1968 Firebird, Full wet sand and buff: Rasky's Auto Detailing
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fancyfootwork
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- Feb 19, 2010
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BTW, how do you like your Suby? The 2011 WRX looks very appealing to me.
I absolutely LOVE my car. I just have the 2.5i, but its a 5-speed and fairly quick. I'm also not spending a boat load on insurance and premium gas. haha. It goes through gears really smooth, I want to put in a short shifter though. Got the car with 200 miles on it and its at 18k or so with no problems at all. You know how brutal these Minnesota winters are, so a WRX might be a perfect fit for you haha.
tuscarora dave
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- Aug 21, 2009
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Rasky, Your work is increbible! If a car can udergo a spiritual experience I'd sat that that Firebird surely did!!! I just couldn,t find a better way to describe viewing this thread. Thanks so much for posting your work as I have learned a lot from your posting.:dblthumb2:
RaskyR1
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Thanks dog! I think the wedding stuff has kept me more busy than anything...especially when you figure that I'm working to pay for the dang thing!
Thanks Bobby B!
Yeah the MN winters is exactly why I want the WRX. I drove my fiancees AWD RL this winter for a few weeks and it was a blast. My TSX is too slow for me and the WRX would just be a better all around fit! Plus it's priced lower too!
Shhhhhh!
Thanks for the positive feedback Dave!
rops:
termigator
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Amazing work as usual, Rasky. It's always a pleasure to see your work from start to finish. :dblthumb2:
olbear1962
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- Jun 11, 2009
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Great write-up and superb work. Thanks for sharing
Joe@Superior Shine
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Sweet!
Wills.WindowsAndWheels
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I gotta give my props too...Mike refered me to this link as an example of what a good 'write up' looks like...not to mention what an awesomely perfect job looks like too!
You said you had it for 2 weeks....about how many hours total do you think you put into it, was it a day in/day out sorta deal...whats a total overhaul like that go for...
hope im not askin to much, just tryin to get my feet wet in the detail business myself...and you definitely look like you know what you're doing...so thought id ask.
AWESOME WORK!
You said you had it for 2 weeks....about how many hours total do you think you put into it, was it a day in/day out sorta deal...whats a total overhaul like that go for...
hope im not askin to much, just tryin to get my feet wet in the detail business myself...and you definitely look like you know what you're doing...so thought id ask.
AWESOME WORK!
sullysdetailing
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- Mar 7, 2009
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Great Job buddy the car looks great
RaskyR1
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Thank you!
Thanks Joe! :thankyousign:
Thank you!
I think I had around 30-35hrs invested into the car. Detailing is just a hobby for me now so most my time on the car was spent during the weekends, but also a few late week nights too.
IMO jobs like this are best charged by the hour as every car is different and some require more time than others. On average I'd say you will spend a good 40hrs to do a full wet sand on a car and even longer if you are doing most of it by hand. Figure out what you feel your skill is worth at an hourly rate and estimate the job from there.
The most time consuming part of the job is removing all the sanding scratches. I will go over the whole car as best I can using my halogen lamps and dual xenon lights to track down all remaining sanding marks during the initial compounding. I will then wash the car and come back a day later and reinspect. It's not uncommon to find areas that require more buffing. I'm not sure if it's just the paint swelling or if it's filling going on, but I always seem to find a few stray pig tails/tracers or sanding marks after it's had a day to sit. Or it could just be that I needed a fresh set of eye's.
Hope this helps,
Rasky
ZimRandy
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Simply awesome Rasky. :dblthumb2:
I bet it's nice not having to deal with all the trim and emblems, too.
If you don't mind a 'shadow', I'd love to see this kind of work in person sometime. I don't see wetsanding in my near future, but the results are intriguing.
Randy
I bet it's nice not having to deal with all the trim and emblems, too.
If you don't mind a 'shadow', I'd love to see this kind of work in person sometime. I don't see wetsanding in my near future, but the results are intriguing.
Randy
Mike Phillips
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- Dec 5, 2022
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Professional Grade work Rasky...
Yesterday I posted a reply to this thread and after hitting the Submit Reply button my browser crashed and I moved on to another project.
Let me try again...
Nice work Rasky!
Sanding down entire cars and then buffing them out to perfection is a huge undertaking which involves a certain amount of risk.
In this example, even though this car has a custom paint job, which usually means a thicker topcoat which in turns gives the guy doing the sanding and buffing confidence that there's enough material to safely sand and buff without making any mistakes, this custom paint job has already been sanded and cut and it looks like caveman techniques were used.
So while the paint job might have started out with plenty of clear, now you have no idea how much clear is left because of the guy that went before you...
That's the risk. But you sized up the job and I'm going to guess you sized up the owner and accepted the job with the risk and turned a diamond in the rough into a glistening gemstone.
That's a real blessing... older, classic cars have old classic trim and script components that can be easily broken, so it's always better if the owner or someone else has already removed them for you.
Isn't that how it alway goes...
TOGW = The Other Guy's Wax
What's really bad is when the other guy slings splatter into places you cannot get to to remove it.
For everyone reading this, anytime you're detailing a car and you find compound, polish or wax residue left on the car by the other guy, either take pictures of it or show the owner and preferably both so as to document that you didn't do it.
After you buff out a car there's no practical or easy way to prove compound splatter in the nooks and crannies of the car was there before you started so make sure to point this out to the owner. You can also offer to do your best to remove the splatter if possible but keep in mind that splatter that has dried as hard as concrete is going to be difficult to remove and require time. If you're busy removing the other guy's splatter then this will eat into your time to buff out the car.
A lot of people reading this might know what RIDS are but not everyone... so if you don't know here's a thread that explains...
RIDS - The Definition of RIDS and the story behind the term...
