jlb85
New member
- Mar 31, 2008
- 734
- 0
The Toyota Corolla GT-S, internally coded AE86, has become a legend in its own right. Light, nimble, reliable, has the correct drive layout, and nice styling (IMO) with a peppy engine make for a great little car. Of course, it owns you on Mount Akina (Japanese Anime reference), but thats another story 
The owner of this "Twin Cam" owns and runs Nativo Performance in Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico (NativoPerformance.com). He is an avid STi owner and tuner, but somehow got convinced to build a GTS :/ One of the most knowledgeable tuners in the island, this car has some secret combinations of stock parts to make it fly while following the race series rules, including the side-exiting, wide-open exhaust. For more specifics, read up on the project HERE in Spanish. Needless to say, this is going to be one bad ass track car!
As a track car, the paint job on this car was not perfect. Actually, that is an understatement. When the owner contacted us to polish out the car, he mentioned it had to look good from 20 feet away, that it was a track car, and some things would have to be sacrificed. As we saw it, there was simply no way simple polishing could make this car look better. The amount of orange peel was beyond anything I have ever seen. We took paint thickness measurements and saw 1000 micrometers + consistently. They had somehow used up a gallon of clear. I know, impossible, but that just shows you the quality of work the painters who did this car do. There were runs, all types of contamination defects, pinholes from solvent pop, overspray OMG, showthrough metal (not enough base coat), blobs... en fin, a bad paint job. But where lay a challenge lay also an opportunity, we decided to do a complete wetsand and see just what we could salvage from this job. The car had no trim on it, no windows, to weatherseals. There would be minimal tape and easy access to all of the body. This should make it that much easier.
Easier it was, but it still took a long time.
We arrive and Marc quickly starts taking stats on the paint:
First things to prepare: Sand paper. We use Nikkens Japanese Uni-Grit paper, and let soak as long as possible before using. In this case, we also used some rather hard water
And now we prepare to do a test panel. Since this fender was brand new, we started here. A more consistent paint (hopefully) should provide more consistent results. We started on the driver's front fender:
without light:
with light:
For sanding, we opted to use just one grit. This would allow us to sand in any direction. Usually, when using various grits, one should sand in specific directions per grit. This way you have a visual aid as to when you completely sand out the marks from the previous, more abrasive sanding. But using just one grit simplifies things quite a bit, especially since we are going to have to sand around all contours. Although there are many techniques out there, we were interested in the fastest ones. This is a race car, and the paint is super jacked. Here we are starting to sand:
shinier spots are low spots, and means further sanding is required:
i know i look like a goof here... but I'm getting ready to polish out the sanding marks with the Makita Rotary, 3M Germany backing pad, Yellow "brick" LLC constant pressure pad, and M105
after one quick pass, the reveal. Notice the tightness of the light reflection. Less orange peel = a more true and crisp reflection.
Marc takes over:
The fender looks MUCH better:
The fender is done, the door is untouched:
The owner of this "Twin Cam" owns and runs Nativo Performance in Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico (NativoPerformance.com). He is an avid STi owner and tuner, but somehow got convinced to build a GTS :/ One of the most knowledgeable tuners in the island, this car has some secret combinations of stock parts to make it fly while following the race series rules, including the side-exiting, wide-open exhaust. For more specifics, read up on the project HERE in Spanish. Needless to say, this is going to be one bad ass track car!
As a track car, the paint job on this car was not perfect. Actually, that is an understatement. When the owner contacted us to polish out the car, he mentioned it had to look good from 20 feet away, that it was a track car, and some things would have to be sacrificed. As we saw it, there was simply no way simple polishing could make this car look better. The amount of orange peel was beyond anything I have ever seen. We took paint thickness measurements and saw 1000 micrometers + consistently. They had somehow used up a gallon of clear. I know, impossible, but that just shows you the quality of work the painters who did this car do. There were runs, all types of contamination defects, pinholes from solvent pop, overspray OMG, showthrough metal (not enough base coat), blobs... en fin, a bad paint job. But where lay a challenge lay also an opportunity, we decided to do a complete wetsand and see just what we could salvage from this job. The car had no trim on it, no windows, to weatherseals. There would be minimal tape and easy access to all of the body. This should make it that much easier.
Easier it was, but it still took a long time.
We arrive and Marc quickly starts taking stats on the paint:
First things to prepare: Sand paper. We use Nikkens Japanese Uni-Grit paper, and let soak as long as possible before using. In this case, we also used some rather hard water
And now we prepare to do a test panel. Since this fender was brand new, we started here. A more consistent paint (hopefully) should provide more consistent results. We started on the driver's front fender:
without light:
with light:
For sanding, we opted to use just one grit. This would allow us to sand in any direction. Usually, when using various grits, one should sand in specific directions per grit. This way you have a visual aid as to when you completely sand out the marks from the previous, more abrasive sanding. But using just one grit simplifies things quite a bit, especially since we are going to have to sand around all contours. Although there are many techniques out there, we were interested in the fastest ones. This is a race car, and the paint is super jacked. Here we are starting to sand:
shinier spots are low spots, and means further sanding is required:
i know i look like a goof here... but I'm getting ready to polish out the sanding marks with the Makita Rotary, 3M Germany backing pad, Yellow "brick" LLC constant pressure pad, and M105
after one quick pass, the reveal. Notice the tightness of the light reflection. Less orange peel = a more true and crisp reflection.
Marc takes over:
The fender looks MUCH better:
The fender is done, the door is untouched:
