Rasky's Auto Detailing: 1964 Impala full wet sand, buff, and interior fluff

RaskyR1

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This car was brought to be by my mentor who now buys and sells cars….some of you may recall the red 1963 Austin Healey that I did for him last summer. This car is a low mileage car with on 48,XXX original miles and has not been driven or registered since 1987! The car had received an amateur paint job and apparently it was done is some guys garage. Overall the car was pretty nice but the paint itself needed some help and I was asked to do whatever I could to make it look better. Originally I was just told to do the outside but then he asked me the day it was to be delivered to also do a quick touch up of the interior and address of few areas on concern.


Before pics


The tops of the car had sort of been wet sanded once already but was done very poorly and several areas were missed and the sides appeared to be untouched. Being white it was hard capturing the texture and defects in the paint so I didn’t spend a lot of time taking before pics…you should be able to get a good idea from these pics though.












Here are a few pics of the sanding in progress. I chose to do most of the sanding by hand using Meguiars 2000 grit paper and then followed it with their 3000 grit paper. For the large flat areas I sanded by hand using the 2000 grit but followed it up using 3M Trizact 3000 grit disk on the DA.

Half hood sanded






In these pics I tried to show the benefit of finishing down with a 3000 grit or higher paper. Even though M105 and other aggressive compounds are capable of remove 1200 grit scratches, the job is much, much easier when you finish with higher grit paper.

After I sanded the left side of the hood with 2000 grit I tape off a section and then sanded it with 3000 grit.


As you can see the 2000 grit left the finish very dull and there is little to no refection



After sanding with the 3M Trizact 3000 disks you can see a slight gloss to the paint again.



With the tape removed you can see a distinct line in the paint, especially where the florescent light is reflecting on the paint,




Sanding scratches were removed effortlessly using M105 and a PFW in this test spot.






Though they are expensive but they are definitely worth it IMO.






Some more sanding pics….I think these were all after the 2000 grit step












Some before interior pics






Low mileage!



Paint over spray…this was easily removed with some lacquer thinner. (Interior materials of older cars like this seem much more durable and can usually withstand strong solvents like this)



I received some new pads to play around with which worked nicely on some areas of the car. 5” and 3” wool pads.



5”


3”






My actual buffing process was as follows:


  • Meguiars M105 on the rotary and various wool pads
  • Meguiars M105 on the rotary and a foam Meguiars W8207 pad
  • Meguiars M205 on the rotary and a foam Meguiars W9207 pad


I tried a few spots after the M205 with PO85RD and UF but saw no noticeable improvement. Glass was done using Meguiars D120, Chrome polished with M105 and Optimum Metal Polish, paint was sealed with Menzerna Power Lock sealant, carpets cleaned using the LGM and Folex, interior wiped down with 1Z Premium Cockpit Cleaner.
 
Now for some after pics….I apologize for not having pics in the same lighting and I also forgot to take after pics of some of those nasty areas. Unfortunately I was forced to do all the polishing in my other garage as we were doing some painting on another car in my shop. I was also pretty pressed for time and I needed to deliver the car immediately after I was done with it. LMAO…I drove the car about 5 miles to the auction where it was to be sold and the license plates on the car still had the registration from 1987 on it! I can only imagine what I would have told a cop had I been pulled over! :D


After pics!










































Engine pic…though I did nothing to the engine bay



Interior









Just before I headed to the auction rollin’ in my ’64! :D




As always, that you for taking the time to view my work! :thankyousign:

Rasky
 
Great Job Rasky, the car looks amazing... Curious to know what the owner thought when he saw it?

How do you like 3M Trizact disks? I was going to either order some of the Abralon disks or the Trizact disks to use on my DA but was waiting on Meguiars to release theirs instead.
 
Great Job Rasky, the car looks amazing... Curious to know what the owner thought when he saw it?

How do you like 3M Trizact disks? I was going to either order some of the Abralon disks or the Trizact disks to use on my DA but was waiting on Meguiars to release theirs instead.

Thanks Tom! Owner was very happy when he saw it! I just hope it bring good money at the sale today! ;)


I really like the 3M disks but after talking with Kevin Brown I would also like to try out the Abralon disks. I've heard the new Meguiars disk are basically the same as the 3M, though I can't confirm that rumor yet as I have not seen them.


Cheers,
Rasky
 
Excellent job Rasky! When people see this they will think "Wow, the person who painted this did an excellent job!" not knowing that it was you who turned this gem around. This is one of my favorite quotes by Mike Phillips:

Sad thing about detailing, the detailer is the one who will make or break the painter's work yet the painter is the one who usually gets all the credit.
 
Excellent job Rasky! When people see this they will think "Wow, the person who painted this did an excellent job!" not knowing that it was you who turned this gem around. This is one of my favorite quotes by Mike Phillips:


LOL! So true! :D


Thank you!
 
As always Chad, Excellent work and a Great write up! I always enjoy looking at your work and learning from your write ups! Thank you for sharing it!!

Tad
 
Nice job! That is one big car! :dblthumb2:



Nice sig, btw. :awesome:
 
As always Chad, Excellent work and a Great write up! I always enjoy looking at your work and learning from your write ups! Thank you for sharing it!!

Tad

Thanks Tad! I appreciate the positive feedback! :props:

Nice job! That is one big car! :dblthumb2:



Nice sig, btw. :awesome:

Thanks Shane...can't recall where I got that sig from! :D
 
Very nice work Rasky!

That thing had some orange peel, that's for sure!

Very nice car, 327 to boot!

Good show!
 
Nice turn around Chad love looking at you work. You always go over and above sweet turn around. How long did take you .

:props::props::props: Steven
 
EXCELLENT WORK!!! There were orange peel everywhere. The finish was nothing less than beautiful.
 
tallent on loan from god.:xyxthumbs:

LOL! Thank You!

Very nice work Rasky!

That thing had some orange peel, that's for sure!

Very nice car, 327 to boot!

Good show!

Thanks Aaron! Yeah, the painter really did do a poor job. I was able to level out all the bad areas though. ;)

Nice turn around Chad love looking at you work. You always go over and above sweet turn around. How long did take you .

:props::props::props: Steven


Thanks Steven!

I didn't track the time on this as it was for a good friend but it was probably around 40hrs. I had the car for 2 weeks and just worked on it when I had the time. ;)

So how much did it sell for at auction?

I believe he said it brought $13,800. Not as much as he wanted but you know how auctions go... :(

EXCELLENT WORK!!! There were orange peel everywhere. The finish was nothing less than beautiful.

Thank you! :)
 
Great work, I am going to try the p3000 discs on my next wet sand
 
As always, a Fantastik turn around. What a great car!! One that never did this kind of work would never believe it was the same car!! Thanks for sharing it with us.
 
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