1956 Pontiac Star Chief Convertible

[Mike Phillips]

1956 Pontiac Star Chief Convertible

Upcoming project, it's a one-owner, 1956 Pontiac Star Chief Convertible. The new owner is Earl the Plumber, who you've seen here recently as he's a local hotrodder and he and some of his cars are featured on both our TV show, "What's in the Garage?" and some of the how-to features we've shot here at our Show Car Garage Studio.


Here's Bob checking out Earl's new addition to his car collection...

That's Bob's Vette next to the Star Cheif... that is a modern convertible hotrod and a classic convertible hotrod...

Beautiful styling including the script for the model name...

Check out the spacious and roomy interior...

An absolutely gorgeous dash...

Speedometer goes to 120 miles per hour...

I think these Fender Skirts are stainless but they could be chromed, either way... pretty cool...

Stylish V-8 emblem to signify this model was equipped with the V8

Classic chrome spoke wheels...

Very beautiful and stylish design to the front clip...

As Earl and Gene driving by the Meguiar's Special Events Truck...

Here's some sun-shots of the true condition of the paint I took before Earl left...

Ouch! Kind of hurts your eyes, especially knowing the car these swirls are in...

I talked to Earl today and he supposed to be getting a shipment today that includes new front wheel bearings, if he gets the shipment today he'll try to have them installed tonight and then have this beautiful classic American convertible here at Autogeek tomorrow.

We have a very special guest detailer coming here tomorrow by the name of Jon Leidgen aka PAR Detailing and if the Star Chief is here, he's going to give me a hand knocking out some of these horrendous swirls...

Stay tuned...

 

[Mike Phillips]

Here's one of Earl's other hotrods... a 1965 GTO that we used for some how-to features for our new TV show...

Behind the scenes pictures - TV Features for What's in the Garage?

Not only is Earl a big horsepower hotrod guy... he also has a great sense of humor... this is his work van with Rick Goldstein from RaggTopp sitting at the wheel for a fun-shot...

You'll get to see more of Earl's hotrods when his segment airs on What's in the Garage?


Dates and Times TV Schedule for Autogeek's What's in the Garage?

 

[jpegs13]

What a great car! My grandfather had a star chief. Back then there were no seatbelts. I remember sitting in the back seat sliding all over the place after he washed and "detailed" it. He used furniture polish on the seats. Man, we could have ice skated back there when he was done!

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Beautiful car!

 

[PAR Detailing]

That is one cool car.

I am really looking forward to working with you Mike. This is a real treat to get to work with you hands on and Im sure it will be a great learning experience.

Hopefully everything works out and he can have the car at AG headquarters.

:xyxthumbs:

 

[C. Charles Hahn]

Wow.... that car is gorgeous! I'm guessing that's not original paint, do you have any idea if it's single stage or base/clear?

I don't see any signs of oxidation so I know what my guess would be, but anything is possible.

 

[TL type S]

Beautiful ride!

 

[Mike Phillips]

Wow.... that car is gorgeous! I'm guessing that's not original paint, do you have any idea if it's single stage or base/clear?

I don't see any signs of oxidation so I know what my guess would be, but anything is possible.

It's been repainted I'm sure. I'm not sure what type of paint? We'll be testing for single stage when it arrives.

See part of the story behind this car here,

Teaser Pics for upcoming What's in the Garage? episode

If you look closely, you can see the 1956 Pontiac behind the 442 in this picture...

 

[James K]

Wow what a nice car. Those swirl though! Agh! Lol.

 

[Mike Phillips]

56 Pontiac in the house...

The huge, massive front ends on classic 1950's cars are amazing!

There's a lot of stainless steel on this car including the fenderskirts... no black or gray pebble textured plastic trim to be seen...

We're going to see if we can restore some brilliance to the stainless steel...

 

[BillyJack]

There's a lot of stainless steel on this car including the fenderskirts... no black or gray pebble textured plastic trim to be seen...

We're going to see if we can restore some brilliance to the stainless steel...

My first job in the car business was in my uncle's body shop, back when I was in grade school. In those days, with the poor longevity of the old lacquers, it was common to have a full repaint on a 5 or 6 year old car. Most of the brightwork was removed an put in a big pile. I had a gallon jug of the old orange rubbing compound and a pile of cotton rags. My task was to hand polish all that stuff and have it done by the time the paintwork was done. When you had a high-end model, such as a Pontiac Star Chief, Chrysler New Yorker, Plymouth Fury or Buick Roadmaster, the pile was just huge!
Some of the "good old days' weren't all that good.

Bill

 

[Mike Phillips]

Hey Jon,

It was sure great to meet you and fun working with you... getting some pictures ready to upload, here's a parting shot as Jon's driving back to Panama City, Florida.

