2001 Chevy Impala

[rwright]

Greetings all. The following thread is based on a 2 step correction that I performed for my mother as a birthday present. The goal for this one was 80% correction as it's had a little bit of paintwork from a deer hitting it and some etching that will need to be corrected by wet sanding, which I wasn't prepared to do. This was supposed to be posted for the "Show N' Shine" contest but I didn't make it on time. I apologize for the lack of after pictures, due to the fact that I had to drive home from work (150 mile trip) to finish up the car so that it could be picked up the next day and very little sunlight was present. I will get the car cleaned up and update with more pictures. One other note, my PC XP broke as I was finishing the last quarter panel so I was unable to jewel the paint.

Wash

Car was rinsed, then treated to a Meg's APC+ @ 4:1 pre-soak, followed by a wash down with 3oz APC+, 3oz. Meg's Shampoo+ to 4.5 gallons of water.

Tires/Wheels/Wheel Wells

These were cleaned with APC+ @ 4:1, various brushes
Tires dressed with DP Tire Gel (New Formula), wheel wells dressed with Meg's aerosol dressing, plastic pieces treated with 303 Aerospace Protectant

Clay

Car was clayed with Meg's OTC clay and QD (Not Ultimate Quick Detailer but the original). Typically I use Mother's clay kit but wanted to use up what I had on hand.

Engine

Engine cleaned with Zep Citrus, dressed with CD-2

Paint

Paint was corrected using PC XP
Meg's M105/M205
Lake Country 5.5" Cyan & Tangerine Hydro Tech Pads
Lake Country 4" Cyan & Tangerine Hydro Tech Pads
91% IPA diluted 1:1
3M blue & green tape

Trim

Trim was dressed with Poorboy's Trim Restorer

LSP

Car was sealed with DP Poli-Coat followed with a Duragloss Aqua Wax wipedown

Towels

Various towels were used



Car on arrival

Interesting imprint from the body shop

Rock chip, I plan to have this fixed

She said this was concrete but I was able to chip it off with my fingernail

Cleaned the hood, keep in mind this has been in the body shop

During the clay process I ran across this section and it kind of puzzled me

This was a test spot that I performed a long time ago to show what the car was capable of, used orange ccs pad and M105 only

Now for my first test spot, M105 + Cyan Hydro Tech pad taken with iPhone

Same spot taken with Canon point and shoot

In the sun

Roof before

Afters

To be continued

 

[rwright]

Continued

Remember me talking about the etching?

If you look just to the right of the garage door rail you will see the etching

Mirror before

Mirror After

Hood before

Hood After

Door handles before (They all looked like this)

Door handles after M105/M205 using microfiber pads and towels

Now onto some miscellaneous pictures

License plate area

After M205 on door, taken with iPhone and turned out as the best picture!

And a couple final shots

Well that completes this thread for now. Again, sorry for the lack of final photos. I plan to get the car cleaned up and shoot some pictures in the sun. Sadly I couldn't be there for delivery, I work 150 miles away from home. My wife called when my mother arrived and I could hear her in the background, it was funny but pleasing!

Thanks for looking.

Richard

 

[ASPHALT ROCKET]

I have been waiting for this ever since you gave me some sneak peeks of your progress. Awesome job Richard and great write up. Keep up the great work buddy.rops:

 

[mchess1]

Looking great Richard, I am sure Mom was very happy

 

[rwright]

I have been waiting for this ever since you gave me some sneak peeks of your progress. Awesome job Richard and great write up. Keep up the great work buddy.rops:

Thank you! I've been trying to figure out a better way to do write ups. If you look close enough you will see how it resembles JL's style. I was just really disappointed that my PC XP broke and I had to stop with only 2 steps. The bumpers were finished by hand along with some other small areas.

 

[ASPHALT ROCKET]

I have several pc's so next time let me know and you can borrow one. I did also notice you based your write-up off of JL, good one to learn from on a write up and detailing.

 

[CEE DOG]

Man that beauty was jacked up! I too have been looking forward to this. Great work Richard! :dblthumb2:

 

[DARK HORSE]

I too have been waiting for this one, and I must say that it was definitely worth the wait! Great job Richard, excellent work and a great write up!! I am sure that your mom was thrilled with the new look of her ride!!!!

 

[rwright]

Looking great Richard, I am sure Mom was very happy

Thanks! I'm sure she was!

I have several pc's so next time let me know and you can borrow one. I did also notice you based your write-up off of JL, good one to learn from on a write up and detailing.

Hopefully next time I will have a rotary!

Man that beauty was jacked up! I too have been looking forward to this. Great work Richard! :dblthumb2:

Thanks! I plan to hit it with some 85RD in the future...

I too have been waiting for this one, and I must say that it was definitely worth the wait! Great job Richard, excellent work and a great write up!! I am sure that your mom was thrilled with the new look of her ride!!!!

Thank you sir! I'm still working to improve my write ups. The best part about this job was in her mind the car was too far gone and needed a complete paint job. I talked to her on the phone when she picked it up from my house and she said it looked like a brand new car. My wife said she just kept smiling as she walked around the car.

 

[ASPHALT ROCKET]

When mom smiles you know you did good. When I do my parents cars the neighbors always compliment my parents on how shiny they are and she said that makes her feel good. Just wait for her neighbors to compliment her car Richard and she will love and be even more proud of her son.

