Custom Paint Job - 1980 Corvette - RUPES & Gyeon - Extreme Show Car Makeover at Autogeek

[Mike Phillips]

Custom Paint Job - 1980 Corvette - RUPES & Gyeon - Extreme Show Car Makeover at Autogeek



This car belongs to my buddy Jim, I needed a cool car for some great pictures for two of my classes at Mobile Tech Expo in Orlando in a few weeks. Jim's car has a great custom paint job but there were still some sanding marks and holograms left in the paint so it worked perfect for my RUPES class and my Gyeon class.


Here's before....



Under florescent lights, the paint looks pretty good!

Look ma... no swirls - no scratches....

Now lets see what's really going on....

These my friend are holograms....

If you detail cars at a professional level or you work in a body shop - you want this light.



On Autogeek.com


SCANGRIP Sunmatch

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


Here's my team. From left to right...

Al, Jeff, Frank, John, Brian

Here's the after shots....

I'll post the process we used and the product we used tomorrow plus some of the action shots.



On Autogeek.com

GYEON Q2 Mohs Ceramic Paint Coating

 

[FrankS]

It came out real nice. The team did a great job!

The Rupes system did a great job at removing the swirls and sanding marks.

All of the Rupes tools (except for pneumatic) were used to tackle this job...the 21, 15, Duetto, Mini, and the iBrid.

I was impressed by the Gyeon products used. The coating is very easy to apply and wipe off. Even the Gyeon towels used were nice.

 

[GSKR]

Great stuff I want those blue towels to wipe off coating.

 

[ronkh57]

Great stuff I want those blue towels to wipe off coating.

???

 

[GSKR]

???

The Gyeon blue micro fluff towels are really soft and fluffy and well made Edgeless as well.super soft and just feels right in your hand total control.I don't think they sell them separate from the kit.There so good I would pay 15.00 for each of them.I could be wrong about buying separate I will see Tommorow.

 

[GSKR]

Just checked they do sell them separate for 8.00 each.Gonna get some Tommorow I'm not a micro addict but I want those.

 

[FrankS]

Just checked they do sell them separate for 8.00 each.Gonna get some Tommorow I'm not a micro addict but I want those.

Yep, I'm pretty sure they were these:

GYEON Soft Wipe Microfiber Towel 16x24

Nice towels!

 

[alfortuna]

No doubt that Jim, the owner of this flashy Corvette, was a proud car guy when he left his baby at the Autogeek's Show Car Garage for some detailing. I hope Mike took a picture of his friend's face when he returned to pick up his car the next day. What an incredible transformation! The Rupes system came through brilliantly. I enjoyed my first opportunity to work with the iBrid polisher. It really saved time and effort in the tight places like the round tail-lights, the front fender vents, door locks and handles, etc. The white pad is very effective for its size. The GYEON coating and related products made the final step easy and most satisfying. The custom shiny paint-job became a glassy sculpture last evening. Thank you for trusting us with your beautiful ride, Jim. Enjoy it in good health. Thanks to Mike and the team for another great experience. Al

 

[Bobby B.]

Awesome job! The 1980 Corvette looks amazing.

 

[custmsprty]

Wowwww, that looks amazing!

 

[Mike Phillips]

Just to note....

I have some amazing picture to add to this thread.

These are pictures that I'll be using for two classes I'm teaching at Mobile Tech Expo. this month. I also have shots with the SCANGRIP Sunmatch light showing the after results.

So stay tuned, I'll get them added as soon as I can process them and upload them to the gallery.

 

[The Guz]

Fantastic job done by the team.

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Outstanding work gang! You guys really brought out the depth and color of that paint.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


Inspection for contamination

Before starting we did the baggie test. Since this is a recent custom paint job we didn't expect there to be any above surface bonded contaminants....

We were wrong!

The entire car was covered with paint overspray. So we used RUPES Rapid Cleaner Detailer with Nanoskin Towels and Mitts to remove all of the paint overspray.

When Jim came and picked up his car I mentioned we did the baggie test and found the entire car to be rough to the touch.

He pointed to the driver's side rear quarter panel and told me this section had to be repainted.


This just goes to show what I wrote here is accurate.


A $4.00 Plastic Drop Cloth could have prevented this...

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


One Step Correction

After removing the overspray paint I did the Test Spot starting with the RUPES Auarz Gloss Medium Cut Polish with the RUPES green foam pad. While this combo was working to remove the defects it wasn't working as fast or as effectively as I wanted for this type of car, (realistically this is a show car as it's only driven to car shows).


So I did second Test Spot using the RUPES very aggressive blue foam cutting pad and the RUPES Zephyr Gloss Compound.

That did the trick. So this is the approach we used to remove all the sanding marks, holograms and other random swirls and scratches.

Buffing on edge with the RUPES BigFoot 21 Mark II

I cover this technique on page 64 of my RUPES how-to book.

The Metro Blaster SideKick

One of my favorite tools and in my opinion a Must Have tool for anyone that details cars either for fun or profit.

Because the RUPES blue pad is a large open pore foam formula and the RUPES Zephyr Gloss Compound can be a tick on the dusty side, John is waking around the car blowing off the compound residue dust versus any of us wipe it off.

Click here to get you're own Metro Blaster Sidekick

j

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


Here's Al give the Corvette a final wipe after ONLY the compounding or correction step.

NOTE how beautiful, clear and glossy the paint is at this point in the process.

If this was a daily driver you could stop right here and go to wax or sealant.

Now this is what I call amazing abrasive technology. Anyone that has a bottle of the RUPES Coarse Zephir Gloss Compound, next time you're using it, after shaking it up really well, pour some out in your fingers and feel it.

Then feel how coarse the RUPES blue foam cutting pads are and when you put the two together and get these kind of results.... well that's just mind blowing. If fact, I have an article by that title...


Mind Blowing - RUPES Blue Foam Cutting Pad and Zephir Gloss Coarse Gel Compound

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


While a person COULD stop after the RUPES compounding step and go to the waxing step or application of a synthetic sealant, we're going to apply a ceramic paint coating to the custom paint job on this classic Corvette and for this reason, and because this is a 37 year old show car, we're going to take these results to an even higher level.

For this step we're going to polish using the RUPES Diamond Ultra Fine Polish with the RUPES ultra soft white foam polishing pads.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...


To seal the paint we're going to use GYEON Q2 Mohs Ceramic Paint Coating

 

[ronkh57]

Beautiful !!!