You also did an excellent job creating your "Write-Up" by taking great pictures and then explaining your process so that others could follow your success. Sanding down an entire car and then buffing the paint to perfection is a TON of work by itself. To stop throughout the process and take pictures and then later on sort through them, crop, resize, upload into a gallery somewhere and then insert them instead of simply attaching them as thumbnails requires a lot of work and time and because I know how much work and time that takes I appreciate it and like to take a moment to say thank you.
:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:
Yesterday I posted a reply to this thread and after hitting the Submit Reply button my browser crashed and I moved on to another project.
Let me try again...
Nice work Rasky!
Sanding down entire cars and then buffing them out to perfection is a huge undertaking which involves a certain amount of risk.
In this example, even though this car has a custom paint job, which usually means a thicker topcoat which in turns gives the guy doing the sanding and buffing confidence that there's enough material to safely sand and buff without making any mistakes, this custom paint job has already been sanded and cut and it looks like caveman techniques were used.
So while the paint job might have started out with plenty of clear, now you have no idea how much clear is left because of the guy that went before you...
That's the risk. But you sized up the job and I'm going to guess you sized up the owner and accepted the job with the risk and turned a diamond in the rough into a glistening gemstone.
That's a real blessing... older, classic cars have old classic trim and script components that can be easily broken, so it's always better if the owner or someone else has already removed them for you.
Isn't that how it alway goes...
TOGW = The Other Guy's Wax
What's really bad is when the other guy slings splatter into places you cannot get to to remove it.
For everyone reading this, anytime you're detailing a car and you find compound, polish or wax residue left on the car by the other guy, either take pictures of it or show the owner and preferably both so as to document that you didn't do it.
After you buff out a car there's no practical or easy way to prove compound splatter in the nooks and crannies of the car was there before you started so make sure to point this out to the owner. You can also offer to do your best to remove the splatter if possible but keep in mind that splatter that has dried as hard as concrete is going to be difficult to remove and require time. If you're busy removing the other guy's splatter then this will eat into your time to buff out the car.
A lot of people reading this might know what RIDS are but not everyone... so if you don't know here's a thread that explains...
RIDS - The Definition of RIDS and the story behind the term...
You also did an excellent job creating your "Write-Up" by taking great pictures and then explaining your process so that others could follow your success. Sanding down an entire car and then buffing the paint to perfection is a TON of work by itself. To stop throughout the process and take pictures and then later on sort through them, crop, resize, upload into a gallery somewhere and then insert them instead of simply attaching them as thumbnails requires a lot of work and time and because I know how much work and time that takes I appreciate it and like to take a moment to say thank you.
:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:
RaskyR1
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- Apr 14, 2008
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Thanks Sully!
Thanks Randy! Not having emblems was a huge plus.
Things are pretty crazy right now leading up to my wedding...even my poor car is looking neglected. Once I get back from the honeymoon I'm sure we can find a day where you can come check it out. I have a '63 AH 3000 MKII in my other garage we just finished painting and once we start putting it back together I will need to do some crazy sanding on it.
Thanks Mike! You've been a big inspiration to me over the years.
rops:No doubt it is very risky re-sanding something that has already been leveled once already. Having know the painter and the owener for well over 10 years now we both felt confident there was enough material. PTG readings (not that it means much on a car like this) were in the 300 micron range. Looking closely at one of the chips you could also see a nice thick layer of color as well.
Documentations is definitely a must when your are working on cars like this. There were a couple edges that the painter had rubbed through on and they were all well documented before I started any work on the car along with any scratch or chips.
icture:Rasky
Wills.WindowsAndWheels
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- Oct 31, 2009
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No doubt it is very risky re-sanding something that has already been leveled once already. Having know the painter and the owener for well over 10 years now we both felt confident there was enough material. PTG readings (not that it means much on a car like this) were in the 300 micron range. Looking closely at one of the chips you could also see a nice thick layer of color as well.
Documentations is definitely a must when your are working on cars like this. There were a couple edges that the painter had rubbed through on and they were all well documented before I started any work on the car along with any scratch or chips.icture:
Rasky[/QUOTE]
I think thats some really good advice...I was just about to ask if you used any type of advice to measure the thickness of the paint...but you just answered that.
So you said it was at about the 300 micron range...about how much (and how fast) does the 2000 grit wetsand paper take down the paint?
Documentations is definitely a must when your are working on cars like this. There were a couple edges that the painter had rubbed through on and they were all well documented before I started any work on the car along with any scratch or chips.
icture:Rasky[/QUOTE]
I think thats some really good advice...I was just about to ask if you used any type of advice to measure the thickness of the paint...but you just answered that.
So you said it was at about the 300 micron range...about how much (and how fast) does the 2000 grit wetsand paper take down the paint?
RaskyR1
New member
- Apr 14, 2008
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- #40
No doubt it is very risky re-sanding something that has already been leveled once already. Having know the painter and the owener for well over 10 years now we both felt confident there was enough material. PTG readings (not that it means much on a car like this) were in the 300 micron range. Looking closely at one of the chips you could also see a nice thick layer of color as well.
Documentations is definitely a must when your are working on cars like this. There were a couple edges that the painter had rubbed through on and they were all well documented before I started any work on the car along with any scratch or chips.
Rasky
I think thats some really good advice...I was just about to ask if you used any type of advice to measure the thickness of the paint...but you just answered that.
So you said it was at about the 300 micron range...about how much (and how fast) does the 2000 grit wetsand paper take down the paint?[/QUOTE]
That will largely depend on the paint itself. I've had paint that laughed at 2000 grit paper and I needed to step down to 800 to get any kind of results.
This Acura had some crazy hard paint!
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...f-05-nbp-acura-rl-rasky-s-auto-detailing.html