in the paint to create a deep, wet looking shine. The paint was then protected with Americana Car Care's Americoat Acrylic paint coating for added protection and ease of maintenance. In the end, the car looked great. We were able to achieve a good amount of correction for just one step, and made a great improvement to the appearance of the vehicle.

**note: the front end was not worked on at this time as the bumper was just painted**


It is technically Spring, however we were working in temps near freezing for the majority of this project. Hopefully temps will get back up to normal before our next project (another Camaro).




Process

Tires: Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner & Tire Brush
Wheels: Citrus Wash, Wheel Woolies, Boars Hair Brushes
Wash: ONR
Decontaminate: Nanoskin Fine Grade Wash Mitt with Nanoskin Glide
Paint Thickness Readings with Defelsko PosiTest Combo Gauge
Tape Trim & Areas of Concern with CarPro Automotive Tape
Correction: HD Adapt on White Lake Country Polishing Pads via Rupes LHR21ES, Rupes LHR75E, and Griot's Garage 3rd Gen
Surface Prep: CarPro Eraser
Paint Protection: Americoat Acrylic Coating
Tire Dressing: CarPro PERL
Wheel Sealant: CarPro HydrO2
Metal Polish: CG Metal Polish
Glass: Meguiar's D120
Trim: 303 Aerospace Protectant




Before

Inspecting the car before we got started. Swirls and scratches were clearly visible on all surfaces.














The wheels were not too bad, but needed some cleaning. The satin black finish also showed signs of improper care as there were stains that indicated a harsh cleaner may have been used in the past.







During


We began by cleaning the tires. They were covered in a greasy tire dressing and plenty of dirt. Notice the grime that is running off of the tires as the tire cleaner goes to work.




Once the rubber was clean, we began cleaning the wheels with a gentle soap and water solution





The wheels were then sealed with CarPro HydrO2







After the paint was thoroughly cleaned and decontaminated, the car was brought inside for further inspection. The paint looked considerably worse after it had been properly cleaned and the bare paint was revealed.





Rotary holograms were found on several panels









Swirls appeared to be rather deep







Etched water spots were found on most horizontal surfaces





Our test spot yielded a sizeable improvement. The paint is now mostly defect free and a much deeper shade of red.





Video of the test spot





Carbon fiber before corection.











Carbon Fiber before correction






Carbon Fiber after correction





50/50 on quarter panel under ambient lighting showing the dramatic color difference. The orignal conidition now appears quite dull in comparrison.






Fender before correction





Fender After correction






Door Before Correction





Door After Correction





Quarter Panel Before Correction





Quarter Panel After Correction

[zmcgovern45]

A close up of the metallic paint





Matt focusing in on the gorgeous carbon fiber detail on the hood





Car looked great after correction was complete. It was then wiped down with CarPro Eraser and was ready for coating.







Americoat was applied to all painted surfaces.





The coating was then baked to accelerate curing and to promote higher surface hardness.






While the coating was curing I started cleaning the exhaust tipes. There were not too dirty to start with.





They cleaned up quickly and easily with some metal polish






Rear end looking good







After

The car looked great afterwards. The paint was deep and very glossy






Swirls were greatly reduced, and the paint glowed in the sunlight













Loved this carbon accent on the hood







As always, thanks for reading!

[Swiss_T]

I love metallic red when it looks deep and vibrant!
Great job on making it look like a giant candy apple!!

[FrankS]

Excellent job as always Zach, thanks for sharing!

[whavens]

Great job. Beautiful work on the carbon fiber ( and for that matter the whole car.) You really made that Camaro pop.

Walter

[Heisenberg]

Awesome work.

Noticed you used HD adapt - I've had trouble finding good technique for this product. I'm sure it works just as well as HD's other products, but I can't seem to get the amount to use or number of passes down with it. Can you share your technique with it? I've tried the same technique as HD's other products, where less is usually more, but it just wasn't cooperating the couple of times I used it, and I know most products that "don't work" are user error..

[conman1395]

Awesome work.

Noticed you used HD adapt - I've had trouble finding good technique for this product. I'm sure it works just as well as HD's other products, but I can't seem to get the amount to use or number of passes down with it. Can you share your technique with it? I've tried the same technique as HD's other products, where less is usually more, but it just wasn't cooperating the couple of times I used it, and I know most products that "don't work" are user error..

Me too. I'm finding Polish to be extremely easy to use. But Adapt is hard to remove and is dusting.

[StalkerStang]

I'm actually really surprised for how new that car is, that the holograms and swirls were that bad. My 07' F150 work truck has a similar looking appearance to your before close-ups.

[zmcgovern45]

Awesome work.

Noticed you used HD adapt - I've had trouble finding good technique for this product. I'm sure it works just as well as HD's other products, but I can't seem to get the amount to use or number of passes down with it. Can you share your technique with it? I've tried the same technique as HD's other products, where less is usually more, but it just wasn't cooperating the couple of times I used it, and I know most products that "don't work" are user error..

Well, there are times when HD Adapt (and other products) don't want to cooperate for me... so I have always been a believer of having a large selection of products to always be prepared.

With Adapt, I simply apply ~6 dots (pea sized) to a clean pad, spread the product out at a low speed, then work it for 3-5 passes as needed. It wipes away relatively easily. I then apply 2-3 more pea sized dots for subsequent sections, changing pads every 2-3 panels depending on the panel size. Adapt has never created much dust for me when it works well with the paint I am working with.

Me too. I'm finding Polish to be extremely easy to use. But Adapt is hard to remove and is dusting.

Adapt has only been hard to remove one time for me.. so I simply did not use it on that project. In this case, it worked nicely on the Camaro paint and wiped away easily after working it. Very little dusting as well.

[Heisenberg]

I don't think I was working it enough... I usually would just go back to something else. I try to have plenty of variety on hand at once but this was one that I never even considered in my rotation of test products because it never gave me good results.

Thanks for the tip.