Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 7
1955 Chevy & 1947 Buick Slantback - Show Car Makeover! - Pictures & Videos
I shot this "walk-around" video right after we buffed out this 1963 Plymouth Fury, just now getting to upload it to YouTube.
Mike Searle's 1955 Chevy Sedan Delivery
Right after Mike arrived we did a Test Spot on the driver's side fender. While most people would look at Mike's 1955 Chevy and think the paint looks GREAT in reality, the paint was completely stained with embedded dirt.
The thing is you can't see the dirt until you buff on a section to remove it. MORE IMPORTANT is it's really only easy to see embedded dirt on WHITE CARS.
But think about it... if the paint on Mike's hot rod has embedded dirt and you can see it... don't you think all colors of car paint gets dirty BUT YOU CAN'T SEE IT?
The answer is YES and that's why periodically, especially if your car is a DAILY DRIVER, besides claying the paint you want and NEED to use some type of paint cleaner to remove the embedded dirt. If you don't remove it, then when you wax you simply seal the dirt into the paint.
The more time that goes by and the more you just wax the paint, the cloudier and cloudier it will get as you continually seal in more and more dirt.
Make sense?
Now let's take a look. Here's Mike's car and in this picture it can be kind of hard to see where I buffed on the top of the front driver's side fender.
It's still hard to see the before and after difference, but for reference, I've taken the same picture above and placed an arrow pointing to the tape-line where I buffed on the front edge of the fender and left the back side of the fender along.
Now look... see what I mean by embedded dirt on and to some level, "in" the paint.
By machine polishing the paint with a high quality compound, polish or pre-wax paint cleaner, you will effectively remove the embedded dirt and restore the TRUE color of the paint.
In this case we're working on a basecoat/clearcoat finish so the dirt is embedded onto and into the clear layer of paint create a dirty cloudy film that blocks your eyes from seeing the true white pigmented color under the clear layer.
Robert Diterlizzi shared the way he explains clear coats to his customers and I really like his explanation so I'm sharing it here and giving him credit for it...
"The clear coat is like a window to the basecoat"
By that he means in order to see the true color of the basecoat the window, or in specific words, the clear coat needs to be clear. By clear, we mean free from any,
By the time we finished buffing out both the 1955 Chevy and the 1947 Buick the colors of the paint jobs literally changed before our eyes.
Besides changing to BRIGHTER white color, we also restored SMOOTHNESS to the finish and GLOSS COMES FROM SMOOTHNESS.
This why in the after pictures, you will see amazing gloss and shine.
Before I start posting the process pictures followed by the after pictures, first I would like to thank a few people....
First, I'd like to thank Mike Searl and Mike Gelter for TRUSTING Autogeek with their hot rods. One of the hardest obstacles detailers find difficult to overcome is to earn the trust of people that own cool cars so that they can "touch" them. And by the word "touch" I mean detail them.
So thank you Mike and Mike for trusting Autogeek.
Next I'd like to thank my team of incredibly hard working, talented and passionate "Car Guys". These projects are not only a lot of physical work but there's a certain level of mental work that goes into them because you MUST be focused on the task at hand so mistakes are not made.
Some of the guys left early so they're not in the below picture but you know I appreciate all your hard work too....
So thanks guys!
Now onto the process pictures....
I shot this "walk-around" video right after we buffed out this 1963 Plymouth Fury, just now getting to upload it to YouTube.
1955 Chevy & 1947 Buick + Sonax + Dodo Juice + Perfection!
Mike Searle's 1955 Chevy Sedan Delivery
Right after Mike arrived we did a Test Spot on the driver's side fender. While most people would look at Mike's 1955 Chevy and think the paint looks GREAT in reality, the paint was completely stained with embedded dirt.
The thing is you can't see the dirt until you buff on a section to remove it. MORE IMPORTANT is it's really only easy to see embedded dirt on WHITE CARS.
But think about it... if the paint on Mike's hot rod has embedded dirt and you can see it... don't you think all colors of car paint gets dirty BUT YOU CAN'T SEE IT?
The answer is YES and that's why periodically, especially if your car is a DAILY DRIVER, besides claying the paint you want and NEED to use some type of paint cleaner to remove the embedded dirt. If you don't remove it, then when you wax you simply seal the dirt into the paint.
The more time that goes by and the more you just wax the paint, the cloudier and cloudier it will get as you continually seal in more and more dirt.
Make sense?
Now let's take a look. Here's Mike's car and in this picture it can be kind of hard to see where I buffed on the top of the front driver's side fender.
It's still hard to see the before and after difference, but for reference, I've taken the same picture above and placed an arrow pointing to the tape-line where I buffed on the front edge of the fender and left the back side of the fender along.
Now look... see what I mean by embedded dirt on and to some level, "in" the paint.
By machine polishing the paint with a high quality compound, polish or pre-wax paint cleaner, you will effectively remove the embedded dirt and restore the TRUE color of the paint.
In this case we're working on a basecoat/clearcoat finish so the dirt is embedded onto and into the clear layer of paint create a dirty cloudy film that blocks your eyes from seeing the true white pigmented color under the clear layer.
Robert Diterlizzi shared the way he explains clear coats to his customers and I really like his explanation so I'm sharing it here and giving him credit for it...
"The clear coat is like a window to the basecoat"
By that he means in order to see the true color of the basecoat the window, or in specific words, the clear coat needs to be clear. By clear, we mean free from any,
- Above surface bonded contaminants
- Embedded dirt
- Swirls and scratches
By the time we finished buffing out both the 1955 Chevy and the 1947 Buick the colors of the paint jobs literally changed before our eyes.
Besides changing to BRIGHTER white color, we also restored SMOOTHNESS to the finish and GLOSS COMES FROM SMOOTHNESS.
This why in the after pictures, you will see amazing gloss and shine.
Before I start posting the process pictures followed by the after pictures, first I would like to thank a few people....
First, I'd like to thank Mike Searl and Mike Gelter for TRUSTING Autogeek with their hot rods. One of the hardest obstacles detailers find difficult to overcome is to earn the trust of people that own cool cars so that they can "touch" them. And by the word "touch" I mean detail them.
So thank you Mike and Mike for trusting Autogeek.
Next I'd like to thank my team of incredibly hard working, talented and passionate "Car Guys". These projects are not only a lot of physical work but there's a certain level of mental work that goes into them because you MUST be focused on the task at hand so mistakes are not made.
Some of the guys left early so they're not in the below picture but you know I appreciate all your hard work too....
So thanks guys!
Now onto the process pictures....
