2015 Corvette black

richy

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My neighbour treated himself to this lovely car. It is a 2015 and only has a couple of thousand kilometers on it. Unfortunately, the paint was not reflective of the low mileage (pun intended).

Here it is as it arrived:












I was going to be pulling the wheels and coating the barrels and calipers. The red calipers were just begging for some attention!



















He was doing a good job at keeping these clean:





First up the wheels were cleaned. The barrels were done with Zep Citrus and DG 901 as were the faces. The tires were cleaned with Zep 505 and the wells with LATA. I didn't try to get them perfect as I was going to be pulling them anyway.

Next up was to wash the car with 901 and then a 2nd decontamination wash with IronX paste. It was then clayed using a clay towel. The front section of the hood was showing the worst defects:




















This was a strange mark on the back R 1/4 panel:











So, lots of marks scattered about, but none (other than the front of the hood) that were too terrible. It was just going to take some time to get it to look great. We agreed to use Optimum Gloss Coat to keep the cost down so he could afford the amount of time the paint would need to be brought back properly. It was a good call.


The first job was the wheels. Each barrel was intensively cleaned with ONR followed by DG Squeaky Clean and then coated with DLux and flash cured with compressed air. The face of the wheel was cleaned in the same 2 step process but was given a double coat of GC. I have a new DG plastic trim product that I'm testing that both dyes and protects. I used it on the plastic wells and the mud guards. Here's a few 50/50 shots of it:








The calipers were also cleaned with DG Squeaky Clean. Again, an amazing product to use prior to coating. Check out this caliper after ONLY using SC on it:





Here are some other "in progress" shots of the wheels:





















The calipers were also double coated with Gloss Coat.






For the paint, it was corrected using my Flex 3401 + TB black wool + either M100 or SS Chop Top (where needed). That was followed by Essence and the white gloss pad from CarPro. The hood was given an intermediate step of M205 + yellow B/S pad just for perfection's sake. Here's that spot on the hood after correction:





The entire car was given the 2 step process (except the hood as I mentioned) including the headlights. The exhaust tips were hand polished with M205 and a mf and were double coated with GC as well. The tires were shot via my air gun with Opti Bond prior to the car being lowered. Each wheel was torqued back to spec. The paint and side and rear glass were coated with GC. The windshield was double coated with Fly By 30. The top was treated to DG 341 marine waterproofing.


Here she is all done:






















































Thanks for looking. As always, comments are appreciated.
 
Saaaweet! Great job Richy. I did a stingray just like that, but a hard top. Man, I didn't enjoy doing it with all the hard angles everywhere. How long did it take you?
 
Saaaweet! Great job Richy. I did a stingray just like that, but a hard top. Man, I didn't enjoy doing it with all the hard angles everywhere. How long did it take you?

Thanks Don! All told, with the wheels and everything, 20 hours.
 
Looks great as usual Richy. Unless I missed it, I didn't see your paint correction and protection protocol on this one.
 
Looks great as usual Richy. Unless I missed it, I didn't see your paint correction and protection protocol on this one.

Thanks so much! This is what I had posted:
"For the paint, it was corrected using my Flex 3401 + TB black wool + either M100 or SS Chop Top (where needed). That was followed by Essence and the white gloss pad from CarPro. The hood was given an intermediate step of M205 + yellow B/S pad just for perfection's sake." Protection was via a double coat of Optimum Gloss coat.
 
Looks great! Owner just needs to smoke out the reflectors on the sides. Legally they need to come on vehicles but dang they drive me nuts on Vettes.
 
Another show stopper Richy! Great work as usual. Poor C7 was swirl and defect city! Much, much better now!
 
Your posts are fantastic, and your work even better. I know your customers are always pleased with your work, but I bet few of them really understand your attention to detail!
 
Sweet work!
Thanks very much Bill! I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

Looks great! Owner just needs to smoke out the reflectors on the sides. Legally they need to come on vehicles but dang they drive me nuts on Vettes.
The red calipers really stand out against the black and so do those..for good or bad, LOL. And..thanks!

Another show stopper Richy! Great work as usual. Poor C7 was swirl and defect city! Much, much better now!
Thanks very much Scott! I've had worse, but it was nice to see it come up so well.

Great work as always Richy!
Thanks very much Marc as well as for taking the time to comment.

Looking great.
Thank you kindly Sir.

Your posts are fantastic, and your work even better. I know your customers are always pleased with your work, but I bet few of them really understand your attention to detail!
Holy moley, that is so kind! Thank you. As I was explaining a few things to him, he was just shaking his head and I kinda laughed and said "Ya, I know I'm kinda OCD about this". He appreciated it anyway.
 
Another amazing job my friend! just when I think you cant get any better, you prove me wrong buddy!:)
 
Thanks so much! This is what I had posted:
"For the paint, it was corrected using my Flex 3401 + TB black wool + either M100 or SS Chop Top (where needed). That was followed by Essence and the white gloss pad from CarPro. The hood was given an intermediate step of M205 + yellow B/S pad just for perfection's sake." Protection was via a double coat of Optimum Gloss coat.

WOW very nice. Just ordered more TB wool pads today. Glad you turned me on to them. They make a great one two punch on the 3401 and PE14-02.
 
Excellent work!
Thanks very much for both the comment and for taking the time to make it!

Another amazing job my friend! just when I think you cant get any better, you prove me wrong buddy!:)
Thank you very much!!

WOW very nice. Just ordered more TB wool pads today. Glad you turned me on to them. They make a great one two punch on the 3401 and PE14-02.

Ralph, thanks and my pleasure! I remember when I first found out about them. They sounded too good to be true, LOL.
 
Very Nice Work!!!

What is your process to remove the rust from rotors after/during wash - I sometimes have the same issue and it looks like you have a way to clean it up vs. just letting the brake pads clean it off?
 
Absolutely fantastic work. The gloss on that car is on point!
 
Nice job Richy. You are a mad genius when it comes to paint gloss. I have been meaning to ask you. Do you wipe down the paint with any prep product prior to applying Gloss Coat over Essence?
 
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