First shot at fixing the black Vette

[J S Machine]

Well, I'm a little late, but better late than never right? Sorry..I have been terribly busy.

I got the front fender done last weekend, and that about wraps it up. I had done the headlight covers when I started the original work about 8 or 9 months ago (see post 44 of this thread), and they looked good afterwards. After I did the front fender this past weekend, I began to look at the hood and see what to do there. The light covers now look just as bad as the hood. Something is definitely wrong with the paint for sure, although I can't put my finger on what it is. I'm convinced now that the only thing to do is just keep it slathering it with wax to get some sort of shine out of it, and plan to have it painted soon.

Anyway, here are the fender pics. This is the front passenger fender after the first compounding step and sanding with the 3000 grit trizact pad.



And here it is completed. That towel put off a crazy reflection in the picture for some reason..sorry about that.



So anyway, here are some completed pictures of the car. I have been driving it for a few days, so if your eyes are good enough to spot the dust on the rear bumper cover, then you know why





As you can see, I take better care of my car than I do my yard. I hate mowing grass....lol

In all, I have 46 hours in this correction. I did not do the hood for the reasons stated previously, so that would easily push it over 50. It takes time to do it right, but I feel confident saying the results speak for themselves.

I hope this thread has helped people here who may have had a similar situation and needed help. I tried to do this as detailed as possible, to show that even people with no experience can fix some pretty bad stuff. I appreciate everyone here and all the knowledge that I have gained. I now look at paint on cars completely different - now that I know what is involved with making the paint right and keeping it that way.

Feel free to make this thread a sticky or rename the title to "Paint correction on Black Corvette by a first time enthusiast" or something of that nature. I'm sure that it would be of great value to the forum for visitors to see that people who have little experience can do this if they put enough time an effort in

[Crispy]

Wow what a thread-I am a newbie to to the Buffing world and this provides me with a will to succeed. I have done some work but nowhere near the time you have spent. Almost want to start my own thread just for me to record the steps. Well done.

[tuscarora dave]

I'm sure that it would be of great value to the forum for visitors to see that people who have little experience can do this if they put enough time an effort in

And you certainly did step up and impress!! I am proud to be a part of this thread. Your dedication and effort to get your Corvette looking it's best were unusually inspiring!! This has been my favorite thread to follow for as long as I can remember. Glad to see you driving it and enjoying the fruit of your labor.

[cartman57]

Quite an amazing difference from the first to the last pictures!
Dedication proved that anything can be done with advice from members guiding the way.
Vette looks great!!

[sproketser]

Looked at this thread , killer man ! Great job on that Vette .