 

[Shane731]

Wow! That looks great! Nice job! :dblthumb2:


Sorry to hear your PC broke, but that just gives you a good excuse to place another order with AG! rops:

 

[steamshooter]

The car looks great! How much time did you spend on it? I think you're being too conservative by saying 80%, it looks more like 95% to me. Good job! rops:

 

[ICEMAN]

nice one!!!!!!!!

its like when i did my dads achieva, gotta love the expressions afterwards!!!!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Very nice restoration...

Your swirl shots really drive home the ugliness factor that is characteristic of modern clear coat paint technology. It's great how modern clear coats will "last longer" than traditional single stage paints but that doesn't mean clear coats will "look good longer".

Can you imagine how long it would have taken you to remove all those swirls by hand?

3 times as long as by machine and that's if you're good at removing swirls, (removing paint), by hand and if you worked hard and fast...

This is why in the last 15+ years tools like DA Polishers have become so popular with the average car owner, it's just too hard to remove below surface defects by hand...


:dblthumb2:

 

[rwright]

Wow! That looks great! Nice job! :dblthumb2:


Sorry to hear your PC broke, but that just gives you a good excuse to place another order with AG! rops:

Thanks! I'm pretty certain its due to excessive pressure that appears to be popular right now. After it's fixed I'm buying a rotary for correction and leaving the finishing to the PC.

The car looks great! How much time did you spend on it? I think you're being too conservative by saying 80%, it looks more like 95% to me. Good job! rops:

Well this time around I didn't track time and had a hard time getting motivated for some reason. I would guess at least 20+ hours considering I had to do a couple areas by hand, just in correction/finishing. Trim, wheels & tires, and LSP add a few more! I think I hit about 80% because a couple deep scratches remain, quite a few etching spots on the roof remain, and the left rear quarter panel has left-over sanding marks from the bodyshop.

nice one!!!!!!!!

its like when i did my dads achieva, gotta love the expressions afterwards!!!!

I'm with you, it always has a special meaning when working on a close family members' car.

Very nice restoration...

Your swirl shots really drive home the ugliness factor that is characteristic of modern clear coat paint technology. It's great how modern clear coats will "last longer" than traditional single stage paints but that doesn't mean clear coats will "look good longer".

Can you imagine how long it would have taken you to remove all those swirls by hand?

3 times as long as by machine and that's if you're good at removing swirls, (removing paint), by hand and if you worked hard and fast...

This is why in the last 15+ years tools like DA Polishers have become so popular with the average car owner, it's just too hard to remove below surface defects by hand...


:dblthumb2:

Thank you very much Mike! The amount of time I spent on the bumpers reminded me of how spoiled I have become with having a machine to do the work! Your article where you prepped half a hood by hand at 1.5 (Correction - 1hr 45min) hours was spot on! I am looking forward to your Detailing 102 class that covers machine damp sanding. I plan to fix the etching on the roof by machine sanding.

 

[Buckskincolt]

I plan to fix the etching on the roof by machine sanding.

That is an awesome transition, your test spot photos should be a sticky. Nice job and great documentation! Mom is a happy lady!:dblthumb2:

I'd be really careful with that etching, I seen a guy I work with go after a spot like this and he ended up repainting the panel because it went all the waythoughtt the clear coat. No it wasn't me, he is a painter so he figured he'd need to repaint anyway but he wanted to try and fix it. I wanted to see what his success was and repaint was the result.:buffing:

 

[rwright]

That is an awesome transition, your test spot photos should be a sticky. Nice job and great documentation! Mom is a happy lady!:dblthumb2:

I'd be really careful with that etching, I seen a guy I work with go after a spot like this and he ended up repainting the panel because it went all the waythoughtt the clear coat. No it wasn't me, he is a painter so he figured he'd need to repaint anyway but he wanted to try and fix it. I wanted to see what his success was and repaint was the result.:buffing:

I understand what you are saying and I figure that's what the case will be with this spot. What you are seeing is after a couple rounds with M105. I'm going to have the gash on the hood fixed for her and will probably have the etching painted, but want to make an attempt by sanding.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I'd be really careful with that etching, I seen a guy I work with go after a spot like this and he ended up repainting the panel because it went all the waythoughtt the clear coat.

I agree... I have a similar picture in this article,


Two Types of Bird Dropping Etchings


And use the term Fractured or Wrinkled Etching to describe what this type of defect looks like. It's usually from a bird dropping allowed to dwell too long but it can be caused by other corrosive substances that land and dwell on the paint.


Type II Bird Dropping - Fractured/Wrinkled Etching
Type II Wrinkled Etchings are usually too deep to fix safely. The problem is the paint fractures, (splits apart in tiny lines,), or wrinkles as the paint swells and bunches together. In both instances, the resulting defect is throughout the clear layer of paint and not topical. Thus trying to remove it will require removing so much clear paint that you will likely expose the basecoat, or colored layer of paint which has a dull appearance. For this reason it's not safe to try to remove a Type II Bird Dropping Wrinkled or Fractured Etching.

Photo courtesy of AutogeekOnline.com

The picture of your etching from the first page of this thread...

Take a cautious approach...


:xyxthumbs:

 

[Diskat]

Wow !! Just ... WOW !!

 

[glenn14]

Nice job, the car looks flawless.. the metalic really stands out now that you removed all of those swirls.

Glenn