Mapquest shows Panama city to be, 7 hrs 45 mins / 502.33 miles, so drive safe and thank you for taking the time to visit Autogeek while you were in Florida.


Jon Leidgen aka PAR Detailing

:xyxthumbs:

 

[CEE DOG]

This is awesome! I'm happy for Jon and you both. Sounds like a great time. What a col car to work on too!

 

[Mike Phillips]

Before

Here's some sun-shots of the true condition of the paint I took before Earl left...

Ouch! Kind of hurts your eyes, especially knowing the car these swirls are in...

Today we removed the hood ornament and found some pretty bad water spots, likely where water pooled under the ornament.

Did a test spot using a PC on the 6.0 Speed Setting with a 5.5" Cyan Hydro-Tech Pad with Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish. Majority of swirls and shallow scratches came out leaving only the RIDS, so we moved onto claying the paint...

First the "Baggie Test" to check for above surface bonded contaminants. Even though this is a restored, rare classic, it was covered with Above Surface Bonded Contaminants.

Jon clays using Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay and Pinnacle Clay Lubricant

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...

Classic cars have painted grills right at the base of the windshield and usually, if you look close you'll see polish residue splattered into it during a previous detailing session.

Our goal is to avoid adding to it and if possible remove as much as we can...

The Beach Towel Tip

Next we want to test to confirm the paint is single stage or basecoat/clearcoat, it looks like a single stage paint but it only takes a few seconds to test and confirm...

To test for a single stage paint, try to find a light colored or white polish if you're working on any kind of pigmented paint. If you're testing white paint then try to use a polish with a color to it and a dark colored cloth, (so you can confirm that you're removing white paint and not just seeing the color of the paint).

Use an ample amount for plenty of lubrication as you're going to want to push firmly if no oxidation is present as was the case with the finish on the classic car.

Confirmed, we're working on a single stage paint... also note the heavier accumulation were my fingers pressed down with the most pressure... this is because you can exert more pressure to the small area of your finger tips than you can with your entire hand, you can use this to work for you or cause problems depending upon what you're trying to do...

The holes here where the hood ornament bolts on will allow splatter from the rotary buffer to fly through and into the engine compartment so we're going to place another beach towel under this area to capture any splatter.

Ready to start buffing...

:xyxthumbs:

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...

We used Flex PE-14 Rotary Buffers with 5.5" Cyan Hydro-Tech Foam Cutting Pads around 1200 RPM with Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover to cut out the swirls, water spots and scratches...

Jon tries using the Flex PE-14 without the handle gripping the head for control and I think he liked it... he sure did a great job...

Anytime you're abrading paint you have two things building up on the face of your pad, that's

Spent product
Removed paint

If you're working on a clear coat you're still removing paint you just can't see it as easily because it's clear, it's still important to clean your pads often when doing correction work.

Next we machine polished the paint using 5.5" Tangerine Hydro-Tech Polishing Pads with Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish at around 600 RPM

After using the rotary buffer to remove any swirls left by the cutting pad and/or swirl remover, we cleaned our pads and then placed them on DA Polishers and finished out with the DA's to ensure a swirl free finish...

Now we're ready to machine wax and for this we're using Pinnacle Souveran Liquid Carnauba Wax with DA Polishers and 5.5" Crimson Hydro-Tech Finishing pads.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...

When it was time to remove the wax I asked Jon if had ever used microfiber gloves to hold his microfiber towels and he said "no" so I had him give them a try...

What do you think... does it work better than just the bare hand?

Water Spots are gone so we replaced the hood ornament...

Simple process, easy to do, show car results...

Sun is going down but I'll get some sun shots on Sunday... until then, here's some beauty shots...

Mmmm... glossy and wet looking with a deep, wet shine...

Time to take the classic cruiser around the block... it's fun to shine them but driving them is even better...

Note Jon is using the Marilyn Monroe Suicide Knob... it's a HUGE diameter steering wheel and the Suicide Knob makes steering corners faster...

One classy classic...

Thanks for driving all the way to sunny Stuart, Florida, it was a genuine pleasure meeting you and putting a face to an Avatar!

 

[rakkvet]

Great write up Mike. I'm amazed at the correction you were able to get out of this. I recently did a 75 Ford Maverick and those grills right in front of the windshield were caked with polish from previous "detailing" sessions. I think I spent the majority of my time getting rid of the old wax.

The one thing I love about working on older cars is they are time capsules. It is amazing how technology and time have changed automobiles. Things like pumping the gas pedal, all the chrome and vinyl. Just amazing.

Did you choose the Pinnacle products for any particular reason on this car?
Tim

 

[mdb917]

Excellent job! I enjoyed the write-up.

Nice to see an old beauty like that looking great again rops:

 

[Meghan]

Was very nice to meet Jon, he caught me on a real busy day so I did not get the chance to go in the garage and hang out but glad Mike let him have some fun in there.