TTQ B4U
Well-known member
- Jan 20, 2016
- 5,504
- 70
So another member of our local racing enthusiast group picked up a really nice 2014 Chevy SS in Phantom Black Metallic with just over 45k on the ODO recently and looked into getting it brought back to near new condition. Overall the car is in great shape and while the previous owner took care of it, they also took it through some car washes and based on what I can tell never had it machine polished. The trim was fading, including the cowling area and rear valance but nothing that was too-far gone to fix.
After going over it with we settled on my Premium Polish Enhancement package and a nice dual layer ceramic coating. Like most GM cars, the clear is moderate in density and I knew with this level of correction I could get it near perfect. Goal achieved. With only a few random hairline scratches from the car washes which aren't worth chasing down, the paint came out fantastic. Great news is the front end is in excellent shape with not much indication it's ever been on long trips (no sandblasting) and very very few chips or touch up points. Thus down the road Paint Protection Film (PPF) will prove nearly invisible.
Protection wise, two layers of CarPro Coatings, their excellent Trim Coating and of course a layer of coating on the wheels which should help keep them nice until Scott upgrades as per his plans.
What this detail leveraged was:
Both a Flex XCE and 3401 Polisher with Orange Lake Country flat pads
CarPro Essence as the polish and base-coat for their coatings
One layer of CarPro Cquartz UK 3.0 Ceramic
One layer of CarPro SiC Ceramic
CarPro Dlux on the trim
GYEON Q2 Rim on the wheels
As seen here, the paint had a moderate amount of swirls and scratches. More than enough to really interfere and dull the appearance of the finish and prevent the metallic in the paint from really popping out. Easy enough to fix.
Once I had things dialed in product and pad wise, it was off to correction city
I never really looked into the SS before, but now that I have, I'd say I a much better understanding of this really nice looking sleeper of a car. Easy to see why it's in demand.
The wheels cleaned up okay. It's clear the previous owner wasn't hard-core into keeping them nice and my guess is they have seen their share of winter weather and salt which doesn't play nice with them.
Finding a car with little to no chips or road rash on the front clips is nice. No repaint or any paint work here either.
As you can see, the entire bottom half of the rear bumper came out great. Fully coated and nice and dark in color and satin in finish now
Here she sits parked until the weather breaks this week just teasing me to buy something fun
Here's a 50/50 shot of the cowling being restored and protected. Notice the far left how it's greyed out and chalking looking. The rear valance was not far from this too. Now both are good to go for quite a while.
Thanks to Scott for his trust in my work and allowing me the opportunity to bring this black beauty back to it's glory. He explained that this particular color and year weren't the SS enthusiasts favorite but IMO anyone who doesn't like black, especially a nice metallic, has likely never hand anyone properly polish it out and create the depth that it deserves.
After going over it with we settled on my Premium Polish Enhancement package and a nice dual layer ceramic coating. Like most GM cars, the clear is moderate in density and I knew with this level of correction I could get it near perfect. Goal achieved. With only a few random hairline scratches from the car washes which aren't worth chasing down, the paint came out fantastic. Great news is the front end is in excellent shape with not much indication it's ever been on long trips (no sandblasting) and very very few chips or touch up points. Thus down the road Paint Protection Film (PPF) will prove nearly invisible.
Protection wise, two layers of CarPro Coatings, their excellent Trim Coating and of course a layer of coating on the wheels which should help keep them nice until Scott upgrades as per his plans.
What this detail leveraged was:
Both a Flex XCE and 3401 Polisher with Orange Lake Country flat pads
CarPro Essence as the polish and base-coat for their coatings
One layer of CarPro Cquartz UK 3.0 Ceramic
One layer of CarPro SiC Ceramic
CarPro Dlux on the trim
GYEON Q2 Rim on the wheels
As seen here, the paint had a moderate amount of swirls and scratches. More than enough to really interfere and dull the appearance of the finish and prevent the metallic in the paint from really popping out. Easy enough to fix.
Once I had things dialed in product and pad wise, it was off to correction city
I never really looked into the SS before, but now that I have, I'd say I a much better understanding of this really nice looking sleeper of a car. Easy to see why it's in demand.
The wheels cleaned up okay. It's clear the previous owner wasn't hard-core into keeping them nice and my guess is they have seen their share of winter weather and salt which doesn't play nice with them.
Finding a car with little to no chips or road rash on the front clips is nice. No repaint or any paint work here either.
As you can see, the entire bottom half of the rear bumper came out great. Fully coated and nice and dark in color and satin in finish now
Here she sits parked until the weather breaks this week just teasing me to buy something fun
Here's a 50/50 shot of the cowling being restored and protected. Notice the far left how it's greyed out and chalking looking. The rear valance was not far from this too. Now both are good to go for quite a while.
Thanks to Scott for his trust in my work and allowing me the opportunity to bring this black beauty back to it's glory. He explained that this particular color and year weren't the SS enthusiasts favorite but IMO anyone who doesn't like black, especially a nice metallic, has likely never hand anyone properly polish it out and create the depth that it deserves.
